The Orlando Innamorato

by Matteo Maria Boiardo

The party set out together; and at the end of the first day's journey, Folderico turns back and gallops to his tower. He is now first assured of his disgrace. Full of rage, he pursues his rival; but does not dare make any attempt to recover his wife, till he has separated Ordauro from his adherents. Having effected this by a stratagem, he attacks his retainers, and repossesses himself of the lady. He is destined to a short possession of the prize; for he is, on his return, beset by giants, who seize her, and all his treasure; which the wife was carrying off as a dowry to her new lord. He himself escapes.

Orlando listened with curiosity to this relation: but Brandimart, who only thought upon Flordelis, separated from his companions in order to pursue a separate search. Whilst he is engaged in this, he hears her cries, and, directed by them, finds her bound to the tree. He dismounts from his horse to assist her, and is about to loosen her bonds, when he is attacked by the savage, armed with a rustic club and shield. This strange woodman is described as gifted with extraordinary strength of body, and distinguished by some strange propensities:

He dwelt in woods, and on their produce fed,
And drank the limpid brook which bubbled by:
And (such his nature) ever, it is said,
Wept, when he saw a clear and cloudless sky:
Since, fearful of the sign, he lived in dread,
That tempest, clouds, and cold, and rain were nigh,
But joy'd in thunder and in hail; since he
Hoped warmer suns and happier days to see.

This savage, but for the exclamation of Flordelis, would have surprised Brandimart in the act of untying her. Being warned by her of his danger, he guarded himself against his attacks, which required all his skill and courage to repel. He indeed hewed in pieces the rustic weapon with which he was armed; but the monster, closing with him, grasped him in his arms, and attempted to cast him down a precipice, when he fortunately escaped from his embrace.

The savage finding himself foiled in this hope, and weaponless, now flew to a sapling, which he was trying to pluck up by its roots, when the knight killed him while engaged in the attempt. Brandimart now releases Flordelis, seats her on his horse's croup, and goes in pursuit of Orlando, from whom he had separated.

Whilst he is thus engaged, the author resumes the story of Albracca. Rinaldo was left in close combat with Gryphon, whom he at last stunned with a desperate blow. When Aquilant, believing his brother killed, took up the conqueror. Gryphon, however, reviving from the effects of the stroke, returned to the charge. Marphisa seeing Rinaldo thus oppressed with odds, came to his assistance; and others again of those sworn to defend Truffaldino, who was an unwilling spectator of the fray, took part against her and Rinaldo. Orlando was, this while, pursuing his way in search of Brandimart, while Brandimart as vainly sought him through the forest.

Whilst Orlando is thus engaged, he sees a damsel issue from a wood upon a palfrey, who bears a book and horn. Addressing herself to the count, she tells him, that, if he is what his countenance bespeaks him, the fairest adventure awaits him, which ever was achieved by knight; and which, indeed, had hitherto foiled the prowess of all who had attempted it, who remained prisoners in the enchanted garden, which she invites him (if he has the courage sufficient for such an adventure) to attack. Orlando accepts the proposal with rapture; the damsel presents him with the book and horn; both necessary for the achievement of the enterprize; and, having instructed him in the use of them, retires to a distance.

Orlando accordingly, having first disposed of the other damsel whom he carried behind him, sounds the bugle, and a rock opens, from which issue two ferocious bulls, with horns of iron, and strangely coloured hair turned contrary to the natural grain:

And sometimes green; now black, now white it seemed,
Now yellow, and now red; and ever gleamed.

Orlando learned from the book, by whose rules he was to proceed, that he was to bind these beasts; and this done, was to enter the opening, from which they sallied, and plow with them the space within. Such was to be his first labour.