to confer the title of Lady of his Thoughts; and after some search for a name which should not be out of harmony with her own, and should suggest and indicate that of a princess and great lady, he decided upon calling her Dulcinea 5 del Toboso-she being of El Toboso-a name, to his mind, musical, uncommon, and significant, like all those he had already bestowed upon himself and the things belonging to him.

II. THE ARRIVAL AT THE INN

When the don had made these preparations, he found 10 his designs ripe for action and thought it now a crime to deny himself any longer to the injured world that wanted such a deliverer; the more when he considered what grievances he was to redress, what wrongs and injuries to remove, what abuses to correct, and what duties to discharge. 15 So one fine morning before day, in the greatest heat of July, without acquainting any one with his design, with all the secrecy imaginable, he armed himself from head to foot, laced on his ill-contrived helmet, braced on his target, grasped his lance, mounted Rosinante, and from 20 the private door of his back yard sallied out into the fields, wonderfully pleased to see how he had succeeded in the beginning of his enterprise.

But he had not gone far before a terrible thought alarmed him—a thought that nearly made him renounce 25 his great undertaking; for now it came into his mind that the honor of knighthood had not yet been conferred upon

him, and, therefore, according to the laws of chivalry, he neither could nor ought to appear in arms against any professed knight: nay, he also considered that if he were already knighted, it would become him to wear white armor, and not to adorn his shield with any device till he 5 had deserved one by some extraordinary demonstration of his valor.

He traveled almost all that day without meeting any adventure worth the trouble of relating, which put him into a kind of despair, for he desired nothing more than 10 to encounter immediately some person on whom he might try the vigor of his arm.

At last, near the road which he kept, he espied an inn, as welcome a sight to his longing eyes as if he had discovered a star directing him to the gate, nay, to the palace 15 of his redemption.

Thereupon hastening toward the inn with all the speed he could, he got thither just at the close of the evening. And as whatever our knight-errant saw, thought, or imagined, was all of a romantic kind and appeared to him 20 altogether after the manner of the books that had perverted his imagination, he no sooner saw the inn but he fancied it to be a castle fenced with four towers and lofty pinnacles, glittering with silver, together with deep moat, drawbridge, and all those other appurtenances peculiar 25 to such kind of places.

Therefore when he came near it, he stopped awhile at a distance from the gate, expecting that some dwarf would appear on the battlements and sound his trumpet to give

notice of the arrival of a knight; but finding that nobody came and that Rosinante was for making the best of his way to the stable, he advanced to the inn door, where, spying two young maidservants, they seemed to him two 5 beautiful damsels or graceful ladies, taking the benefit of the fresh air at the gate of the castle.

It happened also at the very moment, that a swineherd, getting together his hogs from the stubble field, winded his horn; and Don Quixote imagined this was 10 the wished-for signal which some dwarf gave to notify his approach. Therefore, with the greatest joy in the world, he rode up to the inn.

The girls, affrighted at the approach of a man cased in iron and armed with a lance and target, were for running 15 into the house; but Don Quixote, perceiving their fear by their flight, lifted up the pasteboard beaver of his helmet and displaying his withered, dusty face, with comely grace and grave delivery accosted them in this manner: "I beseech ye, ladies, do not fly nor fear the least offense. 20 The order of knighthood, which I profess, does not permit me to countenance or offer injuries to any one in the universe, and least of all to ladies of such high rank as your presence denotes."

They looked earnestly upon him, endeavoring to get a 25 glimpse of his face which his ill-contrived beaver partly hid; but they could not forbear laughing outright, which Don Quixote resented as a great affront.

"Give me leave to tell ye, ladies," cried he, "that modesty and civility are very becoming in the fair sex;

whereas laughter without ground is the highest piece of indiscretion. However," added he, "I do not presume to say this to offend you or incur your displeasure; no, ladies, I assure you I have no other design but to do you service."

5

This uncommon way of expression, joined to the knight's sorry figure, increased their mirth, which incensed him to such a degree that he might have carried things to an extremity had not the innkeeper luckily appeared at this juncture. He was a man whose burden of fat inclined 10 him to peace and quietness, yet when he observed such a strange disguise of human shape in old armor and on an old horse, he could hardly forbear keeping the ladies company in their laughter; but, having the fear of such a warlike appearance before his eyes, he resolved to give him 15 good words, and therefore accosted him civilly.

"Sir knight," said he, "if your worship be disposed to alight, you will fail of nothing here but of a bed; as for all other accommodations, you may be supplied to your mind." Don Quixote, observing the humility of the governor of 20 the castle for such the innkeeper and inn seemed to him "Sir castellan," said he, "the least thing in the world suffices me; for arms are the only things I value, and combat is my bed of repose."

With that the innkeeper went and held Don Quixote's 25 stirrup, who, having not broken his fast that day, dismounted with no small difficulty. He immediately desired the governor that is, the innkeeper to take especial care of his steed, assuring him that there was not

a better in the universe; upon which the innkeeper viewed him narrowly, but could not think him to be half so good as Don Quixote said.

However, having set him up in the stable, he came back 5 to the knight to see what he wanted, and found him pulling off his armor by the help of the good-natured servants, who had already reconciled themselves to him; but, though they had eased him of his corselet and backplate, they could by no means undo his gorget nor take off his ill-contrived 10 beaver, which he had tied so fast with green ribbons that it was impossible to get it off without cutting them. Now he would by no means permit that, and so was forced to keep on his helmet all night, which was one of the most amusing sights in the world.

III. FIGHTING THE WINDMILLS

After some adventures Don Quixote returned to his home and there procured further equipment and a squire.

15 He remained at home fifteen days very quietly, without showing any signs of a desire to take up with his former delusions; and during this time he held lively discussions with his two gossips, the curate and the barber, on the point he maintained, that knights-errant were what the 20 world stood most in need of, and that in him was to be accomplished the revival of knight-errantry. The curate sometimes contradicted him, sometimes agreed with him, for if he had not observed this precaution he would have been unable to bring him to reason.