means be otherwise; and
the knight-errant who should act in any other manner would digress much
from his duty; for it is a received maxim and custom in chivalry, that
the knight-errant, who, on the point of engaging in some great feat of
arms, has his lady before him, must turn his eyes fondly and amorously
towards her, as if imploring her favor and protection in the hazardous
enterprise that awaits him; and, even if nobody hear him, he must
pronounce some words between his teeth, by which he commends himself to
her with his whole heart; and of this we have innumerable examples in
history. Nor is it thence to be inferred that they neglect commending
themselves to God; for there is time and opportunity enough to do it in
the course of the action."

"Notwithstanding all that," replied the traveller, "better had it been
if the words he spent in commending himself to his lady, in the midst of
the career, had been employed as the duties of a Christian require;
particularly as I imagine that all knights-errant have not ladies to
commend themselves to, because they are not all in love."

"That cannot be," answered Don Quixote: "I say there cannot be a
knight-errant without a mistress; for it is as essential and as natural
for them to be enamored as for the sky to have stars; and most
certainly, no history exists in which a knight-errant is to be found
without an amour; for, from the very circumstance of his being without,
he would not be acknowledged as a legitimate knight, but a bastard who
had entered the fortress of chivalry, not by the gate, but over the
pales, like a thief and robber."

"Nevertheless," said the traveller, "if I am not mistaken, I remember
having read that Don Galaor, brother to the valorous Amadis de Gaul,
never had a particular mistress, to whom he might commend himself;
notwithstanding which, he was no less esteemed, and was a very valiant
and famous knight."

To which our Don Quixote answered: "Signor, one swallow does not make a
summer." [4]

"If it is essential that every knight-errant be a lover," said the
traveller, "it may well be presumed that you are yourself one, being of
the profession; and, if you do not pique yourself upon the same secrecy
as Don Galaor, I earnestly entreat you, in the name of all this good
company and in my own, to tell us the name, country, quality, and beauty
of your mistress, who cannot but account herself happy that all the
world should know that she is loved and