Orlando was buried in a great sepulchre in Aquisgrana, and the dead Paladins were all embalmed and sent with majestic cavalcades to their respective counties and principalities, and every Christian was honourably and reverently put in the earth, and recorded among the martyrs of the Church.

But meantime the flying Saracens, thinking to bury their own dead, and ignorant of what still awaited them, came back into the valley, and Rinaldo beheld them with a dreadful joy, and shewed them to Charles.  Now the emperor’s cavalcade had increased every moment; and they fell upon the Saracens with a new and unexpected battle, and the old emperor, addressing the sword of Orlando, exclaimed, “My strength is little, but do thou do thy duty to thy master, thou famous sword, seeing that he returned it to me smiling, and that his revenge is in my hands.”  And so saying, he met Balugante, the leader of the infidels, as he came borne along by his frightened horse; and the old man, raising the sword with both hands, cleaved him, with a delighted mind, to the chin.

O sacred Emperor Charles!  O well-lived old man!  Defender of the Faith! light and glory of the old time! thou hast cut off the other ear of Malchus, and shown how rightly thou wert born into the world, to save it a second time from the abyss.

Again fled the Saracens, never to come to Christendom more:  but Charles went after them into Spain, he and Rinaldo and Ricciardetto and the good Turpin; and they took and fired Saragossa; and Marsilius was hung to the carob-tree under which he had planned his villany with Gan; and Gan was hung, and drawn and quartered, in Roncesvalles, amidst the execrations of the country.

And if you ask, how it happened that Charles ever put faith in such a wretch, I shall tell you that it was because the good old emperor, with all his faults, was a divine man, and believed in others out of the excellence of his own heart and truth.  And such was the case with Orlando himself.

APPENDIX.

No.  I.

STORY OF PAULO AND FRANCESCA.

  Poscia ch’ i’ ebbi il mio dottore udito
  Nomar le donne antiche e i cavalieri,
  Pieta mi vinse, e fui quasi smarrito.

  I’ cominciai:  Poeta, volentieri
  Parlerei a que’ duo the ’nsieme vanno,
  E pajon si al vento esser leggieri.

  Ed egli a me:  Vedrai, quando saranno
  Piu presso a noi:  e tu allor gli piega,
  Per quell’ amor ch’ ei mena; e quei verranno.

  Si tosto come ’l vento a noi gli piega,
  Mossi la voce:  O anime affannate,
  Venite a not parlar, s’ altri nol niega.

  Quali colombe dal disio chiamate,
  Con l’ ali aperte e ferme, al dolce nido
  Volan per l’ aer dal voter portate: 

  Cotali uscir de la schiera ov’ e Dido,
  A noi venendo per l’ aer maligno,
  Si forte fu l’ affettuoso grido.