This monarch tells Brandimart, whom he imagines to be Orlando, that he seeks the liberation of his son Ziliantes; and as he knows no method of obtaining him from the fairy, but by such a sacrifice, is reluctantly compelled to offer him in exchange for the royal captive. To which Brandimart replies, that if he only seeks this, he may obtain his end without such a breach of hospitality, as his comrade is ready to descend to the dungeons of Morgana, where he has already been, and rescue him by force. That in the meantime he will remain as his hostage, and if he whom he is to free does not, within a month, return with Ziliantes, the king can, at the worst, accomplish the deliverance of his son, by giving him up (the king believing him to be Orlando) to the vengeance of Morgana.
Monodontes accedes to this proposal, and the real Orlando is suffered to depart.
In the meantime Brandimart, always under the name of Orlando, remains for some time a prisoner at large; when the secret is discovered, through the indiscretion of Astolpho, and Monodontes in fury orders Brandimart to be cast into a dungeon, preparatory to his expiating his imposture by death. Orlando this while is bound upon his adventure, and arriving at the lake formerly kept by Arridano, finds upon its banks a beautiful lady weeping over a dead dragon.
While Orlando contemplates this spectacle with surprise, the lady snatches up the dragon in her arms, and embarks with it in a little pinnace, which was moored hard by. She now loosens from the shore, sets her sail, and having reached the middle of the lake, sinks to the bottom with her enchanted barque.
Orlando was yet absorbed in wonder at what he had witnessed, when another damsel arrived upon the bank, mounted on a palfrey, and accompanied by a single sergeant, who called upon the count by name, and expressed the greatest pleasure at his sight.
This damsel was no other than Flordelis, the lady-love of Brandimart; the damsel of the barque, it will be easily divined, was Morgana.
This fairy, upon the departure of Orlando from her enchanted garden, transformed Ziliantes, by the aid of certain witcheries, into a dragon, meaning that he should supply the place of Arridano and keep the avenues of her territory. Whether, however, from some error in her enchantments or other cause, the transformation was no sooner completed than the youth uttered a shriek and expired. Hence the fairy, distracted with her loss, had embarked with him in the pinnace, and descended to the bottom of the lake, in the hope of re-animating him in her world below.