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.

In prosecution of this design, he made the best of his way to
Angelica's kingdom, and arrived beneath the walls of Albracca while the
besieging army was encamped before the fortress. While the attention of
the garrison was absorbed by the battle that raged below he scaled the
walls, approached the Princess unnoticed, slipped the ring from her
finger, and escaped unobserved. He hastened to the seaside, and,
finding a vessel ready to sail, embarked, and arrived at Biserta, in
Africa. Here he found Agramant impatient for the talisman which was to
foil the enchantments of Atlantes and to put Rogero into his hands. The
dwarf, kneeling before the king, presented him with the ring, and
Agramant, delighted at the success of his mission, crowned him in
recompense King of Tingitana.

All were now anxious to go in quest of Rogero. The cavalcade
accordingly departed, and in due time arrived at the mountain of Carena.

At the bottom of this was a fruitful and well-wooded plain, watered by
a large river, and from this plain was descried a beautiful garden on
the mountain-top, which contained the mansion of Atlantes; but the
ring, which discovered what was before invisible, could not, though it
revealed this paradise, enable Agramant or his followers to enter it.
So steep and smooth was the rock by nature, that even Brunello failed
in every attempt to scale it. He did not, for this, despair of
accomplishing the object; but, having obtained Agramant's consent,
caused the assembled courtiers and knights to celebrate a tournament
upon the plain below. This was done with the view of seducing Rogero
from his fastness, and the stratagem was attended with