Two mastiffs gaunt and grim her flight purfued,
And oft their faften'd fangs in blood embrued:
Oft they came up, and pinch'd her tender fide,
Mercy, O mercy, heaven! fhe ran, and cry'd;
When heaven was nam'd, they loos'd their hold again,
Then fprang fhe forth, they follow'd her amain.
Not far behind, a knight of swarthy face,
High on a coal-black steed pursued the chace;
With flashing flames his ardent eyes were fill'd,
And in his hand a naked fword he held:
He chear'd the dogs to follow her who fled,
And vow'd revenge on her devoted head.
As Theodore was born of noble kind,
The brutal action rous'd his manly mind;
Mov'd with unworthy ufage of the maid,
He, though unarm'd, resolv'd to give her aid.
A faplin pine he wrench'd from out the ground,
The readieft weapon that his fury found.
Thus furnish'd for offence, he crofs'd the way
Betwixt the graceless villain and his prey.
The knight came thundering on, but, from afar,
Thus in imperious tone forbad the war ;
Ceafe, Theodore, to proffer vain relief,
Nor ftop the vengeance of so just a grief;
But give me leave to feize my deftin'd prey,
And let eternal justice take the way :
I but revenge my fate, difdain'd, betray'd,
And fuffering death for this ungrateful maid.
He faid, at once difmounting from the steed;
For now the hell-hounds with fuperior speed
R 3
Had reach'd the dame, and, faftening on her fide,
The ground with iffuing ftreams of purple dy'd,
Stood Theodore furpriz'd in deadly fright,
With chattering teeth, and bristling hair upright;
Yet arm'd with inborn worth, Whate'er, faid he,
Thou art, who know'ft me better than I thee;
Or prove thy rightful caufe, or be defy'd;
The spectre, fiercely staring, thus reply'd:
Know, Theodore, thy ancestry I claim,
And Guido Cavalcanti was my name.
One common fire our fathers did beget,
My name and story some remember yet :
Thee, then a boy, within my arms I laid,
When for my fins I lov'd this haughty maid;
Not lefs ador'd in life, nor ferv'd by me,
Thin proud Honoria now is lov'd by thee.
What did I not her ftubborn heart to gain?
But all my vows were anfwer'd with difdain:
She fcorn'd my forrows, and defpis'd my pain.
Long time I dragg'd my days in fruitless care;
Then, loathing life, and plung'd in deep despair,
To finish my unhappy life, I fell
On this fharp fword, and now am damn'd in hell.
Short was her joy; for foon th' infulting maid By heaven's decree in this cold grave was laid. And as in unrepented sin she dy'd,
Doom'd to the fame bad place is punish'd for her pride:
Because the deem'd I well deferv'd to die,
And made a merit of her cruelty.
There, then, we met; both try'd, and both were caft,
And this irrevocable fentence pafs'd;
That he, whom I fo long purfued in vain,
Should fuffer from my hands a lingering pain :
Renew'd to life that the might daily die,
I daily doom'd to follow, the to fly ;
No more a lover, but a mertal foe,
I feek her life (for love is none below):
As often as my dogs with better speed
Arrest her flight, is the to death decreed:
Then with this fatal fword, on which I dy'd,'
I pierce her open back, or tender fide,
And tear that harden'd heart from out her breast, Which, with her entrails, makes my hungry hounds a feaft.
Nor lies the long, but, as her fates ordain,
Springs up to life, and fresh to second pain,
Is fav'd to-day, to-morrow to be slain.
This, vers'd in death, th'infernal knight relates,
And then for proof fulfill'd the common fates;
Her heart and bowels through her back he drew,
And fed the hounds that help'd him to purfue.
Stern look'd the fiend, as fruftrate of his will,
Not half fuffic'd, and greedy yet to kill.
And now the foul, expiring through the wound,
Had left the body breathlefs on the ground,
When thus the grifly spectre spoke again :
Behold the fruit of ill-rewarded pain :
As many months as I fuftain'd her hate,
So many years is the condemn'd by fate
To daily death; and every feveral place,
Confcious of her difdain and my disgrace,
Muft witness her juft punishment; and be
A fcene of triumph and revenge to me!
As in this grove I took my last farewel,
As on this very spot of earth I fell,
As Friday faw me die, so she my prey
Becomes ev'n here, on this revolving day.
Thus while he spoke, the virgin from the ground
Upftarted fresh, already clos'd the wound,
And, unconcern'd for all the felt before,
Precipitates her flight along the fhore:
The hell-hounds, as ungorg'd with flesh and blood,
Purfue their prey, and seek their wonted food:
The fiend remounts his courfer, mends his pace;
And all the vifion vanifh'd from the place.
Long ftood the noble youth opprefs'd with awe
And ftupid at the wondrous things he saw,
Surpaffing common faith, tranfgreffing nature's law :
He would have been afleep, and wish'd to wake,
But dreams, he knew, no long impreffion make,
Though ftrong at firft; if vifion, to what end,
But fuch as muft his future ftate portend?
His love the damfel, and himself the fiend.
But yet, reflecting that it could not be
From heaven, which cannot impious acts decree,
Refolv'd within himself to fhun the fnare,
Which hell for his deftruction did prepare ;
And, as his better genius fhould direct,
From an ill caufe to draw a good effect.
Infpir'd from heaven he homeward took his way,
Nor pall'd his new defign with long delay:
But of his train a trusty servant sent
To call his friends together at his tent.
They came, and, ufual falutations paid,
With words premeditated thus he said:
What you have often counfel'd, to remove
My vain pursuit of unregarded love;
By thrift my finking fortune to repair,
Though late yet is at last become my care:
My heart shall be my own; my vast expence
Reduc'd to bounds, by timely providence;
This only I require; invite for me
Honoria, with her father's family,
Her friends, and mine; the cause I shall display,
On Friday next; for that's th' appointed day.
Well pleas'd were all his friends, the task was light,
The father, mother, daughter, they invite;
Hardly the dame was drawn to this repast;
But yet refolv'd, because it was the laft.
The day was come, the guests invited came,
And, with the reft, th' inexorable dame :
A feaft prepar'd with riotous expence,
Much coft, more care, and most magnificence.
The place ordain'd was in that haunted grove,
Where the revenging ghost pursued his love
The tables in a proud pavilion fpread,
With flowers below, and tiffue overhead:
The rest in rank, Honoria chief in place,
Was artfully contriv'd to fet her face
To front the thicket. and behold the chace.
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