WHEREIN IT IS TOLD AND KNOWN WHO THE KNIGHT OF THE MIRRORS AND HIS SQUIRE

WERE

Don Quixote went off satisfied, elated, and vain-glorious in the highest

degree at having won a victory over such a valiant knight as he fancied

him of the Mirrors to be, and one from whose knightly word he expected to

learn whether the enchantment of his lady still continued; inasmuch as

the said vanquished knight was bound, under the penalty of ceasing to be

one, to return and render him an account of what took place between him

and her. But Don Quixote was of one mind, he of the Mirrors of another,

for he just then had no thought of anything but finding some village

where he could plaster himself, as has been said already. The history

goes on to say, then, that when the bachelor Samson Carrasco recommended

Don Quixote to resume his knight-errantry which he had laid aside, it was

in consequence of having been previously in conclave with the curate and

the barber on the means to be adopted to induce Don Quixote to stay at

home in peace and quiet without worrying himself with his ill-starred

adventures; at which consultation it was decided by the unanimous vote of

all, and on the special advice of Carrasco, that Don Quixote should be

allowed to go, as it seemed impossible to restrain him, and that Samson

should sally forth to meet him as a knight-errant, and do battle with

him, for there would be no difficulty about a cause, and vanquish him,

that being looked upon as an easy matter; and that it should be agreed

and settled that the vanquished was to be at the mercy of the victor.

Then, Don Quixote being vanquished, the bachelor knight was to command

him to return to his village and his house, and not quit it for two

years, or until he received further orders from him; all which it was

clear Don Quixote would unhesitatingly obey, rather than contravene or

fail to observe the laws of chivalry; and during the period of his

seclusion he might perhaps forget his folly, or there might be an

opportunity of discovering some ready remedy for his madness. Carrasco

undertook the task, and Tom Cecial, a gossip and neighbour of Sancho

Panza's, a lively, feather-headed fellow, offered himself as his squire.

Carrasco armed himself in the fashion described, and Tom Cecial, that he

might not be known by his gossip when they met, fitted on over his own

natural nose the false masquerade one that has been mentioned; and so

they followed the same route Don Quixote took, and almost came up with

him in time to be present at the adventure of the cart of Death and

finally encountered them in the grove, where all that the sagacious

reader has been reading about took place; and had it not been for the

extraordinary fancies of Don Quixote, and his conviction that the

bachelor was not the bachelor, senor bachelor would have been

incapacitated for ever from taking his degree of licentiate, all through

not finding nests where he thought to find birds.




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