The Junior Classics, Volume 4: Heroes and heroines of chivalry
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 4: Heroes and heroines of chivalry
Children's literature
"Signor," said Don Quixote, rising from his knees, "I did never expect
less from your great magnificence, and now I will tell you that the
boon which I demanded of you, and which you have so generously
granted, is that to-morrow in the morning you will dub me knight. This
night I will watch mine armour in the chapel of your castle, and in
the morning, as I have said, the rest of my desires shall be
fulfilled, that I may set out in a proper manner throughout the four
parts of the world to seek adventures to the benefit of the poor and:
needy, as is the duty of knighthood and of knights-errant."
The innkeeper, who was a bit of a jester, and had before thought that
the wits of his guest were none of the best, was sure that his
suspicions were true when he heard him speak in this manner. And in
order to enjoy a joke at his expense, he resolved to fall in with his
humour, and told him that there was great reason in what he desired,
which was only natural and proper in a knight of such worth as he
seemed to be. He added further that there was no chapel in his castle
where he might watch his arms, for he had broken it down to build it
up anew. But, nevertheless, he knew well that in a case of necessity
they might be watched in any other place, and therefore he might watch
them that night in the lower court of the castle, where in the morning
he, the innkeeper, would perform all the proper ceremonies, so that he
should be made not only a dubbed knight, but such a one as should not
have an equal in the whole universe.
The innkeeper now gave orders that Don Quixote should watch his armour
in a great yard near one side of the inn, so he gathered together all
his arms, laid them on a cistern near a well, and buckling on his
target he laid hold of his lance and walked up and down before the
cistern very demurely, until night came down upon the scene.
In the meantime the roguish innkeeper told all the rest that lodged in
the inn of the folly of his guest, the watching of his arms, and the
knighthood which he expected to receive. They all wondered very much
at so strange a kind of folly, and going out to behold him from a
distance, they saw that sometimes he marched to and fro with a quiet
gesture, other times leaning upon his lance he looked upon his armour
for a good space of time without beholding any other thing save his
arms.
Although it was now night, yet was the moon so clear that everything
which the knight did was easily seen by all beholders. And now one of
the carriers that lodged in the inn resolved to give his mules some
water, and for that purpose it was necessary to move Don Quixote's
armour that lay on the cistern.
Seeing the carrier approach, Don Quixote called to him in a loud
voice: "O thou, whosoever thou art, bold knight, who dares to touch
the armour of the bravest adventurer that ever girded sword, look well
what thou doest, and touch them not if thou meanest not to leave thy
life in payment for thy meddling!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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