he curds were squeezed,
and the whey began to run down over his face, so that Don Quixote
imagined that he had been taken with softening of the brain.

Sancho said nothing but gave his master something to wipe his face
with, and Don Quixote muttered that if this was sweat he was certain
it was going to be a horrible adventure. As he was drying his face, he
took off his helmet, and when he smelled the curds he turned to Sancho
in great perturbation and accused him of having put them there,
calling him a traitor and a scoundrel, and threatening to thrash him.
But Sancho eyed his master innocently, and blamed it all on the devil
or some enchanter, saying that his master might know that if he had
had curds, he would have put them in his stomach and not in his
master's helmet.

This was a convincing argument to the knight, who now busied himself
with the cart, which had nearly reached them. He called out to the
driver and a man on mule-back, who were the only attendants: "Whither
are you going, brothers? What cart is this? What have you got in it?
What flags are those?"

The man on the mule answered that the cart was his, that he was
transporting a pair of enormous lions as a present from the Governor
of Oran to His Majesty the King; that the flags were those of the
King, and that therefore the property was royal property. He added
that the lions were hungry, since they had not eaten anything that
day, and that he was in great haste to reach a place where he could
feed them.

Here Don Quixote smiled a scornful, superior smile, and calmly told
the keeper of the lions to open the cages and let out the beasts that
they might learn who the courageous Don Quixote of La Mancha might be.
When Sancho heard how mad his master was, he turned in sickly fear to
the traveling gentleman and begged him for God's sake to keep his
master from having a combat with the lions. The gentleman asked Sancho
whether he thought his master would really be so foolish as to do such
a thing; and Sancho's firm and emphatic reply made the gentleman
hasten to the knight's side in an attempt to reason with him. He was
promptly reprimanded by Don Quixote, however, who told him sharply to
mind his own business, and then threatened to pin the keeper to the
cart with his lance if he did not open the cages and chase out the
lions at once.

There was an indescribable consternation and confusion. The driver
pleaded with Don Quixote on his knees, and when the