death of Ferrau. Unfortunately I
was not able to witness his end, but I went to the teatrino the evening
after. We arrived early and began by inspecting the programme--

Carlo ottiene piena vittoria contro Marsilio--
Fuga di costui e presa di Barcelona--
Marfisa trova Bradamante che more fra le sue braccia.

Charles obtains complete victory over Marsilio--
Flight of the latter and taking of Barcelona--
Marfisa finds Bradamante who dies in her arms.

We then went behind the scenes to spend some time among the puppets
before the play began. First I inquired whether Ferrau had perished and
ascertained that Orlando had duly killed him the night before with la
Durlindana. This famous sword was won by Carlo Magno in his youth when
he overcame Polinoro, the captain-general of Bramante, King of Africa.
Carlo Magno, having another sword of his own and wishing to keep la
Durlindana in the family, passed it on to his nephew Orlando. That is
Pasquale's version. Others say that it was given to Orlando by Malagigi
the magician. The most usual account is that la Durlindana belonged to
Hector. After the fall of Troy it came to AEneas; and from him, through
various owners, to Almonte, a giant of a dreadful stature, who slew
Orlando's father. An angel in a dream directed Orlando, when he was
about eighteen, to proceed to a river on the bank of which he found Carlo
Magno and Almonte fighting. He took his uncle's part, avenged his
father's death by killing Almonte, threw his gigantic body into the
stream and appropriated his enchanted possessions, namely, his horse,
Brigliadoro, his horn, his sword and his armour. He had the sword with
him when he was defeated at Roncisvalle and threw it from him, about two
hundred miles, to Rocamadour in France where it stuck in a rock and any
one can see it to this day.

I do not remember that Homer speaks of Hector's sword as la Durlindana;
perhaps he did not know. But every one knows that horses have had names,
both in romance and real life, from the days of Pegasus to our own.
Mario calls his horses Gaspare, after one of the Three Kings, and Toto,
which is a form of Salvatore. They were so called before he bought them,
or he would have named them Baiardo and Brigliadoro. Having no sword, he
calls his whip la Durlindana. He assured me that the barber whom he
employs calls all his razors by the names of the swords of the paladins,
and that the shoe-blacks give