n and his valiant family,
marched to meet Marsilius, who hastened to retreat across the frontier.

RINALDO

Rinaldo was one of the four sons of Aymon, who married Aya, the sister
of Charlemagne. Thus Rinaldo was nephew to Charlemagne and cousin of
Orlando.

When Rinaldo had grown old enough to assume arms Orlando had won for
himself an illustrious name by his exploits against the Saracens, whom
Charlemagne and his brave knights had driven out of France. Orlando's
fame excited a noble emulation in Rinaldo. Eager to go in pursuit of
glory, he wandered in the country near Paris, and one day saw at the
foot of a tree a superb horse, fully equipped and loaded with a
complete suit of armor. Rinaldo clothed himself in the armor and
mounted the horse, but took not the sword. On the day when, with his
brothers, he had received the honor of knighthood from the Emperor he
had sworn never to bind a sword to his side till he had wrested one
from some famous knight.

Rinaldo took his way to the forest of Arden, celebrated for so many
adventures. Hardly had he entered it when he met an old man, bending
under the weight of years, and learned from him that the forest was
infested with a wild horse, untamable, that broke and overturned
everything that opposed his career. To attack him, he said, or even to
meet him, was certain death. Rinaldo, far from being alarmed, showed
the most eager desire to combat the animal. This was the horse Bayard,
afterward so famous. He had formerly belonged to Amadis of Gaul. After
the death of that hero he had been held under enchantment by the power
of a magician, who predicted that, when the time came to break the
spell, he should be subdued by a knight of the lineage of Amadis, and
not less brave than he.

To win this wonderful horse it was necessary to conquer him by force or
skill; for from the moment when he should be thrown down he would
become docile and manageable. His habitual resort was a cave on the
borders of the forest; but woe be to any one who should approach him,
unless gifted with strength and courage more than mortal. Having told
this, the old man departed. He was not, in fact, an old man, but
Malagigi, the enchanter, cousin of Rinaldo, who, to favor the
enterprises of the young knight, had procured for him the horse and
armor which he so opportunely found, and now put him in the way to
acquire a horse unequalled in the world.

Rinaldo plunged into the forest, and spent many