h at the
expense of his shoulders, his usual sureties. It is true, the
innkeeper kept his wallet for the reckoning; but the poor squire was
so dismayed, and in such haste to be gone, that he never missed it.
The host was for shutting the inn doors after him, for fear of the
worst; but the tossers would not let him, being a sort of fellows that
would not have cared for Don Quixote a straw, though he had really
been one of the Knights of the Round Table.

THE BATTLE OF THE SHEEP

_By Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra_

They went on discoursing, when Don Quixote, perceiving a thick cloud
of dust arise right before them in the road, "The day is come," said
he, turning to his squire, "the day is come, Sancho, that shall usher
in the happiness which fortune has reserved for me; this day shall the
strength of my arm be signalized by such exploits as shall be
transmitted even to the latest posterity. Seest thou that cloud of
dust, Sancho? It is raised by a prodigious army marching this way, and
composed of an infinite number of nations."--"Why then, at this rate,"
quoth Sancho, "there should be two armies; for yonder is as great a
dust on the other side." With that Don Quixote looked, and was
transported with joy at the sight, firmly believing that two vast
armies were ready to engage each other in that plain; for his
imagination was so crowded with those battles, enchantments,
surprising adventures, amorous thoughts, and other whimsies which he
had read of in romances, that his strong fancy changed everything he
saw into what he desired to see; and thus he could not conceive that
the dust was only raised by two large flocks of sheep that were going
the same road from different parts, and could not be discerned till
they were very near; he was so positive that they were two armies,
that Sancho firmly believed him at last. "Well, sir," quoth the
squire, "what are we to do, I beseech you?"--"What shall we do,"
replied Don Quixote, "but assist the weaker and injured side? for
know, Sancho, that the army which now moves towards us is commanded by
the great Alifanfaron, emperor of the vast island of Taprobana; the
other that advances behind us is his enemy, the king of the
Garamantians, Pentapolin with the naked arm, so called because he
always enters into the battle with his right arm bare."--"Pray, sir,"
quoth Sancho, "why are these two great men going together by the
ears?"--"The