so much cause to hate, and who so hated you that, intent
on putting you to death, he went to seek you at your father's court.
This I did because I could not submit to see my promised bride borne
off by you. But, as man proposes and God disposes, your great courtesy,
well tried in time of sore need, so moved my fixed resolve, that I not
only laid aside the hate I bore, but purposed to be your friend
forever. You then asked of me to win for you the lady Bradamante, which
was all one as to demand of me my heart and soul. You know whether I
served you faithfully or not. Yours is the lady; possess her in peace;
but ask me not to live to see it. Be content rather that I die; for
vows have passed between myself and her which forbid that while I live
she can lawfully wive with another."

So filled was gentle Leo with astonishment at these words that for a
while he stood silent, with lips unmoved and steadfast gaze, like a
statue. And the discovery that the stranger was Rogero not only abated
not the good will he bore him, but increased it, so that his distress
for what Rogero suffered seemed equal to his own. For this, and because
he would appear deservedly an Emperor's son, and, though in other
things outdone, would not be surpassed in courtesy, he says: "Rogero,
had I known that day when your matchless valor routed my troops that
you were Rogero, your virtue would have made me your own, as then it
made me while I knew not my foe, and I should have no less gladly
rescued you from Theodora's dungeon. And if I would willingly have done
so then, how much more gladly will I now restore the gift of which you
would rob yourself to confer it upon me. The damsel is more due to you
than to me, and though I know her worth, I would forego not only her,
but life itself, rather than distress a knight like you."

This and much more he said to the same intent; till at last Rogero
replied, "I yield, and am content to live, and thus a second time owe
my life to you."

But several days elapsed before Rogero was so far restored as to return
to the royal residence, where an embassy had arrived from the Bulgarian
princes to seek the knight of the unicorn, and tender to him the crown
of that country, in place of their king, fallen in battle.

Thus were things situated when Prince Leo, leading by the hand Rogero,
clad in the battered armor in which he had sustained the conflict with
Bradamante, presented himself before the king. "Behold," he sai