GRIFFEN THE HIGH FLIER 87 



IV. THE FLIGHT TO THE MOON 



And Griffen? You should have seen how 

 proudly he soared into the sky with brave Astol- 

 pho on his back. He and his master became 

 famous as the greatest travelers of their time. 

 Distances were nothing to them. Mountains and 

 seas and broad rivers were no barriers to hinder 

 them. At one time they journeyed northward 

 above the vineyards and fields of fair France, 

 and stopped for an hour in Paris, where Charle- 

 magne was then reigning in thie height of his 

 power. There Astolpho learned that Orlando, 

 the noblest of the men of his time, had lost his 

 senses and had wandered away to Africa, or 

 somewhere else, in search of them. 



Astolpho set oflf at once to find him, resolved 

 that he would never rest until he had brought 

 the lost hero back to France. And so the gallant 

 Grififen winged his way back toward Spain; he 

 hovered for a few minutes above the wizard's 

 high-built tower, while his rider consulted with 

 Atlantes about the direction he should take; he 

 turned eastward and skirted the vine-clad hills 

 of Provence ; he floated high above the snow-clad 



