 6 of what took place between Don Quixote and his niece and housekeeper, one of the most important chapters in the whole history. While Sancho Panza and his wife, Teresa Cascaio, held above irrelevant conversation, Don Quixote's niece and housekeeper were not idle. For by a thousand signs they began to perceive that their uncle and master meant to give them the slip the third time, and once more but take himself to his, for them, ill-errant chivalry. They strove by all the means in their power to divert him from such an unlucky scheme. But it was all preaching in the desert and hammering cold iron. Nevertheless, among many other representations made to him, the housekeeper said to him, In truth, master, if you do not keep still and stay quiet at home, and give over roaming mountains and valleys like a troubled spirit, looking for what they say are called adventures but what I call misfortunes, I shall have to make complaint to God and the king with loud supplication to send some remedy. To which Don Quixote replied, What answer God will give to your complaints, housekeeper, I know not, nor what his majesty will answer either. I only know that if I were king I should decline to answer the numberless silly petitions they present every day, for one of the greatest among many troubles kings have is being obliged to listen to all and answer all, and therefore I should be sorry that any affairs of mine should worry him. Or upon the housekeeper said, Tell us, senor, at his majesty's court are there no knights? There are, replied Don Quixote, and plenty of them, and it is right there should be, to set off the dignity of the prince and for the greater glory of the king's majesty. Then might not your worship, said she, be one of those that, without stirring a step, serve their king and lord in his court? Recollect, my friend, said Don Quixote, All knights cannot be courtiers, nor can all courtiers be knights errant, nor they need be. There must be all sorts in the world, and though we may all be knights, there is a great difference between one and another. For the courtiers, without quitting their chambers or the threshold of the court, range the world over by looking at a map, without its costing them a farthing, and without suffering heat or cold, hunger or thirst. But we, the true knights errant, measure the whole earth with our own feet, exposed to the sun, to the cold, to the air, to the inclemencies of heaven, by day and night, on foot and on horseback. Nor do we only know enemies in pictures, but in their own real shapes. And at all risks and on all occasions we attack them, without any regard to childish points or rules of single combat. Whether one has or has not a shorter lens or sword, whether one carries relics or any secret contrivance about him, whether or not the sun is to be divided and portioned out, and other niceties of the sort that are observed in set combats of man to man that you know nothing about, but I do. And you must know, besides, that the true knight errant, though he may see ten giants, that not only touch the clouds with their heads but pierce them, and that go each of them on two tall towers by way of legs, and whose arms are like the mass of mighty ships, and each eye like a great mill-wheel, and glowing brighter than a glass furnace, must not on any account be dismayed by them. On the contrary, he must attack and fall upon them with a gallon bearing and a fearless heart, and, if possible, vanquish and destroy them, even though they have, for armor, the shells of a certain fish. That they are harder than diamonds and in place of swords wield trenchant blades of Damascus steel, or clubs studded with spikes also of steel, such as I have more than one seen. All this I say, housekeeper, that you may see the difference there is between one sort of knight and the other, and it would be well if there were no prince who did not set a higher value on the second, or, more properly speaking, first kind of knight's errant. For, as we read in their histories, there have been some among them who have been the salvation not merely of one kingdom, but of many. Ah, senor, he exclaimed the niece, remember that all this you are saying about knight's errant is fable in fiction, and their histories, if indeed they were not burned, would deserve each of them to have a San Benito put on it, or by some mark by which it might be known as infamous and a corruptor of good manners. By the God that gives me life, said Don Quixote, if thou twert not to my full niece, being daughter of my own sister, I would inflict a chastisement upon thee, for the blasphemy thou hast uttered that all the world should ring with. What can it be the young hussy that hardly knows how to handle a dozen lace bobbins, dares to wag her tongue and criticise the histories of knight's errant? What would senor Amadeus say if he heard such a thing? He, however, would no doubt forgive thee, for he was the most humble-minded and courteous knight of his time, and moreover a great protector of damsels. But some there are that might have heard thee, and it would not have been well for thee in that case, for they are not all courteous or mannerly, some are ill-conditioned scoundrels, nor is it everyone that calls himself a gentleman, that it is so in all respects. Some are gold, others pinch-beck, and all look like gentlemen, but not all can stand the touchstone of truth. There are men of low rank who strain themselves to bursting to pass for gentlemen, and high gentlemen who, one would fancy, were dying to pass for men of low rank. The former raise themselves by their ambition or by their virtues, the latter debase themselves by their lack of spirit or by their vices, and one has need of experience and discernment to distinguish these two kinds of gentlemen, so alike in name and so different in conduct. God bless me, said the niece, that you should know so much, uncle, enough, if need be, to get up into a pulpit and go preach to the streets, and yet that you should fall into a delusion so great and a folly so manifest as to try to make yourself out vigorous when you are old, strong when you are sickly, able to put straight what is crooked when you yourself are bent by age, and, above all, a caballero when you are not one, for though gentle folk may be so poor men are nothing of the kind. There is a great deal of truth in what you say, niece, returned Don Quixote, and I could tell you somewhat about birth that would astonish you, but not to mix up things human and divine, I refrain. Look you, my dear, all the lineages in the world, attend to what I am saying, can be reduced to four sorts, which are these. Those that had humble beginnings, and went on spreading and extending themselves until they had attained surpassing greatness, those that had great beginnings and maintained them, and still maintained and uphold the greatness of their origin, those again, that from a great beginning have ended at a point like a pyramid, having reduced and lessened their original greatness till it has come to naught, like the point of a pyramid, which, relatively to its base or foundation, is nothing, and it is they that are the most numerous that have had neither an illustrious beginning nor a remarkable midcourse, and so will have an end without a name like an ordinary plebeian line. Of the first, those that had a humble origin and rose to the greatness they still preserve, the Ottoman house may serve as an example from which a humble and lowly shepherd as founder has reached the height at which we now see it, for examples of the second sort of lineage that began with greatness and maintained it still without adding to it, there are many princes who have inherited the dignity and maintained themselves in their inheritance without increasing or diminishing it, keeping peacefully within the limits of their states. Of those that began great and ended at a point, there are thousands of examples for all the pharaohs and Ptolemies of Egypt, the Caesars of Rome, and the whole herd, if I may say such a word to them, of countless princes, monarchs, lords, meads, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and barbarians. All these lineages and lordships have ended in a point and come to nothing, they themselves as well as their founders. For it would be impossible now to find one of their descendants, and even should we find one, it would be in some lowly and humble condition. Of plebeian lineages I have nothing to say, say that they merely serve to swell the number of those that live without any eminence to entitle them to any fame or praise beyond this. From all I have said I would have you gather my poor innocence, that great is the confusion among lineages, and that only those are seen to be great in illustrious that show themselves so by the virtue, wealth, and generosity of their possessors. I have said virtue, wealth, and generosity, because a great man who is vicious will be a great example of vice, and a rich man who is not generous will be merely a miserly beggar, for the possessor of wealth is not made happy by possessing it but by spending it, and not by spending as he pleases, but by knowing how to spend it well. The poor gentleman has no way of showing that he is a gentleman but by virtue, by being affable, well-bred, courteous, gentle-mannered, and kindly, not haughty, arrogant, or censorous, but above all by being charitable. For by two maravetes given with a cheerful heart to the poor he will show himself as generous as he who distributes alms with bell-ringing, and no one that perceives him to be endowed with the virtues I have named, even though he know him not, will fail to recognize and set him down as one of good blood. And it would be strange for it not so. Praise has ever been the reward of virtue, and those who are virtuous cannot fail to receive commendation. There are two roads, my daughters, by which men may reach wealth and honors. One is that of letters, the other that of arms. I have more of arms than of letters in my composition and by judging my inclination to arms was born under the influence of the planet Mars. I am therefore in a measure constrained to follow that road, and by it I must travel in spite of all the world. And it will be labor and vain for you to urge me to resist what heaven wills, fate ordains, reason requires, and above all my own inclination favors. For knowing us as I do, the countless toils that are the accompanies of night errantry, I know, too, the infinite blessings that are attained by it. Another is the path of virtue is very narrow, and the road of vice broad and spacious. I know their ends and goals are different. For the broad and easy road of vice ends in death, and the narrow and toilsome one of virtue in life, and not transitory life, but that which has no end, I know, as a great Castilian poet says, that it is by rugged paths like these they go that scale the heights of immortality, unreached by those that falter here below. What was me, exclaimed the niece, my lord is a poet, too. He knows everything, and he can do everything. I will bet, if he chose to turn Mason, he would make a house as easily as a cage. I can tell you, niece, replied Don Quixote, if these chivalrous thoughts did not engage all my faculties, there would be nothing that I could not do, nor any sort of knickknack that would not come from my hands, particularly cages and toothpicks. At this moment there came a knocking at the door, and when they asked who was there, Sancho Ponza made answer that it was he. The instant the housekeeper knew who it was, she ran to hide herself so as not to see him. In such abhorrence did she hold him. The niece let him in, and his master Don Quixote came forward to receive him with open arms, and the pair shut themselves up in his room, where they had another conversation not inferior to the previous one. End of chapter 6 Chapter 7 Of what passed between Don Quixote and his squire, together with other very notable incidents. The instant the housekeeper saw Sancho Ponza shut himself in with her master, she guessed what they were about, and suspecting that the result of the consultation would be a resolve to undertake a third sally, she seized her mantle, and in deep anxiety and distress ran to find the bachelor, Samson Carrasco, as she thought that, being a well-spoken man and a new friend of her masters, he might be able to persuade him to give up any such crazy notion. She found him pacing the patio of his house, and perspiring and flurried, she fell at his feet the moment she saw him. Carrasco, seeing how distressed and overcome was she, said to her, What is this, Mr. Housekeeper? What has happened to you? One would think you heartbroken. Nothing, Senora Samson, said she, Only that my master is breaking out, plainly breaking out. Whereabouts is he breaking out, Senora? asked Samson, has any part of his body burst? He's only breaking out at the door of his madness, she replied. I mean, dear Senora Bachelor, that he is going to break out again, and this will be the third time to hunt all over the world for what he calls ventures, though I can't make out why he gives him that name. The first time he was brought back to a slung across the back of an ass and belabored all over. And the second time he came in on an ox cart, shut up in a cage in which he persuaded himself he was enchanted. And the poor creature was in such a state that the mother that bore him would not have known him, lean, yellow, with eyes sunk deep in the cells of his skull, so that to bring him around again, ever so little, cost me more than 600 eggs, as God knows, and all the world and my hens too, that won't let me tell a lie. That I can well believe, replied the Bachelor, for they are so good and so fat and so well bred, that they would not say one thing for another, though they were to burst for it. In short then, Mistress Housekeeper, that is all, and there is nothing the matter except what it is fear Don Quixote may do. No, Senor, said she. Well then, return the Bachelor, don't be uneasy, but go home in peace. Get me ready something hot for breakfast, and while you are on the way, say the prayer of Santa Apollonia, that is, if you know it, for I will come presently and you will see miracles. What was me, cried the Housekeeper, is it the prayer of Santa Apollonia that you would have me say? That would do if it was the toothache my Master had, but is in the brains, that is what he has got. I know what I am saying, Mistress Housekeeper, go, and don't set yourself to argue with me, for you know that I am a Bachelor of Salamanca, and one can't be more of a Bachelor than that, replied Carrasco. And with this the Housekeeper retired, and the Bachelor went out to look for the curate, and arranged with him what will be told in its proper place. While Don Quixote and Sancho were shut up together, they had a discussion which the history records with great precision as scrupulous exactness. Sancho said to his Master, Senor, I have educated my wife to let me go with your worship whenever you choose to take me. Induced, you should say, Sancho, said Don Quixote, not educed. Once or twice, as well as I remember, replied Sancho, I have begged of your worship not to mend my words, if so be as you understand what I mean by them. And if you don't understand them to say Sancho, or Devil, I don't understand thee, and if I don't make my meaning plain, then you may correct me, for I am so falsile. I don't understand thee, Sancho, said Don Quixote at once, for I know not what I am so falsile means. So falsile means I am so much that way. I understand thee still less now, said Don Quixote. Well, if you can't understand me, said Sancho, I don't know how to put it. I know no more. God help me. Oh, now I have hit it, said Don Quixote, thou would say thou art so docile, tractable, and gentle that thou wilt take what I say to thee, and submit to what I teach thee. I would bet, said Sancho, that from the very first you understood me and knew what I meant, but you wanted to put me out that you might hear me make another couple of dozen blunders. Maybe so, replied Don Quixote. But to come to the point, what does Therese say? Therese says, replied Sancho, that I should make sure with your worship, and let's papers speak and beards be still, for he who binds does not wrangle. Since one take is better than two, I'll give these. And I say a woman's advice is no great thing, and he who won't take it is a fool. And so say I, said Don Quixote, continue, Sancho, my friend, go on, you talk pearls today. The fact is, continued Sancho, that as your worship knows better than I do, we are all of us liable to death, and today we are, and tomorrow we are not. And the Lamb goes as soon as the sheep, and nobody can promise himself more hours of life in this world than God may be pleased to give him. For death is death, and when it comes to knock at our life's door, it is always urgent, and neither prayers, nor struggles, nor sceptres, nor meters can keep it back, as calm and talk and report say, and as they tell us from the pulpits every day. All that is very true, said Don Quixote, but I cannot make out with thou art driving at. What I am driving at, said Sancho, is that your worship settles some fixed wages for me, to be paid monthly while I am in your service, and that the same be paid me out of your estate, for I don't care to stand on rewards which either come late, or ill, or never at all, God help me with my own. In short, I would like to know what I am to get, be it much or little, for the hen will lay one egg, and many littles make a much, and so long as one gains something there is nothing lost, to be sure if it happen, that I neither believe nor expect that your worship were to give me, that island you have promised me, I am not so ungrateful nor grasping, but that I will be willing to have the revenue of such island valued, and stopped out of my wages in due promotion. Sancho, my friend, replied Don Quixote, sometimes proportion may be as good as promotion. I see, said Sancho, albeit I ought to have said proportion, and not promotion, but it is no matter, as your worship has understood me. And so well understood returned Don Quixote, that I have seen into the depths of thy thoughts, and know the mark thou art shooting at, with the countless shafts of thy proverbs. Look here, Sancho, I would readily fix thy wages if I ever had found any instance in the histories of the night's errand to show, or indicate, by the slightest hint, that their squires used to get monthly or yearly. But I have read all or the best part of their histories, and I cannot remember reading of any night errand having assigned fixed wages to a squire. I only know that they have all served on reward, and that when they least expected it, if good luck attended their masters, they found themselves recompensed with an island or something equivalent to it, or at least they were left with a title and a lordship. If with these hopes and additional inducements you, Sancho, please to return to my service well and good, but to suppose that I am going to disturb or unhinge the ancient usage of night errandry, it is all nonsense. And so, my Sancho, get you back to your house and explain my intentions to your Teresa, and if she likes and you're like to be on reward to me, then acquit him. But if not, we remain friends, for if the pigeon house does not lack food, it will not like pigeons. And bear in mind, my son, that a good hope is better than a bad holding, and a good grievance better than a bad compensation. I speak in this way, Sancho, to show you that I can shower down proverbs just as well as yourself. And in short, I mean to say, and I do say, that if you don't like to come on reward with me and run the same chance that I run, god be with you, and make a saint of you, for I shall find plenty of squires more obedient and painstaking and not so thick-headed or talkative as you are. When Sancho heard his master's firm resolute language, a cloud came over the sky with him and the wings of his heart dropped, for he had made sure that his master would not go on without him for all the wealth in the world, and he stood there dumbfounded and moody. Samson Carrasco came in with a housekeeper and niece, who were anxious to hear what arguments he was about to sway their master from going to seek adventures. The arch-wag Samson came forward and embracing him as he had done before, I said with a loud voice, Oh, flower of night, errantry, oh, shining light of arms, oh, honor and mirror of the Spanish nation. May God Almighty in his infinite power grant that any person or persons who would impede or hinder thy third sally may find no way out of the labyrinth of their schemes, no ever accomplish what they most desire. And then, turning to the housekeeper, he said, Mr. Housekeeper may just as well give over saying the prayer of Santa Apollona, for I know it is the positive determination of the spheres that Senor Don Quixote shall proceed to put into execution his new and lofty designs, and I should lay a heavy burden on my conscience that I not urge and persuade this night not to keep the might of his strong arm and the virtue of his valiant spirit any longer curbed and checked, for by his inactivity he is defrauding the world of the redress of wrongs and of the protection of orphans, of the honor of virgins, of the aid of widows, and of the support of wives, and other matters of this kind appertaining, belonging, proper and peculiar to the order of night-arrantry. On then, my Lord Don Quixote, beautiful and brave, let your worship and highness set out today rather than tomorrow, and if anything be needed for the execution of your purpose, here I am ready in person and purse to supply the want, and where it requisite to attend to your magnificence's squire, I should esteem it the happiest good fortune. At this, Don Quixote, turning to Sancho, said, Did I not tell thee, Sancho, that there would be squires enough and to spare for me? See now who offers to become one, no less than the illustrious Bachelor Sampson Carrasco, the perpetual joy and delight of the courts of the Salamancan schools. Sound and body, discreet, patient under heat or cold, hunger or thirst, with all the qualifications requisite to make a night-arrant's squire, but heaven forbid that, to gratify my own inclination, I should shake or shatter this pillar of letters and vessel of the sciences, and cut down this towering palm of the fair and liberal arts. Let this new Sampson remain in his own country, and, bringing honour to it, bring honour at the same time on the gray heads of the venerable parents, for I will be content with any squire that comes to hand as Sancho does not deem to accompany me. I do, deem, said Sancho, deeply moved with tears in his eyes. It shall not be said of me, master mine, he continued, the bread-eaten and the company dispersed. Nay, I come of no ungrateful stock, for all the world knows, but peculiarly my own town, who the Ponzas from whom I am descended were, and what is more I know and have learned. By many good words, indeed, your worship's desire to show me in favour, and if I have been bargaining more or less about my wages, it was only to please my wife, who, when she sets herself to press a point, no hammer drives the hoops of a cask as she drives one to do what she wants. But, after all, a man must be a man and a woman a woman, and as I am a man anyhow, which I can't deny, I will be one in my own house, too, that who will take it amiss, and so there's nothing more to do but for your worship to make your will, with its codicell, in such a way that it can't be provoked. And let us all set out at once to save Senora Sampson's soul from suffering, as he says his conscience obliges him to persuade your worship to sally out upon the world a third time. So I offer again to serve your worship faithfully and loyally, as well and better than all the squires that served knights errant in times past or present. The bachelor was filled with amazement when he heard Sancho's phraseology and style of talk, for though he had read the first part of the master's history, he had never thought he could be so droll as he was there described, but now, hearing him talk of a will and codicell that could not be provoked, instead of will and codicell that could not be revoked, he believed all he had read of him and set him down as one of the greatest simpletons of modern times, and he said to himself that two such lunatics as master and man of the world had never seen. And fine, Don Quixote and Sancho embraced one another and made friends, and by the advice and with the approval of the great Carasco, who is now their oracle, it was arranged that their departure should take place three days thence, by which time they could have all that was requisite for the journey ready, and procure a closed helmet, which Don Quixote said he must by all means take. Samson offered him one, as he knew a friend of his who had it would not refuse to him, though it was more dingy with rust and mildew than bright and clean like burnish steel. The curses which both housekeeper and niece poured out on the bachelor were past counting, they tore their hair, they clawed their faces, and in the style of the hired mourners that were once in fashion they raised a lamentation over the departure of their master and uncle, as if it had been his death. Samson's intention in persuading him to sell a forth once more was to do what the history relates further on, all by the advice of the curate and the barber, with whom he had previously discussed the subject. Finally then, during those three days Don Quixote and Sancho provided themselves with what they considered necessary, and Sancho having pacified his wife and Don Quixote his niece and housekeeper at nightfall, unseen by anyone except the bachelor, who thought fit to accompany them half a league out of the village, they set out for El Tevoso, Don Quixote on his good Rosanante and Sancho on his old dapple. His affor is furnished with certain matters in the way of victuals, and is pursed with money that Don Quixote gave him to meet emergencies. Samson embraced him, and entreated him to let him hear of his good or evil fortunes, so that he might rejoice over the former, or condole with him over the latter, as the laws of friendship required. Don Quixote promised him that he would do so, and Samson returned to the village, and the other two took the road for the great city of El Tevoso. Chapter 8 Wherein is related but befell Don Quixote on his way to see his lady Dolcenea del Tevoso. Blessed be Allah, the all-powerful, says Hamedi Benengali on beginning this 8th chapter. Blessed be Allah, he repeats three times, and he says he utters these thanksgivings at seeing that he has now got Don Quixote and Sancho fairly afield, and that the readers of his delightful history may reckon that the achievements and humours of Don Quixote and his squire are now about to begin, and he urges them to forget the formal chivalries of the ingenious gentleman, and to fix their eyes on those that are to come, which now began on the road to El Tevoso, as the others began on the plains of Montiel, nor is it much that he asks in consideration of all he promises, and so he goes on to say. Don Quixote and Sancho were left alone, and the moment Samson took his departure, Rossedante began to neigh, and Dappel to sigh, which by both night and squire was accepted as a good sign and a very happy omen, though if the truth is to be told, the sighs and braves of Dappel were louder than the neighings of the hack, from which Sancho inferred that his good fortune was to exceed and overtop that of his master, building perhaps upon some judicial astrology that he may have known, though the history says nothing about it. All that can be said is that when he stumbled or fell, he was heard to say he wished he had not come out, for by stumbling or falling there was nothing to be got but a damaged shoe or a broken rib, and fool as he was, he was not much astray in this. Don Quixote. Sancho, my friend, night is drawing on upon us as we go, and more darkly than will allow us to reach El Toboso by daylight, for there I am resolved to go, before I engage in another adventure, and there I shall obtain the blessing and generous permission of the peerless Dulcinea, with which permission I expect and feel assured that I shall conclude and bring to a happy termination every perilous adventure, for nothing in life makes nights errant more valorous than finding themselves favored by their ladies. So I believe, replied Sancho, but I think it will be difficult for your worship to speak with her or seek her, at any rate where you will be able to receive her blessing, unless, indeed, she throws it over the wall of the yard where I saw her the time before, when I took her the letter that told of the follies and mad things your worship was doing in the heart of Sierra Marina. Didst thou take that for a yard in Quixote, where or at which thou sawest that never sufficiently extolled grace and beauty? It must have been the gallery, corridor, a porticle of some rich and royal palace. It might have been all that, returned Sancho, but to me it looked like a wall, unless I am short of memory. It all events. Let us go there, Sancho, said Don Quixote, for so that I see her it is the time to me whether it be over a wall or at a window or through the chink of a door or the grate of a garden, for any beam of the sun of her beauty that reaches my eyes will give light to my reason and strength to my heart, so that I shall be unmatched and unequaled in wisdom and valor. Well, to tell the truth, Signor," said Sancho, when I saw that son of the bossel, it was not bright enough to throw out beams at all. It must have been that as her grace was sifting that wheat I told you of, the thick dust she raised came before her face like a cloud and dimmed it. What? Does thou still persist, Sancho?" said Don Quixote, in saying, thinking, believing, and maintaining that my lady, Dulcenea, was sifting wheat, that being an occupation and task entirely at variance with what is and should be the employment of persons of distinction who are constituted and reserved for other avocations and pursuits that show their rank a bow shot off. "'Thou hast forgotten, old Sancho, those lines of our poet wherein he paints for us how?' In their crystal abodes those four nymphs employed themselves, who rose from their love at Tegos and seated themselves in a verdant meadow to embroider those tissues and which the ingenious poet there describes to us how they were worked and woven with gold and silk and pearls. And as something of this sort must have been the employment of my lady when thou sawest her, only that despite which some wicked enchanter seems to have against everything of mine, it changes all those things that give me pleasure, and turns them into shapes unlike their own, and so I fear that in that history of my achievement which they say is now in print, if happily its author was some sage who is an enemy of mine, he will have put one thing for another, mingling a thousand lies with one truth, and amusing himself by relating transactions which have nothing to do with the sequence of a true history. Oh, envy! Root of all countless evils and cankelworm of the virtues! All the vices, Sancho, bring some kind of pleasure with them, but envy brings nothing but irritation, bitterness, and rage. So I say too, replied Sancho, and I suspect in that legend or history of us that the bachelor Samson Corasco told us he saw my honor goes dragged in the dirt, knocked about and down, sweeping the streets as they say, and yet on the faith of an honest man I never spoke ill of any enchanter and I am not so well off that I am to be envied, to be sure I am rather sly and I have a certain spice of the rogue in me, but all is covered by the great cloak of my simplicity, always natural and never acted and if I had no other merit save that I believe I would not always do firmly and truly in God and all the holy Roman Catholic church holds and believes and that I am a mortal enemy of the Jews the historians ought to have mercy on me and treat me well in their writings but let them say what they like naked was I born naked I find myself I neither lose nor gain nay, while I see myself put into a book and passed on from hand to hand over the world let them say what they like of me that, Sancho returned to Don Quixote reminds me of what happened to a famous poet of our own day who, having written a bitter satire against all the courtesan ladies did not insert or name in it a certain lady of whom it was questionable whether she was one or not she seeing she was not in the list of the poet asked him what he had seen in her include her in the number of the others telling him he must add to his satire and put her in the new part or else look out for the consequences the poet did as she bad him and left her without a shred of reputation and she was satisfied by getting fame though it was infamy in keeping with this is what they relate of that shepherd who set fire to the famous temple of Diana by repute one of the seven warriors of the world and burned it with the sole object of making his name live in after ages and though it was forbidden to name him or mention his name by word of mouth or in writing, lest the object of his ambition should be attained nevertheless it became known that he was called at a stratus and something of the same sort is what happened in the case of the great emperor Charles V the gentleman in Rome the emperor was anxious to see that famous temple of the Rotunda called in ancient times the temple of all the gods but nowadays by a better nomenclature of all the saints which is the best preserved building of all those of pagan construction in Rome and the one which best sustains the reputation of mighty works and magnificence of its founders it is in the form of a half enormous dimensions and well lighted though no light penetrates it save that which is admitted by a window or rather round skylight at the top and it was from this that the emperor examined the building a Roman gentleman stood by his side and explained to him the skillful construction and ingenuity of the vast fabric and its wonderful architecture and when they had left the skylight he said the emperor a thousand times your sacred majesty the impulse came upon me to seize your majesty in my arms and fling myself down from yonder skylight so as to leave behind me in the world a name that would last forever I am thankful to you for not carrying such an evil thought into effect said the emperor and I shall give you no opportunity in future of again putting your loyalty to the test or bid you ever to speak to me or to be where I am and he followed up these words by bestowing a liberal bounty on him my meaning is Sancho that the desire of acquiring fame is a very powerful motive what thinkest thou was it that flung Horatius in full armor down from the bridge into the depths of the Tiber what burned the hand in arm of Muteus and propelled Kirtius to plunge into the deep burning gulf that opened in the midst of Rome what in opposition to all the omens that declared against him made Julius Caesar cross the Rubicon and to come to more modern examples what scuttled the ships and left stranded and cut off the gallant Spaniards under the command of the most Kirtius Cortes in the new world all these and a variety of great exploits are were and will be the work of fame that mortals desire as a reward and a portion of the immortality their famous deeds deserve though we Catholic Christians and Knights errant look more to that future glory that is everlasting in the ethereal regions of heaven than to the vanity of the fame that is to be acquired in this present transitory life a fame that however long must after all end with the world itself which has its own appointed end so that Osancio in what we do we must not overpass the bounds which the Christian religion we profess as a sign to us we have to slay pride in giants envy by generosity and nobleness of heart anger by calmness of demeanor and equanimity gluttony and sloth by the bitterness of our diet and the length of our vigils lust and lewdness by the loyalty we preserve by those whom we have made the mistresses of our thoughts indolence by traversing the world in all directions seeking opportunities of making ourselves besides Christians famous knights such as Osancio are the means by which we reach those extremes of praise that fair fame carries with it all that your worship is said so far said Osancio I have understood quite well but still I would be glad if your worship would dissolve a doubt for me which has just this minute come into my mind solve thou meanest Osancio say on in God's name and I will answer as well as I can tell me, Senor Osancio went on to say those Julys or Augusts and all those venturous knights that you say are now dead where are they now? the heathens reply to Don Quixote are no doubt in hell the Christians if they were good Christians are either in purgatory or in heaven very good said Sencio but now I want to know the tombs where the bodies of those great lords are have they silver lamps before them balls of their chapels ornamented with crutches, winding sheets trusses of hair, legs and eyes and wax or what are they ornamented with to which Don Quixote made answer the tombs of the heathens were generally sumptuous temples the ashes of Julius Caesar's body were placed on the top of a stone pyramid of vast size which they now call in Rome St. Peter's Needle the emperor Hadrian had for a tomb a castle as large as a good-sized village which they called the Molus Adriani and is now the castle of St. Angelo in Rome the queen Artemisia buried her husband Mausolus in a tomb which was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world but none of these tombs or of the many others of the heathens were ornamented with winding sheets or any of those other offerings and tokens that show that they who are buried there are saints that's the point I'm coming to said Sancho and now tell me which is the greater work to bring a dead man to life or to kill a giant the answer is easy replied Don Quixote it is a greater work to bring to life a dead man now I've got you said Sancho in that case who bring the dead to life who give sight to the blind cure cripples restore health to the sick and before whose tombs there are lamps burning and whose chapels are filled with devout folk on their knees adoring their relics be a better fame in this life and in the other that which all the heathen emperors and knights errant that have ever been in the world have left or may leave behind them that I grant too said Don Quixote then this fame these favors these privileges or whatever you call it said Sancho belong to the bodies and relics of the saints who with the approbation and permission of your holy mother church have lamps tapers winding sheets crutches pictures eyes and legs by means of which they increase devotion and add to their own Christian reputation kings carry the bodies or relics of saints on their shoulders their bones and enrich and adorn their oratoys and favorite altars with them what would thou have me infer from all that are said Sancho as Don Quixote my meaning is said Sancho let us set about becoming saints and we shall obtain more quickly the fair fame we are striving after for you know senior yesterday or the day before yesterday for it is so lately one may say so they canonized and beatified two little barefoot friars and it is now reckoned the greatest good luck to kiss or touch the iron chains with which they girt and tortured their bodies and they are held in greater veneration so it is said then the sword of Roland in the armory of our lord the king whom god preserve so that senior it is better to be an humble little friar of no matter what order than a valiant knight errant with god a couple of dozen penance lashings are of more avail than two thousand lance thrust be they given to giants or monsters or dragons all that is true return Don Quixote but we cannot all be friars and many other ways by which god takes his own to heaven chivalry is a religion there are sainted knights in glory yes said Sancho but I have heard say that there are more friars in heaven the knights errant that said Don Quixote is because those in religious orders are more numerous than knights the errants are many said Sancho many replied Don Quixote but few they are who deserve the name of knights with these and other discussions of the same sort they pass that knight and the following day at the same worth mention happening to them where at Don Quixote was not a little dejected but at length the next day at daybreak they described the great city of El Toboso at the site of which Don Quixote's spirits rose and the Sanchos fell for he did not know D'Alcinel's house nor in all his life had he ever seen her any more than his master so that they were both uneasy the one to see her not having seen her and Sancho was at a loss to know what he was to do when his master sent him to El Toboso in the end Don Quixote made up his mind to enter the city at nightfall and they waited until the time came among some oak trees that were near El Toboso and when the moment they had agreed upon arrived they made their entrance into the city where something happened them that may fairly be called something end of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 wherein is related what would be seen there it was at the very midnight hour more or less when Don Quixote and Sancho quitted the wood and entered El Toboso the town was in deep silence for all the inhabitants were asleep and stretched on the broad of their backs as the saying is the night was darkish though Sancho would have been glad had it been quite dark so as to find in the darkness an excuse for his blundering all over the place nothing was to be heard except the barking of dogs which deafened the ears of Don Quixote and troubled the heart of Sancho now and then an ass-braid pigs grunted cats mewed and the various noises they made seemed louder in the silence of the night all which the elaborate night took to be the evil omen nevertheless he said to Sancho Sancho, my son lead on to the palace of Dulcinea it may be that we shall find her awake body of the son what palace am I to lead to said Sancho when what I saw her highness in was only a very little house most likely she had then withdrawn into some small apartment of her palace said Don Quixote with damsels as great ladies and princesses are accustomed to Senor said Sancho if your worship will have it in spite of me that the house of my lady Dulcinea is a palace is this an hour thank you to find the door open and will it be right for us to go knocking till they hear us and open the door making a disturbance and confusion all through the household are we going do you fancy to the house of our wenches like gallants who come and knock and go in at any hour however late it may be let us first of all find out the palace for certain replied Don Quixote and then I will tell these Sancho what we had best do but look Sancho for either I see badly or that dark mass that one sees from here should be Dulcinea's palace then let your worship lead the way said Sancho though I see it with my eyes and touch it with my hands I'll believe it as much as I believe it is daylight now Don Quixote took the lead and having gone a matter of two hundred paces he came upon the mass that produced the shade and found it was a great tower and then he perceived that the building in question was no palace but the chief church of the town and said he each that church we have lit upon Sancho so I see said Sancho and God grant we may not light upon our graves it is no good sign to find one self-wandering in a graveyard at this time of night and that after my telling your worship if I don't mistake that the house of this lady will be in an alley without an outlet the curse of God on thee for a blockhead said Don Quixote what hast thou ever heard of castles and royal palaces in alleys without an outlet oh senor replied Sancho every country has a way of its own perhaps here in El Thaboso it is the way to build palaces and grand buildings in alleys so I entreat your worship to let me search about among these streets or alleys before me and perhaps in some corner or other I may stumble upon this palace and I wish I saw the dogs eating it for leading us such a dance respectfully of what belongs to my lady Sancho said Don Quixote let us keep the feast in peace and not throw the rope after the bucket I'll hold my tongue said Sancho but how am I to take it patiently when your worship wants me with only want seeing the house of our mistress to know always and find it in the middle of the night when your worship can't find it who must have seen it thousands of times and now will drive me to desperation Sancho said Don Quixote look here heretic have I not told you a thousand times that I have never once in my life seen the peerless dosada or crossed the threshold of her palace and that I am enamored solely by hearsay and by the great reputation she bears for beauty and discretion I hear it now return Sancho to see her no more have I that cannot be said Don Quixote for at any rate thou sayest on bringing back the answer to the letter I sent by thee that thou sawest her sifting wheat don't mind that, senior I must tell you that my seeing her and the answer I brought you back were by hearsay too for I can no more tell who the Lely Dalsamea is than I can hit the sky Sancho said Don Quixote there are times for jests and times when jests are out of place if I tell thee that I have neither seen nor spoken to the lady of my heart it is no reason why thou should say thou hast not spoken to her or seen her when the contrary is the case is thou well-knowest while the two were engaged in this conversation they perceived someone with a pair of mules approaching the spot where they stood and from the noise the plough made as it dragged along the ground they guessed him to be some laborer who had got up before daybreak to go to his work and so it proved to be he came along singing the ballad that says il dit-y faire-y men a France in Rosensvalier's chase may I die Sancho said Don Quixote when he had heard him if any good will come to us tonight does thou not hear what that clown is singing? I do said Sancho but what has Rosensvalier's chase to do with what we have in mind he might just as well be singing the ballad of Calianos for any good or ill that can come to us in our business by this time the laborer had come up and Don Quixote said to him can you tell me were they friend and called Spidiu what about here is the palace of the princess Dona dosenale del Tobosso Senor replied the lad I am a stranger and I have been only a few days in the town doing farm work for a rich farmer in that house opposite there live the curate of the village and the sacristan and both or either of them will be able to give your worship some account of this lady princess for they have a list of all the people of El Tobosso though it is my belief there is not a princess living in the whole of it many ladies there are of quality and in her own house each of them may be a princess well then she I am inquiring for will be one of these my friend said Don Quixote may be so replied the lad God be with you for here comes the daylight and without waiting for any more of his questions he whipped on his mules giving his master downcast and somewhat dissatisfied said to him Senor, daylight will be here before long and it will not do for us to let the sun find us in the street it will be better for us to quit the city and for your worship to hide in some forest in the neighborhood and I will come back in the daytime and I won't leave a nook or corner of the whole village that I won't search for the house castle or palace of my lady I have no hard luck for me if I don't find it and as soon as I have found it I will speak to her grace and tell her where and how your worship is waiting for her to arrange some plan for you to see her without any damage to her honor and reputation Sancho said Don Quixote thou has delivered a thousand sentences condensed in the compass of a few words I thank thee for the advice thou has given me and take it most gladly come my son let's go look for some place where I may hide while thou dost return as thou sayest to seek and speak with my lady from whose discretion and courtesy I look for favors more than miraculous Sancho was in a fever to get his master out of the town lest he should discover the falsehood of the reply he had brought to him in the Sierra Marina on behalf of Dolce and Ea so he hastened their departure they took at once and two miles out of the village they found a forest or thicket for in Don Quixote ensconced himself while Sancho returned to the city to speak to Dolce and Ea in which embassy things befell him which demand fresh attention and a new chapter end of Chapter 9 Recording by John leader Bloomington, Illinois Chapters 10 and 11 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 Amiguel de Cervantes Avedre Translated by John Ormsby Chapters 10 and 11 Chapter 10 Wherein is related the crafty device Sancho adopted to enchant the Lady Dolce and Ea and other incidents as ludicrous as they are true When the author of this great history comes to relate what is set down in this chapter he says he would have preferred to pass it over in silence fearing it would not be believed because here Don Quixote's madness reaches the confines of the greatest that can be conceived and even goes a couple of bow shots beyond the greatest but after all though still under the same fear and apprehension he has recorded it without adding to the story or leaving out a particle of the truth and entirely disregarding the charges of falsehood that might be brought against him and he was right for the truth may run fine but will not break and always rises above falsehood as oil above water and so going on with his story he says that as soon as Don Quixote ensconced himself in the forest oak grove or wood near El Toboso he bade Sancho return to the city and not come into his presence again without having first spoken on his behalf to his lady and begged of her that it might be her good pleasure to permit herself to be seen by her enslaved knight and deign to bestow her blessing upon him so that he might thereby hope for a happy issue in all his encounters and difficult enterprises Sancho undertook to execute the task according to the instructions and to bring back an answer as good as the one he brought back before. Go, my son, said Don Quixote and be not dazed when thou findest thy self exposed to the light of that son of beauty thou art going to see happy thou above all the squires in the world bear in mind and let it not keep thy memory how she receives thee if she changes color while thou art giving her my message if she is agitated and disturbed at hearing my name if she cannot rest upon her cushion shouldst thou happily find her seated in the Sancho state chamber proper to her rank and should she be standing observe if she poises herself now on one foot now on the other if she repeats two or three times the reply she gives thee if she passes from gentleness to austerity from asperity to tenderness if she raises her hand to smooth her hair though it not be disarranged in short, my son, observe all her actions and emotions for if thou wilt report them to me as they were I will gather what she hides in the recesses of her heart as regards my love for I would have thee know, Sancho if thou knowest it not with lovers the outward actions and motions they give way to when their loves are in question are the faithful messengers that carry the news of what is going on in the depths of their hearts go, my friend, may better fortune than mine attend thee and bring thee a happier issue than that which I await in dread in this dreary solitude I will go and return quickly said Sancho part of yours, master mine for at the present moment you seem to have got one no bigger than a hazelnut remember what they say that a stout heart breaks bad luck and that where there are no fletches there are no pegs and moreover they say the hair jumps up where it's not looked for I say this because if we could not find my ladies palaces or castles tonight now that it is daylight finding them when I least expect it and once found leave it to me to manage her verily Sancho said Don Quixote thou dost always bring in thy proverbs happily whatever we deal with may God give me better luck in what I am anxious about with this Sancho wheeled about and gave Dappel the stick and Don Quixote remained behind seated on his horse resting in his stirrups and leaning on the end of his lance filled with sad and troubled forebodings and there we will leave him and a company Sancho who went off no less serious and troubled than he left his master so much so that as soon as he had got out of the thicket and looking round saw that Don Quixote was not within sight he dismounted from his ass and seating himself at the foot of a tree began to commune with himself saying now brother Sancho let us know where your worship is going are you going to look for some ass that has been lost not at all then what are you going to look for I am going to look for a princess that's all and in her for the son of beauty and the whole heaven at once and where do you expect to find all this Sancho where why in the great city of El De Boso well and for whom are you going to look for her for the famous knight Don Quixote of La Mancha who writes wrongs gives food to those who thirst and drink to the hungry that's all very well but do you know her house Sancho my master says it will be some royal palace or grand castle and have you ever seen her by any chance neither I nor my master ever saw her and does it strike you that it would be just and right if the El De Boso people finding out that you were here with the intention of going to tamper with their princesses and trouble their ladies or to come and cudgel your ribs and not leave a whole bone in you they would indeed have very good reason if they did not see that I am under orders and that you are a messenger my friend no blame belongs to you don't you trust to that Sancho for the Manchigan folk are as hot tempered as they are honest and don't put up with liberties from anybody by the lord if they get sent of you it will be worse for you I promise you be off you scoundrel let the bolt fall why should I go looking for three feet on a catch to please another man and what is more when looking for Dalsynea will be looking for Marica in Ravina or the bachelor in Salamanca the devil the devil and nobody else has mixed me up in all this business such was the soliloquy Sancho held with himself and all the conclusion he could come to was to say to himself again well there's remedy for everything except death under whose joke we have all to pass whether we like it or not when life's finished I have seen by a signs that this master of mine is a madman fit to be tied and for that matter I too am not behind him for I'm a greater fool than he is when I follow him and serve him if there's any truth in the proverb that says tell me what company thou keepest and I'll tell thee what thou art or in that other not with whom thou art bred but with whom thou art fed well then if he be mad as he is and with a madness that mostly takes one thing for another and white for black and black for white as was seen when he said the windmills were giants and the monks mules dramataries the flocks of sheep armies of enemies and much more to the same tune it will not be very hard to make him believe that some country girl the first I come across here is the lady dulcinea and if he does not believe it I'll swear it and if he should swear I'll swear again and if he persists I'll persist still more so as come what may to have my quite always over the peg maybe by holding out this way I may put a stop to his sending me on messages of this kind another time or maybe he will think as I suspect he will that one of those wicked enchanters who he says have a spite against him has changed her form for the sake of doing him and he'll turn and injuring him with this reflection Sancho made his mind easy counting the business as good as settled and stayed there to the afternoon so as to make Don Quixote think he had time enough to go to El Tiboso and return and things turned out so luckily for him that as he got up to Mount Dapel he spied coming from El Tiboso towards the spot where he stood the girls on three cults or fillies for the author does not make the point clear though it is more likely they were she-asses the usual mount with village girls but as it is of no great consequence we need not stop to prove it to be brief the instant Sancho saw the peasant girls he returned full speed to seek his master and found him sighing and uttering a thousand passionate lamentations Don Quixote saw him he exclaimed What news Sancho my friend am I to mark this day with a white stone or a black Your worship replied Sancho had better mark it with ruddle like the inscriptions on the walls of classrooms and those who see it may see it plain Then thou bringest good news said Don Quixote So good replied Sancho that your worship is only to spur the field to see the lady dosenale Del Tobosso who with two others damsels of hers is coming to see your worship Holy God what are thou saying Sancho my friend exclaimed Don Quixote Take care thou art not deceiving me or seeking by false joy to cheer my real sadness What can I get by deceiving your worship return Sancho especially when it will so soon be shown whether I tell the truth or not Come senior push on and you will see the princess are mistress coming Robed and adorned in fact like what she is Her damsels and she are all one glow of gold all bunches of pearls all diamonds all woobies all cloth of brocade of more than ten borders with their hair loose on their shoulders like so many sunbeams playing with the wind and moreover they come mounted on three people cacneys the finest sight you ever saw cacneys you mean Sancho said Don Quixote There is not much difference between cacneys and cacneys said Sancho but no matter what they come on there they are the finest ladies one could wish for especially my lady the princess dosenale who staggers one's senses Let us go Sancho my son said Don Quixote and in gooden of this news as unexpected as it is good I bestow upon thee the best spoil I shall win in the first adventure I may have or if that does not satisfy thee I promise thee the foals I shall have this year from my three mares that thou knowest are in fall on our village common I'll take the foals said Sancho for it is not quite certain that the spoils of the first adventure will be good ones By this time they had cleared the wood and saw the three village lasses close at hand Don Quixote looked all along the road to El Taboso and as he could see nobody except the three peasant girls he was completely puzzled and asked Sancho if it was outside the city he had left them How outside the city returned Sancho are your worship's eyes in the back of your head that you can't see that they are these who are coming here shining like the very sun at noon day I see nothing Sancho said Don Quixote but three country girls on three jackasses now may God deliver me from the devil said Sancho and can it be that your worship takes three hackneys or whatever they're called is white is the driven snow for jackasses Lord I could tear my beard if that was the case well I can only say Sancho my friend said Don Quixote that it is as plain as they are jackasses or geniasses as that I am Don Quixote and thou Sancho panza at any rate they seem to me to be so Hush senior said Sancho don't talk that way but open your eyes and come and pay your respects to the lady of your thoughts who is close upon us now and with these words he advanced to receive the three village lasses and dismounting from dapple caught hold of one of the asses of the three country girls by the halter and dropping on both knees on the ground he said Queen and princess and Duchess of beauty may it please your haughtiness and greatness to receive into your favor and goodwill and then he entered into marble stone and quite stupefied and benumbed at fighting himself in your magnificent presence I am Sancho panza his squire and he the vagabond knight Don Quixote of La Mancha otherwise called the Knight of the Roofle Countenance Don Quixote had by this time placed himself on his knees beside Sancho and with eyes starting out he said and a puzzled gaze was regarding her whom Sancho called Queen and Lady and as he could see nothing in her except a village lass and not a very well favored one for she was platter faced and snub-dosed he was perplexed and bewildered and did not venture to open his lips the country girls at the same time were astonished to see these two men so different in appearance on their knees she, however, who had been stopped breaking silence said angrily and testily get out of the way bad luck to you and let us pass for we are in a hurry to which Sancho returned O Princess and Universal Lady of El Toboso it's not your magnanimous heart softened by seeing the pillar and prop of knight errantry on his knees before your sublimated presence on hearing this one of the others exclaimed woe then why I'm rubbing thee down she asset my father-in-law see how the Lordlings come to make a game of the village girls now as if we here could not chaff as well as themselves go your own way and let us go ours and it will be better for you get up Sancho, said Don Quixote at this I see that fortune with evil done to me unsated still possession of all the roads by which any comfort may reach this wretched soul that I carry in my flesh and thou highest perfection of excellence that can be desired at most limit of grace in human shape sole relief of this afflicted heart that adores thee though the malign enchanter that persecutes me has brought clouds and cataracts on my eyes and to them and and them only transform thy unparagoned beauty and change thy features into those of a poor peasant girl if so be he has not at the same time changed mine into those of some monster to render them loathsome in thy sight refuse not to look upon me with tenderness and love seeing in this submission that I make on my knees to thy transformed beauty the humility with which my soul adores thee hey, day, my grandfather tried the girl much I care for your lovemaking get out of the way and let us pass and we'll thank you Sancho stood aside and let her go very well pleased to have got so well out of the hobble he was in the instant the village lass who had done duty for Dalsinea found herself free prodding her cac knee with a spike she had at the end of a stick she set off at full speed across the field and acutely the nuisual began cutting such capers that it flung the lady Dalsinea to the ground seeing which Don Quixote ran to race her up and Sancho to fix and girth the pack saddle which also had slipped under the ass's belly the pack saddle being secured as Don Quixote was about to lift up his enchanted mistress in his arms and put her upon her beast the lady getting up from the ground and let him the trouble for going back a little she took a short run and putting both hands on the croup of the ass she dropped into the saddle more lightly than a falcon and sat astride like a man were at Sancho's said rogue! but our lady is lighter than a laner and might teach the cleverest Cordovan or Mexican how to mount she cleared the back of the saddle in one jump and without spurs making the hackney go like a zebra and her damsels are no way behind her for they all fly like the wind which was the truth for as soon as they saw Dalsinea mounted they pushed on after her and sped away without looking back for more than half a leg Don Quixote followed them with his eyes and when they were no longer in sight he turned to Sancho and said oh now Sancho! now seeest hated by enchanters and see to what a length the malice in spite they bear me go when they seek to deprive me of the happiness it would give me to see my lady in her own proper form the fact is I was born to be an example of misfortune and the target and mark at which the arrows of adversity are aimed and directed observe too Sancho that these traitors were not content with changing and transforming my Dalsinea but they transformed and changed her into a shape as mean and ill favoured as that of the village girl yonder and at the same time they robbed her of that which is such a peculiar property of ladies of distinction that is to say the sweet fragrance that comes of being always among perfumes and flowers for I must tell thee Sancho that when I approached to put Dalsinea upon her hackney as thou sayest it was though to me I heard a she-ass and she gave me a whiff of raw garlic that made my head real and poisoned my very heart oh scum of the earth cried Sancho at this oh miserable spiteful enchanters oh that I could see you all strong by the gills like sardines on a twig ye know a great deal you can do a great deal and you do a great deal more it ought to have been enough for you scoundrels who have changed the pearls of my ladies eyes into oak galls and her hair of purest gold and to the bristles of a red ox's tail and in short all her features from fair to foul without meddling with her smell for by that we might somehow have found out what was hidden underneath that ugly rind though to tell the truth I never perceived her ugliness but only her beauty which was raised to the highest pitch of perfection by a mole she had on her right lip like a mustache with seven or eight red hairs like threads of gold and more than a palm long from the correspondence which exists between those of the face and those of the body, said Don Quixote Dulcinea must have another mole resembling that on the thick of the thigh on she has the one on her face but hairs of the length thou hast mentioned are very long for moles. Well, all I can say is there they were as plain as could be, replied Sancho I believe it, my friend returned Don Quixote for nature bestowed nothing on Dulcinea that was not perfect and well finished and so if she had a hundred moles like the one thou has in her they would not be moles but moons and shining stars but tell me, Sancho that which seemed to me to be a pack saddle as thou weren't fixing it was it a flat saddle or a side saddle? It was neither replied Sancho, but a Hennete saddle with a field covering worth half a kingdom so rich is it and that I could not see all this, Sancho said Don Quixote there's more I say and will say a thousand times I am the most unfortunate of men. Sancho the rogue had enough to do to hide his laughter at hearing the simplicity of the master he had so nicely befooled. At length after a good deal more conversation had passed between them they remounted their beasts and followed the road to Saragoso which they expected to reach a certain grand festival which is held every year in that illustrious city but before they got there things happened to them so many so important and so strange that they deserved to be recorded and read as will be seen farther on. End of Chapter 10 Chapter 11 of the strange adventure which the valiant Don Quixote had with the car or cart of death. Dejected beyond measure did Don Quixote pursue his journey turning over in his mind the cruel trick the enchanters had played him in changing his lady docenere into the vile shape of the village lass nor could he think of any way of restoring her to her original form and these reflections so absorbed him that without being aware of it he let go Rosanante's bridle and he perceiving the liberty that was granted him stopped at every step to crop the fresh grass with which the plane abounded. Sancho recalled him from his reverie. Melancholy, senor, said he was made not for beasts but for men but if men give way to it over much they turn to beasts. Control yourself your worship be yourself again gather up Rosanante's reins cheer up, rouse yourself and show that gallant spirit that night's errant ought to have what the devil is this what weakness is this are we here or in France the devil fly away with all the dulcene is in the world for the well-being of a single night errant is of more consequence than all the enchantments and transformations on earth. Hush Sancho said Don Quixote in a weekend voice. Hush and utter no blasphemies against that enchanted lady for I alone him to blame for her misfortune and hard fate her calamity has come of the hatred the wicked bear me. So say I return Sancho his heart rend in twain I trow who saw her once to see her now. Thou mayest well say that, Sancho replied to Don Quixote who sawest her in the full perfection of her beauty for the enchantment does not go so far as to pervert thy vision or hide her loveliness from thee. Against me alone and against my eyes is the strength of its venom directed. Nevertheless there is one thing which has occurred to me and that is that thou didst yield describe her beauty to me for as well as I recollect, thou that her eyes were pearls but eyes that are like pearls are rather the eyes of a sea-brim than of a lady and I am persuaded that Dalsineas must be green emeralds who fall and soft with two rainbows for eyebrows and take away those pearls from her eyes and transfer them to her teeth for beyond a doubt Sancho thou hast taken the one for the other the eyes for the teeth very likely, said Sancho for her beauty bewildered me as much as her ugliness did your worship but let us leave it all to God who alone knows what is to happen in this veil of tears in this evil world of ours where there is hardly a thing to be found without some mixture of wickedness roguery and drascality but one thing, senor troubles me more than all the rest and that is thinking what is to be done when your worship conquers some giant or some other night and orders him to go and present himself before the beauty of the Lady Dalsinea where is this poor giant or this poor wretch of a vanquished knight to find her I think I can see them wandering all over El Toboso looking like naughties and asking for my Lady Dalsinea and even if they meet her in the middle of the street they won't know her any more than they would my father perhaps sancho return Don Quixote the enchantment does not go so far as to deprive conquered and presented giants and knights of the power of recognizing Dalsinea we will try by experiment with one or two of the first I vanquish and send to her whether they see her or not by commanding them to return and give me an account of what happened to them in this respect I declare I think what your worship has proposed is excellent said sancho and that by this plan we shall find out what we want to know and if it be that it is only from your worship she is hidden the misfortune will be more yours than hers but so long as the Lady Dalsinea is well and happy we on our part will make the best of it and get on as well as we can seeking our adventures in time to take his own course for he is the best physician for these and greater ailments Don Quixote was about to reply to sancho panza but he was prevented by a cart crossing the road full of the most diverse and strange personages and figures that could be imagined he who led the mules and acted as Carter was a hideous demon the cart was open to the sky without a tilt or cane roof and the first figure that presented itself to Don Quixote's eyes was that of death itself with a human face next to it was an angel with large painted wings and at one side an emperor with a crown to all appearance of gold on his head at the feet of death was the god called Cupid without his bandage but with his bow quiver and arrows there was also a knight in full armor except that he had no morian or helmet but only a hat decked with plumes of diverse colors and along with these there were others with a variety of costumes and faces all this unexpectedly encountered took Don Quixote somewhat aback and struck terror into the heart of sancho but the next instant Don Quixote was glad of it believing that some new perilous adventure was presenting itself to him and under this impression with a spirit prepared to face any danger he planted himself in front of the cart and in a loud and menacing tone exclaimed Carter or coachman or devil or whatever thou art tell me at once who thou art whether thou art going and who these folks are that thou carryest in thy wagon which looks more like Karen's boat than an ordinary cart to which the devil stopping the cart answered quietly Senor, we are players of Angelo Elmalo's company we have been acting the play of the Cortes of Death this morning which is the octave of Corpus Christi in a village behind that hill and we have to act it this afternoon in that village which you can see from this and as it is so near and to save the trouble of our dressing and dressing again we go in the costumes in which we perform that lad there appears as a death that other as an angel that woman the manager's wife plays the queen this one the soldier that the emperor and I the devil and I am one of the principal characters of the play for in this company I take the leading parts if you want to know anything more about us ask me and I will answer with the utmost exactitude for as I am a devil and I am up to everything by faith of a night errant replied a don Quixote when I saw this cart I fancied some great adventure was presenting itself to me but I declare one must touch with the hand what appears to the eye if illusions are to be avoided God speed you good people keep your festival and remember if you demand of me Ottawa and I can render your service I will do it gladly and willingly for from a child I was fond of the play did my youth a keen lover of the actor's art while they were talking fate so wielded that one of the company in a mummer's dress with a great number of bells and armed with three blown ox bladders at the end of a stick joined them and this Mary Andrew approaching don Quixote began flourishing his stick and banging around with the bladders and cutting capers with great jingling of the bells which untoward apparition so startled Rosanante that in spite of don Quixote's efforts to hold them in taking the bits between his teeth he set off across the plane with greater speed than the bones of his anatomy ever gave any promise of the Sancho who thought his master was in danger of being thrown jumped off dapple and ran in all haste to help him but by the time he reached him he was already on the ground and beside him was Rosanante who had come down with his master the usual end and upshot of Rosanante's vivacity and high spirits but the moment Sancho quitted his beast to go and help don Quixote the dancing devil with the bladders jumped up on dapple and beating him with them more by the fright and the noise than by the pain of the village where they were going to hold their festival Sancho witnessed dapple's career and his master's fall and did not know which of the two cases of need he should attend to first but in the end like a good squire and good servant he let his love for his master prevail over his affection for his ass though every time he saw the bladders rise in the air and come down on the hind quarters of his dapple he felt the pains of rather had the blows fall on the apples of his own eyes than on the last hair of his ass's tail in this trouble and perplexity he came to where don Quixote lay in a far sarier plight than he liked and having helped him to mount Rosanante he said to him Sr. the devil has carried off my dapple what devil asked don Quixote the one with the bladders said Sancho cover him said don Quixote even if he be shot up with him in the deepest and darkest dungeons of hell follow me Sancho for the cart goes slowly and with the mules of it I will make good the loss of dapple you need not take the trouble Sr. said Sancho keep cool for as I now see the devil has let dapple go and he is coming back to his old quarters and so it turned out that with the dapple in imitation of don Quixote and Rosanante the devil made off on foot to the town and the ass came back to his master for all that said don Quixote it will be well to visit the discourtesy of that devil upon some of those in the cart even if it were the emperor himself don't think of it your worship return Sancho take my advice and never meddle with actors for they are a favored class I myself have known an actor taken up for two murders and yet come off scot-free remember that as they are merry folk who give pleasure everyone favors and protects them and helps and makes much of them above all when they are those of the royal companies and under patent all or most of whom in dress and appearance look like princes still for all that said don Quixote the player devil must not go off boasting even if the whole human race favors him so saying he made for the cart which was now very near the town shouting out as he went stay halt you married jovial crew I want to teach you how to treat asses and animals that serve the squires of knights errant for steeds so loud were the shouts of don Quixote that those in the cart heard and understood them and guessing by the words the speaker's intention was death in an instant jumped out of the cart and the emperor the devil Carter and the angel after him nor did the queen or the guard cupid stay behind and all armed themselves with stones and formed in line prepared to receive don Quixote on the points of their pebbles don Quixote when he saw them drawn up in such a gallant array with uplifted arms ready for a mighty discharge of stones checked the Rosanante and began to consider in what way he could attack them with the least danger to himself as he halted Sancho came up and seeing him disposed to attack this well-ordered squadron is said to him it would be the height of madness to attempt such an enterprise remember senior that against sops from the brook and plenty of them there is no defensive armor in the world except to walk away under a brass bell and besides one should remember that it is rashness and not valor for a single man to attack an army that has death in it and where emperors fight in person with angels good and bad to help them and if this reflection will not make you keep quiet perhaps it will to know for certain that among all these though they look like kings princes and emperors there is not a single knight errant now indeed thou hast hit the point Sancho said Don Quixote which may and should turn me from the resolution I had already formed I cannot and must not draw a sword as I have many a time before told thee against anyone who is not a dubbed knight it is for thee Sancho if thou wilt to take vengeance for the wrong done to thy dapple and I will help thee from here thy shouts and salutary counsels there is no occasion to take vengeance on anyone, senor replied Sancho for it is not the part of good Christians to revenge wrongs and besides I will arrange it with my ass to leave his grievance to my good will and pleasure and that is to live in peace as long as heaven grants me life well said Don Quixote if that be thy determination good Sancho, sensible Sancho Christian Sancho, honest Sancho let us leave these phantoms alone and turn to the pursuit of better and worthier adventures for from what I see of this country we cannot fail to find plenty of marvelous ones in it he at once wheeled about Sancho ran to take possession of his dapple death and his flying squadron returned to their cart and pursued their journey a dreaded venture of the cart of death ended happily thanks to the advice Sancho gave his master who had the following day a fresh adventure of no less thrilling interest than the last with an enamored knight errant End of Chapter 11 Recording by John Leader Bloomington, Illinois