Zerbino vehemently exclaimed, “Touch not that sword.  Think not to possess it without a contest.  If it be true that the arms you wear are those of Hector, you must have got them by theft, and not by prowess.”

Immediately they attacked one another with the utmost fury.  The air resounded with thick-falling blows.  Zerbino, skilful and alert, evaded for a time with good success the strokes of Durindana; but at length a terrible blow struck him on the neck.  He fell from his horse, and the Tartar king, possessed of the spoils of his victory, rode away.

ZERBINO AND ISABELLA

Zerbino’s pain at seeing the Tartar prince go off with the sword surpassed the anguish of his wound; but now the loss of blood so reduced his strength that he could not move from where he fell.  Isabella, not knowing whither to resort for help, could only bemoan him, and chide her cruel fate.  Zerbino said, “If I could but leave thee, my best beloved, in some secure abode, it would not distress me to die; but to abandon thee so, without protection, is sad indeed.”  She replied, “Think not to leave me, dearest; our souls shall not be parted; this sword will give me the means to follow thee.”  Zerbino’s last words implored her to banish such a thought, but live, and be true to his memory.  Isabella promised, with many tears, to be faithful to him so long as life should last.

When he ceased to breathe, Isabella’s cries resounded through the forest, and reached the ears of a reverend hermit, who hastened to the spot.  He soothed and calmed her, urging those consolations which the word of God supplies; and at last brought her to wish for nothing else but to devote herself for the rest of life wholly to religion.

As she could not bear the thoughts of leaving her dead lord abandoned, the body was, by the good hermit’s aid, placed upon the horse, and taken to the nearest inhabited place, where a chest was made for it, suitable to be carried with them on their way.  The hermit’s plan was to escort his charge to a monastery, not many days’ journey distant, where Isabella resolved to spend the remainder of her days.  Thus they travelled day after day, choosing the most retired ways, for the country was full of armed men.  One day a cavalier met them, and barred their way.  It was no other than Rodomont, king of Algiers, who had just left the camp of Agramant, full of indignation at the treatment he had received from Doralice.  At sight of the lovely lady and her reverend attendant, with their horse laden with a burden draped with black, he asked the meaning of their journey.  Isabella told him her affliction, and her resolution to renounce the world and devote herself to religion, and to the memory of the friend she had lost.  Rodomont laughed scornfully at this, and told her that her project was absurd; that charms like hers were meant to be enjoyed, not buried, and that he himself would more than make amends for her dead lover.  The monk, who promptly interposed to rebuke this impious talk, was commanded to hold his peace; and still persisting was seized by the knight and hurled over the edge of the cliff, where he fell into the sea, and was drowned.