ly be flattering and
encouraging to the author if he should, by chance, learn that he had
read his book. Then they asked him where he would be bound for when he
left the inn; and when he told them Saragossa, they mentioned that the
author had given a description in the book of a tilting at the ring in
that city, in which he who was called Don Quixote had participated.

That made the knight change his intentions at once. Now he was
determined not to set foot in Saragossa: thus he would make the author
commit perjury, trap him as a complete liar, and hold him up to
ridicule before the whole world. The gentlemen thought this a most
ingenious way to treat the blaspheming author, and made a suggestion
that there were to be other jousts at Barcelona, to which he would be
welcomed; and Don Quixote announced that he would go there instead.
Then he begged leave in his usual courteous manner to retire, and
withdrew to his room.

Early on the following morning the knight rose, and bade good-by to
his two new friends by knocking at the partition that separated their
rooms, while Sancho paid the landlord for the lodging and the
cow-heels.

CHAPTER LX

OF WHAT HAPPENED TO DON QUIXOTE ON HIS WAY TO BARCELONA

For six days Don Quixote and Sancho traveled without anything
happening to them worth recording. At the end of the sixth day they
came to a grove of oak and cork trees, where they dismounted and
settled themselves for the night. Sancho, who had been nourished
plentifully that day, at once fell asleep, but Don Quixote's mind
wandered hither and thither into strange regions and imaginary places;
and he thought of the sad plight of his beloved one. The more he
considered the cruelty of his squire, the more enraged he became; and
at last he decided that the only thing for him to do was to strip
Sancho and administer the beating himself. With this intention he
began to undo the squire's garments.

Sancho, being awakened and realizing his master's foul play, now had
lost all desire for sleep. He reminded his master that the whipping
would have no effect toward Dulcinea's disenchantment, unless it was
applied voluntarily and by his own hand. But Don Quixote insisted that
there must be an end to this nonsense, for he had no desire to let his
peerless Dulcinea suffer because of his squire's uncharitable
disposition. And then he proceeded, with Rocinante's reins in his
hand, to give his squire, as he said, two thousand lash