LXIX.
He, when he saw himself within the brake,
Thought to abandon his unweeting foe;
And to the dame—“’Twere better that we make
“For shelter ere the gathering darkness grow;
“And, yonder mountain past, (save I mistake)
“A tower is seated in the vale below.
“Do you expect me then, while from the peak
“I measure the remembered place I seek.”
LXX.
So said, he pushed his courser up the height
Of that lone mountain; in his evil mind
Revolving, as he went, some scheme or sleight
To rid him of the gentle dame behind.
When lo! a rocky cavern met his sight,
Amid those precipices dark and blind:
Its sides descended thirty yards and more,
Worked smooth, and at the bottom was a door.
LXXI.
A void was at the bottom, where a wide
Portal conducted to an inner room:
From thence a light shone out on every side,
As of a torch illumining the gloom.
Fair Bradamant pursued her faithless guide,
Suspended there, and pondering on her doom:
And came upon the felon where he stood,
Fearing lest she might lose him in the wood.
