sted, he swore, like calves' feet; and the knight and
his squire gathered gluttonously around the meal. They had scarcely
began eating, however, when Don Quixote heard his name mentioned next
door, and, surprised, he listened and heard some one say: "What
displeases me most in this Second Part of 'Don Quixote of La Mancha'
is that it represents Don Quixote as now cured of his love for
Dulcinea del Toboso."

Like a flash the knight was on his feet, shouting to the adjoining
room: "Whoever he may be who says that Don Quixote of La Mancha has
forgotten Dulcinea del Toboso, I will teach him with equal arms that
what he says is very far from true; for his motto is constancy, and
his profession is to maintain the same with his life and never wrong
it."

Immediately voices from the other room wished to know who was speaking;
and Sancho shouted back that it was his master, and that his master was
none other than Don Quixote of La Mancha himself. In the next instant two
gentlemen entered the room, and as soon as they perceived Don Quixote,
they fell on his neck and embraced him, saying that they were pleased and
proud beyond measure to meet so distinguished and illustrious a
personage, their own morning star of knight-errantry. One of the
gentlemen, Don Jeronimo, assured him that there was no doubt in his mind
that he was the real Don Quixote of the First Part, and not the
counterfeit one of the Aragonese Second Part. With these words he put his
copy of the Second Part, which he had just been reading, into Don
Quixote's hands and begged him to read it. Don Quixote took it and
glanced it through, and after having read a few pages, he returned it to
the gentleman, with the remark that he had already discovered three
things in the book that ought to be censured; and he said that when an
author could make such a colossal mistake as to speak of Sancho's wife as
Mari Guiterrez, one would be likely to doubt the veracity of every other
statement of his in the book.

When Sancho heard of this audacious libel, he became red in the face
with indignation. "A nice sort of historian, indeed!" he burst out.
"He must know a deal about our affairs when he calls my wife, Teresa
Panza, Mari Guiterrez! Take the book again, senor, and see whether I
am in it and whether he has changed my name!"

The gentleman looked at Sancho in an expectant manner, and said: "From
your talk, friend, no doubt you are Sancho Panza, Senor Don Quixote's
squire."