Don Quixote - Part I - Page 355/400

"Egad, master," said Sancho, "if we have no other proof of our case than

what your worship puts forward, Mambrino's helmet is just as much a basin

as this good fellow's caparison is a pack-saddle."

"Do as I bid thee," said Don Quixote; "it cannot be that everything in

this castle goes by enchantment."

Sancho hastened to where the basin was, and brought it back with him, and

when Don Quixote saw it, he took hold of it and said:

"Your worships may see with what a face this squire can assert that this

is a basin and not the helmet I told you of; and I swear by the order of

chivalry I profess, that this helmet is the identical one I took from

him, without anything added to or taken from it."

"There is no doubt of that," said Sancho, "for from the time my master

won it until now he has only fought one battle in it, when he let loose

those unlucky men in chains; and if had not been for this basin-helmet he

would not have come off over well that time, for there was plenty of

stone-throwing in that affair."