ood with
wine, he called him a fool. And when he heard that his Princess had
turned into a simple Dorothea, the fears he had entertained during
his past visit to the inn, began to return, and he decided that the
place was enchanted. But of that his squire could not be convinced,
for the episode of the blanketing still remained a most vivid reality
to him. Had it not been for that, he repeated, he could have believed
it readily.

Meanwhile the curate had been telling Don Fernando and the others of
Don Quixote's strange malady; he described how they had succeeded in
taking him away from the wilderness and his self-inflicted penance,
and told them all the strange adventures he had heard Sancho relate.
They were greatly amused and thought it the most remarkable craze they
had ever heard of. Don Fernando was eager that Dorothea should
continue playing her part, and they all decided to come along on the
journey to the village in La Mancha.

At this moment Don Quixote entered in his regalia, the barber's basin
on his head, spear in hand, and with the buckler on his arm. Don
Fernando was struck with astonishment and laughter at the sight of the
mixed armament and the peculiar long yellow face of the knight. After
a silence, Don Quixote turned to Dorothea and repeated his vow to
regain her kingdom for her. He said he approved heartily of the magic
interference of the spirit of the king, her father, who had devised
this new state of hers, that of a private maiden, in which guise she
would no doubt be more secure from evil influence on her journey to
her home.

His ignorant squire broke in when his master related of his battle in
the garret, and inferred irreverently and rather loudly that he had
attacked wine-skins instead of giants, but Don Fernando quickly made
him be quiet. Dorothea rose and thanked our rueful knight at the end
of his speech for the renewed offer of his sword.

Having listened to her lovely voice, Don Quixote turned angrily to his
squire and reprimanded him for being a disbeliever, saying that he
could now judge for himself what a fool he had made of himself. Sancho
replied that he hoped he had made a mistake about the Princess not
being a princess, but that as to the wine-skins, there could be no
doubt, for the punctured skins he had seen himself at the head of Don
Quixote's bed--and had not the garret floor been turned into a lake of
wine? Whereupon his master swore at his stupidity, until Don Fernando