The Deputation 



" I am the medico of the place — an old man, as you see — 

 and what little I know has reached me by tradition. It is 

 reported that Cervantes was paying his addresses to a young 

 lady, niece of the then alcalde^ whose name was Ouijana, or 

 Quijada. The alcalde^ disapproving of the suit, put him 

 into a dungeon under his house, and kept him there a year. 

 Once he escaped and fled, but he was taken in Toboso 

 and brought back. Cervantes wrote * Don Quixote' as a 

 satire on the alcalde^ who was a very proud man, full of 

 chivalresque ideas. You can see the dungeon to-morrow ; 

 but you should also see the batanes (water-mills) of the 

 Guadiana, whose {golpear) clapping so terrified Sancho 

 Panza. They are at about three leagues' distance. Going 

 a little further, you will see a powder-mill, and will be asto- 

 nished at the water-power. Ah ! in your country these 

 things would be fructified, but here we take advantage of 

 nothing. My house is at your disposition, Senores. We 

 are proud to receive, with all courtesy, strangers who come 

 here, doing honour to the memory of our illustrious towns- 

 man. If you will favour my house to-morrow, at five 

 o'clock, on your return from the batanes^ it will give me 

 great pleasure to conduct you to the house of Quijana, and 

 the dungeon where Cervantes wrote." 



They departed, and we went to bed. 



Next morning we were up early, and leaving our alforjas 

 behind, cantered away much more lightly than usual. After 

 about a league and a half, we got to a slight dip, which 

 gradually deepened into a shallowish valley. Passing a 

 ruinous Moorish castle on the left (which, by the way, I 

 wonder Cervantes made no use of), we came at last to the 

 mills. These clumsy ancient machines are composed of a 

 couple of huge wooden mallets, slung in a timber frame- 

 work, which, being pushed out of the perpendicular by 



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