The victor had scarcely gone, when the general arrived on the ground.  He beheld the slain Prince of Norway with acute feelings of regret.  What was to become of his army, if the leaders thus quarrelled among themselves, and his authority was set at nought?  The friends of the slain man increased his anger against Rinaldo, by charging him with all the blame of the catastrophe.  The hero’s friend, Tancred, assuaged it somewhat by disclosing the truth, and then ventured to ask pardon for the outbreak.  But the wise commander skewed so many reasons why such an offence could not be overlooked, and his countenance expressed such a determination to resent it, that the gallant youth hastened secretly to his friend, and urged him to quit the camp till his services should be needed.  Rinaldo at first called for his arms, and was bent on resisting every body who came to seize him, had it been even Godfrey himself; but Tancred shewing him how unjust that would be, and how fatal to the Christian cause, he consented with an ill grace to depart.  He would take nobody with him but two squires; and he went away raging with a sense of ill requital for his achievements, but resolving to prove their value by destroying every infidel prince that he could encounter.

Armida now tried in vain to make an impression on the heart of Godfrey.  He was insensible to all her devices; but she succeeded in quitting the camp with her ten champions.  Lots were drawn to determine who should go; and all who failed to be in the list—­Eustace among them—­were so jealous of the rest, that at night-time, after the others had been long on the road, they set out to overtake them, each by himself, and all in violation of their soldierly words.  The ten opposed them as they came up, but to no purpose.  Armida reconciled them all in appearance, by feigning to be devoted to each in secret; and thus she rode on with them many a mile, till she came to a castle on the Dead Sea, where she was accustomed to practise her unfriendliest arts.

Meanwhile news came to Godfrey that his Egyptian enemies were at hand with a great fleet, and that his caravan of provisions had been taken by the robbers of the desert.  His army was thus threatened with ruin from desertion, starvation, and the sword.  He maintained a calm and even a cheerful countenance; but in his thoughts he had great anxiety.

Part the Second.

ARMIDA’S HATE AND LOVE.

The castle to which Armida took her prisoners occupied an island close to the shore in the loathsome Dead Sea.  They entered it by means of a narrow bridge; but if their pity had been great at seeing her forced to take refuge in a spot so desolate and repulsive, how pleasingly was it changed into as great a surprise at finding a totally different region within the walls!  The gardens were extensive and lovely; the rivulets and fountains as sweet as the flowery thickets they watered; the breezes refreshing, the skies of a sapphire