The host fancied he called him Castellan because he took him for a "worthy of Castile,"[1] though he was in fact an Andalusian, and one from the Strand of San Lucar, as crafty a thief as Casus and as full of tricks as a student or a page. "In that case," said he,
"Your bed is on the flinty rock,
Your sleep to watch alway;[2]
and if so, you may dismount and safely reckon upon any quantity of sleeplessness under this roof for a twelvemonth, not to say for a single night." So saying, he advanced to hold the stirrup for Don Quixote, who got down with great difficulty and exertion (for he had not broken his fast all day), and then charged the host to take great care of his horse as he was the best bit of flesh that ever ate bread in this world. The landlord eyed him over, but did not find him as good as Don Quixote said, nor even half as good, and putting him up in the stable, he returned to see what might be wanted by his guest, whom the damsels, who had by this time made their peace with him, were now relieving of his armor. They had taken off his breastplate and backpiece, but they neither knew nor saw how to open his gorget or remove his make-shift helmet, for he had fastened it with green ribbons, which, as there was no untying the knots, required to be cut. This, however, he would not by any means consent to, so he remained all the evening with his helmet on, the drollest and oddest figure that can be imagined; and while they were removing his armor,
- ↑ Sano de Castilla—a slang phrase from the Germania dialect for a thief in disguise (ladron disimulado—Vocabulario de Germania de Hidalgo). "Castellano" and "alcaide" both mean governor of a castle or fortress, but the former means also a Castilian.
- ↑ The lines quoted by Don Quixote and the host are, in the original:
"Mis arreos son las armas,
Mi descanso el pelear,
Mi cama, las duras peñas,
Mi dormir, siempre velar."They occur first in the old, probably fourteenth century, ballad of Moriana en un Castillo, and were afterwards adopted as the beginning of a serenade. In England it would be a daring improbability to represent the landlord of a roadside alehouse capping verses with his guest out of Chevy Chase or Sir Andrew Barton, but in Spain familiarity with the old national ballad-poetry and proverbs is an accomplishment that may, even to this day, be met with in quarters quite as unpromising.
