Which Gives an Account of a Thousand Flim-Flams and Stories, As Impertinent as Necessary to the Right Understanding of This Grand History.
Don Quixote, Sancho, and the scholar now seek a lodging. They are overtaken by a briskly walking man leading a mule laden with weapons. Barely greeting them, the man hurries past but says that if they meet at the same inn, he shall relate strange news. The next person they meet is a threadbare page who entertains them with his brief account of how he has been an ill-paid servant and is now ready to join a foot regiment and make his fortune as a soldier. Don Quixote makes a small speech at this point, again expressing his (and Cervantes') ideas of the virtue, nobility, and bright future of the life of a soldier. The young page accepts the knight's invitation to supper, and they arrive at the inn at nightfall.
