castle art thou talking of, madman?" said one of
the millers; "art thou for carrying off the people who come to grind
corn in these mills?"

"That's enough," said Don Quixote to himself, "it would be preaching in
the desert to attempt by entreaties to induce this rabble to do any
virtuous action. In this adventure two mighty enchanters must have
encountered one another, and one frustrates what the other attempts; one
provided a bark for me, and the other upset me; God help us, this world
is all machinations and schemes at cross purposes one with the other. I
can do no more." And then turning towards the mills he said aloud,
"Friends, whoe'er ye be that are immured in that prison, forgive me
that, to my misfortune and yours, I cannot deliver you from your misery;
this adventure is doubtless reserved and destined for some other
knight."

So saying he settled with the fishermen, and paid fifty reals for the
boat, which Sancho handed to them very much against the grain, saying,
"With a couple more bark businesses like this we shall have sunk our
whole capital, which is none too large."

The fishermen and the millers stood staring in amazement at the two
figures, so very different to all appearance from ordinary men, and were
wholly unable to make out the drift of the observations and questions
Don Quixote addressed to them; and coming to the conclusion that they
were madmen, they left them and betook themselves, the millers to their
mills, and the fishermen to their huts.

Whereupon Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, like a pair of senseless animals
themselves, returned to the animals they had left, and thus ended the
adventure of the enchanted bark.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE WOODEN HORSE

NOTE.--Don Quixote and Sancho his squire, having encountered in a
forest a certain duke and his duchess, had been invited to pass
some time in the ducal palace. The duke and his friends, bent on
amusement, persuaded Don Quixote that a vile enchanter, angered at
some ladies, had for punishment caused heavy beards to grow on
their faces. They even showed him the ladies, impersonated, of
course, by men; and they persuaded him that the beards would be
removed if he, with his squire, would take a long ride on a famous
wooden horse, Clavileno.

And now night came, and with it the appointed time for the arrival of
the famous horse Clavileno, the non-appearance of which was already
beginning to ma