preaching to the clergyman,
that is my motto."

"I acknowledge," returned Orlando, "that arms are the first
consideration of a gentleman; but not at all that he does himself
dishonor by knowledge. On the contrary, knowledge is as great an
embellishment of the rest of his attainments, as the flowers are to the
meadow before us; and as to the knowledge of his Maker, the man that is
without it is no better than a stock or a stone or a brute beast.
Neither without study can he reach anything of a due sense of the depth
and divineness of the contemplation."

"Learned or not learned," said Agrican, "you might show yourself better
bred than by endeavoring to make me talk on a subject on which you have
me at a disadvantage. If you choose to sleep I wish you good night; but
if you prefer talking I recommend you to talk of fighting or of fair
ladies. And, by the way, pray tell me, are you not that Orlando who
makes such a noise in the world? And what is it, pray, that brings you
into these parts? Were you ever in love? I suppose you must have been;
for to be a knight, and never to have been in love, would be like being
a man without a heart in his breast."

The count replied: "Orlando I am, and in love I am. Love has made me
abandon everything, and brought me into these distant regions, and, to
tell you all in one word, my heart is in the hands of the daughter of
King Galafron. You have come against him with fire and sword, to get
possession of his castles and his dominions; and I have come to help
him, for no object in the world but to please his daughter and win her
beautiful hand. I care for nothing else in existence."

Now when the Tartar king, Agrican, heard his antagonist speak in this
manner, and knew him to be indeed Orlando, and to be in love with
Angelica, his face changed color for grief and jealousy, though it
could not be seen for the darkness. His heart began beating with such
violence that he felt as if he should have died. "Well," said he to
Orlando, "we are to fight when it is daylight, and one or other is to
be left here, dead on the ground. I have a proposal to make to
you--nay, an entreaty. My love is so excessive for the same lady that I
beg you to leave her to me. I will owe you my thanks, and give up the
siege and put an end to the war. I cannot bear that any one should love
her, and that I should live to see it. Why, therefore, should either of
us perish? Give her up. Not a soul shall know it."

"I n