Upon this they all listened, and Gan felt his heart misgive him.  The horn sounded a second time.

“What is the meaning of this?” said Charles.

“Orlando is hunting,” observed Gan, “and the stag is killed.”

But when the horn sounded yet a third time, and the blast was one of so dreadful a vehemence, everybody looked at the other, and then they all looked at Gan in a fury.  Charles rose from his seat.

“This is no hunting of the stag,” said he.  “The sound goes to my very heart.  O Gan!  O Gan!  Not for thee do I blush, but for myself.  O foul and monstrous villain!  Take him, gentleman, and keep him in close prison.  Would to God I had not lived to see this day!”

But it was no time for words.  They put the traitor in prison and then Charles, with all his court, took his way to Roncesvalles, grieving and praying.

It was afternoon when the horn sounded, and half an hour after it when the Emperor set out; and meantime Orlando had returned to the fight that he might do his duty, however hopeless, as long as he could sit his horse.  At length he found his end approaching, for toil and fever, and rode all alone to a fountain where he had before quenched his thirst.  His horse was wearier than he, and no sooner had his master alighted than the beast, kneeling down as if to take leave, and to say, “I have brought you to a place of rest,” fell dead at his feet.  Orlando cast water on him from the fountain, not wishing to believe him dead; but when he found it to no purpose, he grieved for him as if he had been a human being, and addressed him by name with tears, and asked forgiveness if he had ever done him wrong.  They say that the horse, at these words, opened his eyes a little, and looked kindly at his master, and then stirred never more.  They say also that Orlando then summoning all his strength, smote a rock near him with his beautiful sword Durindana, thinking to shiver the steel in pieces, and so prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, but though the rock split like a slate, and a great cleft remained ever after to astonish the eyes of pilgrims, the sword remained uninjured.

And now Rinaldo and Ricciardetto came up, with Turpin, having driven back the Saracens, and told Orlando that the battle was won.  Then Orlando knelt before Turpin and begged remission of his sins, and Turpin gave him absolution.  Orlando fixed his eyes on the hilt of his sword as on a crucifix, and embraced it, and he raised his eyes and appeared like a creature seraphical and transfigured, and bowing his head, he breathed out his pure soul.

And now King Charles and his nobles came up.  The Emperor, at sight of the dead Orlando, threw himself, as if he had been a reckless youth, from his horse, and embraced and kissed the body, and said:  “I bless thee, Orlando; I bless thy whole life, and all that thou wast, and all that thou ever didst, and the father that begat thee; and I ask pardon of thee for believing those who brought thee to thine end.  They shall have their reward, O thou beloved one!  But indeed it is thou that livest, and I who am worse than dead.”