Absorbed in his thoughts, Don Quixote, the famous knight, had not proceeded more than half a league on his journey when, raising his head, he perceived a cart covered with royal flags coming along the road they were travelling, and, persuaded that this must be some new adventure, he called aloud to Sancho, his squire, to bring him his helmet. As the squire approached, he called to him: “Give me that helmet, my friend, for either I know little of adventures or what I observe yonder is one that will, and does, call on me to arm myself.”
Cervantes
By the time that Don Quixote had put on his helmet, the cart with the flags had come up, unattended by any one except the carter on a mule, and a man sitting before the door of the cart. The knight planted himself before it, and said: “Where are you going, brothers? What cart is this? What have you got in it? What flags are those?”
To this the carter replied: “The cart is mine; what is in it is a pair of fine caged lions, which the governor of Oran is sending to court as a present to his Majesty, and the flags are our lord the king’s, to show that this is his property.”
“Are the lions large?” asked Don Quixote.
“So large,” replied the man who sat at the door of the cart, “that larger have never crossed from Africa to Spain. I am the keeper, and I have brought over others, but never any like these. They are hungry now, for they have eaten nothing to-day, so let your worship stand aside, for we must make haste to the place where we are to feed them.”
Hereon, smiling slightly, Don Quixote exclaimed: “Get down, my good fellow, and as you are the keeper, open the cages and turn out those beasts, and in the midst of this plain, I shall let them know who Don Quixote of La Mancha is, in spite and in the teeth of the enchanters who sent them to me.”
At this instant Sancho came up, saying to the keeper of the lions: “Sir, do something to keep my master, Don Quixote, from fighting those lions; for if he does, they’ll tear us all to pieces here.”
“Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “you leave this business to me;” and then turning to the keeper, he exclaimed: “By all that’s good, Sir Keeper, if you do not open the cages this very instant, I shall pin you to the cart with this lance.”