sweep of his lance, exclaiming boldly:

"All the world stand, unless all the world confess that in all the
world there is no maiden fairer than the Empress of la Mancha, the
peerless Dulcinea del Toboso!"

The thirteen men could not help but stand still at the sound of such
words; nor did they hesitate about thinking that the speaker of them
might be lacking in some of his wits. One of the travelers, however,
either was curious or had a failing for making fun of people, for he
asked Don Quixote to produce the lady before asking him to pay her his
respects. Perhaps he was skeptical of his country's harboring such a
rare beauty unbeknown to him.

But Don Quixote was not to be fooled. "If I were to show her to you,"
he replied, "what merit would you have in confessing a truth so
manifest? You must believe without seeing her; otherwise you have to
do with me in battle. Come on, you rabble! I rely on the justice of
the cause I maintain!"

The merchant with a sense of humor tried to plead for consideration.
He suggested that a portrait of the fair lady might suffice to bring
about a conversion to his conception of her beauty. But Don Quixote
was determined that they were intolerant blasphemers who simply had to
be thrashed. So he suddenly charged with such vehemence and fury that,
if luck had not interfered and made his gentle steed stumble, the
trader might have been killed. As Rocinante went down, our gallant
hero went over his head, and after he had struck the ground he rolled
for some distance. But when he tried to rise he could not: he was so
weighted down with armor, helmet, spurs, buckler and lance. To make
matters worse, one of the servants, having broken his lance in two,
proceeded to batter him with one of the pieces until it seemed as if
Don Quixote would be able to stand no more. Finally the man grew tired
and went to catch up with his party, which had continued its way.
But Don Quixote still lay on the ground, unable to get up.

CHAPTER V

IN WHICH THE NARRATIVE OF OUR KNIGHT'S MISHAP IS CONTINUED

When Don Quixote began to realize that he was, so to speak, anchored
to the ground, he turned his thoughts to his usual remedy, his books
on knighthood and chivalry, which, in fact, had been the cause of his
downfall. He decided that the passage to fit his case was the one
about Baldwin and the Marquis of Mantua when Carloto left him wounded
on the mountainside--for that he had been wounded by brigand