Betwixt or vice or virtue ye who live
The trembling balanced life, both pure and frail,
Will ye not to that man some pity give
Whomever dark temptations do assail?
Or doth the leaf still hanging on the bough
Laugh at his brother driven down the gale?
Another blast, and it alike may bow
From you I ask for pity, and not scorn:
Shame's touch in turn may redden every brow.
Brave Mano now, full long of love forlorn,
Turned greedily to solace wild and free,
Seeming to have the thought of Blanche outworn.
Love's rebel he against love's tyranny;
For hope being gone left the soul desolate,
And the heart ready for conspiracy.
Now came occasion: now was sent by fate
This woman terrible, whose haughty will
And shameless daring matched her beauty great
Her cruel story, all contrary still
To what he knew of women, on him threw
A deadly charm and irresistible;
And to the same effect and purpose drew
His own part in that story: he gan fail
From his youth's purity; and evil knew:
And miserable desires pierced his mind's mail,
Though love erewhile so fitted close his heart,
That nought of base to enter might avail:
Love from that fort had governed every part.
But now that false-named love, that regent vile,
Whose drunken shaft usurps the Firewinged dart,
With lust for reverence, and for honour guile,
Worked in him reckless mood, and unrestraint,
And changed his mien from what it was erewhile.
Now in our journeying the hills more faint
Lay far and white behind us, and the way
Turned downward to the plain by passes quaint.
Known were those paths from earth's primaeval day
To such rude men which in those hills abode:
But we passed fairly without check or stay.
Pace with the streams we kept, that marked the road,
And thus descending looked on valleys fair
Enlaced with terraced vines, that darkly glowed
The purle sky, high rolled in aestive air,
The grass, the budded flowers gave more delight,
The laughing bursten broom seemed yellower
And now our scattered fellows gan unite,
Where the long passes ended; and the way
Suddenly brought the Italian plain in sight,
The glorious golden country, for whose sway
Fierce nations strive: yea, even as the shores
Lead to the boundless sea, and therewith stay;
So suddenly the hills their rocky doors
Behind us shut, and left us on that plain,
Which, like the sea, rolled far his swelling floors.
There vine and olive-crested grass and grain:
Cities, the Roman works, stood fair and high,
Like islands, in the golden-billowed main.
This glorious sight brought joy to every eye:
But in our hearts was woe and trouble found
Because of Mano and that harlotry
He in that woman's snare a slave was bound:
All day by her he rode in disarray,
And their loud laughter did the vales confound.
For nought beside vain dalliance cared they,
And their light folly was before our eyes,
Which mixed in our contentment sore dismay.
Those of our pilgrims who were good and wise,
The holy men who on this quest repaired,
Were often mocked by her with gaieties
For in the toilsome march they never spared
Of prayers, fastings, and austerity,
And, as they rode, to stripes their shoulders bared,
Or read in holy books, which verily
Good store they carried on each patient beast,
To solace them with godly history:
All which full oft she turned to scurril jest
Thus murmurs grew among us day by day,
Though fear of Mano still their voice repressed
But one thing only of her evil play
Shall here be told: that she to Mano gave
A talisman, that in her bosom lay;
A broidery of colours bright and brave,
But stained with a blot of sanguine hue:
Which she had plucked out of the sudden grave,
Where that fair body lay the which she slew.
She gave it him but as a gift of price,
Nor told him from what wealth her gift she drew
Fair was the cloth, and wrought in costly wise:
And from the same in time great marvel fell,
Ere we had quittance of her sorceries.
Thus travelled we the plain, e'en as I tell:
Nor long behind us Gerbert left the land
Whence we so far were come: he steering well
By sea to avoid the Saracenic band,
Which we atween the hills had safely passed,
Arrived before us on the Roman strand:
And there it was we met him at the last.