plea
for blessing, and he called out after the peasant girls: "Oh, princess
and universal lady of El Toboso, is not your heart softened by seeing
the pillar and prop of knight-errantry on his knees before your
sublimated presence?"

When the wenches were out of sight, Don Quixote turned to his squire
and bemoaned, cast-down, his evil fate, and the length his sage enemy
would go to gain his ends. The very worst thing of all, he said, was
that the evil enchanter had turned his Dulcinea into an ugly peasant,
who smelled of garlic. And while Don Quixote was thus complaining,
Sancho struggled to hide his laughter, happy to have saved himself and
to have played such a joke on his master.

At last Don Quixote was ready to mount his hack, and they steered
their beasts in the direction of Saragossa.

CHAPTER XI

OF THE STRANGE ADVENTURE WHICH THE VALIANT DON QUIXOTE HAD
WITH THE CAR OR CART OF "THE CORTES OF DEATH"

Sancho did his best to imbue his master with a new inspiration; for
Don Quixote was a sorry sight as he was riding along on his hack. The
enchantment of his Dulcinea had been a great blow to him. He fell into
a sort of meditative slumber, from which he would rouse himself only
now and then. Suddenly, however, he was fully awake, for on the road
he saw before his very eyes a cart with Death on the front seat, and
drawn by mules that were being led by the Devil himself.

As soon as the knight could gather his senses, he distinguished the
rest of the strange company that occupied the cart. Next to Death sat
an ugly angel with wings, and on the other side Don Quixote observed
an emperor with a crown of gold on his head. Then he discovered
Cupid--who was a god--and a knight with plumes in his hat. There were
a number of other figures, all weird and awe-inspiring, in strange
costumes and with curious faces, and when Sancho saw them he turned as
pale as Death himself, and his teeth began to chatter from fright.
Even Don Quixote was more than startled, but his heroism soon asserted
itself, and he was quickly himself again, glad to sense another
adventure. He gave Rocinante the spur, the lean hack sprang forward to
the cart at a sickly gallop, and Don Quixote exclaimed: "Carter or
coachman, or devil or whatever thou art, tell me at once who thou art,
whither thou art going, and who these folk are thou carriest in thy
wagon, which looks more like Charon's boat than an ordinary cart!"

To this challenge the dev