te, who watched him intently, as soon as
she saw him near at hand, sprang up, seized him vigorously, threw him
down, and, with the same chain which the enchanter had prepared for
herself, bound him fast, without his being able to make any effectual
resistance.

The enchanter, with the accents of despair, exclaimed, "Take my life,
young man!" but Bradamante was far from complying with such a wish.
Desirous of knowing the name of the enchanter, and for what purpose he
had formed with so much art this impregnable fortress, she commanded
him to inform her.

"Alas!" replied the magician, while tears flowed down his cheeks, "it
is not to conceal booty, nor for any culpable design that I have built
this castle; it was only to guard the life of a young knight, the
object of my tenderest affection, my art having taught me that he is
destined to become a Christian, and to perish, shortly after, by the
blackest of treasons.

"This youth, named Rogero, is the most beautiful and most accomplished
of knights. It is I, the unhappy Atlantes, who have reared him from his
childhood. The call of honor and the desire of glory led him from me to
follow Agramant, his prince, in his invasion of France, and I, more
devoted to Rogero than the tenderest of parents, have sought the means
of bringing him back to this abode, in the hope of saving him from the
cruel fate that menaces him.

"For this purpose I have got him in my possession by the same means as
I attempted to employ against you; and by which I have succeeded in
collecting a great many knights and ladies in my castle. My purpose was
to render my beloved pupil's captivity light, by affording him society
to amuse him, and keep his thoughts from running on subjects of war and
glory. Alas! my cares have been in vain! Yet, take, I beseech you,
whatever else I have, but spare me my beloved pupil. Take this shield,
take this winged courser, deliver such of your friends as you may find
among my prisoners, deliver them all if you will, but leave me my
beloved Rogero; or if you will snatch him too from me, take also my
life, which will cease then to be to me worth preserving."

Bradamante replied: "Old man, hope not to move me by your vain
entreaties. It is precisely the liberty of Rogero that I require. You
would keep him here in bondage and in slothful pleasure, to save him
from a fate which you foresee. Vain old man! how can you foresee his
fate when you could not foresee your own? You