Jerusalem Delivered: An English Prose Version

Canto Two

C A N T O T W O i While the tyrant is girding himself to arms, Ismen one day presents himself to him in private: Ismen, who can draw up the dead body from under the sealed stones, and make it breathe and feel; Ismen, who by the sound of his murmured incantations frightens Pluto himself in his royal palace, and employs his demons too as servants in his wicked rites, and binds and looses them. 2 He now adores Mahoun, and he was a Christian; but still he cannot abandon his first rituals, but often mingles in impious and profane use the two laws that he illunderstands. And now from his caves,where far from the vulgar crowd he is wont to practise his secret arts, he is come in the public peril to his master, to an evil king worse counsellor. 3 "My lord (he said) without delay the feared and victorious army is coming ,,on. But let us do what we haveto do. Heaven will aid, the world willaid ,,the brave. Well have you fulfilled the role of king, of leader, and have seen far and have made provision. If everyone else fulfills his proper task in such fashion, this land will be a grave for your enemies. 4 "I for my part am come to give you aid, sharing the peril and the toil. Whatever the counsel of old agecan give, and whateverthe arts of magic, Ipromise it all. The angels that suffered banishment from Heaven I shall constrain to a portion of the labor. But now I shall tell you beforehand where I intend to begin my magic spells, and bywhat means. 5 "An underground altar lies hidden in the Christians' temple, and there is the image of Her whom that crowd makes its goddess, and mother of its 28 Jerusalem Delivered incarnate and buried God. Before the image a lighted lampcontinually shines: the image is wrapped in a veil. Around it in a long row hang the offerings that the credulous devout bring there. 6 "Now this their effigy, stolen from thence, I propose that you convey with your own hand and place it within your mosque. Then I shall workmy charm so strongly that ever while it shall be kept in custody here it will be a fated protection for these gates. Your princely power will be secure within unassailable walls, through this strange and deep mystery." 7 Sohe spoke, and persuaded him. And incontinent the king hurried to the house of God, and forced the priests, and irreverent he ravished away from there the chaste image. And he took it to that temple where often Heaven is angered by a foolish and sinful rite. Then in that profane place and over the holy image the sorcerer muttered his blasphemies. 8 But when the new dawn appeared in the skythe man to whose keeping that unclean shrine isentrusted failed to seethe image whereit had been placed, and vainly he sought for it on every side. Soon he informs the king of it, who at the news shows himself wildly angered with him; and he thinks for sure that some one of the faithful had made that theft, and that he ishiding it. 9 Either it wasthe secret work of the hand of one of the faithful, or indeed Heaven exercises here its power, because it scorns that avile place should conceal the image of Her who is its queen and goddess. Sothat Fame isuncertain still whether that act be ascribed to human handiwork or to miraculous agency. It isgood religion that, giving up the claimsof human piety and zeal, Heaven be thought the agent. 10 With insistent inquiry the king has a search made of their every church, their every house. And for anyone who conceals from him or reveals the C A N T O T W O 29 theft or the guilty party, he prescribes great punishments and rewards. The sorcerer also takes no rest from spying out the truth with allhis arts, but he does not guess it; for Heaven (whether the deed wasits own, or another's) concealed it from him, to the dishonoring of hisenchantments. ii But when the savageking sawconcealed what he takes to be the crime of the faithful, he was allenraged with hatred against them and burned with anger and a vast uncontrollable fury. He forgets every consideration; come what may, he...