A fort that on the Syrian frontiers lay,
  Nor thinks he that a man to wars inured
  Will aught forslow, or in his journey stay,
  For well he knew him for a dangerous foe:
  An herald called he then, and spake him so:

  LXVIII
  "A pinnace take thee swift as shaft from bow,
  And speed thee, Henry, to the Greekish main,
  There should arrive, as I by letters know
  From one that never aught reports in vain,
  A valiant youth in whom all virtues flow,
  To help us this great conquest to obtain,
  The Prince of Danes he is, and brings to war
  A troop with him from under the Arctic star.

  LXIX
  "And for I doubt the Greekish monarch sly
  Will use with him some of his wonted craft,
  To stay his passage, or divert awry
  Elsewhere his forces, his first journey laft,
  My herald good and messenger well try,
  See that these succors be not us beraft,
  But send him thence with such convenient speed
  As with his honor stands and with our need.

  LXX
  "Return not thou, but Legier stay behind,
  And move the Greekish Prince to send us aid,
  Tell him his kingly promise doth him bind
  To give us succors, by his covenant made."
  This said, and thus instruct, his letters signed
  The trusty herald took, nor longer stayed,
  But sped him thence to done his Lord's behest,
  And thus the Duke reduced his thoughts to rest.

  LXXI
  Aurora bright her crystal gates unbarred,
  And bridegroom-like forth stept the glorious sun,
  When trumpets loud and clarions shrill were heard,
  And every one to rouse him fierce begun,
  Sweet music to each heart for war prepared,
  The soldiers glad by heaps to harness run;
  So if with drought endangered be their grain,
  Poor ploughmen joy when thunders promise rain.

  LXXII
  Some shirts of mail, some coats of plate put on,
  Some donned a cuirass, some a corslet bright,
  And halbert some, and some a habergeon,
  So every one in arms was quickly dight,
  His wonted guide each soldier tends upon,
  Loose in the wind waved their banners light,
  Their standard royal toward Heaven they spread,
  The cross triumphant on the Pagans dead.

  LXXIII
  Meanwhile the car that bears the lightning brand
  Upon the eastern hill was mounted high,
  And smote the glistering armies as they stand,
  With quivering beams which dazed the wondering eye,
  That Phaeton-like it fired sea and land,
  The sparkles seemed up to the skies to fly,
  The horses' neigh and clattering armors' sound
  Pursue the echo over dale and down.

  LXXIV
  Their general did with due care provide
  To save his men from ambush and from train,
  Some troops of horse that lightly armed ride
  He sent to scour the woods and forests main,
  His pioneers their busy work applied
  To even the paths and make the highways plain,
  They filled the pits, and smoothed the rougher ground,
  And opened every strait they closed found.

  LXXV
  They meet no forces gathered by their foe,
  No towers defenced with rampire, moat, or wall,
  No stream, no wood, no mountain could forslow
  Their hasty pace, or stop their march at all;
  So when his banks the prince of rivers, Po,
  Doth overswell, he breaks with hideous fall
  The mossy rocks and trees o'ergrown with age,
  Nor aught withstands his fury and his rage.

  LXXVI
  The King of Tripoli in every hold
  Shut up his men, munition and his treasure,
  The straggling troops sometimes assail he would,
  Save that he durst not move them to displeasure;
  He stayed their rage with presents, gifts and gold,
  And led them through his land at ease and leisure,
  To keep his realm in peace and rest he chose,
  With what conditions Godfrey list impose.

  LXXVII
  Those of Mount Seir, that neighboreth by east
  The Holy City, faithful folk each one,
  Down from the hill descended most and least,
  And to the Christian Duke by heaps they gone,
  And welcome him and his with joy and feast;
  On him they smile, on him they gaze alone,
  And were his guides, as faithful from that day
  As Hesperus, that leads the sun his way.

  LXXVIII
  Along the sands his armies safe they guide
  By ways secure, to them well known before,
  Upon the tumbling billows fraughted ride
  The armed ships, coasting along the shore,
  Which for the camp might every day provide
  To bring munition good and victuals store:
  The isles of Greece sent in provision meet,
  And store of wine from Scios came and Crete.

  LXXIX
  Great Neptune grieved underneath the load
  Of ships, hulks, galleys, barks and brigantines,
  In all the mid-earth seas was left no road
  Wherein the Pagan his bold sails untwines,
  Spread was the huge Armado, wide and broad,
  From Venice, Genes, and towns which them confines,
  From Holland, England, France and Sicil sent,
  And all for Juda ready bound and bent.

  LXXX
  All these together were combined, and knit
  With surest bonds of love and friendship strong,
  Together sailed they fraught with all things fit
  To service done by land that might belong,
  And when occasion served disbarked it,
  Then sailed the Asian coasts and isles along;
  Thither with speed their hasty course they plied,
  Where Christ the Lord for our offences died.

  LXXXI
  The brazen trump of iron-winged fame,
  That mingleth faithful troth with forged lies,
  Foretold the heathen how the Christians came,
  How thitherward the conquering army hies,
  Of every knight it sounds the worth and name,
  Each troop, each band, each squadron it descries,
  And threat'neth death to those, fire, sword and slaughter,
  Who held captived Israel's fairest daughter.

  LXXXII
  The fear of ill exceeds the evil we fear,
  For so our present harms still most annoy us,
  Each mind is prest and open every ear
  To hear new tidings though they no way joy us,
  This secret rumor whispered everywhere
  About the town, these Christians will destroy us,
  The aged king his coming evil that knew,
  Did cursed thoughts in his false heart renew.

  LXXXIII
  This aged prince ycleped Aladine,
  Ruled in care, new sovereign of this state,
  A tyrant erst, but now his fell engine
  His graver are did somewhat mitigate,
  He heard the western lords would undermine
  His city's wall, and lay his towers prostrate,
  To former fear he adds a new-come doubt,
  Treason he fears within, and force without.

  LXXXIV
  For nations twain inhabit there and dwell
  Of sundry faith together in that town,
  The lesser part on Christ believed well,
  On Termagent the more and on Mahown,
  But when this king had made this conquest fell,
  And brought that region subject to his crown,
  Of burdens all he set the