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The canon was amazed to hear the medley of truth and fiction Don Quixote

uttered, and to see hoell acquainted he ith everything relating

or belonging to the achieveht-errantry; so he said in

reply:

"I cannot deny, Senor Don Quixote, that there is soards the Spanish knights-errant; and I arant too that the Twelve Peers of France existed, but I as that the Archbishop

Turpin relates of thehts

chosen by the kings of France, and called 'Peers' because they were all

equal in worth, rank and prowess (at least if they were not they ought to

have been), and it was a kind of religious order like those of Santiago

and Calatrava in the present day, in which it is assuhts of distinction and good birth; and just as we

say now a Knight of St John, or of Alcantara, they used to say then a

Knight of the Twelve Peers, because twelve equals were chosen for that

military order That there was a Cid, as well as a Bernardo del Carpio,

there can be no doubt; but that they did the deeds people say they did, I

hold to be very doubtful In that other matter of the pin of Count