painted with stories, and opening to the garden, through pillars of crystal, with golden capitals.  Here he found a bevy of ladies, three of whom were singing in concert, while another played on an instrument of exquisite accord, and the rest danced round about them.  When the ladies beheld him coming they turned the dance into a circuit round him, and then one of them, in the sweetest manner, said, “Sir knight, the tables are set, and the hour for the banquet is come;” and, with these words, still dancing, they drew him across the lawn in front of the apartment, to a table that was spread with cloth of gold and fine linen, under a bower of damask roses by the side of a fountain.

Four ladies were already seated there, who rose, and placed Rinaldo at their head, in a chair set with pearls.  And truly indeed was he astonished.  A repast ensued, consisting of viands the most delicate, and wines as fragrant as they were fine, drunk out of jewelled cups; and, when it drew towards its conclusion, harps and lutes were heard in the distance, and one of the ladies said in the knight’s ear:  “This house and all that you see in it are yours; for you alone was it built, and the builder is a queen.  Happy indeed must you think yourself, for she loves you, and she is the greatest beauty in the world!  Her name is Angelica.”

The moment Rinaldo heard the name he so detested he started up, with a changed countenance, and, in spite of all that the lady could say, broke off across the garden, and never ceased hastening till he reached the place where he landed.  The bark was still on the shore.  He sprang into it, and pushed off, though he saw nobody in it but himself.  It was in vain for him to try to control its movements, for it dashed on as if in fury, till it reached a distant shore covered with a gloomy forest.  Here Rinaldo, surrounded by enchantments of a very different sort from those which he had lately resisted, was entrapped into a pit.

The pit belonged to a castle called Altaripa, which was hung with human heads, and painted red with blood.  As the paladin was viewing the scene with amazement a hideous old woman made her appearance at the edge of the pit, and told him that he was destined to be thrown to a monster, who was only kept from devastating the whole country by being supplied with living human flesh.  Rinaldo said, “Be it so; let me but remain armed as I am, and I fear nothing.”  The old woman laughed in derision.  Rinaldo remained in the pit all night, and the next morning was taken to the place where the monster had his den.  It was a court surrounded by a high wall.  Rinaldo was shut in with the beast, and a terrible combat ensued.  Rinaldo was unable to make any impression on the scales of the monster, while he, on the contrary, with his dreadful claws, tore away plate and mail from the paladin.  Rinaldo began to think his last hour was come, and cast his eyes around and above to see if there was any means of escape.  He perceived