Many very grave histories have I read, concerning knights-errant; but, never did I read, see, or hear, that enchanted knights were transported in this manner, at such a pace as these lazy, slow-footed animals seem to promise; for, they used always to be carried through the air, with surprising swiftness, wrapped up in some dark and dusky cloud, or in a fiery chariot, or mounted on a hippogriff, or some such creature[.]
Is it possible, good sir, that the idle and unlucky reading of books of chivalry, can have so far impaired your judgment, as that you should now believe yourself enchanted, and give credit to other illusions of the same kind, which are as far from being true as truth is distant from falsehood?
Sancho Panza’s wife, who had been given to understand, that he was gone with Don Quixote in the role of his squire, hearing of their return, ran straight to her husband, and the first question she asked, was, Whether or not the donkey was in good health? when the squire answered, that the donkey was in better health than his master, “Thanks be to God, cried she, for that and all other mercies.”
