better bred than by endeavoring to make me talk on a subject on
which you have me at a disadvantage. If you choose to sleep I wish
you good night; but if you prefer talking I recommend you to talk
of fighting or of fair ladies. And, by the way, pray tell me, are
you not that Orlando who makes such a noise in the world? And what
is it, pray, that brings you into these parts? Were you ever in
love? I suppose you must have been; for to be a knight, and never
to have been in love, would be like being a man without a heart in
his breast."

The count replied: "Orlando I am, and in love I am. Love has made
me abandon everything, and brought me into these distant regions,
and, to tell you all in one word, my heart is in the hands of the
daughter of King Galafron. You have come against him with fire and
sword, to get possession of his castles and his dominions; and I
have come to help him, for no object in the world but to please
his daughter and win her beautiful hand. I care for nothing else
in existence."

Now when the Tartar king, Agrican, heard his antagonist speak in
this manner, and knew him to be indeed Orlando, and to be in love
with Angelica, his face changed color for grief and jealousy,
though it could not be seen for the darkness. His heart began
beating with such violence that he felt as if he should have died.
"Well," said he to Orlando, "we are to fight when it is daylight,
and one or other is to be left here, dead on the ground. I have a
proposal to make to you--nay, an entreaty. My love is so
excessive for the same lady that I beg you to leave her to me. I
will owe you my thanks, and give up the siege and put an end to
the war. I cannot bear that any one should love her, and that I