Luis into the inn,
threatening to take him back by force should he not go willingly.
Again he protested, and at last the argument attracted all the guests,
including Don Quixote, who had ceased his duties as guard for the
present. The Judge was there too, and when one of the servants
recognized in him their neighbor in Madrid, he pleaded with him to do
all he could to make the young man return to his ill father.

The Judge turned to the young muleteer, and saw that it was his
neighbor's son; whereupon he embraced him and asked in a fatherly way
what had brought him there dressed in such a manner. With his arm
around the youth's neck, the Judge withdrew with the lad to discuss
the reasons for his disguise and for his leaving his father.

While the kindly Judge was thus occupied with Don Luis, a tumult suddenly
arose at the gate of the inn. It was the landlord, trying to hold back
two guests who had attempted to get away without paying. The innkeeper
was stubbornly clinging to the garb of one of the adventurers, and in
return was being pummeled mercilessly, until his face was a study in dark
and fast colors, except his nose, which was tinted a running red. As soon
as the landlady perceived her mate's distress, the thought struck her
that this would be a most worthy opportunity for our valiant knight
errant to show his skill as a swordsman and a wielder of the lance. So
she dispatched her daughter, the fair young lady of the castle, to bring
the knight her message of distress.

Don Quixote received the young lady calmly and courteously, but said
that he was in honor bound to engage in no combat except by the
express permission of her Royal Highness the Princess Micomicona; she
having granted it, there could be no doubt as to the outcome of any
battle in which he chose to draw his sword. Seeing this, in her
opinion, ill-timed hesitancy, the one-eyed Asturian muttered that by
the time the Princess was found, her master would have passed the
heavenly border. The Princess, however, was quickly summoned, and Don
Quixote knelt on his stiff knees before her; but ere he had finished
his long harangue of request, she--having been advised of the urgency
of the situation--had already given him permission and wished him
godspeed.

Don Quixote arose and drew his sword, paced toward the gate, and then
suddenly stopped short. All wondered what had happened to cause his
hesitating thus, and the Asturian maid expressed her wonder alou