OF THE PROGRESS OF SANCHO'S GOVERNMENT; AND OTHER SUCH
ENTERTAINING MATTERS
The thing that troubled Sancho most was not his manifold duties nor
his judgments, but his appetite. It was as keen as ever, yet he got
next to nothing to eat. The morning after he had made his round, they
gave him only some water and a little conserve for breakfast, the
doctor advising him that light food was the most nourishing for the
wits, and especially to be recommended to people who were placed in
responsible positions--such as governors, for instance. Thus poor
Sancho was persuaded to submit to a process of starvation which was
gradually making him regret, and finally curse, his ever having
become governor.
He sat in judgment that day but a short time, and made a decision in
an intricate case with so much good sense and wit that the majordomo
was overwhelmed with admiration, and could not refrain from taking
pity on the governor's stomach. So he stood up and announced, knowing
it would have the Governor's immediate and unqualified sanction, that
the session had come to an end for the morning; then turning to
Sancho, he promised to give him a dinner that day that would please
him.
Sancho was grateful in advance, and felt moved to thank him. "That is
all I ask for," he declared: "fair play! Give me my dinner, and then
let it rain cases and questions on me, and I shall despatch them in a
twinkling." And since it had been arranged by the conspirators in the
joke that this was to be the last day of Sancho Panza's reign as
governor, the majordomo gave him the best dinner that he could.
Just as the Governor was finishing his repast a courier arrived with a
letter from Don Quixote. The secretary read it aloud to him, and he
listened attentively and respectfully to the wisdom and good and sound
advice that his beloved Don Quixote gave him in the letter. All who
heard it read were agreed that they had seldom had the fortune to hear
such a well-worded and thoroughly sensible epistle; and Sancho was
proud of the praise that was being bestowed on his former master, to
whom he still was as devoted as ever.
The Governor withdrew with his secretary into his own room, and there
he dictated at once his reply to Don Quixote's letter. In this he
confided to him all that had happened on his island, the reforms he
had undertaken, and the judgments he had handed down. He finished by
asking the knight to kiss the hand of the sweet Duchess for him and
tell her that she had not thrown it into a sack with a hole in it, as
she would see in the end: meaning by this that he would show her how
grateful he was as soon as he had an opportunity.
The courier returned to the ducal palace with the Governor's message;
and Sancho spent the afternoon in making provisions for all sorts of
beneficial improvements in his government, reducing prices on a number
of necessaries, and confirming laws that tended to help the poor and
needy, while they would incriminate those who were impostors,
good-for-nothings, and vagabonds. Even to this day some of these laws
are in existence there, and are called _The constitutions of the great
governor, Sancho Panza_.