Corchuelo sat down wearied, and Sancho approaching him said, "By my

faith, senor bachelor, if your worship takes my advice, you will never

challenge anyone to fence again, only to wrestle and throw the bar, for

you have the youth and strength for that; but as for these fencers as

they call them, I have heard say they can put the point of a sword

through the eye of a needle."

"I am satisfied with having tumbled off my donkey," said Corchuelo, "and

with having had the truth I was so ignorant of proved to me by

experience;" and getting up he embraced the licentiate, and they were

better friends than ever; and not caring to wait for the notary who had

gone for the sword, as they saw he would be a long time about it, they

resolved to push on so as to reach the village of Quiteria, to which they

all belonged, in good time.

During the remainder of the journey the licentiate held forth to them on

the excellences of the sword, with such conclusive arguments, and such

figures and mathematical proofs, that all were convinced of the value of

the science, and Corchuelo cured of his dogmatism.

It grew dark; but before they reached the town it seemed to them all as

if there was a heaven full of countless glittering stars in front of it.

They heard, too, the pleasant mingled notes of a variety of instruments,

flutes, drums, psalteries, pipes, tabors, and timbrels, and as they drew

near they perceived that the trees of a leafy arcade that had been

constructed at the entrance of the town were filled with lights

unaffected by the wind, for the breeze at the time was so gentle that it

had not power to stir the leaves on the trees. The musicians were the

life of the wedding, wandering through the pleasant grounds in separate

bands, some dancing, others singing, others playing the various

instruments already mentioned. In short, it seemed as though mirth and

gaiety were frisking and gambolling all over the meadow. Several other

persons were engaged in erecting raised benches from which people might

conveniently see the plays and dances that were to be performed the next

day on the spot dedicated to the celebration of the marriage of Camacho

the rich and the obsequies of Basilio. Don Quixote would not enter the

village, although the peasant as well as the bachelor pressed him; he

excused himself, however, on the grounds, amply sufficient in his

opinion, that it was the custom of knights-errant to sleep in the fields

and woods in preference to towns, even were it under gilded ceilings; and

so turned aside a little out of the road, very much against Sancho's

will, as the good quarters he had enjoyed in the castle or house of Don

Diego came back to his mind.




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