ever yet," answered Orlando, "made a promise which I did not keep,
and nevertheless I own to you that, were I to make a promise like that,
and even swear to keep it, I should not. You might as well ask me to
tear away the limbs from my body, and the eyes out of my head. I could
as well live without breath itself as cease loving Angelica."

Agrican had hardly patience to let him finish speaking, ere he leapt
furiously on horseback, though it was midnight. "Quit her," said he,
"or die!"

Orlando seeing the infidel getting up, and not being sure that he would
not add treachery to fierceness, had been hardly less quick in mounting
for the combat. "Never," exclaimed he; "I never could have quitted her
if I would, and now I would not if I could. You must seek her by other
means than these."

Fiercely dashed their horses together, in the nighttime, on the green
mead. Despiteful and terrible were the blows they gave and took by the
moonlight. Agrican fought in a rage, Orlando was cooler. And now the
struggle had lasted more than five hours, and day began to dawn, when
the Tartar king, furious to find so much trouble given him, dealt his
enemy a blow sharp and violent beyond conception. It cut the shield in
two as if it had been made of wood, and, though blood could not be
drawn from Orlando, because he was fated, it shook and bruised him as
if it had started every joint in his body.

His body only, however, not a particle of his soul. So dreadful was the
blow which the paladin gave in return, that not only shield, but every
bit of mail on the body of Agrican was broken in pieces, and three of
his ribs cut asunder.

The Tartar, roaring like a lion, raised his sword with still greater
vehemence than before, and dealt a blow on the paladin's helmet, such
as he had never yet received from mortal man. For a moment it took away
his senses. His sight failed, his ears tingled, his frightened horse
turned about to fly; and he was falling from the saddle, when the very
action of falling threw his head upwards, and thus recalled his
recollection.

"What a shame is this!" thought he; "how shall I ever again dare to
face Angelica! I have been fighting hour after hour with this man, and
he is but one, and I call myself Orlando! If the combat last any longer
I will bury myself in a monastery, and never look on sword again."

Orlando muttered with his lips closed and his teeth ground together;
and you might have thought that fire inste