whether he thought it in conformity with the behavior of a gentleman
to go around in the middle of the night knocking at people's doors.
Don Quixote dispensed with the discussion of this particular point;
all he wanted to do, he said, was to find the house. Then they could
discuss how to proceed. So they roamed about the city, Don Quixote
insisting that first one house and then another was the palace of his
love, until they finally hit upon the great tower of the church. At
last he had found it, he declared. Here was where she dwelt, he was
quite sure.

But Sancho, hearing this and seeing it was a church, began to feel ill
at ease, for his superstitious soul did not like the idea of walking
across a graveyard at such an hour of the night. He quickly told his
master, he was now certain that the Lady Dulcinea lived in an alley, a
kind thought which was rewarded by a fierce outburst from Don Quixote.

"The curse of God on thee for a blockhead!" he exclaimed. "Where hast
thou ever heard of castles and royal palaces being built in alleys?"

"I wish I saw the dogs eating it for leading us such a dance," was all
that Sancho said in reply.

But evidently this was not a pleasing answer to Don Quixote, for he
admonished his squire: "Speak respectfully of what belongs to my lady;
let us keep the feast in peace, and not throw the rope after the
bucket!"

Sancho muttered something about how he could be expected to find, in
the dark of night, a house he had only seen once in his lifetime, when
his master, who must have seen it hundreds of times, could not
recognize it. To this his master retorted wearily that he had told him
a thousand times that he was enamored only by hearsay, and had never
visited Dulcinea in her palace.

At this moment a laborer on his way to his work came along on the
road, singing a dreary song. It was only another omen to Don Quixote
that his efforts to approach his lady would not be crowned with
success that night. He asked the man to direct him to the palace of
his princess, but the laborer turned out to be a stranger, having only
just come to the city.

Don Quixote was grieved that he could not find Dulcinea, and when
Sancho suggested that they withdraw from the city and develop a plan
for seeing her, he was ready to accept it. So they left El Toboso and
hid in a forest nearby. There it was decided that Sancho should return
to the city as the messenger of love for his master.

CHAPTER X