sed
me, for be it ever so big I'll be equal to governing it."

To which Don Quixote replied:--"Thou must know, friend Sancho Panza,
that it was a practice very much in vogue with the knights-errant of
old to make their squires governors of the islands or kingdoms they
won, and I am determined that there shall be no failure on my part in
so liberal a custom; on the contrary, I mean to improve upon it, for
they sometimes, and perhaps most frequently, waited until their
squires were old, and then when they had had enough of service and
hard days and worse nights, they gave them some title or other, of
count, or at the most marquis, of some valley or province more or
less; but if thou livest and I live, it may well be that before six
days are over I may have won some kingdom that has others dependent
upon it, which will be just the thing to enable thee to be crowned
king of one of them. Nor needst thou count this wonderful, for things
and chances fall to the lot of such knights in ways so unexampled and
unexpected that I might easily give thee even more than I promise
thee."

"In that case," said Sancho Panza, "if I should become a king by one
of those miracles your Worship speaks of, even Juana Gutierrez, my old
woman, would come to be queen and my children infantes."

"Well, who doubts it?" said Don Quixote.

"I doubt it," replied Sancho Panza; "because for my part I am
persuaded that though God should shower down kingdoms upon earth, not
one of them would fit the head of Mari Gutierrez. Let me tell you,
senor, she is not worth two maravedis for a queen; countess will fit
her better, and that only with God's help."

"Leave it to God, Sancho," returned Don Quixote, "for he will give her
what suits her best; but do not undervalue thyself so much as to come
to be content with anything less than being governor of a province."

"I will not, senor," answered Sancho; "especially as I have a man of
such quality for master in your Worship, who will be able to give me
all that will be suitable for me and that I can bear."

At this point they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that
there are on that plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said
to his squire, "Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we
could have shaped our desires ourselves; for look there, friend Sancho
Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves, all
of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoil