We shall introduce more particularly to our readers a few of the
principal peers, leaving the others to make their own introduction
as they appear in the course of our narrative. We begin with
Orlando.

ORLANDO

Milon, or Milone, a knight of great family, and distantly related
to Charlemagne, having secretly married Bertha, the Emperor's
sister, was banished from France, and excommunicated by the Pope.
After a long and miserable wandering on foot as mendicants Milon
and his wife arrived at Sutri, in Italy, where they took refuge in
a cave, and in that cave Orlando was born. There his mother
continued, deriving a scanty support from the compassion of the
neighboring peasants; while Milon, in quest of honor and fortune,
went into foreign lands. Orlando grew up among the children of the
peasantry, surpassing them all in strength and manly graces. Among
his companions in age, though in station far more elevated, was
Oliver, son of the governor of the town. Between the two boys a
feud arose that led to a fight, in which Orlando thrashed his
rival; but this did not prevent a friendship springing up between
the two, which lasted through life.

Orlando was so poor that he was sometimes half naked. As he was a
favorite of the boys, one day four of them brought some cloth to
make him clothes. Two brought white and two red; and from this
circumstance Orlando took his coat-of-arms, or quarterings.

When Charlemagne was on his way to Rome to receive the imperial