LXXI Well read in young Zerbino's hate, the dame Would not by him in malice be outdone, Nor bated him an inch, but in that game Of deadly hatred set him two for one. Her face was with the venom in a flame Wherewith her swelling bosom overrun. 'Twas thus in such concord as I say, These through the ancient wood pursued their way. LXXII When, lo! as it is now nigh eventide, They a mixt sound of blows and outcries hear, Which seem a sign of battle fiercely plied, And (as the deafening noise demonstrates) near. To mark what this might be, towards that side Whence came the tumult, moved the Scottish peer; Nor is in following him Gabrina slow: What chanced in other canto you shall know. CANTO 22 ARGUMENT Atlantes' magic towers Astolpho wight Destroys, and frees his thralls from prison-cell. Bradamant finds Rogero, who in fight O'erthrows four barons from the warlike sell, When on their way to save an errant knight Doomed to devouring fire: the four who fell For impious Pinnabel maintained the strife, Whom, after, Bradamant deprives of life. I Ye courteous dames, and to your lovers dear, You that are with one single love content; Though, 'mid so many and many, it is clear Right few of you are of such constant bent; Be not displeased at what I said whilere, When I so bitterly Gabrina shent, Nor if I yet expend some other verse In censure of the beldam's mind perverse. II Such was she; and I hide not what is true; So was enjoined me for a task by one Whose will is law; therefore is honour due To constant heart throughout my story done. He who betrayed his master to the Jew For thirty pence, nor Peter wronged, nor John, Nor less renowned is Hypermnestra's fame, For her so many wicked sisters' shame. III For one I dare to censure in my lays, For so the story wills which I recite, On the other hand, a hundred will I praise, And make their virtue dim the sun's fair light; But turning to the various pile I raise, (Gramercy! dear to many) of the knight Of Scotland I was telling, who hard-by Had heard, as was rehearsed, a piercing cry. IV He entered, 'twixt two hills, a narrow way, From whence was heard the cry; nor far had hied, Ere to a vale he came shut out from day, Where he before him a dead knight espied. Who I shall tell; but first I must away From France, in the Levant to wander wide, Till I the paladin Astolpho find, Who westward had his course from thence inclined. V I in the cruel city left the peer, Whence, with the formidable bugle's roar, He had chased the unfaithful people in their fear, And has preserved himself from peril sore; And with the sound had made his comrades rear Then sail, and fly with noted scorn that shore. Now following him, I say, the warrior took The Armenian road, and so that land forsook.