of leagues away.

Scarcely had Don Quixote said this, before a gust of wind came that
threatened to unseat both the knight and his squire. (The fact was
that it was the draught from a tremendous pair of bellows which the
Duke had had unearthed for the occasion.) Sancho was shaking in his
seat, and Don Quixote warned him again to sit still, for they were in
danger of having a runaway straight into the regions of air and
thunder, and then into the region of fire. He feared he might not get
the steed to turn before it was too late, he said; for it seemed as if
the machinery of the peg were rather intricate, and did not work
quickly.

Suddenly Sancho began to yell that they were already lost in the
flames, and would be burned to death. (He felt his beard being singed
by a torch. It was one of a great number that the majordomo had
provided.) Don Quixote, too, felt his face warm up. But he would not
permit Sancho to uncover his eyes; if he did, the knight said he would
only be seized with giddiness and both of them would fall off their
horse. Besides, he comforted Sancho with the thought that the journey
would last only a few moments longer, and that they were now passing a
final test before landing in the kingdom of Kandy. Don Quixote added
that the distance they had traveled must have been tremendous, and
Sancho replied: "All I know is that if the Senora Magallanes or
Magalona was satisfied with this croup, she could not have been very
tender of flesh."

At this moment came the culmination of their journey through the air.
A torch was tied to the tail of the steed, which was stuffed with
fire-crackers, and suddenly there was a tremendous noise and a flash,
and in the next moment Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, both scorched,
lay as if thunderstruck on the ground.

When the knight and his squire finally came to, and looked about, they
were aghast at what they saw. The ground was strewn with bodies, but
the bearded duennas were gone. Planted in the ground they saw a lance,
attached to which they found a parchment which proclaimed that the
enchantment of the duennas and of the Don and his royal bride was at
an end, and that as soon as the squire Sancho Panza deigned to carry
out the flogging he was to give himself, the peerless Dulcinea would
appear in all her original beauty again.

Now the Duke and the Duchess, who were among the bodies lying on the
ground, seemingly dead, lifted up their heads, as if just coming out
o