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The Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha Author:Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. WHICH TREATS OF THE FIRST SALLY THE INGENIOUS DON QUIXOTE MADE FROM HOME. These preliminaries settled, he did not care to put off any longer th... more »e execution of his design, urged on to it by the thought of all the world was losing by his delay, seeing what wrongs he intended to right, grievances to redress, injustices to repair, abuses to remove, and duties to discharge. So, without giving notice of his intention to any one, and without anybody seeing him, one morning before the dawn of the day (which was one of the hottest of the month of July) he donned his suit of armor, mounted Rocinante with his patched-up helmet on, braced his buckler, took his lance, and by the back door of the yard sallied forth upon the plain in the highest contentment and satisfaction at seeing with what ease he had made a beginning of his grand purpose. But scarcely did he find himself upon the open plain, when a terrible thought struck him, one all but enough to make him abandon the enterprise at the very outset. It occurred to him that he had not been dubbed a knight, and that according to the law of chivalry he neither could nor ought to bear arms against any knight; and that even if he had been, still he ought, as a novice knight, to wear white armor, without a device upon Donned: (do + on), to put on. " Dubbed a knight" : that part of the ceremony in conferring knighthood, called the accolade, which was a blow on the shoulder of the kneeling candidate with the flat of the sword. Novice knight: state of preparation to become a knight. White armor: blank armor, undecorated. Device: the design, or motto, on the shield of a knight to indicate his history, or ambition or desire. Scott's hero Ivanhoe had the motto " Desdichado" on his shield, meaning " Disinherited," showing...« less