The Junior Classics, Volume 4: Heroes and heroines of chivalry
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 4: Heroes and heroines of chivalry
Children's literature
When they were both mounted and standing by the inn gate, he called to
the innkeeper and said in a grave voice: "Many and great are the
favours, sir constable, which I have received in this your castle,
arid I shall remain deeply grateful for them all the days of my
life. If I am able to repay you by avenging you on some proud
miscreant that hath done you any wrong, know that it is my office to
help the weak, to revenge the wronged, and to punish traitors. Ransack
your memory, and if you find anything of this sort for me to do, you
have but to utter it, and I promise you, by the Order of Knighthood
which I have received, to procure you satisfaction to your heart's
content,"
"Sir knight," replied the innkeeper with equal gravity, "I have no
need that your worship should avenge me any wrong, for I know how to
take what revenge I think good when an injury is done. All I want is
that your worship should pay me the score you have run up this night
in mine inn, both for the straw and barley of your two beasts, and
your suppers and your beds."
"This then is an inn?" exclaimed Don Quixote.
"Ay, that it is, and a very respectable one, too," replied the
innkeeper.
"All this time then I have been deceived," said Don Quixote, "for in
truth I thought it was a castle and no mean one. But since it is
indeed an inn and no castle, all that can be done now is to ask you to
forgive me any payment, for I cannot break the laws of knights-errant,
of whom I know for certain that they never paid for lodging or
anything else in the inns where they stayed. For the good
entertainment that is given them is their due reward for the
sufferings they endure, seeking adventures both day and night, winter
and summer, a-foot and a-horseback, in thirst and hunger, in heat and
cold, being exposed to all the storms of heaven and the hardships of
earth."
"All that is no business of mine," retorted the innkeeper. "Pay me
what you owe me, and keep your tales of knights-errant for those who
want them. My business is to earn my living."
"You are a fool and a saucy fellow," said Don Quixote angrily, and,
spurring Rozinante and brandishing his lance, he swept out of the inn
yard before any one could stop him, and rode on a good distance
without waiting to see if his squire was following.
The innkeeper, when he saw him go without paying, ran up to get his
due from Sancho Panza, who also refused to pay, and said to him: "Sir,
seeing I am squire to a knight-errant, the same rule and reason for
not paying at inns and taverns hold as good for me as for my master."
The innkeeper grew angry at these words, and threatened that if he did
not pay speedily he would get it from him in a way he would not like.
Sancho replied that by the Order of Knighthood which his lord and
master had received, he would not pay a penny though it cost him his
life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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