By this time the curiosity of the English chevaliers was partly
gratified in beholding the Hippogriff at rest, and Rogero, to
renew their surprise and delight, remounted the animal, and,
slapping spurs to his sides, made him launch into the air with the
rapidity of a meteor, and directed his flight still westwardly,
till he came within sight of the coasts of Ireland. Here he
descried what seemed to be a fair damsel, alone, fast chained to a
rock which projected into the sea. What was his astonishment when,
drawing nigh, he beheld the beautiful princess Angelica! That day
she had been led forth and bound to the rock, there to wait till
the sea-monster should come to devour her. Rogero exclaimed as he
came near, "What cruel hands, what barbarous soul, what fatal
chance can have loaded thee with those chains?" Angelica replied
by a torrent of tears, at first her only response; then, in a
trembling voice, she disclosed to him the horrible destiny for
which she was there exposed. While she spoke, a terrible roaring
was heard far off on the sea. The huge monster soon came in sight,
part of his body appearing above the waves and part concealed.
Angelica, half dead with fear, abandoned herself to despair.

Rogero, lance in rest, spurred his Hippogriff toward the Orc, and
gave him a thrust. The horrible monster was like nothing that
nature produces. It was but one mass of tossing and twisting body,
with nothing of the animal but head, eyes, and mouth, the last
furnished with tusks like those of the wild boar. Rogero's lance
had struck him between the eyes; but rock and iron are not more
impenetrable than were his scales. The knight, seeing the
fruitlessness of the first blow, prepared to give a second. The
animal, beholding upon the water the shadow of the great wings of
the Hippogriff, abandoned his prey, and turned to seize what