Don Quixote - Part I - Page 124/400

It so happened that there was lodging that night in the inn a caudrillero

of what they call the Old Holy Brotherhood of Toledo, who, also hearing

the extraordinary noise of the conflict, seized his staff and the tin

case with his warrants, and made his way in the dark into the room

crying: "Hold! in the name of the Jurisdiction! Hold! in the name of the

Holy Brotherhood!"

The first that he came upon was the pummelled Don Quixote, who lay

stretched senseless on his back upon his broken-down bed, and, his hand

falling on the beard as he felt about, he continued to cry, "Help for the

Jurisdiction!" but perceiving that he whom he had laid hold of did not

move or stir, he concluded that he was dead and that those in the room

were his murderers, and with this suspicion he raised his voice still

higher, calling out, "Shut the inn gate; see that no one goes out; they

have killed a man here!" This cry startled them all, and each dropped the

contest at the point at which the voice reached him. The innkeeper

retreated to his room, the carrier to his pack-saddles, the lass to her

crib; the unlucky Don Quixote and Sancho alone were unable to move from

where they were. The cuadrillero on this let go Don Quixote's beard, and

went out to look for a light to search for and apprehend the culprits;

but not finding one, as the innkeeper had purposely extinguished the

lantern on retreating to his room, he was compelled to have recourse to

the hearth, where after much time and trouble he lit another lamp.