'What Castle or Fortress is this,' cried one of them, 'that we should observe these ceremonies? If thou beest the Innkeeper, command that the door be opened, for we are travellers that will tarry no longer than to bait our horses and away, for we ride post-haste.'
'Doth it seem to you, gentlemen,' said Don Quixote, 'that I look like an Innkeeper?'
'I know not what thou lookest like,' answered the other, 'but well I know that thou speakest madly in calling this Inn a Castle.'
'It is a Castle,' replied Don Quixote, 'and one of the best in this Province, and it hath people in it who have had a sceptre in hand and a Crown on their head.'
'They be some company of strolling players, then,' replied the man, laughing, 'for no others hold sceptres or wear crowns in such a paltry Inn as this is.'
'Thou knowest but little of the world,' answered Don Quixote, 'seeing thou art ignorant of the chances that are wont to happen in Knight Errantry.'
The man's companions wearied of this discourse, and turned again to knock with great fury at the door, and this time they not only waked the Innkeeper but also all the guests, and the former arose to demand their pleasure.
In the meantime it happened that one of the horses on which they rode came sniffing round Rozinante, who stood melancholy and sad, with his ears down, bearing up his outstretched Master. But being after all an animal of a friendly disposition to his own kind, he could not refrain from turning round to sniff at him who came towards him.
Scarce had he moved one step, when Don Quixote's two feet, which were close together, slipped, and, sliding from the saddle, the Knight would have fallen to the ground had he not remained hanging by the arm. This caused him so much pain that he felt that his wrist was being cut off or his arm torn away. For he hung so near to the ground that he touched it with the tips of his toes; and this increased his misery, for, feeling the little that was wanted to set his feet wholly on the ground, he struggled all he could to reach it, deceived by the hope that he could indeed touch it if he only stretched himself a little further.