As they rode she explained the dangers of the quest.  The armor was defended by a champion, one of the numerous unsuccessful adventurers for the prize, all of whom had been made prisoners by the fairy, and compelled to take their turn, day by day, in defending the arms against all comers.  Thus speaking they arrived at the castle, which was of alabaster, overlaid with gold.  Before it, on a lawn, sat an armed knight on horseback, who was none other than Gradasso, king of Sericane, who, in his return home from his unsuccessful inroad into France, had fallen into the power of the fairy, and was held to do her bidding.  Mandricardo, upon seeing him, dropt his visor, and laid his lance in rest.  The champion of the castle was equally ready, and each spurred towards his opponent.  They met one another with equal force, splintered their spears, and, returning to the charge, encountered with their swords.  The contest was long and doubtful, when Mandricardo, determined to bring it to an end, threw his arms about Gradasso, grappled with him, and both fell to the ground.  Mandricardo, however, fell uppermost, and, preserving his advantage, compelled Gradasso to yield himself conquered.  The damsel now interfered, congratulating the victor, and consoling the vanquished as well as she might.

Mandricardo and the damsel proceeded to the gate of the castle, which they found undefended.  As they entered they beheld a shield suspended from a pilaster of gold.  The device was a white eagle on an azure field, in memory of the bird of Jove, which bore away Ganymede, the flower of the Phrygian race.  Beneath was engraved the following couplet: 

    “Let none with hand profane my buckler wrong
     Unless he be himself as Hector strong.”

The damsel, alighting from her palfrey, made obeisance to the arms, bending herself to the ground.  The Tartar king bowed his head with equal reverence; then advancing towards the shield, touched it with his sword.  Thereupon an earthquake shook the ground, and the way by which he had entered closed.  Another and an opposite gate opened, and displayed a field bristling with stalks and grain of gold.  The damsel, upon this, told him that he had no means of retreat but by cutting down the harvest which was before him, and by uprooting a tree which grew in the middle of the field.  Mandricardo, without replying, began to mow the harvest with his sword, but had scarce smitten thrice when he perceived that every stalk that fell was instantly transformed into some poisonous or ravenous animal, which prepared to assail him.  Instructed by the damsel, he snatched up a stone and cast it among the pack.  A strange wonder followed; for no sooner had the stone fallen among the beasts, than they turned their rage against one another, and rent each other to pieces.  Mandricardo did not stop to marvel at the miracle, but proceeded to fulfil his task, and uproot the tree.  He clasped it round the trunk, and made vigorous efforts to tear it up by the roots.  At each effort fell a shower of leaves, that were instantly changed into birds of prey, which attacked the knight, flapping their wings in his face, with horrid screeching.  But undismayed by this new annoyance, he continued to tug at the trunk till it yielded to his efforts.  A burst of wind and thunder followed, and the hawks and vultures flew screaming away.