At this
point they came in sight of thirty forty windmills that there are on plain, and
as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire, “Fortune is arranging
matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires ourselves, for look
there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present
themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose
spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes; for this is righteous warfare, and
it is God’s good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the
earth.”
“What
giants?” said Sancho Panza.
“Those thou
seest there,” answered his master, “with the long arms, and some have them
nearly two leagues long.”
“Look, your
worship,” said Sancho; “what we see there are not giants but windmills, and
what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the
millstone go.”
“It is easy
to see,” replied Don Quixote, “that thou art not used to this business of
adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of
this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal
combat.”
So saying,
he gave the spur to his steed Rocinante, heedless of the cries his squire
Sancho sent after him, warning him that most certainly they were windmills and
not giants he was going to attack. He, however, was so positive they were
giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho, nor perceived, near as he
was, what they were, but made at them shouting, “Fly not, cowards and vile
beings, for a single knight attacks you.”
A slight
breeze at this moment sprang up, and the great sails began to move, seeing
which Don Quixote exclaimed, “Though ye flourish more arms than the giant
Briareus, ye have to reckon with me.”
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