THE END OF THIS PROTRACTED ADVENTURE
Don Quixote was in a state of anxiety during the whole day for fear
that Malambruno should not send the steed, but soon after nightfall
there arrived in the garden four wild-men, clad in ivy, and carrying
on their shoulders a large wooden horse. Don Quixote was summoned by
the Distressed Duenna and he mounted the horse at once, not even
putting on his spurs. By this time, however, Sancho had changed his
mind and decided that he was not going to fly through the air like a
witch. But upon the earnest and courteous solicitations of the Duke,
Sancho at last consented to ride with his master.
Don Quixote begged Sancho to give himself five hundred lashes on
behalf of his enchanted Dulcinea before they set off; but this request
struck the squire as the absurdest one he had ever heard. How could
his master expect him to sit on a hard wooden horse while he was all
bruised and sore from the lashes? He did promise solemnly, however,
that as soon as the duennas had been shaved he would turn to the
fulfilling of the other debt.
The Distressed Duenna blindfolded them, saying that doing so would
prevent them from getting dizzy when they rose to great heights; and
Sancho, trembling and tearful, complained that the croup was too hard
and begged for a cushion. But the duenna answered him that the magic
steed permitted no trappings of any kind, and she suggested that he
place himself sideways like a woman, for no doubt he would feel the
hardness less in that position.
Sancho did so; and then he uncovered his eyes and looked in a tender
fashion on those he was leaving behind, and began to cry piteously.
Don Quixote told him sharply to cover his eyes again and not to act
like a fool and a coward; and his squire did as he was bidden, after
having commended himself to God and begged the duennas to pray all the
paternosters and ave-marias they could for him. They in turn
admonished him to stick tight to the croup and not to lose hold of it,
warning him that if he fell, he would fall like a planet and be
blinded by all the stars he would meet on his way down to Earth.
Sobbing, Sancho clung to his master, embracing him with his fat arms
so tightly that Don Quixote came near being upset. The knight took a
firm grip on the steering peg, and reprimanded his squire for
squeezing him. He told him there was nothing to worry about, for it
seemed to him he had never in his life ridden a steed that was so
easy-going: one would hardly think they had budged from their original
place, he said. When Sancho had calmed himself, he concurred in this
opinion. He had never heard that there were people living in the air,
and did he not hear voices quite close to his ears? Don Quixote then
had to explain that affairs of this sort were not of the every-day
kind, and that whenever one went on a trip like this, the voices from
the Earth would reach thousands of leagues away.
Scarcely had Don Quixote said this, before a gust of wind came that
threatened to unseat both the knight and his squire. (The fact was
that it was the draught from a tremendous pair of bellows which the
Duke had had unearthed for the occasion.) Sancho was shaking in his
seat, and Don Quixote warned him again to sit still, for they were in
danger of having a runaway straight into the regions of air and
thunder, and then into the region of fire. He feared he might not get
the steed to turn before it was too late, he said; for it seemed as if
the machinery of the peg were rather intricate, and did not work
quickly.
Suddenly Sancho began to yell that they were already lost in the
flames, and would be burned to death. (He felt his beard being singed
by a torch. It was one of a great number that the majordomo had
provided.) Don Quixote, too, felt his face warm up. But he would not
permit Sancho to uncover his eyes; if he did, the knight said he would
only be seized with giddiness and both of them would fall off their
horse. Besides, he comforted Sancho with the thought that the journey
would last only a few moments longer, and that they were now passing a
final test before landing in the kingdom of Kandy. Don Quixote added
that the distance they had traveled must have been tremendous, and
Sancho replied: "All I know is that if the Senora Magallanes or
Magalona was satisfied with this croup, she could not have been very
tender of flesh."
At this moment came the culmination of their journey through the air.
A torch was tied to the tail of the steed, which was stuffed with
fire-crackers, and suddenly there was a tremendous noise and a flash,
and in the next moment Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, both scorched,
lay as if thunderstruck on the ground.
When the knight and his squire finally came to, and looked about, they
were aghast at what they saw. The ground was strewn with bodies, but
the bearded duennas were gone. Planted in the ground they saw a lance,
attached to which they found a parchment which proclaimed that the
enchantment of the duennas and of the Don and his royal bride was at
an end, and that as soon as the squire Sancho Panza deigned to carry
out the flogging he was to give himself, the peerless Dulcinea would
appear in all her original beauty again.
Now the Duke and the Duchess, who were among the bodies lying on the
ground, seemingly dead, lifted up their heads, as if just coming out
of a long sleep; and Don Quixote hastened to tell them of the great
miracle that had befallen him. They were both convulsed with
laughter--which Don Quixote mistook for emotion--and when he had
finished telling them about his marvelous adventure, they had all they
could do to reply. The Duke finally gathered enough strength to
embrace him and tell him that he was no doubt the greatest knight the
world had ever known.
The Duchess was curious to know how Sancho had enjoyed the trip; and
he confessed that in spite of his master's command he had peered from
underneath the kerchief before his eyes, and had seen the earth below,
and that the people seemed as little as hazelnuts and the earth itself
looked like a grain of mustard-seed; and when he passed through the
region of fire he had seen the goats of heaven, he said.