d. He only dealt two
strokes, whereas his enemy might give him twenty, but those two swept
clean through the vizor, and destroyed in three minutes a whole week's
work. So there was nothing for it but to begin over again, and this time
the Don took the precaution of lining the vizor with iron.

'It looks beautiful,' he cried when it was finished; but he took care
not to try his blade upon it.

His next act was to go into the stable and rub down his horse's coat,
and to give it a feed of corn, vainly hoping that in a few days its ribs
might become less plainly visible.

'It is not right,' he said to himself, one morning, as he stood watching
the animal that was greedily eating out of its manger--'it is not right
that a knight's good horse should go forth without a name. Even the
heathen Alexander bestowed a high-sounding title on his own steed; and
so, likewise, did those Christian warriors, Roland and the Cid!' But,
try as he might, no name would come to him except such as were unworthy
of the horse and his rider, and for four nights and days he pondered the
question.

Suddenly, at the moment he had least expected it, when he was eating the
plain broth his housekeeper had set before him, the inspiration came.

'Rozinante!' he cried triumphantly, laying down his spoon--'Rozinante!
Neither the Cid's horse nor Roland's bore a finer name than that!'

* * * * *

This weighty matter being settled, the Don now began to think of
himself, and, not being satisfied with the name his fathers had handed
down to him, resolved to take one that was more noble, and better suited
to a knight who was destined to do deeds that would keep him alive in
the memory of men. For eight days he took heed of nothing save this one
thing, and on the ninth he found what he had sought.

'The world shall know me as Don Quixote,' he said; 'and as the noble
Amadis himself was not content to bear this sole title, but added to it
the name of his own country, so I, in like manner, will add the name of
mine, and henceforth will appear to all, as the good knight Don Quixote
de la Mancha!'

Now Don Quixote de la Mancha had read far too many books about the
customs of chivalry not to be aware that every knight worshipped some
lady of whose beauty he boasted upon all occasions and whose token he
wore upon his helmet in battle. It was not very easy for Don Quixote to
find such a lady, for all his life long, the company which