_Don Quixote._
Sir,--Have the following contradictions in Cervantes' account of
Sancho's ass "Dapple" ever been noticed or accounted for?
In _Don Quixote_, Part. I. chap. 23, we find Dapple's abduction at
night by Gines de Passamonte; only a few lines afterwards, lo! Sancho is
seated on her back, sideways, like a woman, eating his breakfast. In
spite of which, chap. 25. proves that she is still missing. Sancho
tacitly admits the fact, by invoking "blessings on the head of the man
who had saved him the trouble of unharnessing her." Chap. 30. contains
her rescue from Passamonte.