Don Quixote - Part I

So said the sprightly Dorothea, and on hearing her Don Quixote turned to

Sancho, and said to him, with an angry air, "I declare now, little

Sancho, thou art the greatest little villain in Spain. Say, thief and

vagabond, hast thou not just now told me that this princess had been

turned into a maiden called Dorothea, and that the head which I am

persuaded I cut off from a giant was the bitch that bore thee, and other

nonsense that put me in the greatest perplexity I have ever been in all

my life? I vow" (and here he looked to heaven and ground his teeth) "I

have a mind to play the mischief with thee, in a way that will teach

sense for the future to all lying squires of knights-errant in the

world."

"Let your worship be calm, senor," returned Sancho, "for it may well be

that I have been mistaken as to the change of the lady princess

Micomicona; but as to the giant's head, or at least as to the piercing of

the wine-skins, and the blood being red wine, I make no mistake, as sure

as there is a God; because the wounded skins are there at the head of

your worship's bed, and the wine has made a lake of the room; if not you

will see when the eggs come to be fried; I mean when his worship the

landlord calls for all the damages: for the rest, I am heartily glad that

her ladyship the queen is as she was, for it concerns me as much as

anyone."

"I tell thee again, Sancho, thou art a fool," said Don Quixote; "forgive

me, and that will do."

"That will do," said Don Fernando; "let us say no more about it; and as

her ladyship the princess proposes to set out to-morrow because it is too

late to-day, so be it, and we will pass the night in pleasant

conversation, and to-morrow we will all accompany Senor Don Quixote; for

we wish to witness the valiant and unparalleled achievements he is about

to perform in the course of this mighty enterprise which he has

undertaken."

"It is I who shall wait upon and accompany you," said Don Quixote; "and I

am much gratified by the favour that is bestowed upon me, and the good

opinion entertained of me, which I shall strive to justify or it shall

cost me my life, or even more, if it can possibly cost me more."

Many were the compliments and expressions of politeness that passed

between Don Quixote and Don Fernando; but they were brought to an end by

a traveller who at this moment entered the inn, and who seemed from his

attire to be a Christian lately come from the country of the Moors, for

he was dressed in a short-skirted coat of blue cloth with half-sleeves

and without a collar; his breeches were also of blue cloth, and his cap

of the same colour, and he wore yellow buskins and had a Moorish cutlass

slung from a baldric across his breast. Behind him, mounted upon an ass,

there came a woman dressed in Moorish fashion, with her face veiled and a

scarf on her head, and wearing a little brocaded cap, and a mantle that

covered her from her shoulders to her feet. The man was of a robust and

well-proportioned frame, in age a little over forty, rather swarthy in

complexion, with long moustaches and a full beard, and, in short, his

appearance was such that if he had been well dressed he would have been

taken for a person of quality and good birth. On entering he asked for a

room, and when they told him there was none in the inn he seemed

distressed, and approaching her who by her dress seemed to be a Moor he

her down from saddle in his arms. Luscinda, Dorothea, the landlady, her

daughter and Maritornes, attracted by the strange, and to them entirely

new costume, gathered round her; and Dorothea, who was always kindly,

courteous, and quick-witted, perceiving that both she and the man who had

brought her were annoyed at not finding a room, said to her, "Do not be

put out, senora, by the discomfort and want of luxuries here, for it is

the way of road-side inns to be without them; still, if you will be

pleased to share our lodging with us (pointing to Luscinda) perhaps you

will have found worse accommodation in the course of your journey."