eir evil star, or for their sins, they were led thither.
When they saw the furious state the Count was in, and his incredible
force, they would fain have fled out of his reach, but in their fears
lost their presence of mind. The madman pursued them, seized one and
rent him limb from limb, as easily as one would pull ripe apples from a
tree. He took another by the feet, and used him as a club to knock down
a third. The shepherds fled; but it would have been hard for any to
escape, if he had not at that moment left them to throw himself with
the same fury upon their flocks. The peasants, abandoning their ploughs
and harrows, mounted on the roofs of buildings and pinnacles of the
rocks, afraid to trust themselves even to the oaks and pines. From such
heights they looked on, trembling at the raging fury of the unhappy
Orlando. His fists, his teeth, his nails, his feet, seize, break, and
tear cattle, sheep, and swine; the most swift in flight alone being
able to escape him.

When at last terror had scattered everything before him, he entered a
cottage which was abandoned by its inhabitants, and there found that
which served for food. His long fast had caused him to feel the most
ravenous hunger. Seizing whatever he found that was eatable, whether
roots, acorns, or bread, raw meat or cooked, he gorged it
indiscriminately.

Issuing thence again, the frantic Orlando gave chase to whatever living
thing he saw, whether men or animals. Sometimes he pursued the deer and
hind, sometimes he attacked bears and wolves, and with his naked hands
killed and tore them, and devoured their flesh.

Thus he wandered, from place to place, through France, imperilling his
life a thousand ways, yet always preserved by some mysterious
providence from a fatal result. But here we leave Orlando for a time,
that we may record what befell Zerbino and Isabella after their parting
with him.

The prince and his fair bride waited, by Orlando's request, near the
scene of the battle for three days, that, if Mandricardo should return,
they might inform him where Orlando would give him another meeting. At
the end of that time their anxiety to know the issue led them to follow
Orlando's traces, which led them at last to the wood where the trees
were inscribed with the names of Angelica and Medoro. They remarked how
all these inscriptions were defaced, and how the grotto was disordered,
and the fountain clogged with rubbish. But that which surprised them
and