 CHAPTER XXI In which Camacho's wedding is continued with other delightful incidents. While Don Quixote and Sancho were engaged in the discussion set forth the last chapter, they heard loud shouts and a great noise which were uttered and made by the men on the meirs as they went at full gallop, shouting to receive the bride and bridegroom who were approaching with musical instruments and pageantry of all sorts around them, and accompanied by the priest and the relatives of both and all the most distinguished people of the surrounding villages. When Sancho saw the bride, he exclaimed, �By my faith she is not dressed like a country girl, but like some fine court-lady, e-gad as well as I can make out, the patina she wears rich coral, and her green quenca stuff is thirty-pile velvet, and then the white linen trimming by my oath, but it's satin! Look at her hands, jet-rings on them! May I never have luck if they're not gold-rings and real gold, and set with pearls as white as a curdled milk, and every one of them worth an eye of one's head! Oh, son baggage, what hair she has if it's not a wig I never saw longer or fairer all the days of my life! See how bravely she bears herself and her shape! Wouldn't you say she was like a walking palm-tree, loaded with clusters of dates, for the trinkets she has hanging from her hair and neck look just like them? I swear in my heart she is a brave lass, and fit to pass over the banks of Flanders! Don Quixote laughed at Sancho's boorish eulogies, and thought that, saving his lady Dulcinea Del Toboso, he had never seen a more beautiful woman. The fair quiteria appeared somewhat pale, which was no doubt because of the bad night brides always pass dressing themselves out for their wedding on the morrow. They advanced towards a theatre that stood on one side of the meadow, decked with carpets and boughs, where they were to plight their truth, and from which they were to behold the dances and plays. But at the moment of their arrival at the spot they heard a loud outcry behind them, and a voice exclaiming, Wait a little ye as inconsiderate as ye are hasty! At these words all turned round, and perceived that the speaker was a man clad in what seemed to be a loose black coat, garnished with crimson patches like flames. He was crowned, as was presently seen, with a crown of gloomy cypress, and in his hand he held a long staff. As he approached, he was recognized by everyone as the gay Basilio, and all waited anxiously to see what would come of his words, in dread of some catastrophe and consequence of his appearance, at such a moment. He came up at last, weary and breathless, and planting himself in front of the bridal pair, drove his staff, which had a steel spike at the end, into the ground, and with a pale face and eyes fixed on Keteria, he thus addressed her in a hoarse, trembling voice. Well, dost thou know ungrateful Keteria, that according to the holy law we acknowledge, so long as live thou can't take no husband, nor art thou ignorant either, that in my hopes that time and my own exertions would improve my fortunes, I have never failed to observe the respect due to thy honour. But thou, casting behind the all thou o'est to my true love, would surrender what is mine to another, whose wealth serves to bring him not only good fortune, but supreme happiness. And now, to complete it, not that I think he deserves it, but in as much as heaven is pleased to bestow it upon him, I will, with my own hands, do away with the obstacle that may interfere with it, and remove myself from between you. Long live the rich Camacho! Many a happy year may he live with the ungrateful Keteria, and let the poor Basilio die, Basilio whose poverty clipped the wings of his happiness, and brought him to the grave. And so, saying, he seized a staff he had riven into the ground, and leaving one half of it fixed there, showed it to be a sheath that concealed a tolerably long rapier, and what may be called its hilt being planted in the ground, he swiftly, coolly, and deliberately threw himself upon it, and in an instant the bloody point and half the steel blade appeared at his back, the unhappy man falling to the earth, bathed in his blood, and transfixed by his own weapon. His friends at once ran to his aid, filled with grief at his misery and sad fate, and Don Quixote, dismounting from Rocinante, hastened to support him, and took him in his arms, and found he had not yet ceased to breathe. They were about to draw out the rapier, but the priest who was standing by objected to its being withdrawn before he had confessed him, as the instant of its withdrawal would be that of his death. Basilio, however, reviving slightly, said in a weak voice as though in pain, if thou wouldst consent, cruel quiteria, to give me thy hand as my bride in this last fatal moment, I might still hope that my rashness would find pardon, as by its means I attained the bliss of being thine. Hearing this, the priest, bade him think of the welfare of his soul rather than of the cravings of the body, and in all earnestness implore God's pardon for his sins and for his rash resolve, to which Basilio replied that he was determined not to confess until quiteria first gave him her hand in marriage. For that happiness would compose his mind, and give him courage to make his confession. Don Quixote, hearing the wounded man's entreaty, exclaimed aloud that what Basilio asked was just and reasonable, and, moreover, a request that might be easily complied with, and that it would be as much to Signor Camacho's honor to receive the Lady Quiteria as the widow of the brave Basilio as if he received her direct from her father. In this case, said he, it will be only to say yes, and no consequences can follow the utterances of the word, for the nuptial couch of this marriage must be the grave. Camacho was listening to all this, perplexed and bewildered, and not knowing what to say or do, but so urgent were the entreaties of Basilio's friends imploring him to allow Quiteria to give him her hand, so that his soul, quitting this life in despair, should not be lost, that they moved, nay, forced him to say that if Quiteria were willing to give it he was satisfied, as it was only putting off the fulfillment of his wishes for a moment. At once all assailed Quiteria and pressed her, some with prayers and others with tears and others with persuasive arguments, to give her hand to poor Basilio, but she, harder than marble and more unmoved than any statue, seemed unable or unwilling to utter a word, nor would she have given any reply, had not the priest bade her decide quickly what she meant to do, as Basilio now had his soul at his teeth, and there was no time for hesitation. On this the fair Quiteria to all appearance distressed, grieved and repentant advanced without a word to where Basilio lay, his eyes already turned in his head, his breathing short and painful, murmuring the name of Quiteria between his teeth, and apparently about to die like a heathen and not like a Christian. Quiteria approached him, and kneeling demanded his hand by signs, without speaking. Basilio opened his eyes, and gazing fixedly at her said, Oh Quiteria, why hast thou turned compassionate, at a moment when thy compassion will serve as a dagger to rob me of my life? For I have not now the strength left, either to bear the happiness thou givest me in accepting me as thine, or to suppress the pain that is rapidly drawing the dread shadow of death over my eyes. What I entreat of thee, O thou fatal star to me, is that the hand thou demandest of me and wouldst give me be not given out of compliance, or to deceive me afresh, but that thou confess and declare that without any constraint upon thy will thou givest it to me as thy lawful husband, for it is not me that thou shouldst trifle with me at such a moment as this, or have recourse to falsehoods with one who has dealt so truly by thee. While uttering these words, he showed such weakness that the bystanders expected each return of faintness would take his life with it. Then Quiteria overcome with modesty and shame, holding in her right hand the hand of Basilio said, No force would bend my will, as freely, therefore, as it is possible for me to do so, I give thee the hand of a lawful wife, and take thine if thou givest it to me of thine own free will, untroubled and unaffected by the calamity thy hasty act has brought upon thee. Yes, I give it, said Basilio, not agitated or distracted, but with unclouded reason that heaven is pleased to grant me. Thus do I give myself to be thy husband, and I give myself to be thy wife, said Quiteria, whether thou livest many years or they carry thee from my arms to the grave. For one so badly wounded observed Sancho at this point, this young man has a great deal to say. They should make him leave off billing and cooing and attend to his soul, for to my thinking he has it more on his tongue than at his teeth. Basilio and Quiteria having thus joined hands, the priest deeply moved and with tears in his eyes, pronounced the blessing upon them, and implored heaven to grant an easy passage to the soul of the newly wedded man, who, the instant he received the blessing, started nimbly to his feet, and with unparalleled effrontery pulled out the rapier that had been sheathed in his body. All the bystanders were astounded, and some more simple than inquiring began shouting, a miracle, a miracle! But Basilio replied, no miracle, no miracle, only a trick, a trick! The priest perplexed and amazed made haste to examine the wound with both hands, and found that the blade had passed not through Basilio's flesh and ribs, but through a hollow iron tube full of blood, which he had adroitly fixed at the place. The blood, as was afterwards ascertained, having been so prepared as not to congeal. In short, the priest and Camacho, and most of those present, saw they were tricked and made fools of. The bride showed no signs of displeasure at the deception. On the contrary, hearing them say that the marriage being fraudulent would not be valid, she said that she confirmed it afresh, whence they all concluded that the affair had been planned by agreement and understanding between the pair, where at Camacho and his supporters was so mortified that they proceeded to revenge themselves by violence, and a great number of them drawing their swords attacked Basilio, in whose protection as many more swords were in an instant unsheathed, while Don Quixote, taking the lead on horseback with his lance over his arm and well covered with his shield, made all give way before him. Sancho, who never found any pleasure or enjoyment in such doings, retreated to the wine jars from which he had taken his delectable skimmings, considering that as a holy place that spot would be respected. Hold, sirs, hold, cried Don Quixote in a loud voice. We have no right to take vengeance for wrongs that love may do to us. Remember, love and war are the same thing, and as in war it is allowable and common to make use of wiles and stratagems to overcome an enemy. So in the contests and rivalries of love, the tricks and devices employed to attain the desired end are justifiable, provided they be not to the discredit or dishonour of the loved object. Quiteria belong to Basilio, and Basilio to Quiteria by the just and beneficent disposal of heaven. Camacho is rich and can purchase his pleasure, win where and as it pleases him. Basilio has but this eulam, and no one, however powerful he may be, shall take her from him. These two whom God hath joined, man cannot separate, and he who attempts it must first pass the point of this lance, and so saying he brandished it so stoutly and so dexterously, that he overawed all who did not know him. But so deep an impression had the rejection of Quiteria made on Camacho's mind, that it banished her at once from his thoughts, and so the councils of the priest who was a wise and kindly disposed man prevailed with him, and by their means he and his partisans were pacified and tranquilised, and to prove it put up their swords again, invading against the pliancy of Quiteria rather than the craftiness of Basilio. Camacho maintaining that if Quiteria as a maiden had such a love for Basilio she would have loved him too as a married woman, and that he ought to thank heaven more for having taken her than for having given her. Camacho and those of his following, therefore, being consoled and pacified, those on Basilio's side, were appeased, and the rich Camacho to show that he felt no resentment for the trick, and did not care about it, desired the festival to go on just as if he were married in reality. Neither Basilio, however, nor his bride nor the followers would take any part in it, and they withdrew to Basilio's village, for the poor, if they are persons of virtue and good sense, have those who follow honor and uphold them, just as the rich have those who flatter and dance attendance on them. With them they carried Don Quixote, regarding him as a man of worth and a stout one. Sancho alone had a cloud on his soul, for he found himself debarred from waiting for Camacho's splendid feast and festival, which lasted until night, and thus dragged away. He moodily followed his master, who accompanied Basilio's party and left behind him the flesh-parts of Egypt, though in his heart he took them with him, and there now nearly finished skimmings that he carried in the bucket, conjured up visions before his eyes of the glory and abundance of the good cheer he was losing. And so, vexed and ejected, though not hungry, without dismounting from dapple, he followed in the footsteps of Rocinante. The other day, the two men were gathered in the middle of the cave of Montesinos in the heart of La Mancha, which the valiant Don Quixote brought to a happy termination. Many and great were the attention shown to Don Quixote by the newly married couple, who felt themselves under an obligation to him for coming forward in defense of their his courage, rating him as a seed in arms and a Cicero in eloquence. Worthy Sancho enjoyed himself for three days at the expense of the pair, from whom they learned that the sham wound was not a scheme arranged with the fair quiteria, but a device of Basilio's, who counted on exactly the result they had seen. He confessed, it is true, that he had confided his idea to some of his friends, so that at the proper time they might aid him in his purpose and ensure the success of the deception. That, said Don Quixote, is not and ought not to be called deception, which aims at virtuous ends, and the marriage of lovers he maintained to be a most excellent end, reminding them, however, that love has no greater enemy than hunger and constant want, for love is all gaiety, enjoyment, and happiness, especially when the lover is in the possession of the object of his love, and poverty and want are the declared enemies of all these, which he said to urge Sr. Basilio to abandon the practice of those accomplishments he was skilled in. For though they brought him fame, they brought him no money, and apply himself to the acquisition of wealth by legitimate industry, which will never fail those who are prudent and persevering. The poor man who is a man of honor, if indeed a poor man can be a man of honor, has a jewel when he has a fair wife, and if she is taken from him his honor is taken from him and slain. The fair woman who is a woman of honor, and whose husband is poor, deserves to be crowned with the laurels and crowns of victory and triumph. Beauty by itself attracts the desires of all who behold it, and the royal eagles and birds of towering flight stoop on it as a dainty lure. But if beauty be accompanied by want and penury, then the ravens and the kites and other birds of prey assail it, she who stands firm against such attacks well deserves to be called the crown of her husband. Remember, O prudent Basilio, added Don Quixote, it was the opinion of a certain sage, I know not whom, that there was not more than one good woman in the whole world, and his advice was that each one should think and believe that this one good woman was his own wife, and in this way he would live happy. I myself am not married, nor so far has it ever entered my thoughts to be so. Nevertheless, I would venture to give advice to anyone who might ask it as to the mode in which he should seek a wife such as he would be content to marry. The first thing I would recommend him would be to look to good name rather than to wealth, for a good woman does not win a good name merely by being good, but by letting it be seen that she is so, and open looseness and freedom do much more damage to a woman's honor than secret depravity. If you take a good woman into your house, it will be an easy matter to keep her good, and even to make her still better. But if you take a bad one, you will find it hard work to mend her, for it is no very easy matter to pass from one extreme to another. I do not say it is impossible, but I look upon it as difficult. Sancho, listening to all this said to himself, this master of mine, when I say anything that has weight and substance, says I might take a pulpit in hand and go about the world preaching fine sermons. But I say of him that when he begins stringing maxims together and giving advice, not only might he take a pulpit in hand, but two on each finger and go into the marketplaces to his heart's content. Devil take you for a night, errant, what a lot of things you know. I used to think in my heart that the only thing he knew was what belonged to his chivalry, but there is nothing he won't have a finger in. Sancho muttered this somewhat aloud, and his master overheard him and asked, what art thou muttering there, Sancho? I'm not saying anything or muttering anything, said Sancho. I was only saying to myself that I wish I had heard what your worship has said just now before I married. Perhaps I'd say now the ox that's loose licks himself well. Is I, Teresa, so bad then, Sancho? She is not very bad, replied Sancho. But she is not very good. At least she is not as good as I could wish. Thou dost wrong, Sancho, said Don Quixote, to speak ill of thy wife, for after all she is the mother of thy children. We are quits, returned Sancho, for she speaks ill of me whenever she takes it into her head, especially when she is jealous, and Satan himself could not put up with her then. In fine they remained three days with the newly married couple, by whom they were entertained and treated like kings. Don Quixote begged the fencing licentiate to find him a guide to show him the way to the cave of Montesinos, as he had a great desire to enter it and see with his own eyes if the wonderful tales that were told of it all over the country were true. The licentiate said he would get him a cousin of his own, a famous scholar, and one very much given to reading books of chivalry, who would have great pleasure in conducting him to the mouth of the very cave, and would show him the lakes of Ruidera, which were likewise famous all over La Mancha, and even all over Spain, and he assured him he would find him entertaining, for he was a youth who could write books good enough to be printed and dedicated to princes. The cousin arrived at last, leading an ass in full, with a pack saddle covered with a party-colored carpet or sackcloth. Sancho saddled Rosinante, got dappled ready, and stocked his alfortchas, along with which went those of the cousin, likewise well-filled, and so commending themselves to God and bidding farewell to all, they set out, taking the road for the famous cave of Montesinos. On the way Don Quixote asked the cousin of what sort and character his pursuits, avocations, and studies were, to which he replied that he was by profession a humanist, and that his pursuits and studies were making books for the press, all of great utility, and no less entertainment to the nation. One was called the Book of Liveries, in which he described 703 liveries with their colors, mottos, and ciphers, from which gentlemen of the court might pick and choose any they fancied for festivals and revels, without having to go a-begging for them from anyone, or puzzling their brains, as the saying is, to have them appropriate to their objects and purpose. Four, said he, I give the jealous, the rejected, the forgotten, the absent, what will suit them and fit them without fail. I have another book, too, which I shall call Metamorphoses, or the Spanish Ovid, one of rare and original invention for imitating Ovid in burlesque style. I show in it who the Heralda of Seville and the Angel of the Magdalena were, what the sewer of Bessinguera at Corrova was, what the bulls of Guisando, the Sierra Morena, the Legitanos, and the Levapis Fountains at Madrid, not forgetting those of the Piojo, of the Cano Dorado and of the Priora, all with their allegories, metaphors and changes, so that they are amusing, interesting, and instructive all at once. Another book I have, which I call the Supplement to Pallidor Virgil, which treats of the invention of things and is a work of great erudition and research, for I establish and elucidate elegantly some things of great importance, which Pallidor omitted to mention. He forgot to tell us who was the first man in the world that had a cold in his head, and who was the first to try salivation for the French disease. But I give it accurately set forth, and quote more than five and twenty authors in proof of it, so you may perceive I have labored to good purpose, and that the book will be of service to the whole world. Sancho, who had been very attentive to the cousin's words, said to him, Tell me, senior, and God give you luck in printing your books. Can you tell me, for of course you know as you know everything, who was the first man that scratched his head? For to my thinking it must have been our father, Adam. So it must, replied the cousin, for there is no doubt that Adam had a head and hair, and being the first man in the world he would have scratched himself sometimes. So I think, said Sancho. But now tell me, who was the first tumbler in the world? Really, brother, answered the cousin, I could not at this moment say positively without having investigated it. I will look it up when I go back to where I have my books, and will satisfy you the next time we meet, for this will not be the last time. Look here, senior, said Sancho, don't give yourself any trouble about it, for I have just this moment hit upon what I asked you. The first tumbler in the world, you must know, was Lucifer, when they cast or pitched him out of heaven, for he came tumbling into the bottomless pit. You are right, friend, said the cousin, and said Don Quixote, Sancho, that question and answer are not thine own. Thou hast heard them from someone else. Hold your peace, senior, said Sancho. Faith, if I take to asking questions and answering, I'll go on from this till tomorrow morning. Nay, to ask foolish things and answer nonsense, I needn't go looking for help from my neighbours. Thou hast said more than thou art aware of, Sancho, said Don Quixote, for there are some who weary themselves out in learning and proving things, that after they are known and proved, are not worth a far thing for the understanding or memory. In this and other pleasant conversation the day went by, and that night they put up at a small hamlet, whence it was not more than two leagues to the cave of Montesinos. So the cousin told Don Quixote, adding that if he was bent upon entering it, it would be requisite for him to provide himself with ropes, so that he might be tied and lowered into its depths. Don Quixote said that even if it reached to the bottomless pit, he meant to see where it went to. So they bought about a hundred fathoms of rope, and next day at two in the afternoon they arrived at the cave, the mouth of which is spacious and wide, but full of thorn and wild fig bushes and brambles and briars, so thick and matted that they completely close it up and cover it over. In spite of it the cousin, Sancho and Don Quixote dismounted, and the first two immediately tied the latter very firmly with ropes, and as they were girding and swathing him Sancho said to him, mind what you were about mastermind, don't go burying yourself alive or putting yourself where you'll be like a bottle put to cool in a well. It's no affair or business of your worships to become the explorer of this, which must be addressed in a Moorish dungeon. Tie me and hold thy peace, said Don Quixote, for an impris like this, friend Sancho, was reserved for me, and said the guide, I beg of you, senor Don Quixote, to observe carefully and examine with a hundred eyes everything that is within there. Perhaps there may be some things for me to put into my book of transformations. The drum is in hands that will know how to beat it well enough, said Sancho Pansa. When he had said this and finished the tying, which was not over the armor but only over the doublet, Don Quixote observed, it was careless of us not to have provided ourselves with a small cattle-bell to be tied on the rope close to me, the sound of which would show that I was still descending and alive, but as that is out of the question now, in God's hand be it to guide me, and forthwith he fell on his knees, and in a low voice offered up a prayer to heaven, imploring God to aid him and grant him success in this to all appearance perilous and untried adventure, and then exclaimed aloud, O mistress of my actions and movements, illustrious and peerless, docenare del toboso, if so be the prayers and supplications of this fortunate lover can reach thy ears by thy incomparable beauty, I entreat thee to listen to them, for they but ask thee not to refuse me thy favour and protection, now that I stand in such need of them, I am about to precipitate, to sink, to plunge myself into the abyss that is here before me, only to let the world know that while thou dost favour me, there is no impossibility I will not attempt and accomplish. With these words he approached the cavern and perceived that it was impossible to let himself down or effect an entrance except by sheer force or cleaving a passage, so drawing his sword he began to demolish and cut away the brambles at the mouth of the cave, at the noise of which a vast multitude of crows and chaffs flew out of it so thick and so fast that they knocked Gontkihote down and if he had been as much of a believer in augury as he was a Catholic Christian he would have taken it as a bad omen and declined to bury himself in such a place. He got up however and as there came no more crows or nightbirds like the bats that flew out at the same time with the crows the cousin and Sancho giving him hope he lowered himself into the depths of the dread cavern and as he entered it Sancho sent his blessing after him making a thousand crosses over him and saying God and the Pena Defrancia and the trinity of guide to guide thee flower and cream of night's errant there thou goest thou dare devil of the earth heart of steel arm of brass once more God guide thee and send thee back safe sound and unhurt to the light of this world thou art leaving to bury thyself in the darkness thou art seeking there and the cousin offered up almost the same prayers and supplications. Gontkihote kept calling to them to give him rope and more rope and they gave it out little by little and by the time the calls which came out of the cave as out of a pipe ceased to be heard they had let down the hundred fathoms of rope. They were inclined to pull Gontkihote up again as they could give him no more rope however they waited about half an hour at the end of which time they began to gather in the rope again with great ease and without feeling any weight which made them fancy Gontkihote was remaining below and persuaded that it was so Sancho wept bitterly and hauled away in great haste in order to settle the question when however they had come to as it seemed rather more than eighty fathoms they felt a weight at which they were greatly delighted and at last at ten fathoms more they saw Gontkihote distinctly and Sancho called out to him saying welcome back senior for we had begun to think you were going to stop there to found a family but Gontkihote answered not a word and drawing him out entirely they perceived he had his eyes shut and every appearance of being fast asleep they stretched him out on the ground and untied him but still he did not awake however they rolled him back and forwards and shook and pulled him about so that after some time he came to himself stretching himself just as if he were waking up from a deep and sound sleep and looking about him he said God forgive you friends you have taken me away from the sweetest and most delightful existence and spectacle that ever human being enjoyed or beheld now indeed do I know that all the pleasures of this life pass away like a shadow and a dream or fade like the flower of the field oh ill-fated Montesinos oh so wounded Durandarte oh unhappy Balerma oh tearful Galyana and geo hapless daughters of ruidera who show in your waves the tears that flowed from your beauty eyes the cousin and Sancho Pansa listened with deep attention to the words of Don Quixote who uttered them as though with immense pain he drew them up from his very bowels they begged of him to explain himself and tell them what he had seen in that hell down there hell do you call it said Don Quixote call it by no such name for it does not deserve it as she shall soon see he then begged them to give him something to eat as he was very hungry they spread the cousins sackcloth on the grass and put the stores of the alfortress into requisition and all three sitting down lovingly and sociably they made a luncheon and a supper of it all in one and when the sackcloth was removed Don Quixote of La Mancha said let no one rise and attend to me my sons both of you and chapter 22 Don Quixote de La Mancha book 2 chapters 21 and 22 read for you by Ted DeLorm and Fort Mill South Carolina this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain chapters 23 and 24 of Don Quixote volume 2 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by John leader Don Quixote volume 2 by Miguel de Sorrante Saavedra translated by John Ormsby chapter 23 of the wonderful things the incomparable Don Quixote said he saw in the profound cave of Montesinos the impossibility and magnitude of which caused this adventure to be deemed apocryphal it was about four in the afternoon when the sun veiled in clouds with subdued light and tempered beams enabled Don Quixote to relate without heat or inconvenience what he had seen in the cave of Montesinos through his two illustrious hearers that began as follows a matter of some twelve or fourteen times a man's height down in this pit on the right hand side there is a recess or space roomy enough to contain a large cart with its mules a little light reaches it through some chinks or crevices communicating with it and open to the surface of the earth this recess or space I perceived when I was already growing weary and disgusted at finding myself hanging suspended by the rope travelling downwards into that dark region without any certainty or knowledge of where I was going so I resolved to enter it and rest myself for a while I called out telling you not to let out more rope until I bad you but you cannot have heard me I then gathered in the rope you are sending me and making a coil or pile of it I seated myself upon it ruminating and considering what I was to do to lower myself to the bottom having no one to hold me up and as I was thus deep in thought and perplexity suddenly and without provocation a profound sleep fell upon me and when I least expected it I know not how I awoke and found myself in the midst of the most beautiful delightful meadow that nature could produce or the most lively human imagination conceive I opened my eyes I rubbed them and found I was not asleep but thoroughly awake nevertheless I felt my head and breast to satisfy myself whether it was I myself who was there or some empty delusive phantom but touch feeling the collected thoughts that pass through my mind all convinced me that I was the same then and there that I am this moment next there presented itself to my sight a stately royal palace or castle with walls that seemed built of clear transparent crystal and through two great doors that opened wide therein I saw coming forth and advancing towards me a venerable old man clad in a long gown of mulberry-colored a surge that trailed upon the ground on his shoulders and breast he had a green satin collegiate hood and covering his head a black Milanese bonnet and his snow-white beard fell below his girdle he carried no arms whatever nothing but a rosary of beads bigger than fair-sized filbert each tenth bead being like a moderate ostrich egg his bearing his gate his dignity and imposing presence held me spellbound and wondering he approached me and the first thing he did was to embrace me closely and then he said to me for a long time now old valiant knight Don Quixote of La Mancha we who are here enchanted in these solitudes have been hoping to see thee that thou mayest make known to the world what is shut up and concealed in this deep cave called the cave of Montesinos which thou hast entered an achievement reserved for thy invincible heart and stupendous courage alone to attempt come with me illustrious sir and I will show thee the marvels hidden within this transparent castle whereof I am the al-Qaeda in perpetual warden for I am Montesinos himself from whom the cave takes its name the instant he told me he was Montesinos I asked him if the story they told in the world above here was true that he had taken out the heart of his great friend Durandarte from his breast with a little dagger and carried it to the Lady Balerma as his friend when at the point of death had commanded him he said in reply that they spoke the truth in every respect except as to the dagger for it was not a dagger nor little but a very honest panyard sharper than an all that panyard must have been made by Ramon de Hoches the civilian said Sancho I do not know said Don Quixote it could not have been by that panyard maker however because Ramon de Hoches was a man of yesterday and the affair of Ronson Valdez where this mishap occurred was long ago but the question is of no great importance nor does it affect any alteration in the truth or substance of the story that is true said the cousin continues in your Don Quixote for I am listening to you with the greatest pleasure in the world and with no less do I tell the tale said Don Quixote and so to proceed the venerable Montesinos led me into the palace of crystal where in a lower chamber strangely cool and entirely alabaster was an elaborately wrought marble tomb upon which I beheld stretched at full length a knight got a bronze or marble or jasper as are seen on other tombs but of actual flesh and bone his right hand which seemed to me somewhat hairy and sinewy a sign of great strength in its owner lay on the side of his heart but before I could put any question Montesinos he seeing me gazing at the tomb in amazement said to me this is my friend flower and mirror of the true lovers and valiant knights of his time he is held enchanted here as I myself and many others are by that French enchanter Merlin who they say was the devil's son but my belief is not that he was the devil's son who knew as the saying is a point more than the devil how or why he enchanted us no one knows but time will tell and I suspect that time is not far off what I marvel at is that I know it to be as sure as that it is now day that Durand Darte ended his life in my arms in that after his death I took out his heart with my own hands and indeed it must have weighed more than two pounds for according to naturalists he who has a large heart is more largely endowed with valor than he who has a small one then as this is the case and as the knight did really die how comes it that he now moans in size from time to time as if he were still alive as he said this the wretched Durand Darte cried out in a loud voice oh cousin Montesinos it was my last request of thee when my soul had left the body and that lying dead I be with thy panyard or thy dagger cut the heart from out my breast and barred to Bulerma this was my last request on hearing which the venerable Montesinos fell on his knees before the unhappy night and with tearful eyes exclaimed long since senior Durand Darte my beloved cousin long since have I done what you bade me on that sad day what I lost you I took out your heart as well as I could not leaving an atom of it in your breast I wiped it with a lace handkerchief and I took the road to France with it having first laid you in the bosom of the earth with tears enough to wash and cleanse my hands of the blood that covered them after wandering among your bowels and by token oh cousin of my soul at the first village I came to after leaving Ronson Valiers sprinkled a little salt upon your heart to keep it sweet and bring it, if not fresh at least pickled into the presence of the Lady Bulerma whom together with you, myself, Guadiana, your squire the duena, Ridera and her seven daughters of your friends and acquaintances the sage Merlin has been keeping enchanted here these many years and although more than five hundred have gone by not one of us has died Ridera and her daughters and nieces alone are missing and these, because of the tears they shed, Merlin out of the compassion he seems to have felt for them changed into so many lakes this day in the world of the living and in the province of La Mancha are called the lakes of Ridera the seven daughters belong to the kings of Spain and the two nieces to the knights of a very holy order called the Order of Saint John Guadiana, your squire likewise bewailing your fate was changed into a river of his own name but when he came to the surface and beheld the son of another heaven so great was his grief at finding he was leaving you that he plunged into the bowels of the earth however as he cannot help following his natural course he from time to time comes forth and shows himself to the sun and the world the lakes aforesaid sent him their waters and with these and others that come to him he makes a grand and imposing entrance into Portugal but for all that go where he may he shows his melancholy and sadness and takes no pride in breeding dainty choice fish only course and tasteless sorts very different from those of the golden Tagus all this that I tell you now O cousin mine I have told you many times before and as you make no answer I fear that either you believe me not or do not hear me for God knows what grief I have now news to give you which if it serves not to alleviate your sufferings will not in any wise increase them know that you have here before you open your eyes and you will see that great night of whom the sage Merlin has prophesied such great things that Don Quixote of La Mancha I mean who has again and to better purpose than in past times revived in these days night errantry long since forgotten and by whose intervention and aid it may be we shall be disenchanted for great deeds are reserved for great men and if that may not be said the wretched Durandarte in a low and feeble voice if that may not be then my cousin I say patience thoughtful and turning over on his side he relapsed into his former silence without uttering another word and now there was heard a great outcry and lamentation accompanied by deep sighs and bitter sobs I looked round and through the crystal wall I saw passing through another chamber a procession of two lines of fair damsels all clad in mourning and with white turbans on their heads behind in the rear of these there came a lady for so from her dignity she seemed to be also clad in black with a white veil so long and ample that it swept the ground her turban was twice as large as the largest of any of the others her eyebrows met her nose was rather flat her mouth was large but with ruddy lips and her teeth of which a time she allowed a glimpse were seemed to be sparse and ill-set though as white as peeled almonds she carried in her hands a fine cloth and in it as well as I could make out a heart that had been mummied so parched and dried was it motocinos told me that all those forming the procession were the attendants of Dorand Arte and Balerma who were enchanted there with her master and mistress and that the last she who carried the heart in the cloth was the lady Balerma who with her damsels four days in the week went in procession singing or rather weeping dirges over the body and miserable heart of his cousin and that if she appeared to me somewhat ill-favoured or not so beautiful as fame reported her it was because of the bad nights and worse days that she passed in that enchantment as I could see by the great dark circles round her eyes at their sickly complexion her solanness and the rings round her eyes said he are not caused by the periodical ailment usual with women for it is many months and even years since she has had any but by the grief her own heart suffers because of that which holds in her hand perpetually and which recalls and brings back to her memory the sad fate of her lost lover were it not for this hardly would the great Dostoneo del Taboso so celebrated at all these parts and even in the world come up to her for beauty, grace and gaiety hold on tell your story as you ought senor Don Montesinos you will know very well that all comparisons are odious and there is no occasion to compare one person with another the purest Dostoneo del Taboso is what she is and the lady Dona Belerma is what she is and has been and that's enough to which he made answer forgive me senor Don Quixote I own I was wrong and spoken advisedly in saying that the lady Dostoneo Belerma for it were enough for me to have learned by what means I know not that you are her knight to make me bite my tongue out before I compared her to very things save heaven itself after this apology which the great Montesinos made me my heart recovered itself from the shock I had received in hearing my lady compared with Belerma still I wonder, said Sancho to get upon the old fellow and bruise every bone of him with kicks and pluck his beard until you didn't leave a hair in it ne, Sancho, my friend said Don Quixote it would not have been right in me to do that for we are all bound to pay respect to the aged even though they be not knights but especially to those who are and who are enchanted I only know I gave him as good as he brought in the many other questions and answers we exchanged I cannot understand Sr. Don Quixote remarked the cousin here how it is that your worship in such a short space of time as you have been below there could have seen so many things and said and answered so much how wrong is it since I went down asked Don Quixote little better than an hour replied Sancho that cannot be because night overtook me while I was there and day came and it was night again and day again three times so that by my reckoning I have been three days in those remote regions beyond our can my master must be right replied Sancho for as everything that has happened to him is by enchantment maybe what seems to us an hour would seem three days and nights there that's it said Don Quixote and did your worship eat anything all that times in your asked the cousin I never touched a morsel answered Don Quixote nor did I feel hunger or think of it and do the enchanted eat said the cousin they neither eat said Don Quixote nor are they subject to the greater excrements though it is thought that nails, beards and hair grow and do the enchanted sleep now senior asked Sancho certainly not replied Don Quixote at least during those three days I was with them not one of them closed an eye nor did I either the proverb tell me what company thou keepest and I'll tell thee what thou art is to the point here said Sancho keeps company with enchanted people that are always fasting and watching what wonder is it then that you neither eat nor sleep while you are with them but forgive me senior if I say that of all this you have told us now may God take me I was just going to say the devil if I believe a single particle what said the cousin has seen your Don Quixote then been lying he wished it he has not had time to imagine and put together such a host of lies why don't believe my master lies said Sancho if not what dust thou believe asked Don Quixote I believe replied Sancho that this Merlin or those enchanters who enchanted the whole crew your worship says you saw and discussed with down there stuffed your imagination with all this rigmarole you have been treating us to and all that is still to come all that might be Sancho replied Don Quixote but it is not so for everything that I have told you I saw with my own eyes and touched with my own hands but what will you say when I tell you now how among the countless other marvelous things what the Sinos showed me of which at leisure at the proper time I will give the account in the course of our journey for they would not be all in place here he showed me three country girls who went skipping and capering like goats over the pleasant fields there and the instant I beheld them I knew once to be the purest dorsenale del Toboso and the other two those same country girls that were with her and that we spoke to on the road from El Toboso I asked Montesinos if he knew them and he told me he did not but he thought they must be some enchanted ladies of distinction for it was only a few days before that they had made their appearance in those meadows but I was not to be surprised at that because there were a great many other ladies there of times past and present enchanted in various strange shapes and among them he had recognized Queen Guinevere and her dame Quintanona she who poured out the wine for Lancelot when he came from Britain when Sancho Pansa heard his master say this he was ready to take leave of his senses or die with laughter for as he knew the real truth about the pretended enchantment of dorsenale in which he himself had been the enchanter and concoctor of all the evidence he made up his mind at last that beyond all doubt his master was out of his wits and stark mad so he said to him it was an evil hour a worse season and a sorrowful day when your worship, dear master mind went down to the other world and an unlucky moment when you met with senior Montesinos who has sent you back to us like this you were well enough here above in your false senses such as God had given you delivering maxims and giving advice at every turn talking the greatest nonsense that can be imagined as I know thee Sancho said Don Quixote I heed not thy words nor I your worships said Sancho whether you beat me or kill me for those I have spoken and will speak if you don't correct and mend your own but tell me while we are still at peace how or by what did you recognize the lady on mistress what did you say and what did she answer I recognized her said Don Quixote by her wearing the same garments she wore when thou didst point her out to me I spoke to her but she did not utter a word and reply on the contrary she turned her back on me and took to flight at such a pace that crossbow bolt could not have overtaken her I wished to follow her and would have done so had not Montesinos recommended me not to take the trouble as it would be useless particularly as the time was drawing near when it would be necessary for me to quit the cavern he told me moreover that in course of time he would let me know how he and Belerma and Dorandate and all who were there were to be disenchanted but of all I saw and observed down there what gave me most pain was even that while Montesinos was speaking to me one of the two companions of the hapless dorsenae approached me on one without my having seen her coming and with tears in her eyes said to me in a low agitated voice my lady dorsenae Dr. Boso kisses your worship's hands and entreats you to do her the favor of letting her know how you are and being in great need she also entreats your worship as she can to be so good as to lend her half a dozen rails or as much as you may have about you on this new dimity petticoat that I have here and she promises to repay them very speedily I was amazed and taken aback by such a message and turning to Senior Montesinos I asked him is it possible Senior Montesinos that persons of distinction under an enchantment can be in need to which he replied believe me senior Don Quixote that which is called need is to be met with everywhere and penetrates all quarters and reaches everyone and does not spare even the enchanted and as the lady dorsenae del Toboso sends to beg those six rails and the pledges to all appearance a good one there is nothing for it but to give them to her for no doubt she must be in some great state I will take no pledge of her I replied nor yet can I give her what she asks for all I have is four rails which I gave they were those which Thou Sancho gave us me the other day to bestow in alms upon the poor I met along the road and I said tell your mistress my dear that I am grieved to the heart because of her distresses and wish I was and that I would have her know that I cannot be and ought not be in health while deprived of the happiness of seeing her and enjoying her discreet conversation and that I implore her as earnestly as I can to allow herself to be seen and addressed by this her captive servant and four lord knight tell her too that when she least expected she will hear it announced that I have made an oath and vow after the fashion of that which the Marquis of Mantua made to avenge his nephew Baldwin when he found him at the point of death in the heart of the mountains which was not to eat bread off a tablecloth and other trifling matters which he added until he had avenged him and I will make the same to take no rest and to roam the seven regions of the earth more thoroughly than the Infante Don Pedro of Portugal ever roamed them until I disenchanted her all that and more you all my lady the damsels answer to me and taking the four realds instead of making me a curtsy she cut a caper springing two full yards into the air oh blessed god exclaimed to Sancho allowed at this is it possible that such things can be in the world and that enchanters and enchantments can have such power in it as to have changed my master's right senses into a craze so full of absurdity oh senior senior for god's sake consider yourself have a care for your honor and give no credit to this silly stuff that is left you scant and short of wits thou talkest it this way because thou lovest me Sancho said Don Quixote and not being experienced in the things in the world everything that has some difficulty about it seems to the impossible but I will pass as I said before and I will tell thee some of the things I saw down there which will make thee believe what I have related now the truth of which admits of neither reply nor question end of chapter 23 chapter 24 wherein are related a thousand trifling matters as trivial as they are necessary to the right understanding of this great history he who translated this great history from the original written by its first author Sidhe Hamate Benengali says that on coming to the chapter giving the adventures of the cave of Montesinos he found written on the margin of it in Hamate's own hand these exact words I cannot convince or persuade myself that everything that is written in the preceding chapter to the valiant Don Quixote and for this reason that all the adventures that have occurred up to the present have been possible and probable but as for this one of the cave I see no way of accepting it as true as it passes all reasonable bounds for me to believe that Don Quixote could lie he being the most truthful gentleman and the noblest knight of his time is impossible he would not have told a lie though he were shot to death with arrows on the other hand I reflect that he related and told this story with all the circumstances detailed and that he could not in so short a space have fabricated such a vast complication of absurdities if then this adventure seems apocryphal it is no fault of mine and so without affirming its falsehood or its truth I write it down decide for thyself in thy wisdom for I am not bound nor is it in my power to do more though certain it is they say that at the time of his death he retracted and said he had invented it thinking it matched in the tallied with the adventures he had read of in his histories and then he goes on to say the cousin was amazed as well at Sancho's boldness as at the patience of his master and concluded that the good temper that was displayed arose from the happiness he felt at having seen his lady Dostonea even enchanted as she was because otherwise the words and language Sancho had addressed to him deserved a thrashing for indeed he seemed to him to have been rather impudent to his master to whom he now observed I, Sr. Don Quixote of La Mancha look upon the time I have spent in traveling with your worship is very well employed for I have gained four things in the course of it the first is that I have made your acquaintance which I consider great good fortune and the second is that I have learned what the cave of Montesinos contains together with the transformations of Guadiana and of the lakes of Uridera which will be of use to me for the Spanish Arvid that I have in hand the third to have discovered the antiquity of cards that they were in use at least in the time of Charlemagne as may be inferred from the words you say Durandarte hathard when at the end of that long spell while Montesinos was talking to him he woke up and said patience and shuffle it is phrase and expression he could not have learned while he was enchanted but only before he had become so in France and in the time of the aforesaid emperor Charlemagne and this demonstration is just the thing for me for that other book I am writing the supplement to Palladore Virgil on the invention of antiquities for I believe he never thought of inserting that of cards in his book as I mean to do in mine and it will be a matter of great importance particularly when I can cite so grave and voracious an authority as senior Durandarte and the fourth thing is that I have ascertained the source of the river Guadiana here too for unknown to mankind you are right said Don Quixote but I should like to know if by God's favor they grant your license to print those books of yours which I doubt to whom do you mean to dedicate them there are lords and grandees in Spain to whom they can be dedicated said the cousin not many said Don Quixote not that they are unworthy of it but because they are not care to accept books and incur the obligation of making the return that seems due to the author's labor and courtesy one prince I know who makes up for all the rest and more how much more if I venture to say perhaps I should store up envy and many a noble breast but let this stand over for some more convenient time and let us go and look for some place to shelter ourselves in tonight not far from this said the cousin there is a hermitage where there lives a hermit who they say was a soldier and who has the reputation of being a good Christian and a very intelligent and charitable man close to the hermitage he has a small house which he built at his own cost but though small it is large enough for the reception of guests hence this hermit any hands do you think? asked Sancho few hermits are without them said Don Quixote for those we see nowadays are not like the hermits of the Egyptian deserts who were clad in palm leaves and lived on the roots of the earth but do not think that by praising these I am disparaging the others all I mean to say is that the penances of those of the present day do not come up to the asceticism and austerity of former times but it does not follow from this that they are not all worthy of them so and at the worst the hypocrite who pretends to be good does less harm than the open sinner at this point they saw approaching the spot where they stood a man on foot proceeding at a rapid pace and beating a mule loaded with lances and halberds when he came up to them he saluted them and passed on without stopping Don Quixote called to him stay good fellow he was only making more haste than suits that mule I cannot stop, senior answered the man for the arms you see I carry here ought to be used to-morrow so I must not delay God be with you but if you want to know what I am carrying them for I mean to lodge tonight at the inn that is beyond the hermitage and if you be going the same road you will find me there and I will tell you some curious things more God be with you and he urged on his mule at such a pace that Don Quixote had no time to ask him what these curious things were that he meant to tell them and as he was somewhat inquisitive and always tortured by his anxiety to learn something new he decided to set out at once and go and pass the night at the inn instead of stopping at the hermitage where the cousin would have had them halt accordingly they mounted and all three took the direct road for the inn which they reached a little before nightfall on the road the cousin proposed they should go up to the hermitage to drink a sup the instant Sancho heard this he steered his dapple towards it and Don Quixote and the cousin did the same but it seems Sancho's bad luck so ordered that the hermit was not at home for so a sub-hermit found in the hermitage told them they called for some of the best she replied that her master had none but that if they liked cheap water she would give it with great pleasure if I found any in water said Sancho there are wells along the road where I could have had enough of it ah Comacho's wedding and plentiful house of Don Diego how often do I miss you leaving the hermitage they pushed on towards the inn and a little farther they came upon a youth who was pacing along in front of them at no great speed so that they overtook him he carried a sword over his shoulder and slung on it a budget or bundle of his clothes apparently probably his breeches or pantaloons and his cloak and a shirt or two for he had on a short jacket of velvet with a gloss like satin on it in places short out his stockings were of silk and his shoes square toad as they wear them at court his age might have been 18 or 19 he was of a merry countenance and to all appearance of an active habit and he went along singing segadillas to beguile the wearisomeness of the road as they came up with him he was just finishing one which the cousin got by heart and they say ran thus I'm off to the wars for the waltz of pence oh had I but money I'd show more sense the first to address him was Don Quixote who said you travel very airily sir gallant with a bound may we ask if it is your pleasure to tell us to which the youth replied the heat in my poverty are the reason of my traveling so airily and it is to the wars that I am bound pal poverty as Don Quixote the heat one can understand senior replied the youth in this bundle I carry velvet pantaloons to match this jacket if I wear them out on the road I shall not be able to make a decent appearance in them in the city and if not the wherewithal to buy others and so for this reason as well as to keep myself cool I am making my way in this fashion to overtake some companies of infantry that are not twelve leagues off in which I shall enlist and there will be no waltz of baggage trains to travel with after that to the place of embarkation which they say will be Cartagena I would rather have the king for a master and serve him in the wars than serve a court pauper and did you get any bounty now asked the cousin if I had been in the service of some grandee of Spain or personages of distinction replied the youth I should have been safe to get it for that is the advantage of serving good masters that out of the servants hall men come to be ancients or captains or get a good pension but I to my misfortune always served place hunters and adventurers whose keep and wages are so miserable and scanty that half went in paying for the starching of one's collars and indeed if a page volunteer ever got anything like a reasonable bounty and tell me for heaven's sake ask Don Quixote is it possible my friend that all the time you served you never got any livery they gave me two replied the page but just as when one quits a religious community before making profession they strip him of the dress of the order and give him back his own clothes and did my masters return me mine for as soon as the business on which they came to court was finished they went home and took back the livery they had given merely for show what spilacheria as an Italian would say said Don Quixote but for all that consider yourself happy and having left court with as worthy an object as you have but there is nothing on earth more honorable or profitable than serving first of all God the Orange King and Natural Lord particularly in the profession of arms by which if not more wealth at least more honor is to be won than by letters as I have said many a time for though letters may have founded more great houses than arms still those founded by arms have I know not what superiority over those founded by letters and a certain splendor belonging to them that distinguishes them above all and bear in mind what I am now about to say to you for it will be of great use and comfort to you in time of trouble it is not to let your mind dwell on the adverse chances that may be for you for the worst of all is death and if it be a good death the best of all is to die they asked Julius Caesar the valiant Roman emperor what was the best death he answered that which is unexpected I am suddenly an unforeseen and though he answered like a pagan and one without the knowledge of the true God yet as far as sparing our feelings is concerned he was right for suppose you are killed in the first engagement or skirmish whether I a cannonball or blown up by mine what matters it it is only dying and all is over and according to Terence a soldier shows better dead in battle than in flight and the good soldier wins fame in proportion as he is obedient to his captains and rows in command over him and remember my son that it is better for the soldier to smell of gunpowder than of civet and that if old age should come upon you in this honourable calling though you may be covered with wounds and crippled in lame it will not come upon you without honour and that such as poverty will not lessen especially now that provisions are being made for supporting and relieving old and disabled soldiers for it is not right to deal with them after the fashion of those who set free and get rid of their black slaves when they are old and useless and turning them out of their houses under the pretense of making them free make them slaves to hunger from which they cannot expect to be released except by death but for the present I won't say more get ye up behind me on my horse as far as the inn and sup with me there and tomorrow you shall pursue your journey and God give you as good speed as your intentions deserve the page did not accept the invitation to mount though he did that to supper at the inn and here they say Sancho said to himself God be with you for a master it is possible that a man who can say things so many so good as he has said just now can say that he saw the impossible absurdities reports about the cave of Montesinos well well we shall see and now just as night was falling they reached the inn and it was not without satisfaction that Sancho perceived his master took it for a real inn and not for a castle as usual the instant they entered Don Quixote asked the landlord the lances and halberds and was told that he was in the stable seeing to his mule which was what Sancho and the cousin proceeded to do for their beasts giving the best manger and the best place in the stable to Rosanante End of Chapter 24 Recording by John leader Bloomington Illinois Chapters 25 and 26 of Don Quixote Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Don Quixote Volume 2 by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Translated by William Ormsby Chapter 25 Wherein is set down the braying adventure and the droll one of the puppet showman together with the memorable divinations of the Divining Ape Don Quixote's bread would not bake as the common saying is until he had heard and learned the curious things promised by the man who carried the arms he went to seek him where the innkeeper said he was and having found him made him say now at any rate what he had to say in answer to the question he had asked him on the road The tale of my wonders must be taken more leisurely and not standing with the man let me finish bothering my beast good sir and then I'll tell you things that will astonish you Don't wait for that said Don Quixote I'll help you in everything and so he did sifting the barley for him and cleaning out the manger a degree of humility which made the other feel bound to tell him with a good grace what he had asked so sitting himself on a bench with Don Quixote beside him and the cousin, the page Hansa and the landlord for a senate and an audience he began his story in this way you must know that in a village four leagues and a half from this inn it so happened that one of the rejidors by the tricks and roguery of a servant girl of his it's too long a tale to tell lost an ass and though he did all he possibly could to find it it was all to no purpose a fortnight might have gone by so the story goes your ass had been missing when as the rejidor who had lost it was standing in the plaza another rejidor of the same town said to him pay me for good news gossip your ass has turned up that I will and well gossip said the other but tell us where has he turned up in the forest said the finder I saw him this morning without pack saddle or harness of any sort and so lean that it went to one's heart I tried to drive him before me to bring him to you but he is already so wild and shy that when I went near him he made off into the thickest part of the forest if you have a mind that we too should go back and look for him let me put up this she ass at my house and I'll be back at once you will be doing me a great kindness said the owner of the ass and I'll try to pay it back in the same coin it is with all these circumstances and in the very same way I am telling it now that those who know all about the matter tell the story well then the two rejidors set off on foot arm in arm for the forest and coming to the place where they hoped to find the ass they could not find him nor was he to be seen anywhere about search as they might seeing then that there was no sign of him the rejidor who had seen him said to the other look here gossip he managed to discover the animal even if he is stowed away in the bowels of the earth not to say the forest here it is I can pray to perfection and if you can ever so little the things as good as done ever so little did you say gossip said the other by God I'll not give in to anybody not even to the asses themselves will soon see said the second rejidor for my plan is that you should go to one side of the forest or the other so as to go all round about it and every now and then you will pray and I will pray and it cannot be but the ass will hear us and answer us if he is in the forest to which the owner of the ass replied it's an excellent plan I declare gossip and worthy of your great genius and the two separating as agreed it so fell out that they braided almost at the same moment and each deceived by the braying of the other ran to look and seeing the ass had turned up at last when they came in sight of one another said the loser is it possible gossip that it was not my ass that braied no it was I said the other well then I can tell you gossip said the ass's owner that between you and an ass there is not an atom of difference as far as braying goes for I never in all my life saw or heard anything more natural those praises and compliments belong to you more justly than to me gossip said the inventor of the plan for by the God that made me you might give a couple of braise odds to the best and most finished braier in the world the tone you have got as deep your voice is well kept up as to time and pitch and your finishing notes come thick and fast in fact I own myself beaten and yield the palm to you and give in to you in this rare accomplishment well then said the owner I'll set a higher value on myself for the future and consider that I know something as I have an excellence of some sort for though I always thought I braed well I never supposed I came up to the pitch of perfection you say and I say too said the second that there are rare gifts going to last in the world and that they are ill-be-stowed upon those who don't know how to make use of them ours said the owner of the ass unless it is in cases like this that we have now in hand cannot be of any service to us and even in this God grant they may be of some use so saying they parted and took to their braing once more but every instant they were deceiving one another and coming to meet one another again until they arranged by way of countersign so as to know that it was they and not the ass to give two braise one after the other in this way doubling the braise at every step they made the complete circuit of the forest the last ass never gave them an answer or even the sign of one how could the poor ill-starred brute have answered when in the thickest part of the forest they found him devoured by wolves as soon as he saw him his owner said I was wondering he did not answer for if he wasn't dead he'd have braed when he heard us or he'd have been no ass but for the sake of having heard you braed as such perfection gossip I count the trouble I have taken to look well bestowed even though I have found him dead it's in a good hand gossip said the other if the abbot sings well the acolyte is not much behind him so they returned to disconsolate and hoarse to their village where they told their friends, neighbors and acquaintances what had befallen them in their search for the ass each crying up the other's perfection in braing the whole story came to be known and spread abroad through the villages of the neighborhood and the devil he never sleeps with his love for sowing dissensions and scattering discord everywhere flowing mischief about and making quarrels out of nothing contrived to make the people of the other towns fall to braing whenever they saw anyone from our village as if to throw the braing of our rejidors in our teeth then the boys took to it which was the same thing for it as getting into the hands and mouths of all the devils of hell and braing spread from one town to the men of the braing town are as easy to be known as blacks are to be known from whites and the unlucky joke has gone so far that several times the scoffed have come out in arms in a body to do battle with the scoffers and neither king nor rook fear nor shame can mend matters tomorrow or the day after I believe the men of my town that is of the braing town are going to take the field against another village two leagues away from ours one of those that persecute us most and that we may turn out well prepared I have bought these lances and halberds you have seen these are the curious things I told you I had to tell and if you don't think them so I have got no others and with this the worthy fellow brought his story to a close just at this moment there came in at the gate of the inn a man entirely clad in chamois leather hose breaches and doublet who said in a loud voice senior host have you room here's the defining eight and the show of the release of Melisandre just coming odds body said the landlord why it's master Pedro we're in for a grand night I forgot to mention that the said master Pedro had his left eye and nearly half his cheek covered with a patch of green tappity showing that something ailed all that side your worship is welcome master Pedro continued the landlord but where are the ape and the show for I don't see them they are close at hand said he in the chamois leather but I came on first to know if there was any room I'd make the Duke of Alva himself clear out to make room for master Pedro said the landlord bring in the ape and the show there's company in the in tonight that will pay to see that and the cleverness of the ape so be it by all means said the man with the patch I'll for the price and be well satisfied if I only pay my expenses and now I'll go back and hurry on the cart with the ape in the show and with this he went out of the in don Quixote at once asked the landlord what this master Pedro was and what was the show and what was the ape he had with him which the landlord replied this is a famous puppet showman who for some time past has been going about this match a day Oregon exhibiting the show of the release of Melisandre by the famous don Guy Farrows one of the best and best represented stories that we have seen in this part of the kingdom for many a year he has also with him an ape of the most extraordinary gift ever seen in an ape or imagined in a human being for if you ask him anything he listens attentively to the question and then jumps on his master's shoulder and pressing close to his ear tells him the answer which master Pedro then delivers he says a great deal more about things past than about things to come and though he does not always hit the truth in every case most times he is not far wrong so that he makes us fancy he has got the devil in him he gets two rails for every question if the ape answers I mean if his master answers for him after he has whispered into his ear and so it is believed that this same master Pedro is very rich he is a gallant man as they say in Italy and good company and leads the finest life in the world talks more than six drinks more than a dozen and all by his tongue and his ape and his show master Pedro now came back and in a cart followed the show and the ape a big one without a tail and with buttocks as bare as felt but not vicious looking as soon as Don Quixote saw him he asked him can you tell me sir fortune teller what fish do we catch and how it will be with us see here are my two rails and he bade Sancho to give them to master Pedro but he answered for the ape and said senior this animal does not give any answer or information touching things that are to come of things past he knows something and more or less of things present God said Sancho I would not give a farthing to be told what's past with me for who knows that better than I do myself and to being told what I know would be mighty foolish but as you know things present here are my two rails and tell me most excellent sir eight what is my wife Teresa Hansa doing now and what is she diverting herself with master Pedro refused to take the money saying I will not receive payment in advance or until the service has been first rendered and then with his right hand he gave a couple of slaps on his left shoulder and with one spring the master Pedro touched himself upon it and putting his mouth to his master's ear began chattering his teeth rapidly and having kept this up as long as one would be saying a credo with another spring he brought himself to the ground and at the same instant master Pedro ran in great haste and fell upon his knees before Don Quixote and embracing his legs exclaimed these legs do I embrace as I would embrace the two pillars of Hercules oh illustrious beauty so long consigned to oblivion oh never yet duly extolled night Don Quixote of Lamancha courage of the faint hearted crop of the tottering arm of the fallen staff and council of all who are unfortunate Don Quixote was thunderstruck Sancho astounded the cousin staggered the page astonished the man from the braying town agape the landlord in perplexity and in short everyone amazed at the words showman who went on to say and thou were the Sancho Pansa the best squire and squire to the best night in the world be of good cheer for the good wife Teresa as well and she is at this moment hackling a pound of flax and more by token she has at her left hand a jug with a broken spout that holds a good drop of wine with which she solaces herself at her work that I can well believe said Sancho she is a lucky one and if it was not for her jealousy I would not change her for the giantess Andadona who by my master's account was a very clever and worthy woman my Teresa is one of those that won't let themselves want for anything though their heirs may have to pay for it now I declare said Don Quixote he who reads much and travels much sees and knows a great deal I say so because what amount of persuasion could have persuaded me there are apes in the world that can divine as well as I have seen now with my own eyes for I am that very Don Quixote of La Mancha this worthy animal refers to though he has gone rather too far in my praise but whatever I may be I think heaven that it has endowed me with a tender and compassionate heart always disposed to do good to all and harm to none if I had money said the page I would ask senior ape what will happen me in the question I am making to this master Pedro who had by this time risen from Don Quixote's feet replied I have already said that this little beast gives no answer as to the future but if he did not having money would be of no consequence or to oblige senior Don Quixote here present I would give up all the profits in the world and now because I have promised it and to afford him pleasure I will set up my show and offer entertainment to all who are in the question without any charge whatever as soon as he heard this the landlord delighted beyond measure pointed out a place where the show might be fixed which was done at once Don Quixote was not very well satisfied with the divinations of the ape as he did not think it proper than an ape should divine anything either past or future so while master Pedro was arranging the show he retired with Sancho into a corner of the stable where without being overheard by anyone he said to him look here Sancho I have been seriously thinking over this apes extraordinary gift and have come to the conclusion that beyond doubt this master Pedro his master has a packed tacit or express with the devil if the packet is expressed from the devil said Sancho it must be a very dirty packet no doubt but what good can it do master Pedro to have such packets thou dost not understand me Sancho said Don Quixote I only mean he must have made some compact with the devil to infuse this power into the ape that he may get his living and after he has grown rich he will give him his soul which is what the enemy of mankind wants this I am led to believe by observing that the ape only answers about things past or present and the devil's knowledge extends no further for the future he knows only by guesswork and that not always for it is reserved for God alone to know the times and the seasons and for him there is neither past nor future all is present this being as it is it is clear that this ape speaks by the spirit of the devil and I am astonished they have not denounced him to the holy office and put him to the question and forced it out of him by whose virtue it is that he divides because it is certain this ape is not an astrologer neither his master nor he sets up nor knows how to set up those figures they call judiciary which are now so common in Spain that there is not a jade or page or old cobbler that will not undertake to set up a figure as readily as pick up a nave of cards from the ground bringing to not the marvelous truth of the science by their lies and ignorance I know of a lady who asked one of these figure schemers whether her little lap dog would be in puff and would breed and of what color the little pups would be to which senior astrologer after having set up his figure made answer that the bitch would be in puff and would drop three pups one green another bright red and the third party colored provided she conceived between 11 and 12 either of the day or night and on a Monday or Saturday but as things turned out two days after this the bitch died of a surfeit and senior planet ruler had the credit all over the place of being the most profound astrologer as most of these planet rulers have still said Sancho I would be glad if your worship would make master Pedro ask the ape whether what happened to your worship in the cave of Montesinos is true for begging your worship's pardon I for my part take it to have been all flam and lies or at any rate something you dreamt that may be replied Don Quixote however I do what you suggest though I have my own scruples about it at this point master Pedro came up in quest of Don Quixote to tell him his show was now ready and to come and see it for it was worth seeing Don Quixote explained his wish and begged him to ask his ape at once to tell him whether certain things which had happened to him in the cave of Montesinos were dreams or realities for to him they appeared to partake of both upon this master Pedro without answering went back to fetch the ape and having placed it in front of Don Quixote and Sancho said see here senior ape this gentleman wishes to know whether certain things which happened to him in the cave called the cave of Montesinos were false or true on his making the usual sign the ape mounted on his left shoulder and seemed to whisper in his ear and master Pedro said at once the ape says that the things you saw or what happened to you in that cave are part of them false part true and that he only knows this and know more as regards this question but if your worship wishes to know more on Friday next he will answer all that may be asked him for his virtue as at present exhausted and will not return to him till Friday as he has said did I not say senior said Sancho that I could not bring myself to believe that all your worship said about the adventures in the cave was true or even the half of it the course of events will tell Sancho replied Don Quixote time that discloses all things leaves nothing that it does not drag into the light of day though it be buried in the bosom of the earth but enough of that for the present let us go and see master Pedro's show for I am sure there must be something novel in it something said master Pedro this show of mine has 60,000 novel things in it let me tell you senior don Quixote it is one of the best worth seeing things in the world this day but operabas credit a at known verbus and now let's get to work for it is growing late and we have a great deal to do and to say in show don Quixote and Sancho obeyed him and went to where the show was already put up and uncovered set all around with lighted wax tapers which made it look splendid and bright when they came to it master Pedro ensconced himself inside it for it was he who had to work the puppets and a boy a servant of his posted himself outside to act as showmen and explain the mysteries of the exhibition having a wand in his hand to point to the figures as they came out and so all who were in the in being arranged in front of the show some of them standing and don Quixote Sancho the page and cousin accommodated with the best places the interpreter began to say what he will hear or see who reads or hears the next chapter chapter 26 wherein is continued the droll adventure of the puppet showman together with other things in truth right good all were silent Tyrians and Trojans I mean all who were watching the show were hanging on the lips of the interpreter of its wonders when drums and trumpets were heard to sound inside it it was a canon to go off the noise was soon over and then the boy lifted up his voice and said this true story which is here represented to your worships is taken word for word from the French chronicles and from the Spanish ballads that are in everybody's mouth and in the mouth of the boys about the streets its subject is the release by senior don Guy Ferros of his wife Melisandre when a captive in Spain at the hands of the Moors in the city of San for so they called then what is now called Saragossa and there you may see how don Guy Ferros is playing at the tables just as they sang it at tables playing don Guy Ferros sits for Melisandre is forgotten now and that personage who appears there with a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand is the emperor Charlemagne the supposed father of Melisandre who angered to see his son-in-law's inaction and unconcern comes in to chide him and observe with what vehemence and energy he chides him so that you would fancy he was going to give him half a dozen raps with his scepter and indeed there are authors who say he did give them and sound ones too and after having said a great deal to him about imperiling his honor by not affecting the release of his wife he said so the tale runs enough I've said see to it now observe too the emperor turns away and leaves don Guy Ferros fuming and you see now how in a burst of anger he flings the table and board far from him and calls in haste for his armor and asks his cousin Don Roland for the loan of his sword during Donna and how Don Roland refuses to lend it offering him his company in the difficult enterprise he is undertaking but he in his valor and anger will not accept it and says that he alone will suffice to rescue his wife even though she were imprisoned deep in the center of the earth and with this he retires to arm himself and set out on his journey at once now let your worships turn your eyes to that tower that appears there which is supposed to be one of the towers of the Alcazar of Saragossa now called the Alhaferia that lady who appears on that balcony dressed in Moorish fashion is the peerless Melisandre for many a time she used to gaze from thence upon the road to France and seek consolation in her captivity by thinking of Paris and her husband Observe too a new incident which now occurs such as perhaps never was seen Do you not see that Moor who silently and stealthily with his finger on his lip approaches Melisandre from behind Observe now how he prints a kiss upon her lips and what a hurry she is in to spit and wipe them with the white of her smock and how she bewails herself and tears her fair hair as though it were to blame for the wrong Observe too that the stately Moor who is in that corridor is King Marcilio of Sansuena who having seen the Moor's insolence at once orders him though his kinsmen and a great favorite of his to be seized and given 200 lashes while carried through the streets of the city according to custom justice behind and here you see them come out to execute the sentence although the offence has been scarcely committed for among the Moor's there are no indictments nor remands as with us Here Don Quixote called out child child go straight on with your story and don't run into curves and slants for to establish a fact clearly there is need of a great deal of proof and confirmation and said master Pedro from within stick to your text and do as the gentleman bids you it's the best plan keep to your plain song and don't attempt harmonies for they are apt to break down from being over fine I will said the boy and he went on to say this figure that you see here on horseback covered with a gascon clothe is Don Gaferos himself whom his wife now avenged of the insult of the armorous Moor and taking her stand on the balcony of the tower with a calmer and more tranquil countenance has perceived without recognizing him and she addresses her husband supposing him to be some traveler and holds with him all that conversation and colloquy in the ballad that runs if you sir knight to France are bound oh for Gaferos ask which I do not repeat here because prolixity begets disgust suffice it to observe how Don Gaferos discovers himself and that by her joyful gestures Melisandre shows us she has recognized him and what is more we now see she lowers herself from the balcony to place herself on the hunches of her good husband's horse but ah unhappy lady the edge of her petticoat has caught on one of the bars of the balcony and she is left hanging in the air unable to reach the ground but you see how compassionate heaven sends aid in our sores need Don Gaferos advances and without minding whether the rich petticoat is torn or not he seizes her and by force brings her to the ground and then with one jerk places her on the hunches of his horse a straddle like a man and bids her hold on tight and clasp her arms about his neck crossing them on his breast so as not to fall for the lady Melisandre was not used to that style of riding you see too how the neighing of the horse shows his satisfaction with the gallant and beautiful burden lady you see how they wheel round and quit the city and enjoy in gladness take the road to Paris go in peace oh peerless pair of true lovers may you reach your longed for fatherland and safety and may fortune interpose no impediment on your prosperous journey may the eyes of your friends and kinsmen behold you enjoying in peace and tranquility the remaining days of your life and that they may be as many as those of Nestor here master Pedro called out again and said simplicity boy none of your high flights all affectation is bad the interpreter made no answer but went on to say there was no want of idle eyes that see everything to see Melisandre come down in mount and word was brought to king Marsilio who had once gave orders to sound the alarm and see what a stir there is and how the city is drowned with the sound of bells pealing in the towers of all the mosques nay nay said don Quixote at this on that point of the bells master Pedro is very inaccurate for bells are not in use among the moors only kettle drums and a kind of a small trumpet somewhat like our clarion to ring bells this way in san suena is unquestionably a great absurdity on hearing this master Pedro stopped ringing and said don't look into trifles or don Quixote or want to have things up to a pitch of perfection that is out of reach are there not almost every day a thousand comedies represented all around us full of thousands of inaccuracies and absurdities and for all that they have a successful run and are listened to not only with applause but with admiration and all the rest of it go on boy and don't mind for so long as I fill my pouch no matter if I show as many inaccuracies there are moats in a sunbeam true enough said don Quixote and the boy went on see what a numerous and glittering cloud of horsemen issues from the city in pursuit of the two faithful lovers what a blowing of trumpets there is what sounding of horns what beating of drums and taboors I fear me they shall overtake them and bring them back tied to the tail of their own horse which would be a dreadful sight don Quixote however seeing such a swarm of moors and hearing such a din thought it would be right to aid the fugitives and standing up he exclaimed in a loud voice never while I live will I permit foul play to be practiced in my presence on such a famous knight and fearless lover as don Guyferos Halt ill-born rabble follow him not nor pursue him or ye will have to reckon with me in battle and suiting the action to the word he drew his sword and with one bound placed himself close to the show and with unexampled rapidity and fury began to shower down blows on the puppet troop of moors knocking over some decapitating others maiming this one and demolishing that and among many more he delivered one down stroke which if master Pedro had not ducked made himself small and got out of the way would have sliced off his head as easily as if it had been made of almond paste master Pedro kept shouting hold hard senior don Quixote can't you see they're not real moors you're knocking down and killing and destroying but only little pasteboard figures look sinner that I am how you're wrecking and ruining all that I am worth but in spite of this don Quixote did not leave off discharging a continuous rain of cuts slashes down strokes and back strokes and at length in less than a space of two cradles he brought the whole show to the ground with all its fittings and figures shivered and knocked to pieces King Marcilio badly wounded and the emperor Charlemagne with his crown and head split in two the whole audience was thrown into confusion the ape fled to the roof of the inn the cousin was frightened and even Sancho Pansa himself was in mighty fear for as he swore after the storm was over he had never seen his master in such a furious passion the complete destruction of the show being thus accomplished don Quixote became a little calmer said I wish I had here before me now all those who do not or will not believe how useful knights aren't are in the world just think if I had not been here present what would have become of the brave don Guy Feros and the fair Melisandre depend upon it by this time those dogs would have overtaken them and inflicted some outrage upon them long live knight errantry beyond everything living on earth this day let it live and welcome said master Pedro at this in a feeble voice and let me die for I am so unfortunate that I can say with King Don Rodrigo yesterday I was lord of Spain today I've not a turret left that I may call my own not half an hour made barely a minute ago I saw myself lord of kings and with my stables filled with countless horses and my trunks and bags with gay dresses unnumbered and now I find myself ruined and laid low, destitute and a beggar and above all without my ape for by my faith my teeth will have to sweat for it before I have him caught and all through the reckless fury of Sir Knight here who they say protects the fatherless and writes wrongs and does other charitable deeds but whose generous intentions have been found wanting in my case only blessed and praised be the highest heavens verily knight of the rueful figure he must be to have disfigured mine Sancho Pansa was touched by master Pedro's words and said to him don't weep and lament master Pedro you break my heart let me tell you my master Don Quixote is so Catholic and scrupulous a Christian that if he can make out that he has done you any wrong he will own it and be willing to pay for it and make it good and something over and above only let S. Don Quixote pay me for some part of the work he has destroyed said master Pedro and I would be content and his worship would ease his conscience for he cannot be saved who keeps what is another's against the owner's will and makes no restitution that is true said Don Quixote but at present I am not aware that I have got anything of yours master Pedro what returned master Pedro and these relics lying here on the bear hard ground what scattered and shattered them but the invincible strength of that mighty arm and whose were the bodies they belong to but mine and what did I get my living by but by them now I am fully convinced said Don Quixote of what I had many a time before believed that the enchanters who persecute me do nothing more than put figures like these before my eyes and then change and turn them into what they please in truth and earnest I assure you gentlemen who now hear me that to me everything that has taken place here seem to take place literally that Melisandre was Melisandre Don Gaferos Don Gaferos Marsilio Marsilio and Charlemagne Charlemagne that was why my anger was browsed and to be faithful to my calling as a knight errant I sought to give aid and protection to those who fled and with this good intention I did what you have seen if the result has been the opposite of what I intended it is no fault of mine but of those wicked beings that persecute me but for all that I am willing to condemn myself in costs for this error of mine though it did not proceed from Malice let master Pedro see what he wants for the spoiled figures for I agree to pay it at once in good and current money of Castile Master Pedro made him a bow saying I expected no less of the rare Christianity of the valiant Don Quixote of La Mancha true helper and protector of all destitute and needy vagabonds master landlord here and the great Sancho Pansa shall be the arbitrators and appraisers between your worship and me of what these dilapidated figures are worth or may be worth the landlord and Sancho consented and then master Pedro picked up from the ground King Marcilio of Saragosa with his head off and said, here you see how impossible it is to restore this king to his former state so I think saving your better judgments that for his death, decease and demise four rails and a half may be given me proceed said Don Quixote well then for this cleavage from top to bottom continued master Pedro taking up the split emperor Charlemagne it would not be much if I were to ask five rails and a quarter it's not little said Sancho nor is it much said the landlord make it even and say five rails let him have the whole five and a quarter said Don Quixote for the sum total of this notable disaster does not stand on a quarter more or less and make an end of it quickly master Pedro for it's getting on to supper time and I have some hints of hunger for this figure said master Pedro that is without a nose and once in eye and is the fair Melisandre I ask and I am reasonable in my charge two rails and twelve Maravetes the very devil must be in it said Don Quixote if Melisandre and her husband are not by this time at least on the French border for the horse they rode on seem to me to fly rather than gallop so you needn't try to sell me the cat for the hair a noseless Melisandre when she is now maybe enjoying herself at her ease with her husband in France God help everyone to his own master Pedro and let us all proceed fairly and honestly and now go on master Pedro perceiving that Don Quixote was beginning to wander and return to his original fancy was not disposed to let him escape so he said to him this cannot be Melisandre but must be one of the damsels that waited on her so if I'm given sixty Maravetes for her I'll be content and sufficiently paid and so he went on putting values on ever so many more smashed figures which after the two arbitrators had adjusted them to the satisfaction of both parties came to forty rails in three quarters and over and above this sum which Sancho at once dispersed master Pedro asked for two rails for his trouble in catching the ape let him have them Sancho said Don Quixote not to catch the ape but to get drunk and two hundred would I give this minute for the good news to anyone who could tell me positively that the lady Donia Melisandre and senior Don Guy Ferros are now in France and with their own people no one could tell us that better than my ape said master Pedro but there's no devil that could catch him now I suspect however that affection and hunger will drive him to come looking for me tonight but tomorrow will soon be here and we shall see in short the puppet show storm passed off and all sucked in peace and good fellowship at Don Quixote's expense for he was the height of generosity before it was daylight the man with the lances and hellbirds took his departure and soon after daybreak the cousin and the page came to bid Don Quixote farewell the former returning home the latter resuming his journey towards which to help him Don Quixote gave him twelve reels master Pedro did not care to engage in any more palaver with Don Quixote whom he knew right well so he rose before the son and having got together the remains of his show and caught his ape he too went off to seek his adventures the landlord who did not know Don Quixote was as much astonished at his mad freaks as at his generosity to conclude Sancho by his master's orders he gave him very liberally and taking leave of him they quitted the inn at about eight in the morning and took to the road where we will leave them to pursue their journey for this is necessary in order to allow certain other matters to be set forth which are required to clear up this famous history End of chapters twenty-five and twenty-six