_Giving an account of the Knight of the Mirrors and his Squire._
Exceedingly happy, elated, and self-satisfied was Don Quixote at his
triumph over so valiant a knight as he imagined him of the Mirrors to
be, and from whose promise he hoped to learn whether his adored
mistress still remained in a state of enchantment. But Don Quixote
expected one thing, and he of the Mirrors intended another: his only
care at present being to get, as soon as possible, plasters for his
bruises. The history then proceeds to tell us, that when the bachelor
Samson Carrasco advised Don Quixote to resume his functions of
knight-errantry, he had previously consulted with the priest and the
barber upon the best means of inducing Don Quixote to stay peaceably
and quietly at home; and it was agreed by general vote, as well as by
the particular advice of Carrasco, that they should let Don Quixote
make another sally (since it seemed impossible to detain him), and
that the bachelor should then also sally forth like a knight-errant,
and take an opportunity of engaging him to fight, and after
vanquishing him, which they held to be an easy matter, he should
remain, according to a previous agreement, at the disposal of the
conqueror, who should command him to return home and not quit it for
the space of two years, or till he had received further orders from
him. They doubted not but that he would readily comply, rather than
infringe the laws of chivalry; and they hoped that, during this
interval, he might forget his follies, or that some means might be
discovered of curing his malady. Carrasco engaged in the enterprise;
and Tom Cecial, Sancho Panza's neighbour, a merry shallow-brained
fellow, proffered his service as squire. Samson armed himself in the
manner already described, and Tom Cecial fitted the counterfeit nose
to his face for the purpose of disguising himself; and, following the
same road that Don Quixote had taken, they were not far off when the
adventure of Death's car took place; but it was in the wood they
overtook him, which was the scene of the late action, and where, had
it not been for Don Quixote's extraordinary conceit that the bachelor
was not the bachelor, that gentleman, not meeting even so much as
nests where he thought to find birds, would have been incapacitated
for ever from taking the degree of licentiate.
Tom Cecial, after the unlucky issue of their expedition, said to the
bachelor, "Most certainly, Signor Carrasco, we have been rightly
served. It is easy to plan a thing, but very often difficult to get
through with it. Don Quixote is mad, and we are in our senses; he gets
off sound and laughing, and your worship remains sore and sorrowful:
now, pray, which is the greater madman, he who is so because he cannot
help it, or he who is so on purpose?" "The difference between these
two sorts of madmen is," replied Samson, "that he who cannot help it
will remain so, and he who deliberately plays the fool may leave off
when he thinks fit." "That being the case," said Tom Cecial, "I was
mad when I desired to be your worship's squire; and now I desire to be
so no longer, but shall hasten home again." "That you may do,"
answered Samson; "but, for myself, I cannot think of returning to mine
till I have soundly banged this same Don Quixote. It is not now with
the hope of curing him of his madness that I shall seek him, but a
desire to punish him;--the pain of my ribs will not allow me to
entertain a more charitable purpose." In this humour they went talking
on till they came to a village, where they luckily met with a
bone-setter, who undertook to cure the unfortunate Samson. Tom Cecial
now returned home, leaving his master meditating schemes of revenge;
and though the history will have occasion to mention him again
hereafter, it must now attend the motions of our triumphant knight.
Don Quixote pursued his journey with the pleasure, satisfaction, and
self-complacency already described; imagining, because of his late
victory, that he was the most valiant knight the world could then
boast of. He cared neither for enchantments nor enchanters, and looked
upon all the adventures which should henceforth befall him as already
achieved and brought to a happy conclusion. He no longer remembered
his innumerable sufferings during the progress of his chivalries: the
stoning that demolished half his teeth, the ingratitude of the
galley-slaves, nor the audacity of the Yanguesian carriers and their
shower of pack staves,--in short, he inwardly exclaimed that, could he
but devise any means of disenchanting his Lady Dulcinea, he should
not envy the highest fortune that ever was or could be attained by the
most prosperous knight-errant of past ages!
He was wholly absorbed in these reflections, when Sancho said to him,
"Is it not strange, sir, that I still have before my eyes the
monstrous nose of my neighbour Tom Cecial?" "And dost thou really
believe, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "that the Knight of the Mirrors
was the bachelor Samson Carrasco, and his squire thy friend Tom
Cecial?" "I know not what to say about it," answered Sancho; "I only
know that the marks he gave me of my house, wife, and children, could
be given by nobody else; and his face, when the nose was off, was Tom
Cecial's,--for he lives in the next house to my own; the tone of his
voice, too, was the very same." "Come, come, Sancho," replied Don
Quixote, "let us reason upon this matter. How can it be imagined that
the bachelor Samson Carrasco should come as a knight-errant, armed at
all points, to fight with me? Was I ever his enemy? Have I ever given
him occasion to bear me ill-will? Am I his rival? Or has he embraced
the profession of arms, envying the fame I have acquired by them?"
"But, then, what are we to say, sir," answered Sancho, "to the
likeness of that knight, whoever he may be, to the bachelor Samson
Carrasco, and his squire to my neighbour Tom Cecial? If it be
enchantment, as your worship says, why were they to be made like those
two above all other in the world?" "Trust me, Sancho, the whole is an
artifice," answered Don Quixote, "and a trick of the wicked magicians
who persecute me. Knowing that I might be victorious, they cunningly
contrived that my vanquished enemy should assume the appearance of the
worthy bachelor, in order that the friendship which I bear him might
interpose between the edge of my sword and the rigour of my arm, and,
by checking my just indignation, the wretch might escape with life,
who, by fraud and violence, sought mine. Indeed, already thou knowest
by experience, Sancho, how easy a thing it is for enchanters to change
one face into another, making the fair foul, and the foul fair; since,
not two days ago, thou sawest with thine own eyes the grace and beauty
of the peerless Dulcinea in their highest perfection, while to me she
appeared under the mean and disgusting exterior of a rude country
wench. If, then, the wicked enchanter durst make so foul a
transformation, no wonder at this deception of his, in order to snatch
the glory of victory out of my hands! However, I am gratified in
knowing that, whatever was the form he pleased to assume, my triumph
over him was complete." Sancho, well knowing the transformation of
Dulcinea to have been a device of his own, would make no reply, lest
he should betray himself.