XXXIII.
“If thou slay’st me, there is good reason, I
“The comfort too of vengeance should obtain;
“In that all edicts and all equity
“The death of him that causes death ordain;
“Nor, since you justly, I unjustly, die,
“Deem I that thine is equal to my pain.
“I him who seeks my life, alas! shall spill,
“Thou her that loves and worships thee wouldst kill.
XXXIV.
“My hand, why hast thou not the hardiment
“To rive with steel the bosom of my foe,
“That me so many times to death has shent,
“Under the faith of love, in peaceful show;
“Him, who to take my life can now consent,
“Nor even have pity of my cruel woe?
“Dare, valiant heart, this impious man to slay,
“And let his death my thousand deaths appay!”
XXXV.
So said, she spurred at him amid the throng;
But, first—“Defend thee, false Rogero!”—cried.
“No more, if I have power, in spoil and wrong,
“Done to a virgin heart, shalt thou take pride.”
Hearing that voice the hostile ranks among,
He deems—and truly deems—he hears his bride;
Whose voice the youth remembers in such wise,
That mid a thousand would he recognize.
