"And yet I have heard your worship say," observed Panza, "that it is very

meet for knights-errant to sleep in wastes and deserts, and that they

esteem it very good fortune."

"That is," said Don Quixote, "when they cannot help it, or when they are

in love; and so true is this that there have been knights who have

remained two years on rocks, in sunshine and shade and all the

inclemencies of heaven, without their ladies knowing anything of it; and

one of these was Amadis, when, under the name of Beltenebros, he took up

his abode on the Pena Pobre for--I know not if it was eight years or

eight months, for I am not very sure of the reckoning; at any rate he

Advertisement..

stayed there doing penance for I know not what pique the Princess Oriana

had against him; but no more of this now, Sancho, and make haste before a

mishap like Rocinante's befalls the ass."

"The very devil would be in it in that case," said Sancho; and letting

off thirty "ohs," and sixty sighs, and a hundred and twenty maledictions

and execrations on whomsoever it was that had brought him there, he

raised himself, stopping half-way bent like a Turkish bow without power

to bring himself upright, but with all his pains he saddled his ass, who

too had gone astray somewhat, yielding to the excessive licence of the

day; he next raised up Rocinante, and as for him, had he possessed a

tongue to complain with, most assuredly neither Sancho nor his master

would have been behind him.

To be brief, Sancho fixed Don Quixote on the ass and secured Rocinante

with a leading rein, and taking the ass by the halter, he proceeded more

or less in the direction in which it seemed to him the high road might

be; and, as chance was conducting their affairs for them from good to

better, he had not gone a short league when the road came in sight, and

on it he perceived an inn, which to his annoyance and to the delight of

Don Quixote must needs be a castle. Sancho insisted that it was an inn,

and his master that it was not one, but a castle, and the dispute lasted

so long that before the point was settled they had time to reach it, and

into it Sancho entered with all his team without any further controversy.




Most Popular