o rest, his
thoughts turned to the disenchantment of his Dulcinea and a feeling of
impatience with his selfish and uncharitable squire rose up within
him. He pleaded with Sancho and implored him to go through with the
ordeal bravely; but Sancho was unflinching in his stubbornness and
insisted he could see no reason why he should be coupled with the
disenchantment of the peerless fair one. Thus Don Quixote could only
pray that his squire might be moved by compassion to perform some day
the deed that would liberate his lady.

While discussing this subject so close to his heart Don Quixote had
decided to pursue his journey, and while they were traveling along on
the road to their village they again engaged in conversation. Suddenly
they found themselves passing the spot where they had been trampled on
by the bulls, but Don Quixote, not wishing to have his thoughts return
to anything so bitter, turned to Sancho and remarked that this was
where they had encountered the gay shepherds and shepherdesses. And
the next instant he had decided to emulate their example and turn
shepherd himself, now that his calling of knight errant had come to an
end; he would buy some ewes, he said, and together they would retire
to some quiet pastoral nook where the woods and the fields met, and
where pure crystal water sprang from the ledge of a rock and the
fragrance of flowers was in the air. And there he would sing to
Dulcinea, his platonic and only love. The thought of a life so calm
and so far away from danger and knightly adventures pleased Sancho so
greatly and made his enthusiasm run so high that he could not restrain
a row of proverbs from falling from his lips. It was a flow so
incessant that Don Quixote at last felt obliged to ask for a truce.

Night had now fallen, and Don Quixote thought it best to withdraw from
the roadway and take refuge for the night some distance away from it.
Having supped, Sancho at once fell asleep, but his master sat up all
that night, thinking of Dulcinea and making up rhymes to the
sweetness of her memory.

CHAPTER LXVIII

OF THE BRISTLY ADVENTURE THAT BEFELL DON QUIXOTE

Don Quixote could not bear to see his squire sleep so restfully while
he was being weighted down by all the cares of the world. So he woke
Sancho, whose stolid unconcern about Dulcinea again was brought home
to him, and almost went on his knees in order to induce him to scourge
himself. He nearly wept in his efforts to have