attempt."--"To horse, then, sir," cried Sancho. "The beards and tears
of these poor gentlewomen are sticking in my heart. And I shall not
eat a bit to do me good till I see them as smooth as before. Mount,
then, I say, and blindfold yourself first; for, if I must ride behind,
it is a plain case you must get up before me."--"That is right," said
Don Quixote; and, with that, pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket,
he gave it to the Disconsolate Lady to hoodwink him. She did so; but
presently after, uncovering himself, "If I remember right," said he,
"we read in Virgil of the Trojan Palladium, that wooden horse which
the Greeks offered the goddess Pallas, full of armed knights who
afterwards proved the total ruin of Troy. It were prudent, therefore,
before we get up, to see what Clavileno has within him."--"You need
not," said the Disconsolate Lady; "I dare engage that Malambruno would
not countenance any base or treacherous practice. Mount, Don Quixote,
without fear; whatever accident befalls you, I dare answer for." Upon
this, Don Quixote mounted, without any reply, imagining that anything
said concerning his security would be a reflection on his valor. He
then began to try the pin, which was easily turned; and as he sat,
with his long legs stretched at length without stirrups, he looked
like one of those antique figures in a Roman triumph, painted or woven
in Flemish arras.

Sancho, very leisurely and unwillingly, was made to climb up; and,
fixing himself as well as he could on the crupper, felt it somewhat
hard and uneasy. With that, looking on the duke, "Good my lord," quoth
he, "will you lend me something to clap under me; some pillow from the
page's bed, or the duchess's cushion of state, or anything; for this
horse's crupper seems rather marble than wood."--"It is needless,"
said Trifaldi; "for Clavileno will bear no kind of furniture upon him;
so that, for your greater ease, you had best sit sideways, like a
woman." Sancho did so; and after he had taken his leave they bound a
cloth over his eyes; but presently after, uncovering them, with a
pitiful look on the spectators, he prayed them with tears in his eyes
to help him in this peril with two Paternosters and two Ave Marias, as
they would expect the like charity themselves in such a
condition!--"What! you rascal," said Don Quixote, "do you think
yourself at the gallows, and at the point of death, that you hold
forth in such a piteous strain? Dastardly wretch w