Orlando returns to the de Bois estate and is greeted by the old servant Adam. The servant warns Orlando that the news of Orlando’s victory at court has already reached his brother. Oliver is angry that Charles the Wrestler did not hurt or kill his younger brother. Oliver is envious and resentful of his brother’s accomplishments and abilities. Adam explains this to Orlando by posing the following question:
Know you not, master, to some kind of men Their graces serve them as enemies? (10-11)
By the word graces Adam means virtues and positive qualities. Orlando’s graces are his enemies because they cause Oliver to hate him and plot against him.
Adam then warns Orlando that Oliver even intends to kill him and that Orlando should leave immediately.
Orlando, however, has no money and no means by which he can support himself. When he tells Adam that he would rather subject himself to the violence (malice in line 36) of his wicked brother than to become a beggar or a thief, the aged servant offers a solution. Adam informs Orlando that he has saved “five hundred crowns” (39) – an extremely large sum of money for a servant at that time – during his more than six decades of his service to the de Bois family. Adam offers to give his entire savings to Orlando if Orlando will take him wherever he goes.