have already chastised thy folly and rashness, miserable creature." To which the Biscayan returned, "I no gentleman![1]—I swear to God thou liest as I am Christian: if thou droppest lance and drawest sword, soon shalt thou see thou art carrying water to the cat:[2] Biscayan on land, hidalgo at sea, hidalgo at the devil, and look, if thou sayest otherwise thou liest."
"'"You will see presently," said Agrajes,'"[3] replied Don Quixote; and throwing his lance on the ground he drew his sword, braced his buckler on his arm, and attacked the Biscayan, bent upon taking his life.
The Biscayan, when he saw him coming on, though he wished to dismount from his mule, in which, being one of those sorry ones let out for hire, he had no confidence, had no choice but to draw his sword; it was lucky for him, however, that he was near the coach, from which he was able to snatch a cushion that served him for a shield; and then they went at one another as if they had been two mortal enemies. The others strove to make peace between them, but could not, for the Biscayan declared in his disjointed phrase that if they did not let him finish his battle he would kill his mistress and every one that strove to prevent him. The lady in the coach, amazed and terrified at what she saw, ordered the coachman to draw aside a little, and set herself to watch this severe struggle, in the course of which the Biscayan smote Don Quixote a mighty stroke on the shoulder over the top of his buckler, which, given to one without armor, would have cleft him to the waist. Don Quixote, feeling the weight of this prodigious blow, cried aloud, saying, "lady of my soul, Dulcinea, flower of beauty, come to the aid of this your knight, who, in fulfilling his obligations to your beauty, finds himself in this extreme peril." To say this, to lift his sword, to shelter himself well behind his buckler,
- ↑ Caballero means "gentleman" as well as knight, and the peppery Biscayan assumes that Don Quixote has used the word in the former sense.
- ↑ Quien ha de llevar el gato al agua? (Prov. 102.) "Who will carry the cat to the water?" is a proverbial way of indicating an apparently insuperable difficulty. Between rage and ignorance the Biscayan, it will be seen, inverts the phrase.
- ↑ Agrajes was the cousin and companion of Amadis of Gaul. The phrase quoted above (Prov. 4) became a popular one, and is introduced as such among others of the same sort by Quevedo in the vision of the Visita de los Chistes. It is hard to say why it should have been fixed on Agrajes, who does not seem to use it as often as others, Amadis himself for instance.
