Connecticut western news., 1921-09-08

nimbly slipped from his ass and be- {! gan to strip the luckless man; while he was engaged in this legitimate ap- propriation of the spells of the battle, i two muleteeers of the train overset him, tore out his beard by handfuls, mauled him and left him senseless- Don Quixote engaged in a terrific com bat with one of the lady's guard who sliced off half of his helmet and one of his ears. Undaunted the knight pressed the combat to victory, but | just as he was about to give the finish
 ing stroke, the frightened lady begged
 him to desist and he complied on con
 dition that the defeated opponent
 should go and present himself before.
 the peerless Duloinea, who was in l reality buXom woman known
 through all Ia Mancha for her skill in
 salting pork and who had never deign-
 ed to look at her an1orous neighbor.
 A few days later, bruised and bat
 tered in untoward adventures, they
 came upon flock of sheep which Don l Quixote conceived to be a prodigious
 army composed of m infinite number
 of nations led by mighty kings. He
 spurred like a thunderbolt from the
 top of hillock, shouting his battle i challenge, putting the hapless sheep
 to flight and trampling both the living
 and the slain. Impatient to meet the
 commander of the enemy he shouted:
 "Where, where art thou, naughty
 Allfanfaron?"
 At that moment the shepherds ral-
 lied in defense of their flocks and
 overwhelmed the unlucky knight first
 with stones and then with cudge.s.
 leaving him in a desperate case, with
 nearly all of his teeth knocked out
 or loesened, and his ribs half broken.
 Did this adventure discourage him?
 Not at all. It was all part of chival-
 ". He and Sancho rode on in dolor-
 Ous discourse. They were overtaken
 by night and had no shelter or food.
 Suddenly appeared a band of about
 twenty horsemen, all in white robes,
 with torches in their hands and fol-
 lowed by a hearse draped in black.
 It was the funeral of a gentleman of
 SegOvia; Don QuiXote took 1t to be the train of some knight either Killed or desperately wounded, and, assured that 1t was his duty to avcnge the
 misfortunes of brother-in-arns, halted the cortege and demanded an explanation. The replies of the clergy men failed to satisfy him and he flew
 at them in high dudgeon. Encountered
 by their robes they became easy vic tims and all took to flight.
 They possessed themselves of the edibles deserted by the clergymen, but,
 unfortunately, had nothing to drink, } nor did they dare stir from the forest | because of the awful clamof made by , fulling-mill which Don Quixote sup 5 posed to be enchantment.
 $ The next morning they met a bar , Der riding on an assoahd wearing his , brass basin on his head to save his !, hat from the rain. Don Quixote rec . ognized this as the golden helmet of . Mambrlno and flew at the enemy as } if he would grind him to powder. The = barber fled, leaving his helmet which - Sancho appropriated, though 1t seem
 ed to him merely a common dish.
 r They came to another inn. In the ? night Don Quixote, while sound asleep t and dreaming. enjoyed the most fa- r nous battle of his career. Dressed t in a short shirt which exposed his f lean, long, hairy shanks, and wearing
 a greasy red nightcap, with a blanket a wrapped around his left arm for a shield, he was repeatedly plunging his !, sword into the plump bodies of sev. 9 eral giants. Their blood flowed across ~ the floor in wide, crimson streams. r Imagine the wrath of the worthy inn-keeper at discovering that his l famous guest had disemboweled all |. his wine-sacks, which were made of goat-skins with the heads left on.
 s After this Don Qulxote was got ,, home by the curate and the barber s but he broke loose again. First he s visited his Dulcinea, but came away B convinced that through more enchant D ment she had been changed into ( f blubber-cheeked, fat-nosed country s wench, the pearls of her eyes into gall t nuts, her long golden locks into { cows tail and her palace into a hut He had adventures with strollint 2 actors and lions; he attended th' n rich Camacho's wedding; he explored c the deep cave of Honteanos; he rode o on a magic bark and visited the name
 less duke and duchess, through whose ; complaisance Sancho was granted hii l. ambition to rule over an island and did 1t with wisdom worthy of Solo r. mon. Many more adventures follow g. ed, but at last Don Quixote returned s to his home and recovered his senses d on his death-bed, dying as a lovable t., high-minded, noble-hearted gentleman It Cervantes' masterpiece is not al n satire. Don Quixote has lucid mo s., ments; Sancho's simplicity wells com ' mon sense, often expressed in witt! a proverbs. There is occasional coarse e ness, but not so much as In Shake o speare. The chief fault is its treatmen i' of insanity, in Its authors fondnes U for cruel and brutal, practical jokes