e persuaded them to make peace, and the two
guests to pay the sum which they rightly owed the landlord.

_DON QUIXOTE'S HOME-COMING_

By this time the company of friends who had been passing their days so
pleasantly at the inn, were called away by other business, but, not
liking to leave Don Quixote to himself, they contrived a plan by which
the priest and barber were to carry him home, where they hoped his wits
might come back to him.

So they set about making secretly a large cage of poles, having the
sides latticed, so that Don Quixote should receive both air and light,
and this cage was to be placed on a bullock-cart which happened to be
going in the same direction. The rest of the company put on masks and
disguised themselves in various manners, so that the knight might not
know them again.

These preparations being finished, they stole softly into his room at
the dead of night and tied his hands and feet firmly together. He woke
with a start, and, seeing the array of strange figures about him, took
them to be the phantoms which hovered about the enchanted castle, and
believed without doubt that he himself was enchanted likewise, for he
could neither move nor fight.

This reasoning pleased the priest greatly, as in just such a manner he
had reckoned that the knight would behave. Sancho alone had been left in
the garments that he commonly wore, and he was not deceived by the
ghosts who passed before him. But he looked on and said nothing till he
should see how the matter turned out.

When all was ready, Don Quixote was picked up and carried to the cage,
where they laid him at full length, but taking good care to nail the
door, so that it could not be opened. Then a voice was heard from behind
to utter a prophecy, which Don Quixote understood to mean that he was
setting forth on his wedding journey, and that he was to be bound in
marriage to the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso, whose name he had always
upheld in battle.

The knight responded joyfully to the words he heard, beseeching the
mighty enchanter in whose power he was not to leave him in his prison
till these glorious promises had been fulfilled, and appealing to Sancho
never to part from him either in good or ill fortune. Sancho bowed in
answer and kissed his master's hand; then the ghosts took up the cage
and placed it on a waggon.

Don Quixote beguiled the way after his usual fashion, recalling the
stories of enchantments he had read, yet never