valorous Don Quixote of
La Mancha, righter of wrongs, revenger and redresser of grievances;
remember what you have promised and sworn, as you will answer the
contrary at your peril." Convinced that the man dare not disobey, he
rode forward, and the farmer very soon continued his flogging of the
boy.

A company of merchants approaching caused Don Quixote to halt in the
middle of the road, calling upon them to stand until they acknowledged
Dulcinea del Toboso to be the peerless beauty of the world. This
challenge was met with prevarication, which enraged Don Quixote, and
clapping spurs to Rozinante he bore down upon the company with his lance
couched.

A stumble of the horse threw him, and as he lay on the ground, unable to
move, one of the servants of the company came up and broke the lance
across Don Quixote's ribs. It was not until a countryman came by that
the Don was extricated, and then he had to ride back to his own village
on the ass of the poor labourer, being so stiff and sore as quite
incapable to mount Rozinante.

The curate and the barber, seeing now what havoc romances of chivalry
were making in the wits of this good gentleman, ran through his library
while he lay wounded in bed, burned all his noxious works, and, securely
locking the door, prepared the tale that enchantment had carried away
the books and the very chamber itself.

None of the entreaties of his niece, nor the remonstrances of his
housekeeper, could stay Don Quixote at home, and he soon prepared for a
second sally. He persuaded a good, honest country labourer, Sancho Panza
by name, to enter his service as squire, promising him for reward the
first island or empire which his lance should happen to conquer. Thus
did things happen in books of chivalry, and he did not doubt that thus
it would happen with him.

_III.--The Immortal Partnership_

So it came to pass that one night Don Quixote stole away from his home,
and Sancho Panza from his wife and children, and with the master on
Rozinante, the servant on his ass, Dapple, hastened away under cover of
darkness in search of adventures. As they travelled, "I beseech your
worship," quoth Sancho, "be sure you forget not your promise of the
island; for, I dare swear, I shall make shift to govern it, let it be
never so big." The knight, in a rhapsody, foreshadowed the day when
Sancho might be made even a king, for in romances of chivalry there is
no limit to the gifts made by valorous knight