LX.
With frigate and with galley wont to roam,
And other sort of barks they range the sea,
And, as a solace to their martyrdom,
From far, or from their isle’s vicinity,
Bear women off; with open rapine some,
These bought by gold, and those by flattery:
And, plundered from the different lands they scower,
Crowd with their captives dungeon-cell and tower.
LXI.
Keeping that region close aboard, to explore
The island’s lonely bank, a galley creeps;
Where, amid stubs upon the grassy shore,
Angelica, unhappy damsel, sleeps.
To wood and water there the sailors moor,
And from the bark, for this, a party leaps;
And there that matchless flower of earthly charms
Discovers in the holy father’s arms.
LXII.
Oh! prize too dear, oh! too illustrious prey!
To glut so barbarous and so base a foe!
Oh! cruel Fortune! who believed thy sway
Was of such passing power in things below?
That thou shouldst make a hideous monster’s prey
The beauty, for which Agrican did glow,
Brought with half Scythia’s people from the gates
Of Caucasus[9], in Ind, to find their fates.
