WHICH TREATS OF THE FIRST SALLY THE INGENIOUS DON QUIXOTE MADE FROM HOME
These preliminaries settled, he did not care to put
off any longer the execution of his design, urged
on to it by the thought of all the world was losing
by his delay, seeing what wrongs he intended to right,
grievances to redress, injustices to repair, abuses
to remove, and duties to discharge. So, without
giving notice of his intention to anyone, and without
anybody seeing him, one morning before the dawning
of the day (which was one of the hottest of the month
of July) he donned his suit of armour, mounted Rocinante
with his patched-up helmet on, braced his buckler,
took his lance, and by the back door of the yard sallied
forth upon the plain in the highest contentment and
satisfaction at seeing with what ease he had made
a beginning with his grand purpose. But scarcely
did he find himself upon the open plain, when a terrible
thought struck him, one all but enough to make him
abandon the enterprise at the very outset. It
occurred to him that he had not been dubbed a knight,
and that according to the law of chivalry he neither
could nor ought to bear arms against any knight; and
that even if he had been, still he ought, as a novice
knight, to wear white armour, without a device upon
the shield until by his prowess he had earned one.
These reflections made him waver in his purpose, but
his craze being stronger than any reasoning, he made
up his mind to have himself dubbed a knight by the
first one he came across, following the example of
others in the same case, as he had read in the books
that brought him to this pass. As for white armour,
he resolved, on the first opportunity, to scour his
until it was whiter than an ermine; and so comforting
himself he pursued his way, taking that which his
horse chose, for in this he believed lay the essence
of adventures.
Thus setting out, our new-fledged adventurer paced
along, talking to himself and saying, “Who knows
but that in time to come, when the veracious history
of my famous deeds is made known, the sage who writes
it, when he has to set forth my first sally in the
early morning, will do it after this fashion?
’Scarce had the rubicund Apollo spread o’er
the face of the broad spacious earth the golden threads
of his bright hair, scarce had the little birds of
painted plumage attuned their notes to hail with dulcet
and mellifluous harmony the coming of the rosy Dawn,
that, deserting the soft couch of her jealous spouse,
was appearing to mortals at the gates and balconies
of the Manchegan horizon, when the renowned knight
Don Quixote of La Mancha, quitting the lazy down, mounted
his celebrated steed Rocinante and began to traverse
the ancient and famous Campo de Montiel;’”
which in fact he was actually traversing. “Happy
the age, happy the time,” he continued, “in
which shall be made known my deeds of fame, worthy
to be moulded in brass, carved in marble, limned in
