him that the author was one Cid
Hamet Berengena (meaning eggplant). It was no other than the son of
Bartholomew Carrasco, who had been a student at Salamanca, who had told
him all this, he said. He asked his master whether he should like to see
the young bachelor, and Don Quixote begged him to run and fetch him at
once, for, he said, he would be unable to digest a thing until he had had
a talk with him.

"Cid Hamet Berengena," repeated Don Quixote to himself. "That is a
Moorish name."

"Yes, I have heard the Moors like eggplant," added Sancho.

And then his lord and master asked: "Didst thou not mistake the
surname of this 'Cid,' which means in Arabic 'lord,' Sancho?"

"Perhaps," said Sancho; "but the bachelor can tell you that."

And he ran to fetch him.

CHAPTER III

OF THE LAUGHABLE CONVERSATION THAT PASSED BETWEEN DON
QUIXOTE, SANCHO PANZA, AND THE BACHELOR SAMSON CARRASCO

While Sancho was gone, Don Quixote sat and worried about what the book
might be like; for what justice could be expected from the pen of a
Moor writing history? But perhaps it was not true that such a
chronicle had been written. It seemed almost an impossibility, for it
was only a short time since he returned from his achievements. What
worried him most was the thought that this Cid Hamet Berengena might
have made public in some odious way that great love and sacred passion
of his for the beautiful and virtuous Lady Dulcinea del Toboso.

As he was thus meditating Sancho returned, bringing with him the
younger Carrasco, who went by the strong name of Samson, in defiance
of his unpretentious size. But what he lacked in this respect, he made
up for in wit and humor. He was about twenty-four years of age, had a
round jovial face, a large mouth and a flat nose. What more need one
know to be inclined to think he might be mischievous? He gave proof of
it as soon as he entered, for he fell on his knees and kissed the
hero's hand respectfully, pronouncing him the first and foremost
warrior and knight of the age. Then he called down a blessing on the
name of Cid Hamet Benengeli, his noble biographer, and on the worthy,
learned man who had translated the work from the difficult Arabic into
their pure Castilian for the edification of all the Spanish people who
knew how to read their own language.

"So then there _is_ a history of me--and written by a Moor and a
sage?" asked Don Quixote, as he bade Samson rise.

The bachelor assented an