EVERYONE loves Don Quixote... how could you not?
I am reading a really nice leather-bound copy I bought from Costco
Excerpt:
Chapter 8
OF THE GOOD FORTUNE WHICH THE VALIANT DON QUIXOTE HAD IN THE TERRIBLE AND UNDREAMED-OF ADVENTURE OF THE WINDMILLS, WITH OTHER OCCURRENCES WORTHY TO BE FITLY RECORDER
OF THE GOOD FORTUNE WHICH THE VALIANT DON QUIXOTE HAD IN THE TERRIBLE AND UNDREAMED-OF ADVENTURE OF THE WINDMILLS, WITH OTHER OCCURRENCES WORTHY TO BE FITLY RECORDER
At this point they came in sight of forty windmills that
there are on plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire, “Fortune
is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires
ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous
giants present themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and
with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes, for this is a righteous
warfare, and it is God’s good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the
face of the heart.”
“What giants?” said Sancho Panza.
“Those though seest there,” answered his master, “with the
long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long.”
“Look, your worship,” said Sancho, “what we see there are
not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that
turned by the wind make the millstone go.”
“It is easy to see, “replied Don Quixote, “that tho art not
used to the business of adventures. Those are giants; and if thou art afraid,
away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in
fierce and unequal combat.”
“So saying, he gave the spur to his steed Rocinate, heedless
of the cries of his squire Sancho sent after him, warning him that most
certainly they were windmills and not giants he was going to attack, He,
however, was so positive they were giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho,
nor Perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting, “Fly
not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you.”
A slight breeze at this moment sprang up, and the great
sails began to move, seeing which Don Quixote exclaimed, “Though ye flourish
more arms than the giant Briareus, ye have to reckon with me.”
So saying, and commending himself with all his heart to his
lady Dulcinea, imploring her to support him in such a peril, with lance in rest
and covered by his buckler, he charged at Rocinate’s fullest gallop and fell
upon the first mill that stood in front of him; but as he drove his lance point
into the sail the wind whirled it round with such force that it shivered the
lance to pieces, sweeping with it horse and rider, who went rolling over the
plain, in a sorry condition. Sancho hastened to his assistance as fast as his
ass could go, and when he came up he found him unable to move, with such a
shock had Rocinate fallen with him.
“God bless me!” said Sancho, “did I not tell your worship to
mind what you were about, for they were only windmills? And no one could have
made any mistake about it but one who had something of the same kind in his
head.”
“Hush friend Sancho,” replied Don Quixote, “the fortunes of
war more than any other are label to frequent fluctuations; and moreover I think,
and it is the truth, that the same sage Freston who carried off my study and
books, has turned these giants into mills in order to rob me of the glory of
vanquishing them, such is the enmity he bears me; but in the end his wicked
arts will avail but little against my good sword.”
Don Quixote
Written by: Miquel de Cervantes
Page 44 - 45