_The sage discourse continued, with the adventures of a dead body._
Thus discoursing, night overtook them, and they were still in the high
road; and the worst of it was, they were famished with hunger: for
with their wallets they had lost their whole larder of provisions,
and, to complete their misfortunes, an adventure now befell them which
appeared indeed to be truly an adventure. The night came on rather
dark; notwithstanding which they saw advancing towards them 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. "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
endeavouring 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. 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; 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 a festival night. The
mourners were so wrapped up and muffled in their long robes that they
could make no exertion; so that the Don, with entire safety to
himself, assailed them all, and, sorely against their will, obliged
them to quit the field; for they thought him no man, but the devil
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 on 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."
"What, then, I pray you," said Don Quixote, "brought you hither, being
an ecclesiastic?" "What, sir?" replied the fallen man, "but 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 that 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, "Heaven hath
saved me the labour of revenging his death, in case he had been slain
by any other hand; but since he fell by the decree of God, there is
nothing expected from us but patience and resignation; 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 all over the world, righting wrongs and
redressing grievances." "I do not understand your way of righting
wrongs," said the bachelor; "for from right you have set me wrong,
having broken my leg, which will never be right again whilst I live.
But since my fate ordained it so, I beseech you, signor knight-errant,
who have done me such arrant mischief, to help me to get from under
this mule: for my leg is held fast between the stirrup and the
saddle." "I might have continued talking until to-morrow," said Don
Quixote; "why did you delay acquainting me with your embarrassment?"
He then called out to Sancho Panza to assist; but he did not choose to
obey, being employed in ransacking a sumpter-mule, which those pious
men had brought with them, well stored with eatables. Sancho made a
bag of his cloak, and having crammed into it as much as it would hold,
he loaded his beast; after which he attended to his master's call, and
helped to disengage the bachelor from the oppression of his mule; and,
having mounted him and given him the torch, Don Quixote bade him
follow the track of his companions, and beg their pardon, in his name,
for the injury which he could not avoid doing them. Sancho likewise
said, "If perchance those gentlemen would know who is the champion
that routed them, tell them it is the famous Don Quixote de la Mancha,
otherwise called the Knight of the Sorrowful Figure."
The bachelor being gone, Don Quixote asked Sancho what induced him to
call him the Knight of the Sorrowful Figure, at that time more than
any other? "I will tell you," answered Sancho; "it is because I have
been viewing you by the light of the torch, which that unfortunate man
carried; and, in truth, your worship at present makes the most woful
figure I have ever seen; which must be owing, I suppose, either to the
fatigue of this combat or the want of your teeth." "It is owing to
neither," replied Don Quixote; "but the sage who has the charge of
writing the history of my achievements has deemed it proper for me to
assume an appellation, like the knights of old; one of whom called
himself the Knight of the Burning Sword; another of the Unicorn; this,
of the Damsels; that, of the Phoenix; another, the Knight of the
Griffin; and another, the Knight of Death; and by those names and
ensigns they were known over the whole surface of the earth. And
therefore I say that the sage I just now mentioned has put it into thy
thoughts and into thy mouth to call me the Knight of the Sorrowful
Figure, as I purpose to call myself from this day forward; and that
this name may fit me the better, I determine, when an opportunity
offers, to have a most sorrowful figure painted on my shield." "You
need not spend time and money in getting this figure made," said
Sancho; "your worship need only shew your own, and, without any other
image or shield, they will immediately call you him of the Sorrowful
Figure; and be assured I tell you the truth; for I promise you, sir
(mind, I speak in jest), that hunger and the loss of your teeth makes
you look so ruefully that, as I said before, the sorrowful picture may
very well be spared."
Don Quixote smiled at Sancho's pleasantry; nevertheless, he resolved
to call himself by that name, and to have his shield or buckler
painted accordingly; and he said, "I conceive, Sancho, that I am
liable to excommunication for having laid violent hands on holy
things, 'Juxta illud, Siquis suadente diabolo,' &c.: although I know I
did not lay my hands, but my spear, upon them; besides, I did not know
that I was engaging with priests, or things belonging to the Church,
which I reverence and adore, like a good catholic and faithful
Christian as I am, but with phantoms and spectres of the other world.
And even were it otherwise, I perfectly remember what befell the Cyd
Ruy Diaz, when he broke the chair of that king's ambassador in the
presence of his holiness the Pope, for which he was excommunicated;
yet honest Roderigo de Vivar passed that day for an honourable and
courageous knight."
They had not gone far between two hills, when they found themselves in
a retired and spacious valley, where they alighted. Sancho disburdened
his beast; and, extended on the green grass, with hunger for sauce,
they despatched their breakfast, dinner, afternoon's luncheon, and
supper all at once; regaling their palates with more than one cold
mess, which the ecclesiastics who attended the deceased had brought
with them on the sumpter-mule. But there was another misfortune, which
Sancho accounted the worst of all; namely, they had no wine; nor even
water, to drink; and were, moreover, parched with thirst.
But they had not gone two hundred paces when a great noise of water
reached their ears, like that of some mighty cascade pouring down from
a vast and steep rock. The sound rejoiced them exceedingly, and
stopping to listen whence it came, they heard on a sudden another
dreadful noise, which abated the pleasure occasioned by that of the
water; especially in Sancho, who was naturally faint-hearted. I say
they heard a dreadful din of irons and rattling chains, accompanied
with mighty strokes, repeated in regular time and measure; which,
together with the furious noise of the water, would have struck terror
into any other heart but that of Don Quixote. The night, as we have
before said, was dark; and they chanced to enter a grove of tall
trees, whose leaves, agitated by the breeze, caused a kind of rustling
noise, not loud, though fearful; so that the solitude, the situation,
the darkness, and the sound of rushing water, with the agitated
leaves, all concurred to produce surprise and horror, especially when
they found that neither the blows ceased, nor the wind slept, nor the
morning approached; and in addition to all this was their total
ignorance of the place where they were in. But Don Quixote, supported
by his intrepid heart, leaped upon Rozinante, and, bracing on his
buckler, brandished his spear, and said, "Friend Sancho, know that, by
the will of Heaven, I was born in this age of iron, to revive in it
that of gold, or, as it is usually termed, 'the golden age.' I am he
for whom dangers, great exploits, and valorous achievements, are
reserved; I am he, I say again, who am destined to revive the order of
the round table; that of the twelve peers of France, and the nine
worthies, and to obliterate the memory of the Platirs, the Tablantes,
Olivantes, and Tirantes, Knights of the Sun, and the Belianises, with
the whole tribe of the famous knights-errant of times past. Stay for
me here three days, and no more: if I return not in that time, thou
mayest go back to our village; and thence, to oblige me, repair to
Toboso, and inform my incomparable lady Dulcinea that her enthralled
knight died in attempting things that might have made him worthy to be
styled hers."
When Sancho heard these words of his master, he dissolved into tears,
and said, "Sir, I cannot think why your worship should encounter this
fearful adventure. It is now night, and nobody sees us. We may easily
turn aside, and get out of danger, though we should not drink these
three days; and, being unseen, we cannot be taxed with cowardice.
Besides, I have heard the curate of our village, whom your worship
knows very well, say in the pulpit that 'he who seeketh danger
perisheth therein;' so that it is not good to tempt God by undertaking
so extravagant an exploit, whence there is no escaping but by a
miracle. I left my country and forsook my wife and children to follow
and serve your worship; but as covetousness bursts the bag, so hath it
rent my hopes; for when they were most alive, and I was just expecting
to obtain that unlucky island which you have so often promised me, I
find myself, in lieu thereof, ready to be abandoned by your worship in
a place remote from every thing human." "Be silent," said Don Quixote;
"for God, who has inspired me with courage to attempt this
unparalleled and fearful adventure, will not fail to watch over my
safety, and comfort thee in thy sadness. All thou hast to do is to
girth Rozinante well, and remain here; for I will quickly return,
alive or dead."
Sancho now had recourse to stratagem; therefore, while he was
tightening the horse's girths, softly, and unperceived, with his
halter he tied Rozinante's hinder feet together, so that when Don
Quixote would fain have departed, the horse could move only by jumps.
Sancho, perceiving the success of his contrivance, said: "Ah, sir,
behold how Heaven, moved by my tears and prayers, has ordained that
Rozinante should be unable to stir; and if you will obstinately
persist to spur him, you will but provoke fortune." This made the Don
quite desperate, and the more he spurred his horse the less he could
move him; he therefore thought it best to be quiet, and wait either
until day appeared or until Rozinante could proceed; never suspecting
the artifice of Sancho, whom he thus addressed: "Since so it is,
Sancho, that Rozinante cannot move, I consent to remain until the dawn
smiles, although I weep in the interval." "You need not weep,"
answered Sancho; "for I will entertain you until day by telling you
stories, if you had not rather alight and compose yourself to sleep a
little upon the green grass, as knights-errant are wont to do, so that
you may be less weary when the day and hour comes for engaging in that
terrible adventure you wait for." "To whom dost thou talk of alighting
or sleeping?" said Don Quixote. "Am I one of those knights who take
repose in time of danger? Sleep thou, who wert born to sleep, or do
what thou wilt: I shall act as becomes my profession." "Pray, good
sir, be not angry," answered Sancho; "I did not mean to offend you:"
and, coming close to him, he laid hold of the saddle before and
behind, and thus stood embracing his master's left thigh, without
daring to stir from him a finger's breadth, so much was he afraid of
the blows which still continued to sound in regular succession. Don
Quixote bade him tell some story for his entertainment, as he had
promised; Sancho replied that he would, if his dread of the noise
would permit him: "I will endeavour," said he, "in spite of it, to
tell a story, which, if I can hit upon it, and it slips not through my
fingers, is the best of all stories; and I beg your worship to be
attentive, for now I begin:
"What hath been, hath been; the good that shall befall be for us all,
and evil to him that evil seeks. Which fits the present purpose like a
ring to your finger, signifying that your worship should be quiet, and
not go about searching after evil." "Proceed with thy tale, Sancho,"
said Don Quixote, "and leave to my care the road we are to follow." "I
say then," continued Sancho, "that in a village of Estremadura, there
was a shepherd, I mean a goatherd; which shepherd, or goatherd, as my
story says, was called Lope Ruiz; and this Lope Ruiz was in love with
a shepherdess called Torralva; which shepherdess called Torralva was
daughter to a rich herdsman, and this rich herdsman"----"If this be
thy manner of telling a story, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "thou wilt
not have done these two days; tell it concisely, and like a man of
sense, or else say no more." "I tell it in the same manner that they
tell all stories in my country," answered Sancho; "and I cannot tell
it otherwise, nor ought your worship to require me to make new
customs." "Tell it as thou wilt, then," said Don Quixote; "since it is
the will of fate that I must hear thee, go on."
"And so, sir," continued Sancho, "as I said before, this shepherd was
in love with the shepherdess Torralva, who was a merry strapping
wench, somewhat scornful, and somewhat masculine; but, in process of
time, it came about that the love which the shepherd bore to the
shepherdess turned into hatred; and the cause was a certain quantity
of little jealousies she gave him, so as to exceed all bounds: and so
much did he hate her thenceforward, that, to shun the sight of her, he
chose to absent himself from that country, and go where his eyes
should never more behold her. Torralva, who found herself disdained by
Lope, then began to love him better than ever she had loved him
before." "It is a disposition natural in women," said Don Quixote, "to
slight those who love them, and love those who hate them: go on,
Sancho."
"It fell out," proceeded Sancho, "that the shepherd put his design
into execution; and, collecting together his goats, went over the
plains of Estremadura, in order to pass over into the kingdom of
Portugal. Upon which, Torralva followed him at a distance, on foot and
bare-legged, with a pilgrim's staff in her hand, and a wallet about
her neck. Presently, the shepherd came with his flock to pass the
river Guadiana, which at that time was swollen, and had almost
overflowed its banks; and on the side he came to there was neither
boat nor any body to ferry him or his flock over to the other side;
which grieved him mightily: for he saw that Torralva was at his heels,
and would give him much disturbance by her entreaties and tears. He
therefore looked about him until he espied a fisherman with a boat
near him, but so small that it could hold only one person and one
goat: however, he spoke to him, and agreed with him to carry over
himself and his three hundred goats. The fisherman got into the boat,
and carried over a goat; he returned and carried over another; he came
back again, and carried over another. Pray, sir, keep an account of
the goats that the fisherman is carrying over; for if you lose count
of a single goat, the story ends, and it will be impossible to tell a
word more of it. I go on then, and say that the landing-place on the
opposite side was covered with mud, and slippery, and the fisherman
was a great while in coming and going. However, he returned for
another goat, and another, and another." "Suppose them all carried
over," said Don Quixote, "and do not be going and coming in this
manner; or thou wilt not have finished carrying them over in a
twelvemonth." "Tell me, how many have passed already?" said Sancho.
"How should I know?" answered Don Quixote. "See there, now! did I not
tell thee to keep an exact account? There is now an end of the story;
I can go no farther." "How can this be?" answered Don Quixote. "Is it
so essential to the story to know the exact number of goats that
passed over, that if one error be made, the story can proceed no
farther?" "Even so," answered Sancho; "for when I desired your worship
to tell me how many goats had passed, and you answered you did not
know, at that very instant all that I had to say fled out of my
memory; though, in truth, it was very edifying and satisfactory." "So,
then," said Don Quixote, "the story is at an end?" "To be sure it is,"
quoth Sancho. "Verily," answered Don Quixote, "thou hast told one of
the rarest tales, fables, or histories, imaginable; and thy mode of
relating and concluding it is such as never was, nor ever will be,
equalled; although I expected no less from thy good sense: however, I
do not wonder at it, for this incessant din may have disturbed thy
understanding." "All that may be," answered Sancho; "but as to my
story, I know there's no more to be told; for it ends just where the
error begins in the account of carrying over the goats." "Let it end
where it will," said Don Quixote, "and let us see whether Rozinante
can stir himself." Again he clapt spurs to him, and again the animal
jumped, and then stood stock still, so effectually was he fettered.
Thus passed the night; and when Sancho perceived the dawn of morning,
with much caution he unbound Rozinante, who being at liberty, though
naturally not over-mettlesome, seemed to feel himself alive, and began
to paw the ground; but as for curvetting (begging his pardon) he knew
nothing about it. Don Quixote, perceiving that Rozinante began to be
active, took it for a good omen, and a signal that he should forthwith
attempt the tremendous adventure. The dawn now making the surrounding
objects visible, Don Quixote perceived he was beneath some tall
chestnut-trees, which afforded a gloomy shade: but the cause of that
striking, which yet continued, he was unable to discover; therefore,
without farther delay, he made Rozinante feel the spur, and again
taking leave of Sancho, commanded him to wait there three days at the
farthest, as he had said before, and that if he returned not by that
time, he might conclude that it was the will of Heaven that he should
end his days in that perilous adventure. And now, dissembling as well
as he could, he advanced towards the place whence the noise of the
water and of the strokes seemed to proceed. Sancho followed him on
foot, leading his ass--that constant companion of his fortunes, good
or bad. And having proceeded some distance among those shady
chestnut-trees, they came to a little green meadow, bounded by some
steep rocks, down which a mighty torrent precipitated itself. At the
foot of these rocks were several wretched huts, that seemed more like
ruins than habitable dwellings; and it was from them, they now
discovered, that the fearful din proceeded. Rozinante was startled at
the noise; but Don Quixote, after quieting him, went slowly on towards
the huts, recommending himself devoutly to his lady, and beseeching
her to favour him in so terrific an enterprise. Sancho kept close to
his side, stretching out his neck to see if he could discover the
cause of his terrors. In this manner they advanced about a hundred
yards farther, when, on doubling a point, the true and undoubted cause
of that horrible noise, which had held them all night in such
suspense, appeared plain and exposed to view. It was (kind reader,
take it not in dudgeon) six fulling-hammers, whose alternate strokes
produced that hideous sound. Don Quixote, on beholding them, was
struck dumb, and in the utmost confusion. Sancho looked at him, and
saw he hung down his head upon his breast, with manifest indications
of being abashed. Don Quixote looked also at Sancho, and seeing his
cheeks swollen, and his mouth full of laughter, betraying evident
signs of being ready to explode, notwithstanding his vexation he could
not forbear laughing himself at the sight of his squire, who, thus
encouraged by his master, broke forth in so violent a manner that he
was forced to apply both hands to his sides, to secure himself from
bursting. Don Quixote, perceiving that Sancho made a jest of him, was
so enraged that he lifted up his lance, and discharged two such blows
on him that, had he received them on his head, instead of his
shoulders, the knight would have acquitted himself of the payment of
his wages, unless it were to his heirs. Sancho, finding he paid so
dearly for his jokes, and fearing lest his master should proceed
farther, with much humility said, "Pray, sir, be pacified; as truly as
I live, I did but jest." "Though thou mayest jest, I do not," answered
Don Quixote. "Come hither, merry sir; what thinkest thou? Suppose
these mill-hammers had really been some perilous adventure, have I not
given proof of the courage requisite to undertake and achieve it? Am I
obliged, being a knight as I am, to distinguish sounds, and know which
are, or are not, those of a fulling-mill, more especially if (which is
indeed the truth) I had never seen any fulling-mills in my life, as
thou hast--a pitiful rustic as thou art, who wert born and bred
amongst them? but let these six fulling-hammers be transformed into
six giants, and let them beard me one by one, or altogether, and if I
do not set them all on their heads, then make what jest thou wilt of
me." "It is enough, good sir," replied Sancho; "I confess I have been
a little too jocose; but pray tell me, now that it is peace between
us, was it not a thing to be laughed at, and worth telling, what a
fearful taking we were in last night--I mean, that I was in?--for I
know that your worship is a stranger to fear." "I do not deny,"
answered Don Quixote, "that what has befallen us may be risible, but
it is not proper to be repeated; for all persons have not the sense to
see things in their right point of view." "But," answered Sancho,
"your worship knew how to point your lance aright when you pointed it
at my head, and hit me on the shoulders; let that pass, for I have
heard say, 'he loves thee well who makes thee weep;' and, besides,
your people of condition, when they have given a servant a hard word,
presently give him some old hose, though what is usually given after a
beating I cannot tell, unless it be that your knights-errant, after
bastinadoes, bestow islands, or kingdoms on terra firma." "The die may
so run," quoth Don Quixote, "that all thou hast said may come to pass;
excuse what is done, since thou art considerate; for know that first
impulses are not under a man's control: and that thou mayest abstain
from talking too much with me henceforth, I apprise thee of one thing,
that in all the books of chivalry I ever read, numerous as they are, I
recollect no example of a squire who conversed so much with his master
as thou dost with thine. And really I account it a great fault both in
thee and in myself; in thee, because thou payest me so little respect;
in me, that I do not make myself respected more. There was Gandalin,
squire to Amadis de Gaul, earl of the firm island, of whom we read
that he always spoke to his master cap in hand, his head inclined, and
body bent after the Turkish fashion. What shall we say of Gasabel,
squire to Don Galaor, who was so silent that, to illustrate the
excellence of his marvellous taciturnity, his name is mentioned but
once in all that great and faithful history? From what I have said,
thou mayest infer, Sancho, that there ought to be a difference between
master and man, between lord and lacquey, and between knight and
squire; so that, from this day forward, we must be treated with more
respect: for howsoever thou mayest excite my anger, 'it will go ill
with the pitcher.' The favours and benefits I promised thee will come
in due time; and if they do not come, the wages, at least, thou wilt
not lose." "Your worship says very well," quoth Sancho; "but I would
fain know (if perchance the time of the favours should not come, and
it should be necessary to have recourse to the article of the wages)
how much might the squire of a knight-errant get in those times? and
whether they agreed by the month, or by the day, like labourers?" "I
do not believe," answered Don Quixote, "that those squires were
retained at stated wages, but they relied on courtesy; and if I have
appointed thee any in the will I left sealed at home, it was in case
of accidents; for I know not yet how chivalry may succeed in these
calamitous times, and I would not have my soul suffer in the other
world for trifles; for I would have thee know, Sancho, that there is
no state more perilous than that of adventurers." "It is so, in
truth," said Sancho, "since the noise of the hammers of a fulling-mill
were sufficient to disturb and discompose the heart of so valorous a
knight as your worship."