With briers and brambles choked, and dwarfish wood: From thence the noise, which now approaching near, With more distinguished notes invades his ear; He raised his head, and saw a beauteous maid, With hair dishevelled, issuing through the shade; Stripped of her clothes, and even those parts revealed, Which modest nature keeps from sight concealed. Her face, her hands, her naked limbs, were torn, With passing through the brakes and prickly thorn; Two mastiffs gaunt and grim her flight pursued, And oft their fastened fangs in blood embrued: Oft they came up, and pinched her tender side,-- Mercy, O mercy! heaven, she ran, and cried; When heaven was named, they loosed their hold again; Then sprung she forth, they followed 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 filled, And in his hand a naked sword he held: He cheered the dogs to follow her who fled, And vowed revenge on her devoted head. As Theodore was born of noble kind, The brutal action roused his manly mind; Moved with th' unworthy usage of the maid, He, though unarmed, resolved to give her aid. A saplin pine he wrenched from out the ground, The readiest weapon that his fury found. Thus furnished for offence, he crossed the way Betwixt the graceless villain and his prey. The knight came thundering on, but, from afar, Thus in imperious tone forbade the war:-- Cease, Theodore, to proffer vain relief, Nor stop the vengeance of so just a grief; But give me leave to seize my destined prey, And let eternal justice take the way: I but revenge my fate, disdained, betrayed, And suffering death for this ungrateful maid.-- He said, at once dismounting from the steed; For now the hell-hounds with superior speed Had reached the dame, and fastening on her side, The ground with issuing streams of purple dyed. Stood Theodore surprised in deadly fright, With chattering teeth, and bristling hair upright; Yet armed with inborn worth,--Whate'er, said he, Thou art, who know'st me better than I thee, Or prove thy rightful cause, or be defied.-- The spectre, fiercely staring, thus replied: Know, Theodore, thy ancestry I claim, And Guido Cavalcanti was my name. One common sire our fathers did beget, My name and story some remember yet: Thee, then a boy, within my arms I laid, When for my sins I loved this haughty maid; Not less adored in life, nor served by me, Than proud Honoria now is loved by thee. What did I not, her stubborn heart to gain? } But all my vows were answered with disdain; } She scorned my sorrows, and despised my pain. } Long time I dragged my days in fruitless care; Then loathing life, and plunged in deep despair, To finish my unhappy life, I fell On this sharp sword, and now am damned in hell. Short was her joy; for soon the insulting maid