XXXVI.
Weening removed the way by which she wends,
A thousand miles from loathed Rinaldo’s beat,
To rest herself a while the maid intends,
Wearied with that long flight and summer’s heat.
She from her saddle ’mid spring flowers descends,
And takes the bridle from her courser fleet;
And loose along the river lets him pass,
Roving the banks in search of lusty grass.
XXXVII.
Behold! at hand a thicket she surveys
Gay with the flowering thorn and vermeil rose:
The tuft reflected in the stream which strays
Beside it, overshadowing oaks enclose.
Hollow within, and safe from vulgar gaze,
It seemed a place constructed for repose;
With boughs so interwoven, that the light
Pierced not the tangled screen, far less the sight.
XXXVIII.
Within soft moss and herbage form a bed;
And to delay and rest the traveller woo.
’Twas there her limbs the weary damsel spread,
Her eye-balls bathed in slumber’s balmy dew.
But little time had eased her drooping head,
Ere, as she weened, a courser’s tramp she knew.
Softly she rises, and the river near,
Armed cap-à-pè, beholds a cavalier.
