ould be clearly ascertained which party had failed to
observe its oath. Both renewed their promise to abandon forever the
party which had been thus false and perjured.

Meanwhile, the Christians, after the first moment of surprise, met the
Saracens with courage redoubled by rage at the treachery of their foes.
Guido the Wild, brother and rival of Rinaldo, Griffon and Aquilant,
sons of Oliver, and numerous others whose names have already been
celebrated in our recitals, beat back the assailants, and at last,
after prodigious slaughter, forced them to take shelter within the
walls of Arles.

We will now return to Orlando, whom we last heard of as furiously mad,
and doing a thousand acts of violence in his senseless rage. One day he
came to the borders of a stream which intercepted his course. He swam
across it, for he could swim like an otter, and on the other side saw a
peasant watering his horse. He seized the animal, in spite of the
resistance of the peasant, and rode it with furious speed till he
arrived at the sea-coast, where Spain is divided from Africa by only a
narrow strait. At the moment of his arrival a vessel had just put off
to cross the strait. She was full of people who, with glass in hand,
seemed to be taking a merry farewell of the land, wafted by a favorable
breeze.

The frantic Orlando cried out to them to stop and take him in; but
they, having no desire to admit a madman to their company, paid him no
attention. The paladin thought this behavior very uncivil; and by force
of blows made his horse carry him into the water in pursuit of the
ship. The wretched animal soon had only his head above water; but as
Orlando urged him forward, nothing was left for the poor beast but
either to die or swim over to Africa.

Already Orlando had lost sight of the bark; distance and the swell of
the sea completely hid it from his sight. He continued to press his
horse forward, till at last it could struggle no more, and sunk beneath
him. Orlando, nowise concerned, stretched out his nervous arms, puffing
the salt water from before his mouth, and carried his head above the
waves. Fortunately they were not rough, scarce a breath of wind
agitated the surface; otherwise, the invincible Orlando would then have
met his death. But fortune, which it is said favors fools, delivered
him from this danger, and landed him safe on the shore of Ceuta. Here
he rambled along the shore till he came to where the black army of
Astolpho