if it please God that we make another sally in quest of
adventures, you will soon see me an earl or governor of an island, and
no common one either, but one of the best that is to be had."

"Grant Heaven it may be so, husband," quoth the wife, "for we have need
enough of it. But pray tell me what you mean by islands; for I do not
understand you."

"Honey is not for the mouth of an ass," answered Sancho: "in good time,
wife, you shall see, yea, and admire to hear yourself styled ladyship by
all your vassals."

"What do you mean, Sancho, by ladyship, islands, and vassals?" answered
Teresa Panza; for that was Sancho's wife's name, though they were not of
kin, but because it is the custom in La Mancha for the wife to take the
husband's name.

"Be not in so much haste, Teresa, to know all this," said Sancho; "let
it suffice that I tell you the truth, and sew up your mouth. But for the
present know that there is nothing in the world so pleasant to an honest
man, as to be squire to a knight-errant, and seeker of adventures. It is
true indeed, most of them are not so much to a man's mind as he could
wish; for ninety-nine of a hundred one meets with fall out cross and
unlucky. This I know by experience; for I have sometimes come off tossed
in a blanket, and sometimes well cudgelled. Yet, for all that, it is a
fine thing to be in expectation of accidents, traversing mountains,
searching woods, marching over rocks, visiting castles, lodging in inns,
all at discretion, and the devil a farthing to pay."

Fame has preserved in the memoirs of La Mancha, that Don Quixote, the
third time he sallied from home, went to Saragossa, where he was present
at a famous tournament in that city, and that there befell him things
worthy of his valor and good understanding. Nor would the chronicler
have learned any thing concerning his death had he not fortunately
become acquainted with an aged physician, who had in his custody a
leaden box, found, as he said, under the ruins of an ancient hermitage
then rebuilding: in which box was found a manuscript of parchment
written in Gothic characters, but in Castilian verse, containing many of
his exploits, and giving an account of the beauty of Dulcinea del
Toboso, the figure of Rozinante, the fidelity of Sancho Panza, and the
burial of Don Quixote himself, with several epitaphs and eulogies on his
life and manners. All that could be read, and perfectly made out, were
those inserted here by the faithfu