cha! Happy the pen which shall describe them, happy the
age which shall read the wondrous tale! And thou, brave steed, shalt
have thy part in the honor which is done to thy master, when poet and
sculptor and painter shall vie with one another in raising an eternal
monument to his fame."

Then recalling his part as an afflicted lover, he began to mourn his
hard lot in soft and plaintive tones: "O lady Dulcinea, queen of this
captive heart! Why hast thou withdrawn from me the light of thy
countenance and banished thy faithful servant from thy presence?
Shorten, I implore thee, the term of my penance and leave me not to
wither in solitude and despair."

Lost in these sublime and melancholy thoughts he rode slowly on from
hour to hour, until the sun became so hot that it was enough to melt his
brains, if he had possessed any. All that day he continued his journey
without meeting with any adventure, which vexed him sorely, for he was
eager to encounter some foeman worthy of his steel. Evening came on, and
both he and his horse were ready to drop with hunger and fatigue, when,
looking about him in search of some castle--or some hovel--where he
might find shelter and refreshment, he saw not far from the roadside a
small inn, and, setting spurs to Rozinante, rode up to the door at a
hobbling canter just as night was falling.

The inn was of the poorest and meanest description, frequented by
muleteers and other rude wayfarers; but to his perverted fancy it seemed
a turreted castle, with battlements of silver, drawbridge, and moat, and
all that belonged to a feudal fortress. Before the door were standing
two women, vagabonds of the lowest class, who were traveling in the
company of certain mule-drivers; but for him they were instantly
transformed into a pair of high-born maidens taking the air before the
castle gate.

To complete his illusion, just at this moment a swineherd, who was
collecting his drove from a neighboring stubble field, sounded a few
notes on his horn. This Don Quixote took for a signal which had been
given by some dwarf from the ramparts, to inform the inmates of the
castle of his approach; and so, with huge satisfaction, he lifted his
pasteboard vizor, and uncovering his haggard and dusty features, thus
addressed the women who were eyeing him with looks of no small alarm,
and evidently preparing to retreat: "Fly not, gracious ladies, neither
wrong me by dreaming that ye have aught to fear from me, for the