Chapter 8 - Page 2

the traitor sought only how he might be rid of the company of
Bradamante, from whom he feared no good would come to him, but
rather mortal injury, if his name and lineage became known to her. For
he judged her by his own base model, and, knowing his ill deserts,
he feared to receive his due.
Bradamante, in spite of the summons to return to the army, could not
resolve to leave her lover in captivity, and determined first to
finish the adventure on which she was engaged. Pinabel leading the
way, they at length arrived at a wood, in the centre of which rose a
steep, rocky mountain. Pinabel, who now thought of nothing else but
how he might escape from Bradamante, proposed to ascend the mountain
to extend his view in order to discover a shelter for the night, if
any there might be within sight. Under this pretence he left
Bradamante, and advanced up the side of the mountain till he came to a
cleft in the rock, down which he looked, and perceived that it widened
below into a spacious cavern. Meanwhile Bradamante, fearful of
losing her guide, had followed close on his footsteps, and rejoined
him at the mouth of the cavern. Then the traitor, seeing the
impossibility of escaping her, conceived another design. He told her
that before her approach he had seen in the cavern a young and
beautiful damsel, whose rich dress announced her high birth, who
with tears and lamentations implored assistance; that before he
could descend to relieve her, a ruffian had seized her, and hurried
away into the recesses of the cavern.
Bradamante, full of truth and courage, readily believed this lie
of the Mayencian traitor. Eager to succor the damsel, she looked round
for the means of facilitating the descent, and seeing a large elm with
spreading branches, she lopped off with her sword one of the
largest, and thrust it into the opening. She told Pinabel to hold fast
to the larger end, while, grasping the branches with her hands, she
let herself down into the cavern.
The traitor smiled at seeing her thus suspended, and, asking her
in mockery, "Are you a good leaper?" he let go the branch with
perfidious glee, and saw Bradamante precipitated to the bottom of
the cave. "I wish your whole race were there with you," he muttered,
"that you might all perish together."
But Pinabel's atrocious design was not accomplished. The twigs and
foliage of the branch broke its descent, and Bradamante, not seriously
injured, though stunned with her fall, was reserved for other
adventures.
As soon as she recovered from the shock, Bradamante cast her eyes
around and perceived a door, through which she passed into a second
cavern, larger and loftier than the first. It had the appearance of
a subterranean temple. Columns of the purest alabaster