He turns to flee, leaving Orlando master
Of entry to the drawbridge and both gates.
His charger spurring faster and still faster,
He gallops past the fleeing renegades
Who've seen their comrades meet with such disaster.
Orlando scorns them all and concentrates
On capturing the king; but in this race
Cimosco's horse has wings, and flies apace.

From one road to the next he disappears
From sight. But not for long does he delay:
The strange, new, hollow weapon now appears,
Which he intends shall now come into play;
And down behind it, as Orlando nears,
He crouches like a huntsman in the lay
Of the wild boar, his boar-spear in his hand,
And dogs, their collars armed, at his command,

Who hears the branches and the boulders crash,
And, every time the creature rears its snout,
Thinks, from the noise, that it must surely smash
The forest, and the very hills uproot;
So does the king await Orlando's dash,
Determined he shall pay his final scot.
As he draws near, the hole with fire he touches.
Straightway the force of the explosion such is,

The monster, with a flash of lightning, mumbles,
Spewing a charge of metal from its bore.
The walls seem to tremble, heaven rumbles
With echoes of the terrifying roar.
A deadly shaft, which decimates and crumbles
All it encounters and remits no score,
Whistles and shrieks, just as the king desires;
Yet the assassin's brutal plan misfires.

Whether in haste, or over-eagerness,
Thinking Orlando's life was for the taking,
Or, as a consequence of nervousness,
For like a leaf his hands and arms were shaking,
With trembling heart he aimed the blow amiss;
Or, God had no intention of forsaking
One who had served Him well: the horse the blow
Received and, falling, motionless lay low.

Both cavalier and steed fell to the ground,
But, while in one all signs of life had ceased,
The other leapt up nimbly with one bound,
As though his strength and vigour were increased.
As Libyan Antaeus ever found
From contact with the earth new might released,
So now Orlando, with redoubled force,
Arose from where he'd fallen with the horse.

Whoever witnessed hurtling from the sky
Some deafening thunderbolt of Jupiter's
And, where saltpetre, sulphur, carbon lie
Enclosed together, watches as it nears
And instantly in fragments shoots on high
The walls, the monuments, the marble tiers,
Until not earth alone, or so it seems,
But heaven also is consumed in flames,

Let him imagine thus Orlando then,
As from the ground whereon he fell he reared him.
Of such fierce aspect was the paladin
That Mars upon Olympus might have feared him.
The frightened king in panic tugged the rein,
Turning his charger as Orlando neared him.
But faster ran the noble Count behind
Than ever arrow flew upon the wind.

And what he did not manage to achieve
On horseback, he will carry through on foot.
No one who had not seen him would believe
That he could move so swiftly in pursuit.
He closes in and lifts his arms to cleave,
With his brave sword, down to the neck-bone's root,
Cimosco's head; the villain down he cast;
By such a fall the right's avenged at last.