Bradamante accosted him, and asked to be informed of the cause of his distress.  “Alas! my lord,” said he, “I lament a young and charming friend, my affianced wife, who has been torn from me by a villain,—­let me rather call him a demon,—­who, on a winged horse, descended from the air, seized her, and bore her screaming to his den.  I have pursued them over rocks and through ravines till my horse is no longer able to bear me, and I now wait only for death.”  He added that already a vain attempt on his behalf had been made by two knights, whom chance had brought to the spot.  Their names were Gradasso, king of Sericane, and Rogero, the Moor.  Both had been overcome by the wiles of the enchanter, and were added to the number of the captives, whom he held in an impregnable castle, situated on the height of the mountain.  At the mention of Rogero’s name Bradamante started with delight, which was soon changed to an opposite sentiment when she heard that her lover was a prisoner in the toils of the enchanter.  “Sir Knight,” she said, “do not surrender yourself to despair; this day may be more happy for you than you think, if you will only lead me to the castle which enfolds her whom you deplore.”

The knight responded, “After having lost all that made life dear to me I have no motive to avoid the dangers of the enterprise, and I will do as you request; but I forewarn you of the perils you will have to encounter.  If you fall impute it not to me.”

Having thus spoken, they took their way to the castle, but were overtaken by a messenger from the camp, who had been sent in quest of Bradamante to summon her back to the army, where her presence was needed to reassure her disheartened forces, and withstand the advance of the Moors.

The mournful knight, whose name was Pinabel, thus became aware that Bradamante was a scion of the house of Clermont, between which and his own of Mayence there existed an ancient feud.  From this moment 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,