in hearing, he raised his voice and cried with
an air of proud defiance: "Halt, every mother's son of you, and confess
that in all the world there is no damsel more beautiful than the empress
of La Mancha, the peerless Dulcinea del Toboso!"

Hearing the strange words and seeing the extravagant figure of him who
uttered them, the merchants drew up, and one of them, who was of a
waggish disposition, answered for the whole company and said: "Sir
Knight, we do not know the good lady of whom you speak; let us see her,
and if she is of such beauty as you describe, we will most gladly make
the confession which you require."

"If you were to see her," replied Don Quixote, "you must needs be
convinced that what I say is true, and that would be a poor triumph for
me. No, on the faith of my word alone, you must believe it, confess it,
assert it, swear to it, and maintain it! If not, I defy you to battle,
ye sons of lawlessness and arrogance! Here I stand ready to receive you,
whether ye come singly, as the rule of knighthood demands, or all
together, as is the custom with churls like you."

"Sir Knight," answered the merchant, "I entreat you in the name of all
this noble company, that you constrain us not to lay perjury to our
souls by swearing to a thing which we have neither seen nor heard. Show
us, at least, some portrait of this lady, though it be no bigger than a
grain of wheat, that our scruples may be satisfied. For so strongly are
we disposed in favor of the fair dame, that even if the picture should
exhibit her squinting with one eye, and dropping brimstone and vermilion
from the other, for all that we will vow and profess that she is as
lovely as you say."

"There drops not from her," shouted Don Quixote, aflame with fury,
"there drops not, I say, that which thou namest, but only sweet perfumes
and pearly dew. Neither is she cross-eyed nor hunch-backed, but straight
and slender as a peak of Guadarrama. But ye shall pay for the monstrous
blasphemy which ye have spoken against the angelic beauty of my lady and
queen."

With these words he leveled his lance and hurled himself upon the
speaker with such vigor and frenzy that if Rozinante had not chanced to
stumble and fall in mid career, the rash merchant would have paid dear
for his jest. Down went Rozinante, and his master rolled over and over
for some distance across the plain. Being brought up at last by a
projecting rock, he made frantic efforts to rise, but was ke