'Twas so ordain'd, that, at his sovereign's word,
Orlando's body rose from earth once more,
And kneel'd before his ancient king and lord
With solemn reverence, as in days of yore;
Stretch'd forth his hand, and yielded back the sword,
The same he held at Aspramount before:
Then, with a smile, to Heaven the spirit fled;
The corse fell back, and lay for ever dead.

O'er Charles's limbs a sudden tremor ran,
Something betwixt a thrilling awe and love :
By the cold hand he grasp'd the sainted man,
And felt assured of happier life above.
A holy horror every breast began

To seize, and even Rinaldo's soul to prove

The power of Fear, while, humbly kneeling round, They kiss'd with bended face the sacred ground.

But who shall say how wretched Alda mourn'd (25)
Her lord and brother on their timeless bier ?
"Ye, blessed souls, to kindred light return'd,
Have left me, all alone and darkling here,
Me, once the happiest wife on earth, adorn'd
With all that Heaven approves or man holds dear,
Crown'd with the love of the most noble knight
That ever mounted steed or dared the fight.

"O my loved husband, father, friend, farewell!
Ne'er shall the world behold thy peer again;
So form'd in camps and cities to excel,

So mild in peace, so dreadful on the plain!
Faithful in life and death, thine Aldabelle
Swears, by thy bones inhumed at Aquisgrane,
This constant heart, that only breathed for thee,
'Shall live devoted to thy memory.'

NOTES

ΤΟ

CANTO THE FIFTH.

(1) "Is that the bridal voice that calls thee home ?"] Alluding to the dream of Oliver, described in the first

canto.

(2) "Not when Bellande her blooming honour lost, And headless on the field lay Neustria's pride."] Anjolin of Bellande, and Richard of Normandy, two of the Paladins already mentioned.

(3) "Yet once again that inmost soul must bleed," &c.] Gran pianto Orlando di questo facea,

Perche molto Ulivier gl' era nel core.

C. xxvii. st. 64.

The account of Oliver's death, which I have closely followed, is contained in the five succeeding stanzas of Pulci.

(4) "Love only can the fall of life abide," &c.] "E perch' io t' amo Ulivier com' io soglio, Vienne con meco à nostrar tua possanza, Una morte, una fede, un voler solo,"

Poì lo menò nel mezzo dello stuolo. St. 65.

(5) E bisognò intender, che Alda la bella Raccomandar volea, la sua sorella. St. 68.

(6) "And there he blew a blast so loud and dread.'"] Collins's Ode on the Passions.

E sonò tanto forte che lo intese (Carlo);

E '1

sangue uscì per la bocca e pel naso,
Dice Turpino, e che il corno si fesse,
La terza volta ch' à bocca se 'l messe.

St. 69.

The refusal of Orlando to blow his wonderful horn, till the very last extremity when it is too late to do him any service or save his friends from destruction, is surely a pretty considerable stretch of chivalrous extravagance; but so Turpin relates the fact;

And who can doubt what reverend churchmen write? I have been disposed, however, to throw over the transaction sufficient obscurity to leave it in some degree uncertain whether Orlando himself was fully aware of the powers of his instrument, or whether the sound were not conveyed to Fontarabia rather by some immediate preternatural agency than by the mere force of mortal breath.

The wonder is at all events enhanced

by placing Charlemagne's camp at Fontarabia instead of St. Jean Pied du Port.

The circumstance of the blood gushing out at Orlando's eyes and nostrils, which I have not ventured to repeat, is faithfully copied by Pulci from Turpin's Chronicle.

"Roland.... sonna encore son cor adonc qu'il ne vid personne venir, par si grant vertu et efforcement de soufflet, que son dict cor fust perce et fendu de la force du vent et aspiration de sa bouche: et furent ses veines et nerfz du col rompuz et cassez, ainsi que l'on raconte." Paris ed. 1527. feuill. xxxvii.

In the 13th century, a long romantic poem, on the life and achievements of Alexander the Great, was written, or rather imitated from the Greek of Simeon Seth, by Aretinus Quilichinus. "If I recollect right," says Warton (Hist. of Engl. Poetry, vol. i. p. 132), "one of the miracles of this romance is our hero's horn. It is said that Alexander gave the signal to his whole army by a wonderful horn of immense magnitude, which might be heard at the distance of sixty miles, and that it was blown or sounded by sixty men at once. This is the horn which Orlando won from the giant Jatmund, and which, as Turpin and the Islandic bards report, was endued with magical power, and might be heard at the distance of twenty miles." And in a note on the same passage he adds, "Olaus Magnus relates. that this horn, which was called Olivant, was won by Orlando, together with the famous sword Durindana,