nt or a duke.

CHAPTER XXII

OF THE FREEDOM DON QUIXOTE CONFERRED ON SEVERAL UNFORTUNATES
WHO AGAINST THEIR WILL WERE BEING CARRIED WHERE THEY HAD NO
WISH TO GO

Hardly had they finished their conversation, when a gang of convicts
came along on the road, guarded by two men on horseback and two on
foot.

"Galley-slaves," remarked Sancho Panza laconically.

"If they are going against their own free will, it is a case for the
exercise of my office," answered Don Quixote.

He approached their custodians and asked to know what crimes these men
had committed against his majesty the King. They answered it was not
his business.

"Nevertheless, I should like to know," insisted Don Quixote, and he
used such choice and magic language that one of the guards was induced
to give him permission to ask each one of the men about his crime and
sentence.

Don Quixote had questioned every one but the twelfth, and when he came
to him he found that he was chained in a way different from the rest.
This prisoner was a man of thirty, and crossed-eyed. His body was
weighted down by very large irons and especially heavy chains, his
hands were padlocked and so secured he could not raise them. Don
Quixote asked why he was thus overburdened, and got the reply that he
had committed more crimes than all the rest together. The guard then
told the knight that the man had written a story of his unfinished
life, and that he was no other than the famous Gines de Pasamonte. The
culprit strongly objected to hearing his identity mentioned, and there
ensued a furious battle of words between him and the guard. The latter
lost his temper and was about to strike the slave a blow, when Don
Quixote interfered, and pleaded for more kindly treatment. It seemed
only fair to him that they, with their hands tied, might be permitted
a free tongue. He grew fiery in his defense of them, reminded the
guard that there was a God in heaven who would punish all sinners. He
ended by requesting their immediate release.

This demand seemed worse than absurd to the guard, who wished him
godspeed on his journey, advised him to put the basin straight on his
head, and told him not to go looking for trouble. This was too much
for our knight. He set upon his jesting adversary with such speed and
suddenness that the musket fell out of the guard's hand. And the other
guards were so taken aback at what was going on, and there was such
confusion, that they did not notic