Note 187 — BOOK VII[145]

Samuel Rogers introduces this incident into his description of the "wild life, fearful and full of change," of the "mountain-robber:"

Time was, the trade was nobler, if not honest; When they that robb'd were men of better faith Than kings or pontiffs; where such reverence The poet drew among the woods and wilds, A voice was heard, that never bade to spare, Crying aloud, "Hence to the distant hills! Tasso approaches; he, whose song beguiles The day of half its hours; whose sorcery Dazzles the sense, turning our forest glades To lists that blaze with gorgeous armoury, Our mountain-caves to regal palaces: Hence, nor descend till he and his are gone. Let him fear nothing!"

(Rogers, Italy: Banditti, 5-17).—T.