III.
Not simply a rank sinner, he appears
To outrage nature, and his God to dare,
Who his foul hand against a woman rears[3],
Or of her head would harm a single hair.
But who what drug the burning entrails sears,
Or who for her would knife or noose prepare,
No man appears to me, though such to sight
He seem, but rather some infernal sprite.
IV.
Such, and no other were those ruffians two,
Whom good Rinaldo from the damsel scared,
Conducted to these valleys out of view,
That none might wot of her so foully snared.
I ended where the damsel, fair of hue,
To tell the occasion of her scathe prepared,
To the good Paladin, who brought release;
And in conclusion thus my story piece.
V.
“Of direr deed than ever yet was done[4],”
The gentle dame began, “Sir cavalier,
“In Thebes, Mycene, Argos, or upon
“Other more savage soil, prepare to hear;
“And I believe, that if the circling sun
“To these our Scottish shores approach less near
“Than other land, ’tis that he would eschew,
“A foul ferocious race that shocks his view.
