the stem of a tree growing on the bank. Don Quixote looked all

round, and seeing nobody, at once, without more ado, dismounted from

Rocinante and bade Sancho get down from Dapple and tie both beasts

securely to the trunk of a poplar or willow that stood there. Sancho

asked him the reason of this sudden dismounting and tying. Don Quixote

made answer, "Thou must know, Sancho, that this bark is plainly, and

without the possibility of any alternative, calling and inviting me to

enter it, and in it go to give aid to some knight or other person of