At dawn Angelica entered [Orlando's] room and awoke him with these words: "I promise that I will let you do what you will with me in this very room, if you promise me a favor. I would like you to fight a battle only for me, when I wish for it, at the time I request it. If, on the other hand, you attempt to possess me by force, you will always be considered a great villain, and I will kill myself with my own hands."
Alight with amorous flame, poor Orlando dropped to his knees, begging forgiveness for every error he had made, promising solemnly to grant the request of his beloved. Obviously he no longer understood anything, but he did not want to seem a brute.
He who has not experienced love, the poem says, could well blame those two paladins for waging war on each other with such fury, instead of honoring each other as brethren of the same family. Most of the blame would lie with Orlando, who had provoked the rivalry more than his cousin had.
But, the poem also says, he who knows love will excuse the paladin. Love is stronger than reason; no art can harness it. All people are conquered by love, old and young, rich and poor. Love has no cure, as death has no cure.
This was quite clear with regards to Orlando, once such a reasonable man, whose nature had now been altered and who had become impatient in his desires. The knight had also become bothersome to his cousin Ranaldo, to whom in the past he had been bound by a great friendship.
But this intense rivalry between the two, kindled by their mad craving for predominance, got in the way of that friendship. Here, more than in any other work of literature, our knights deviated from their savage path of life.
There was Orlando, blowing the challenger's horn out on the green field and hurling insults at Ranaldo, reminding him of his youthful mischief and thefts narrated in other poems.
"There isn't a place in the world where you haven't committed a treachery!" the count yelled. "The streets around Montalbano are never safe from your stealing hands. Remember when you stole in Barbaria, remember when you ran off with the Indian treasure? Today you will pay the price for that evil deed!"
Ranaldo responded: "Oh forsworn and cursed one! Do you remember when you killed paladin Don Chiaro in the field? Do you remember when Olivieri's father lost his life because of you? Do you believe that with this prattle you will acquire paradise, with crosses and ourfathers? It will take something more to undo your vile actions!"
But words were not enough to settle the counts, and the two rushed at each other on their lightning-fast steeds, with lances at the ready. And so they collided with an infinite crash, just like two opposing mighty winds collide in the sky above the sea, overturning small rowboats and large sailing ships. The two warriors were like a torrent come down from the mountain, smashing rocks and scattering trees.
