Chapter 3

CHAPTER III.
THE TOURNAMENT. IT was the month of May and the feast of Pentecost. Charlemagne
had ordered magnificent festivities, and summoned to them, besides his
paladins and vassals of the crown, all strangers, Christian or
Saracen, then sojourning at Paris. Among the guests were King
Grandonio, from Spain; and Ferrau, the Saracen, with eyes like an
eagle; Orlando and Rinaldo, the Emperor's nephews; Duke Namo;
Astolpho, of England, the handsomest man living; Malagigi, the
Enchanter; and Gano, of Maganza, that wily traitor, who had the art to
make the Emperor think he loved him, while he plotted against him.
High sat Charlemagne at the head of his vassals and his paladins,
rejoicing in the thought of their number and their might, while all
were sitting and hearing music, and feasting, when suddenly there came
into the hall four enormous giants, having between them a lady of
incomparable beauty, attended by a single knight. There were many
ladies present who had seemed beautiful till she made her
appearance, but after that they all seemed nothing. Every Christian
knight turned his eyes to her, and every Pagan crowded round her,
while she, with a sweetness that might have touched a heart of
stone, thus addressed the Emperor:-
"High-minded lord, the renown of your worthiness, and of the valor
of these your knights, which echoes from sea to sea, encourages me
to hope that two pilgrims, who have come from the ends of the world to
behold you, will not have encountered their fatigue in vain. And,
before I show the motive which has brought us hither, learn that
this knight is my brother Uberto, and that I am his sister Angelica.
Fame has told us of the jousting this day appointed, and so the prince
my brother has come to prove his valor, and to say that, if any of the
knights here assembled choose to meet him in the joust, he will
encounter them, one by one, at the stair of Merlin, by the Fountain of
the Pine. And his conditions are these: No knight who chances to be
thrown shall be allowed to renew the combat, but shall remain prisoner
to my brother, but if my brother be overthrown, he shall depart out of
the country, leaving me as the prize of the conqueror."
Now it must be stated that this Angelica and her brother who
called himself Uberto, but whose real name was Argalia, were the
children of Galafron, king of Cathay, who had sent them to be the
destruction of the Christian host; for Argalia was armed with an
enchanted lance, which unfailingly overthrew everything it touched,
and he was mounted on a horse, a creature of magic, whose swiftness
outstripped the wind. Angelica possessed also a ring which was a
defence against all enchantments, and when put into the mouth rendered
the bearer invisible.