g their legs, and in all
respects like the men warriors, except that they wore their hair long.

"Bradamante will die this evening," said Pasquale.

I expressed regret, and asked for particulars.

"She will die of grief for the loss of her husband, Ruggiero da Risa, who
has been killed by the treachery of Conte Gano."

Then I saw my fellow-countryman, Astolfo d'Inghilterra; he it was that
brought back from the moon the lost wits of Orlando when he became
furioso because Angelica would have nothing to say to him and married
Medoro. And I saw Astolfo's father, Ottone d'Inghilterra, and Il Re
Desiderio and Gandellino, who seemed undersized; but when I said so,
Pasquale replied--

"Si, e piccolo, ma e bello--stupendo," and so he was.

I took down one of the knights, stood him on the floor and tried to work
him. The number of things I had to hold at once puzzled me a good deal,
especially the strings. Pasquale took another knight and gave me a
lesson, showing me how to make him weep and meditate, how to raise and
lower his vizor, how to draw his sword and fight. It was very difficult
to get him to put his sword back into the scabbard. I could not do it at
all, though I managed the other things after a fashion.

Then I saw the Marchese Oliviero di Allemagna and Uggiero Danese and
Turpino, a priest, but a warrior nevertheless.

"This," said Pasquale, "is Guidon Selvaggio, and this is his sister
Carmida. They are the children of Rinaldo."

"But spurious," interrupted another youth.

"Yes," agreed Pasquale; "they are bastards. Shall I tell you how?"

But I declined to rake up the family scandal and we passed on to
Carmida's husband, Cladinoro, Re di Bizerta, a spurious son of the old
Ruggiero da Risa, and so valorous that they speak of La Forza di
Cladinoro.

All these knights and ladies were hanging on one side of the stage in two
rows, one row against the wall and the other in front. I asked Pasquale
how he knew which was which. He concealed his astonishment at such a
simple question and replied--

"By the crests on their helmets."

I then observed that they all wore their proper crests, a lion or an
eagle, or a castle, or whatever it might be; Ferrau had no crest, but he
had a special kind of helmet, and these boys knew them all in the
legitimate way by their armorial bearings, and that was how, on the
evening of Angelica's death, the audience knew all the knights and said
their names as they entered