“I cannot deny, Senor Don Quixote, that there
is some truth in what you say, especially as regards
the Spanish knights-errant; and I am willing to grant
too that the Twelve Peers of France existed, but I
am not disposed to believe that they did all the things
that the Archbishop Turpin relates of them. For
the truth of the matter is they were knights chosen
by the kings of France, and called ‘Peers’
because they were all equal in worth, rank and prowess
(at least if they were not they ought to have been),
and it was a kind of religious order like those of
Santiago and Calatrava in the present day, in which
it is assumed that those who take it are valiant knights
of distinction and good birth; and just as we say
now a Knight of St. John, or of Alcantara, they used
to say then a Knight of the Twelve Peers, because
twelve equals were chosen for that military order.
That there was a Cid, as well as a Bernardo del Carpio,
there can be no doubt; but that they did the deeds
people say they did, I hold to be very doubtful.
In that other matter of the pin of Count Pierres that
you speak of, and say is near Babieca’s saddle
in the Armoury, I confess my sin; for I am either
so stupid or so short-sighted, that, though I have
seen the saddle, I have never been able to see the
pin, in spite of it being as big as your worship says
it is.”
“For all that it is there, without any manner
of doubt,” said Don Quixote; “and more
by token they say it is inclosed in a sheath of cowhide
to keep it from rusting.”
“All that may be,” replied the canon;
“but, by the orders I have received, I do not
remember seeing it. However, granting it is there,
that is no reason why I am bound to believe the stories
of all those Amadises and of all that multitude of
knights they tell us about, nor is it reasonable that
a man like your worship, so worthy, and with so many
good qualities, and endowed with such a good understanding,
should allow himself to be persuaded that such wild
crazy things as are written in those absurd books
of chivalry are really true.”
CHAPTER L.
OF THE SHREWD CONTROVERSY WHICH DON QUIXOTE AND THE CANON HELD, TOGETHER
WITH OTHER INCIDENTS
“A good joke, that!” returned Don Quixote.
“Books that have been printed with the king’s
licence, and with the approbation of those to whom
they have been submitted, and read with universal
delight, and extolled by great and small, rich and
poor, learned and ignorant, gentle and simple, in
a word by people of every sort, of whatever rank or
condition they may be—that these should
be lies! And above all when they carry such an
appearance of truth with them; for they tell us the
father, mother, country, kindred, age, place, and
the achievements, step by step, and day by day, performed
by such a knight or knights! Hush, sir; utter
not such blasphemy; trust me I am advising you now
to act as a sensible man should; only read them, and
