y the blame on
me, and say you were overthrown because I had girted Rosinante badly;
besides, you must have seen in your books of chivalry that it is a
common thing for knights to upset one another, and for him who is
conquered to-day to be conqueror to-morrow."

"Very true," said Samson, "and good Sancho Panza's view of these cases
is quite right."

"Sirs, not so fast," said Don Quixote. "In last year's nests there are
no birds this year. I was mad--now I am in my senses; I was Don
Quixote of La Mancha--I am now, as I said, Alonso Quixano the Good;
and may my repentance and sincerity restore me to the esteem you used
to have for me; and now let Master Notary proceed."

"_Item_--I leave all my property absolutely to Antonia Quixana, my
niece, here present, after all has been deducted from the most
available portion of it that may be required to satisfy the bequests I
have made. And the first disbursement I desire to be made is the
payment of the wages I owe for the time my housekeeper has served me,
with twenty ducats, over and above, for a gown. The curate and the
bachelor Samson Carrasco, now present, I appoint my executors.

"_Item_--It is my wish that if Antonia Quixana, my niece, desires to
marry, she shall marry a man of whom it shall be first of all
ascertained by information taken that he does not know what books of
chivalry are; and if it should be proved that he does, and if in spite
of this my niece insists upon marrying him and does marry him, then
she shall forfeit the whole of what I have left her, which my
executors shall devote to works of charity as they please.

"_Item_--I entreat the aforesaid gentlemen my executors, that if any
happy chance should lead them to discover the author who is said to
have written a history now going about under the title of 'Second Part
of the Achievements of Don Quixote of La Mancha,' they beg of him on
my behalf as earnestly as they can to forgive me for having been,
without intending it, the cause of his writing so many and such
monstrous absurdities as he has written in it; for I am leaving the
world with a feeling of compunction at having provoked him to write
them."

With this he closed his will, and a faintness coming over him, he
stretched himself out at full length on the bed. All were in a flutter
and made haste to relieve him, and during the three days he lived
after that on which he made his will, he fainted away very often. The
house was all in confusi