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.