gray ass
as mine is, with something that glitters o' top of his head."--"I tell
thee, that is Mambrino's helmet," replied Don Quixote; "do thou stand
at a distance, and leave me to deal with him; thou shalt see, that
without trifling away so much as a moment in needless talk, I will
finish this adventure, and possess myself of the desired helmet."--"I
shall stand at a distance, you may be sure," quoth Sancho; "but God
grant that it be not the fulling mills again."--"I have warned you
already, fellow," said Don Quixote, "not so much as to name the
fulling mills; dare but once more to do it, nay, but to think on it,
and I vow to--I say no more, but I'll full your very soul." These
threats were more than sufficient to padlock Sancho's lips, for he had
no mind to have his master's vow fulfilled at the expense of his
bones.

Now the truth of the story was this: there were in that part of the
country two villages, one of which was so little that it had not so
much as a shop in it, nor any barber; so that the barber of the
greater village served also the smaller. And thus a person happening
to have occasion to be let blood, and another to be shaved, the barber
was going thither with his brass basin, which he had clapped upon his
head to keep his hat, that chanced to be a new one, from being spoiled
by the rain; and as the basin was new scoured, it made a glittering
show a great way off. As Sancho had well observed, he rode upon a gray
ass, which Don Quixote as easily took for a dapple-gray steed, as he
took the barber for a knight, and his brass basin for a golden helmet;
his distracted brain easily applying every object to his romantic
ideas. Therefore, when he saw the poor imaginary knight draw near, he
fixed his lance, or javelin, to his thigh, and without staying to hold
a parley with his adversary, flew at him as fiercely as Rozinante
would gallop, resolved to pierce him through and through; crying out
in the midst of his career, "Caitiff, wretch, defend thyself, or
immediately surrender that which is so justly my due."

The barber, who, as he peaceably went along, saw that terrible
apparition come thundering upon him at unawares, had no other way to
avoid being run through with his lance, but to throw himself off from
his ass to the ground; and then as hastily getting up, he took to his
heels, and ran over the fields swifter than the wind, leaving his ass
and his basin behind him. Don Quixote finding himself thus mast