"How long," said Don Quixote, "do you reckon that I have been in the cave?"

"A little above an hour," answered Sancho.

"That is impossible," said Don Quixote, "for I saw morning and evening, and evening and morning, three times since; so that I could not be absent less than three days from this upper world."

"Ay, ay," quoth Sancho, "my master is in the right; for these enchantments, that have the greatest share in all his concerns, may make that seem three days and three nights to him which is but an hour to other people."

"It must be so," said Don Quixote. "I hope, sir," said the scholar, “you have eaten something in all that time."

"Not one morsel," replied Don Quixote; "neither have had the least desire to eat, or so much as thought of it all the while."

"Do not they that are enchanted sometimes eat?" asked the scholar.

"They never do," answered Don Quixote.

"What do you mean, friend?" said the student. "Do you think the noble Don Quixote would be guilty of a lie? and if he had a mind to stretch a little, could he, think you, have had leisure to frame such a number of stories in so short a time?"

"I do not think that my master would lie neither," said Sancho. "What do ye think then, sir?" said Don Quixote.

"Well, truly, sir," quoth Sancho, "I do believe that this same cunning man, this Merlin, that bewitched or enchanted, as you call it, all that rabble of people you talk of, may have crammed and enchanted, some way or other, all that you have told us, and have yet to tell us, into your noddle."

Our worthy pair one day met at the palace of a duke a veiled lady who called herself the Countess Trifaldi, and who related a long story of grievances. She was in the power of a wicked magician, who had condemned her and her ladies to wear great beards upon their faces, and they were to be freed from the spell only by some gallant knight

"Never," said Don Quixote; "at least they never closed their eyes while I was among them, nor I either."

"This makes good the saying," quoth Sancho, "Tell me thy company, and I will tell thee what thou art.' Troth you have all been enchanted together. No wonder if you neither eat nor slept, since you were in the land of those that always watch and fast. But, sir, would you have me speak as I think? and pray do not take it in ill part, for if I believe one word of all you have said—”

land where the conjuror dwelt and overcoming him. This journey was to be accomplished on a magical horse, which would carry both the knight and his squire, and would fly through the air in obedience to their will. Don Quixote and Sancho mounted. The attendants forced air upon them from a great bellows, and thus persuaded the Don that he was flying through the air at a prodigious pace. Other shrewd devices increased the delusion, and as the knight never once looked down he was convinced that he had ridden thousands of

move an inch. At last the horse, which was filled with gas, was made to explode. The two riders were gently thrown to the ground, and then the knight was made to understand that his mission had succeeded through the mere attempt to carry it out.

The success of this trick mightily pleased the duke and duchess, and they resolved to try another upon the credulous pair. So they told Sancho he was. to be made governor of a certain island, to which the duke would send him. The fat squire was much pleased at this, and was eager to depart.

Don Quixote gave Sancho much good advice about the manner in which he should administer the government of his island, and ended with saying:

"If, Sancho, thou wilt observe these precepts and rules thy days will be long, and thy fame eternal, thy recompense full, and thy felicity unspeakable. Thou shalt match thy children as it may please thee; they and their children shall inherit titles; thou shalt live in peace and in favor with all men and at the end of thy life death shall find the in a sweet and mature old age, and thy eyes shall be closed by the tender and pious hands of thy children's grandchildren."

After many other marvellous adventures the knight determined to become a shepherd and end his days in quiet pastoral pursuits. At this his old neighbors were rejoiced, for they hoped thus to see an end made of his romantic follies which were continually bringing him into danger of life and limb. But before he could carry his resolution into effect

the doctor could do he steadily failed and his end seemed near at hand. One day he awoke as if from a sound sleep and began to praise God.

The niece, hearkening very attentively to these words of her uncle, and finding more sense in them than there was in his usual talk, at least since he had fallen ill, "What do you say, sir?" said she; "has anything extraordinary happened? What mercies are these you mention?"

"Mercies," answered he, "that Heaven has this moment vouchsafed to show me, in spite of all my iniquities. My judgment is returned, clear and undisturbed, and that cloud of ignorance is now removed which the continual reading of those books of knight-errantry had cast over my understanding. I am only sorry the discovery happens so late, when I want time to make amends by those studies that should enlighten my soul, and prepare me for futurity. I find, niece, my end approaches; but I would have it such, that though my life has got me the character of a madman, I may deserve a better at my death. I am no longer Don Quixote de la Mancha, but 4.onzo Quixano, the same whom the world, for his fair behavior, had been formerly pleased to call The Good. I now declare myself an enemy to Amadis de Gaul, and his whole generation; all foolish stories of knight-errantry I detest. I have a true sense of the danger of reading them, and of all my past follies; and, through Heaven's mercy and my own experience, I abhor them."

Thus being at last freed from his follies. and delusions he called for a clergyman and made his will, disposing of his estate in a sensible and proper fashion. He left

the bulk of his property to his niece, but with this proviso:

"Item, It is my will, that if my niece Antonia Quixano be inclinable to marry, it be with none but a person who, upon strict inquiry, shall be found never to have read a book of knight-errantry in his life; and in case it appears that he has been conversant in such books, and that she persists in her resolution to marry him, she is then to forfeit all right and title to my bequest, which, in such case, my executors are hereby empowered

to dispose of to pious uses, as they shall think most proper."

Having finished the will, he died in his bed quietly, and like a good Christian.

Thus died that ingenious gentleman, Don Quixote de la Mancha, whose native place Cid Hamet has not thought fit directly to mention, with design that all the towns and villages in La Mancha should contend for the honor of giving him birth, as the seven cities of Greece did for Homer.