702 
s¢ If on this day,”’ the unhappy youth replied, 
_¢* These noble souls my father has 
betray’d 5 
And if Pm curs’d to live, this hand shall 
guide, 
Keen to his heart the parricidal blade ; 
But I, ‘* Orlando,” thus in tears he cried, 
’ Was never, never, for a traitor made, 
Unless Pve earn’d the name in following 
thee, 
With firm and stedfast love o’er land and sea. 
s* Now to the battle I return once more, 
The traitor’s name I will not carry long:” 
The gaudy, fatal, vest away he tore, 
And said, ‘My love for thee was firm and 
strong; 
This heart, no guile, this soul no treason 
bore 3 
“Indeed, Orlando, thou hast done my wrong !” 
Then burst away: Orlando mark’d bis air 
With aching heart that bled for his despair. 
C. 97. St. 4 
Marsilius’s division had by this time 
joined, and the work of death was com- 
menced among the christian heroes, who, 
strange to tell, had not before saffered 
any diminution of their numbers, though 
the field was loaded with slaugh tered 
Pagans. The first of the martyrs was 
the gallant Sansonetto, who, like Baid- 
win, had followed Orlando over the 
world from strong and personal at- 
tachment. Waiter de Montleon, and 
Anjolin of Bayonne, next fell hutiedth 
the swords of Marsilius and Grandonio; 
and Orlando coming up,discovered Oliver 
alone and oppressed by numbers, sur-_ 
rounded by his fallen companions, The 
resistless arm of the hero soon freed him 
from immediate danger, and he lamented 
with the sorrow of affection his faithful 
Sansonetto, whose corpse he gave to 
Terigi, to convey te the camp. Nor did 
he suffer him to remain anrevenged, for 
Grandonio soon after fell in single com- 
bat with Orlando, and Marsilius would 
have experienced the same fate, but for ° 
the interference of his own son, who in- 
tercepted the blow, and died at his feet. 
Just then, the appearance of a more ter- 
rible conflict, and of more general car- 
nage, called ca to another part of the 
field of battle. 
Rous’d by appalling sounds and barbarous 
cries, 
Orlando hasten’d to the spot, and found, 
At his last gasp where hapless Baldwin lies, 
Pierc’d to the heart with no dishonest 
wound. 
6¢T am no traitor now,” he feebly cries, 
Then falls, a stifien’d corpse, upon the 
ground; 
With tears of grief, Orlando saw him die. 
*« Thy iate is seal’d, th’ unhappy cause am 1!" 
» 
yee 
Critical Observations on the Morgante Maggiore. 
The death of this ill-fated, but gene 
rous youth, was shortly follow red by those 
of Anjolin de Bellande, and of the bro- 
thers of St. Michel. To supply: their 
‘places, Rinaldo and Richardette, Kgi- 
bard, Anselm, ard the good and martial 
Archbishop, all rushed , forwards. The 
battle became more and more tremen- 
ous, and the cries of war were mixed 
with the horrible shouts of Astaroth, and 
his Fellow,Dzemons, who. were busily 
employed’ in. their infernal pastime, of 
catching the souls of the Pagans.. The 
sun turned of a bloody red; Roncesvailes 
was crowded with devils seeking their 
prey, and there was a grand festival in 
the Palace of Pluto. 
A braver champion than ad hitherto. 
fallen was now made a, sacrifice to the 
sword of king Balsamin; Astolpho him- 
self, the cood | Duke of England, whose 
g gallant actions on that , and the preceding 
day, had been innumerable. His dead 
body ‘was discovered. in the press by 
Rinaldo, and that illustrious warrior was 
not slow in revenging his fate. Mean- 
while the treacherous attack of the Arq 
califf of Baldacca had inficted a deep 
and deadly wound on the head of the 
Marquis Oliver, who was at the) same 
ee engaged i im single. combat ,with 
another Pagan. His strength sufficed 
him to revenge the blow, and rid him- 
self of both his assailants; but soon his 
head” turned giddy, his eyes swam in 
darkness, and staggering and reeling back 
towards the camp, but still cutting. cut a 
assage through the ona he was met 
in this deplorable condition by his noble 
brother: 
Orlando felt his very bosorn bleed 
Fer Oliver, his friend and better. part, 
For now he saw the battle lost indeed, 
And curs’d the Pagan traitor from his 
heart. 
«By evry thought of love, and courteous 
deed,” , 
He cried, now faint, and staggering from 
the smart, 
‘¢ Oh! lead me, where in death I may be 
known, 
Nor leave me, unreveng’d, to die alone !”” 
<« J have no heart, without thee,” he replied, 
«« In this perplex’d and gloomy life to stay, 
T’ve bid adieu to daring joy and pride, 
And human hope deserts my dark’ning 
day 3 
Love only can the fall of life ipides 
Thy love, my Oliver, yet lights my 
way ! 
Oh! follow Oliver, that guiding love, 
With me, one death, one faith, one will 
to prove |” 
Thus 
