Of these he immediately repossesses himself, and joins Galaphron and his troops, who had pursued the flying enemy to the banks of a river, fast by where Rinaldo and Marphisa were still engaged. Marphisa was protected by enchanted harness, yet was armed with but half a sword; which, as related, was severed by Fusberta. On the other hand, the greater part of Rinaldo's defensive armour had been hewed away.
Galaphron instantly knows Marphisa by her cognizance, but is at a loss to distinguish Rinaldo; till, observing Rabican, who had belonged to Argalia, he conceived that he saw in him the murderer of his son. Under this persuasion he rode at Rinaldo, and smote him with all his force, when Marphisa, enraged at this interference, immediately turned her arms against her aged commander. Brandimart and others coming up, rescue him from the hands of the virago, whom they take for some warrior of the Tartar troops; when Rinaldo, as generous as Marphisa, not enduring to see his former enemy overlaid with odds, joins her against those with whom she is now engaged. The main body of Galaphron's army coming up, reinforces the enemies of Marphisa; who is on her part supported by the arrival of her own division, by whose succour, joined to that of Rinaldo, she is enabled to repel the assailants.
All this time, Iroldo, Prasildo, and Flordelis, were standing at some distance, and the damsel of Marphisa, was entertaining them with a history of the feats and prowess of her mistress. Flordelis is by this alarmed for the safety of Brandimart, one of the first who had assailed Marphisa, and goes in search of him amongst the warriors, whom the virago and Rinaldo had scattered, and who were making, in utter rout and confusion, for Albracca. She, however, to her infinite content, finds him safe and standing apart from the fray, he having separated from the enemies of Marphisa, after she was oppressed by numbers. The happy lovers, thus re-united, retire into a neighbouring wood, and after giving a loose to their mutual tenderness fall asleep upon the grass.
Here, however, a new and unexpected peril was impending. Their caresses were unfortunately overseen by a hermit, who dabbled in necromancy, and who, excited by the beauties of Flordelis, determined on making her his prize. Among other secrets, he was possessed of a root, which had the faculty of throwing the person to whom it was applied, provided it touched any part of the naked body, into a profound and indissoluble sleep. Armed with this, he approaches Flordelis, lifts her coats, and applies it to her thigh. Having thus so riveted her natural slumber, that he was sure she could not wake for an hour to come, the hermit snatches her up, and bears her off; being afraid to try the virtues of his root upon Brandimart, lest he should awake before the charm was consummated.