Jerusalem Delivered: An English Prose Version

Canto Thirteen

C A N T O T H I R T E E N i But scarcely has the huge machine, the assailantof their walls,collapsedin ashes when Ismen takes thought within himself of new devices that his city may rest more secure; so he decides to see if he can blockthe Franks from that wood that provides them their material, so that from there no new tower can be made against battered and shaken Sion. 2 Not far from the Christian tents a lofty forest rises amid lonelyvalleys, grown thick with ancient waving trees that spreadon every side a melancholy shade. Here at the time that the sun isshining brightest the light is uncertain, patched and gloomy, aswhen in a clouded heavenit hangs in doubt whether dayto night succeeds, or sheto him. 3 But when the sun departs, here gather at once the shades of night, clouds, mists, and horrors, that seem asif from Hell, that weigh down the eyes with blindness, that fill the heart with fear. Nor ever does shepherd leadhis flockto pasture here, nor cowherd lead his herd to shade; nor ever traveller enters there, unless astray, but passesby at a distance, and points it with his finger. 4 Here witches gather, and with each one comes her nocturnal lover:they come riding on clouds, and one has the shapeof afiercedragon, another that of a deformed goat: an infamous coven, whose vain imagining of a good desired allures it to celebratewith filthy and impureceremonyits profane feasts and impious nuptials. 282 Jerusalem Delivered 5 So it was believed; and none who dwell in the region ever plucked bough from the dangerous wood; but the Franks did violate it, for it aloneserved the turn of their towering siege machines. Now here the sorcerercame, and chose the opportune deep silenceof the night, of the night that followed next; and shaped his circle there and traced his symbols. 6 And sheltered in the circle, ungirt and one foot unshod, he muttered words most powerful. Three times he turned his face to the orient, three times to the regions where the sun goes down; and three times wavedthe wand with which he iswont to draw the buried man from the tomb and give him motion; and thrice he struck the ground with the unshod foot. Then with aterrible cryhe began to speak: 7 "Hear me, hear me, O yethat from the starsthe thunderous lightning bolts hurled headlong down; likewiseyethat stir up the tempests and the storms, ye wandering denizens of the middle air; and ye aswellthat to sinful wicked souls are ministers of their eternal pains; citizens of Avernus,1 now here I summon you—and you, O lord of the wicked realmsof fire. 8 "Take into your keeping this forest, and these trees that I assign to youby number. Asthe body isdwelling and vesture of the soul, so be eachtrunk for one of you; so that the Frank must flee, or at least be stopped in his first strokes, and learn to fear your wrath." He spoke; and those dreadsyllables that he added the tongue that isnot irreligious cannot repeat. 9 He dims with that speech the torches with whichnight's pure sereneisornamented ; and the moon is troubled and wrapsher horns in clouds and appears no more. Angered he turns to renewing his imprecations: "Yespirits 1 Cf. Inferno 8.68—9; see 14.60. C A N T O T H I R T E E N 283 summoned, now do ye come not yet? Whence such delay? perhaps you are waiting for words more potent still, or more unknown? 10 "From long disuse is not forgotten yet the most compelling aid for my cruel arts; and I yet know how, with tongue defiled with blood, to pronounce that name mighty and feared at which not Dis itself was ever deaf or grudging, nor Pluto negligent in obedience. How now? . . . How now? . . ." He was ready to saymore; but then he perceived that the spell had done its work. ii Spirits innumerable, infinite they came, part that dwell in the middle air and roam in it, part from those that were risen from the blind dim depths of earth, still sluggish and dismayed from the great decree1 that enjoined them from bearing arms in battle; but yet it is not denied them to come here and dwell in the foliage and the trunks of trees. 12 Now when nothing more...