Algiers, denounced Sobrino's counsel as base and cowardly,
declaring himself impatient for the enterprise. The king of the
Garamantes, venerable for his age and renowned for his prophetic
lore, interposed, and assured the King that such an attempt would
be sure to fail, unless he could first get on his side a youth
marked out by destiny as the fitting compeer of the most puissant
knights of France, the young Rogero, descended in direct line from
Hector of Troy. This prince was now a dweller upon the mountain
Carena, where Atlantes, his foster-father, a powerful magician,
kept him in retirement, having discovered by his art that his
pupil would be lost to him if allowed to mingle with the world. To
break the spells of Atlantes, and draw Rogero from his retirement,
one only means was to be found. It was a ring possessed by
Angelica, Princess of Cathay, which was a talisman against all
enchantments. If this ring could be procured all would go well;
without it the enterprise was desperate.

Rodomont treated this declaration of the old prophet with scorn,
and it would probably have been held of little weight by the
council, had not the aged king, oppressed by the weight of years,
expired in the very act of reaffirming his prediction. This made
so deep an impression on the council that it was unanimously
resolved to postpone the war until an effort should be made to win
Rogero to the camp.

King Agramant thereupon proclaimed that the sovereignty of a
kingdom should be the reward of whoever should succeed in
obtaining the ring of Angelica. Brunello the dwarf, the subtlest
thief in all Africa, undertook to procure it.