They saw, advancing towards them, on the same road, a great number of
lights, resembling so many moving stars. Sancho stood aghast at the
sight of them, nor was Don Quixote unmoved. The one checked his ass and
the other his horse, and both stood looking before them with eager
attention. They perceived that the lights were advancing towards them,
and that as they approached nearer they appeared larger. Sancho trembled
like quicksilver at the sight, and Don Quixote's hair bristled upon his
head; but, somewhat recovering himself, he exclaimed: "Sancho, this must
be a most perilous adventure, wherein it will be necessary for me to
exert my whole might and valor."
"Woe is me!" answered Sancho; "should this prove to be an adventure of
goblins, as to me it seems to be, where shall I find ribs to endure?"
"Whatsoever phantoms they may be," said Don Quixote, "I will not suffer
them to touch a thread of thy garment: for if they sported with thee
before, it was because I could not get over the wall; but we are now
upon even ground, where I can brandish my sword at pleasure."
"But, if they should enchant and benumb you, as they did then," quoth
Sancho, "what matters it whether we are in the open field or not?"
"Notwithstanding that," replied Don Quixote, "I beseech thee, Sancho, to
be of good courage; for experience shall give thee sufficient proof of
mine."
"I will, if it please God," answered Sancho; and, retiring a little on
one side of the road, and again endeavoring to discover what those
walking lights might be, they soon after perceived a great many persons
clothed in white.
This dreadful spectacle completely annihilated the courage of Sancho,
whose teeth began to chatter, as if seized with a quartan ague; and his
trembling and chattering increased as more of it appeared in view; for
now they discovered about twenty persons in white robes, all on
horseback, with lighted torches in their hands; behind them came a
litter covered with black, which was followed by six persons in deep
mourning; the mules on which they were mounted being covered likewise
with black down to their heels; for that they were mules, and not
horses, was evident by the slowness of their pace. Those robed in white
were muttering to themselves in a low and plaintive tone.
This strange vision, at such an hour, and in a place so uninhabited
might well strike terror into Sancho's heart, and even into that of his
master; and so it would have done had he been any other than Don
Quixote. As for Sancho, his whole stock of courage was now exhausted.
But it was otherwise with his master, whose lively imagination instantly
suggested to him that this must be truly a chivalrous adventure. He
conceived that the litter was a bier, whereon was carried some knight
sorely wounded, or slain, whose revenge was reserved for him alone; he,
therefore, without delay couched his spear, seated himself firm in his
saddle, and with grace and spirit advanced into the middle of the road
by which the procession must pass; and, when they were near, he raised
his voice and said: "Ho, knights, whoever ye are, halt, and give me an
account to whom ye belong; whence ye come, whither ye are going, and
what it is ye carry upon that bier; for in all appearance either ye have
done some injury to others, or others to you: and it is expedient and
necessary that I be informed of it, either to chastise ye for the evil
ye have done, or to revenge ye of wrongs sustained."
"We are in haste," answered one in the procession; "the inn is a great
way off, and we cannot stay to give so long an account as you require."
Then, spurring his mule, he passed forward.
Don Quixote, highly resenting this answer, laid hold of his bridle and
said: "Stand, and with more civility give me the account I demand;
otherwise I challenge ye all to battle."
The mule was timid, and started so much upon his touching the bridle,
that, rising on her hind legs, she threw her rider over the crupper to
the ground. A lacquey that came on foot, seeing the man in white fall,
began to revile Don Quixote, whose choler being now raised, he couched
his spear, and immediately attacking one of the mourners, laid him on
the ground grievously wounded; then turning about to the rest, it was
worth seeing with what agility he attacked and defeated them; and it
seemed as if wings at that instant had sprung on Rozinante--so lightly
and swiftly he moved! All the white-robed people, being timorous and
unarmed, soon quitted the skirmish and ran over the plain with their
lighted torches, looking like so many masqueraders on a carnival or
festival night. The mourners were so wrapped up and muffled in their
long robes that they could make no exertion; so that Don Quixote, with
entire safety, assailed them all, and, sorely against their will,
obliged them to quit the field; for they thought him no man, but the
devil from hell broke loose upon them to seize the dead body they were
conveying in the litter.
All this Sancho beheld with admiration at his master's intrepidity, and
said to himself: "This master of mine is certainly as valiant and
magnanimous as he pretends to be."
A burning torch lay upon the ground near the first whom the mule had
overthrown, by the light of which Don Quixote espied him, and going up
to him, placed the point of his spear to his throat, commanding him to
surrender, on pain of death. To which the fallen man answered: "I am
surrendered enough already, since I cannot stir, for one of my legs is
broken. I beseech you, sir, if you are a Christian gentleman, do not
kill me: you would commit a great sacrilege, for I am a licentiate and
have taken the lesser orders."
"Who the devil, then," said Don Quixote, "brought you hither, being an
ecclesiastic?"
"Who, sir?" replied the fallen man; "my evil fortune."
"A worse fate now threatens you," said Don Quixote, "unless you reply
satisfactorily to all my first questions."
"Your worship shall soon be satisfied," answered the licentiate; "and
therefore you must know, sir, that though I told you before I was a
licentiate, I am in fact only a bachelor of arts, and my name is Alonzo
Lopez. I am a native of Alcovendas, and came from the city of Baeza with
eleven more ecclesiastics, the same who fled with the torches. We were
attending the corpse in that litter to the city of Segovia. It is that
of a gentleman who died in Baeza, where he was deposited till now, that,
as I said before, we are carrying his bones to their place of burial in
Segovia, where he was born."
"And who killed him?" demanded Don Quixote.
"God," replied the bachelor, "by means of a pestilential fever."
"Then," said Don Quixote, "our Lord hath saved me the labor of revenging
his death, in case he had been slain by any other hand. But, since he
fell by the hand of Heaven, there is nothing expected from us but
patience and a silent shrug; for just the same must I have done had it
been His pleasure to pronounce the fatal sentence upon me. It is proper
that your reverence should know that I am a knight of La Mancha, Don
Quixote by name, and that it is my office and profession to go over the
world righting wrongs and redressing grievances."
He that seeketh danger perisheth therein.
Fear hath many eyes.
Evil to him that evil seeks.
Everybody has not discretion to take things by the right
handle.
He loves thee well who makes thee weep.