In conversation of this kind they passed a good part of the night, but Sancho felt a desire to let down the curtains of his eyes, as he used to say when he wanted to go to sleep; and stripping Dapple he left him at liberty to graze his fill. He did not remove Rocinante’s saddle, as his master’s express orders were, that so long as they were in the field or not sleeping under a roof Rocinante was not to be stripped⁠—the ancient usage established and observed by knights-errant being to take off the bridle and hang it on the saddlebow, but to remove the saddle from the horse⁠—never!