"Indeed, Senor Don Quixote," said the barber, "I did not mean it in that

way, and, so help me God, my intention was good, and your worship ought

not to be vexed."

"As to whether I ought to be vexed or not," returned Don Quixote, "I

myself am the best judge."

Hereupon the curate observed, "I have hardly said a word as yet; and I

would gladly be relieved of a doubt, arising from what Don Quixote has

said, that worries and works my conscience."

"The senor curate has leave for more than that," returned Don Quixote,

"so he may declare his doubt, for it is not pleasant to have a doubt on

one's conscience."

"Well then, with that permission," said the curate, "I say my doubt is

that, all I can do, I cannot persuade myself that the whole pack of

knights-errant you, Senor Don Quixote, have mentioned, were really and

truly persons of flesh and blood, that ever lived in the world; on the

contrary, I suspect it to be all fiction, fable, and falsehood, and

dreams told by men awakened from sleep, or rather still half asleep."

"That is another mistake," replied Don Quixote, "into which many have

fallen who do not believe that there ever were such knights in the world,

and I have often, with divers people and on divers occasions, tried to

expose this almost universal error to the light of truth. Sometimes I

have not been successful in my purpose, sometimes I have, supporting it

upon the shoulders of the truth; which truth is so clear that I can

almost say I have with my own eyes seen Amadis of Gaul, who was a man of

lofty stature, fair complexion, with a handsome though black beard, of a

countenance between gentle and stern in expression, sparing of words,

slow to anger, and quick to put it away from him; and as I have depicted

Amadis, so I could, I think, portray and describe all the knights-errant

that are in all the histories in the world; for by the perception I have

that they were what their histories describe, and by the deeds they did

and the dispositions they displayed, it is possible, with the aid of

sound philosophy, to deduce their features, complexion, and stature."

"How big, in your worship's opinion, may the giant Morgante have been,

Senor Don Quixote?" asked the barber.

"With regard to giants," replied Don Quixote, "opinions differ as to

whether there ever were any or not in the world; but the Holy Scripture,

which cannot err by a jot from the truth, shows us that there were, when

it gives us the history of that big Philistine, Goliath, who was seven

cubits and a half in height, which is a huge size. Likewise, in the

island of Sicily, there have been found leg-bones and arm-bones so large

that their size makes it plain that their owners were giants, and as tall

as great towers; geometry puts this fact beyond a doubt. But, for all

that, I cannot speak with certainty as to the size of Morgante, though I

suspect he cannot have been very tall; and I am inclined to be of this

opinion because I find in the history in which his deeds are particularly

mentioned, that he frequently slept under a roof and as he found houses

to contain him, it is clear that his bulk could not have been anything

excessive."




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