iesced. He related how a magistrate in his village, which was four
leagues and a half away, had lost a donkey through the carelessness of
a servant. Some weeks later another magistrate of the same village
was hunting in the woods, and when he returned he brought word to his
fellow officer that he had come across the lost beast but that he was
now so wild that no one could approach him. He suggested, however,
that they go together in search for him; and they developed a plan
whereby they thought they should surely be able to capture the animal.
Both of them were expert in braying, and they decided to place
themselves at different ends of the forest, each one braying at
intervals. In this way they thought they should be able to round up
the donkey, for they were certain that he would answer their calls.

But it so happened that both of them brayed at the same time, and when
they ran to look, convinced that the donkey had turned up, they found
not the ass but only each other, so naturally had they brayed. They
tried the same scheme again and again, but every time with the same
result; and at last they came in this way to a place in the woods
where they found the dead donkey devoured by wolves.

The story of the two magistrates going about in the forest braying to
each other like asses soon spread to the villages in the county; and
in one village in particular the habit of braying whenever they
observed any one from the village of the braying magistrates took such
root that it was decided to teach them a lesson by taking arms against
them. The arms he carried with him now, he said, were to be used
against these scoffers, that they might never again behave like asses.

He had just finished his story when some one entered and cried out
that the show of _The Release of Melisendra_ and the divining ape
were coming to the inn, and a minute later Master Pedro himself came
into the yard, where he was greeted by the landlord and all the
guests. Master Pedro's one eye was covered by a piece of green silk;
Don Quixote judged by this that something had befallen him by
accident. He asked the landlord to tell him all he knew of Master
Pedro, and he learned that he traveled with his puppet-show from town
to town, and was greatly renowned throughout the provinces as a
showman. And the ape, the innkeeper said, was like a human being, so
clever was he, and wise.

Soon the show was in readiness inside, and every one gathered around
Maste