DON QUIXOTE de la MANCHA Unabridged

He was still sleeping; so the curate asked the niece for the keys of the room where thebooks, the authors of all the mischief, were, and right willingly she gave them. They allwent in, the housekeeper with them, and found more than a hundred volumes of bigbooks very well bound, and some other small ones. The moment the housekeeper sawthem she turned about and ran out of the room, and came back immediately with asaucer of holy water and a sprinkler, saying, "Here, your worship, senor licentiate,sprinkle this room; don't leave any magician of the many there are in these books tobewitch us in revenge for our design of banishing them from the world."The simplicity of the housekeeper made the licentiate laugh, and he directed thebarber to give him the books one by one to see what they were about, as there might besome to be found among them that did not deserve the penalty of fire."No," said the niece, "there is no reason for showing mercy to any of them; they haveevery one of them done mischief; better fling them out of the window into the court andmake a pile of them and set fire to them; or else carry them into the yard, and there abonfire can be made without the smoke giving any annoyance." The housekeeper saidthe same, so eager were they both for the slaughter of those innocents, but the curatewould not agree to it without first reading at any rate the titles.The first that Master Nicholas put into his hand was "The four books of Amadis ofGaul." "This seems a mysterious thing," said the curate, "for, as I have heard say, thiswas the first book of chivalry printed in Spain, and from this all the others derive their birthand origin; so it seems to me that we ought inexorably to condemn it to the flames as thefounder of so vile a sect.""Nay, sir," said the barber, "I too, have heard say that this is the best of all the books ofthis kind that have been written, and so, as something singular in its line, it ought to bepardoned.""True," said the curate; "and for that reason let its life be spared for the present. Let ussee that other which is next to it.""It is," said the barber, "the 'Sergas de Esplandian,' the lawful son of Amadis of Gaul.""Then verily," said the curate, "the merit of the father must not be put down to theaccount of the son. Take it, mistress housekeeper; open the window and fling it into theyard and lay the foundation of the pile for the bonfire we are to make."The housekeeper obeyed with great satisfaction, and the worthy "Esplandian" wentflying into the yard to await with all patience the fire that was in store for him."Proceed," said the curate."This that comes next," said the barber, "is 'Amadis of Greece,' and, indeed, I believeall those on this side are of the same Amadis lineage.""Then to the yard with the whole of them," said the curate; "for to have the burning ofQueen Pintiquiniestra, and the shepherd Darinel and his eclogues, and the bedevilledand involved discourses of his author, I would burn with them the father who begot me ifhe were going about in the guise of a knight-errant.""I am of the same mind," said the barber."And so am I," added the niece."In that case," said the housekeeper, "here, into the yard with them!"They were handed to her, and as there were many of them, she spared herself thestaircase, and flung them down out of the window."Who is that tub there?" said the curate."This," said the barber, "is 'Don Olivante de Laura.'"