PART I - CHAPTER II.

by Miguel de Cervantes

　　WHICH TREATS OF THE FIRST SALLY THE INGENIOUS DON QUIXOTE MADE FROM HOMEThese preliminaries settled, he did not care to put off any longer theexecution of his design, urged on to it by the thought of all the worldwas losing by his delay, seeing what wrongs he intended to right,grievances to redress, injustices to repair, abuses to remove, and dutiesto discharge. So, without giving notice of his intention to anyone, andwithout anybody seeing him, one morning before the dawning of the day(which was one of the hottest of the month of July) he donned his suit ofarmour, mounted Rocinante with his patched-up helmet on, braced hisbuckler, took his lance, and by the back door of the yard sallied forthupon the plain in the highest contentment and satisfaction at seeing withwhat ease he had made a beginning with his grand purpose. But scarcelydid he find himself upon the open plain, when a terrible thought struckhim, one all but enough to make him abandon the enterprise at the veryoutset. It occurred to him that he had not been dubbed a knight, and thataccording to the law of chivalry he neither could nor ought to bear armsagainst any knight; and that even if he had been, still he ought, as anovice knight, to wear white armour, without a device upon the shielduntil by his prowess he had earned one. These reflections made him waverin his purpose, but his craze being stronger than any reasoning, he madeup his mind to have himself dubbed a knight by the first one he cameacross, following the example of others in the same case, as he had readin the books that brought him to this pass. As for white armour, heresolved, on the first opportunity, to scour his until it was whiter thanan ermine; and so comforting himself he pursued his way, taking thatwhich his horse chose, for in this he believed lay the essence ofadventures.Thus setting out, our new-fledged adventurer paced along, talking tohimself and saying, "Who knows but that in time to come, when theveracious history of my famous deeds is made known, the sage who writesit, when he has to set forth my first sally in the early morning, will doit after this fashion? 'Scarce had the rubicund Apollo spread o'er theface of the broad spacious earth the golden threads of his bright hair,scarce had the little birds of painted plumage attuned their notes tohail with dulcet and mellifluous harmony the coming of the rosy Dawn,that, deserting the soft couch of her jealous spouse, was appearing tomortals at the gates and balconies of the Manchegan horizon, when therenowned knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, quitting the lazy down, mountedhis celebrated steed Rocinante and began to traverse the ancient andfamous Campo de Montiel;'" which in fact he was actually traversing."Happy the age, happy the time," he continued, "in which shall be madeknown my deeds of fame, worthy to be moulded in brass, carved in marble,limned in pictures, for a memorial for ever. And thou, O sage magician,whoever thou art, to whom it shall fall to be the chronicler of thiswondrous history, forget not, I entreat thee, my good Rocinante, theconstant companion of my ways and wanderings." Presently he broke outagain, as if he were love-stricken in earnest, "O Princess Dulcinea, ladyof this captive heart, a grievous wrong hast thou done me to drive meforth with scorn, and with inexorable obduracy banish me from thepresence of thy beauty. O lady, deign to hold in remembrance this heart,thy vassal, that thus in anguish pines for love of thee."So he went on stringing together these and other absurdities, all in thestyle of those his books had taught him, imitating their language as wellas he could; and all the while he rode so slowly and the sun mounted sorapidly and with such fervour that it was enough to melt his brains if hehad any. Nearly all day he travelled without anything remarkablehappening to him, at which he was in despair, for he was anxious toencounter some one at once upon whom to try the might of his strong arm.Writers there are who say the first adventure he met with was that ofPuerto Lapice; others say it was that of the windmills; but what I haveascertained on this point, and what I have found written in the annals ofLa Mancha, is that he was on the road all day, and towards nightfall hishack and he found themselves dead tired and hungry, when, looking allaround to see if he could discover any castle or shepherd's shanty wherehe might refresh himself and relieve his sore wants, he perceived not farout of his road an inn, which was as welcome as a star guiding him to theportals, if not the palaces, of his redemption; and quickening his pacehe reached it just as night was setting in. At the door were standing twoyoung women, girls of the district as they call them, on their way toSeville with some carriers who had chanced to halt that night at the inn;and as, happen what might to our adventurer, everything he saw or imagedseemed to him to be and to happen after the fashion of what he read of,the moment he saw the inn he pictured it to himself as a castle with itsfour turrets and pinnacles of shining silver, not forgetting thedrawbridge and moat and all the belongings usually ascribed to castles ofthe sort. To this inn, which to him seemed a castle, he advanced, and ata short distance from it he checked Rocinante, hoping that some dwarfwould show himself upon the battlements, and by sound of trumpet givenotice that a knight was approaching the castle. But seeing that theywere slow about it, and that Rocinante was in a hurry to reach thestable, he made for the inn door, and perceived the two gay damsels whowere standing there, and who seemed to him to be two fair maidens orlovely ladies taking their ease at the castle gate.At this moment it so happened that a swineherd who was going through thestubbles collecting a drove of pigs (for, without any apology, that iswhat they are called) gave a blast of his horn to bring them together,and forthwith it seemed to Don Quixote to be what he was expecting, thesignal of some dwarf announcing his arrival; and so with prodigioussatisfaction he rode up to the inn and to the ladies, who, seeing a manof this sort approaching in full armour and with lance and buckler, wereturning in dismay into the inn, when Don Quixote, guessing their fear bytheir flight, raising his pasteboard visor, disclosed his dry dustyvisage, and with courteous bearing and gentle voice addressed them, "Yourladyships need not fly or fear any rudeness, for that it belongs not tothe order of knighthood which I profess to offer to anyone, much less tohighborn maidens as your appearance proclaims you to be." The girls werelooking at him and straining their eyes to make out the features whichthe clumsy visor obscured, but when they heard themselves called maidens,a thing so much out of their line, they could not restrain theirlaughter, which made Don Quixote wax indignant, and say, "Modesty becomesthe fair, and moreover laughter that has little cause is great silliness;this, however, I say not to pain or anger you, for my desire is noneother than to serve you."The incomprehensible language and the unpromising looks of our cavalieronly increased the ladies' laughter, and that increased his irritation,and matters might have gone farther if at that moment the landlord hadnot come out, who, being a very fat man, was a very peaceful one. He,seeing this grotesque figure clad in armour that did not match any morethan his saddle, bridle, lance, buckler, or corselet, was not at allindisposed to join the damsels in their manifestations of amusement; but,in truth, standing in awe of such a complicated armament, he thought itbest to speak him fairly, so he said, "Senor Caballero, if your worshipwants lodging, bating the bed (for there is not one in the inn) there isplenty of everything else here." Don Quixote, observing the respectfulbearing of the Alcaide of the fortress (for so innkeeper and inn seemedin his eyes), made answer, "Sir Castellan, for me anything will suffice,for'My armour is my only wear,My only rest the fray.'"The host fancied he called him Castellan because he took him for a"worthy of Castile," though he was in fact an Andalusian, and one fromthe strand of San Lucar, as crafty a thief as Cacus and as full of tricksas a student or a page. "In that case," said he,"'Your bed is on the flinty rock,Your sleep to watch alway;'and if so, you may dismount and safely reckon upon any quantity ofsleeplessness under this roof for a twelvemonth, not to say for a singlenight." So saying, he advanced to hold the stirrup for Don Quixote, whogot down with great difficulty and exertion (for he had not broken hisfast all day), and then charged the host to take great care of his horse,as he was the best bit of flesh that ever ate bread in this world. Thelandlord eyed him over but did not find him as good as Don Quixote said,nor even half as good; and putting him up in the stable, he returned tosee what might be wanted by his guest, whom the damsels, who had by thistime made their peace with him, were now relieving of his armour. Theyhad taken off his breastplate and backpiece, but they neither knew norsaw how to open his gorget or remove his make-shift helmet, for he hadfastened it with green ribbons, which, as there was no untying the knots,required to be cut. This, however, he would not by any means consent to,so he remained all the evening with his helmet on, the drollest andoddest figure that can be imagined; and while they were removing hisarmour, taking the baggages who were about it for ladies of high degreebelonging to the castle, he said to them with great sprightliness: "Oh, never, surely, was there knight So served by hand of dame, As served was he, Don Quixote hight, When from his town he came; With maidens waiting on himself, Princesses on his hack-- or Rocinante, for that, ladies mine, is my horse's name, and Don Quixoteof La Mancha is my own; for though I had no intention of declaring myselfuntil my achievements in your service and honour had made me known, thenecessity of adapting that old ballad of Lancelot to the present occasionhas given you the knowledge of my name altogether prematurely. A time,however, will come for your ladyships to command and me to obey, and thenthe might of my arm will show my desire to serve you."The girls, who were not used to hearing rhetoric of this sort, hadnothing to say in reply; they only asked him if he wanted anything toeat. "I would gladly eat a bit of something," said Don Quixote, "for Ifeel it would come very seasonably." The day happened to be a Friday, andin the whole inn there was nothing but some pieces of the fish they callin Castile "abadejo," in Andalusia "bacallao," and in some places"curadillo," and in others "troutlet;" so they asked him if he thought hecould eat troutlet, for there was no other fish to give him. "If there betroutlets enough," said Don Quixote, "they will be the same thing as atrout; for it is all one to me whether I am given eight reals in smallchange or a piece of eight; moreover, it may be that these troutlets arelike veal, which is better than beef, or kid, which is better than goat.But whatever it be let it come quickly, for the burden and pressure ofarms cannot be borne without support to the inside." They laid a tablefor him at the door of the inn for the sake of the air, and the hostbrought him a portion of ill-soaked and worse cooked stockfish, and apiece of bread as black and mouldy as his own armour; but a laughablesight it was to see him eating, for having his helmet on and the beaverup, he could not with his own hands put anything into his mouth unlesssome one else placed it there, and this service one of the ladiesrendered him. But to give him anything to drink was impossible, or wouldhave been so had not the landlord bored a reed, and putting one end inhis mouth poured the wine into him through the other; all which he borewith patience rather than sever the ribbons of his helmet.While this was going on there came up to the inn a sowgelder, who, as heapproached, sounded his reed pipe four or five times, and therebycompletely convinced Don Quixote that he was in some famous castle, andthat they were regaling him with music, and that the stockfish was trout,the bread the whitest, the wenches ladies, and the landlord the castellanof the castle; and consequently he held that his enterprise and sally hadbeen to some purpose. But still it distressed him to think he had notbeen dubbed a knight, for it was plain to him he could not lawfullyengage in any adventure without receiving the order of knighthood.