[Q] With harder fate, Though like ambition, such was he, O Friend! Of whom I speak.

So Beaupuis (let the name Stand near the worthiest of Antiquity) 420 Fashioned his life; and many a long discourse, With like persuasion honoured, we maintained: He, on his part, accoutred for the worst.
He perished fighting, in supreme command, Upon the borders of the unhappy Loire, 425 For liberty, against deluded men, His fellow country-men; and yet most blessed In this, that he the fate of later times Lived not to see, nor what we now behold, Who have as ardent hearts as he had then.

430 Along that very Loire, with festal mirth Resounding at all hours, and innocent yet Of civil slaughter, was our frequent walk; Or in wide forests of continuous shade, Lofty and over-arched, with open space 435 Beneath the trees, clear footing many a mile-- A solemn region.

Oft amid those haunts, From earnest dialogues I slipped in thought, And let remembrance steal to other times, When, o'er those interwoven roots, moss-clad, 440 And smooth as marble or a waveless sea, Some Hermit, from his cell forth-strayed, might pace In sylvan meditation undisturbed; As on the pavement of a Gothic church Walks a lone Monk, when service hath expired, 445 In peace and silence.

But if e'er was heard,-- Heard, though unseen,--a devious traveller, Retiring or approaching from afar With speed and echoes loud of trampling hoofs From the hard floor reverberated, then 450 It was Angelica [R] thundering through the woods Upon her palfrey, or that gentle maid Erminia, [S] fugitive as fair as she.
Sometimes methought I saw a pair of knights Joust underneath the trees, that as in storm 455 Rocked high above their heads; anon, the din Of boisterous merriment, and music's roar, In sudden proclamation, burst from haunt Of Satyrs in some viewless glade, with dance Rejoicing o'er a female in the midst, 460 A mortal beauty, their unhappy thrall.
The width of those huge forests, unto me A novel scene, did often in this way Master my fancy while I wandered on With that revered companion.