Roque asked the pilgrims the same questions he had put to thecaptains, and was answered that they were going to take ship for Rome,and that between them they might have about sixty reals. He asked alsowho was in the coach, whither they were bound and what money they had,and one of the men on horseback replied, "The persons in the coach aremy lady Dona Guiomar de Quinones, wife of the regent of the Vicaria atNaples, her little daughter, a handmaid and a duenna; we sixservants are in attendance upon her, and the money amounts to sixhundred crowns."

"So then," said Roque Guinart, "we have got here nine hundred crownsand sixty reals; my soldiers must number some sixty; see how muchthere falls to each, for I am a bad arithmetician." As soon as therobbers heard this they raised a shout of "Long life to Roque Guinart,in spite of the lladres that seek his ruin!"

The captains showed plainly the concern they felt, the regent's ladywas downcast, and the pilgrims did not at all enjoy seeing theirproperty confiscated. Roque kept them in suspense in this way for awhile; but he had no desire to prolong their distress, which mightbe seen a bowshot off, and turning to the captains he said, "Sirs,will your worships be pleased of your courtesy to lend me sixtycrowns, and her ladyship the regent's wife eighty, to satisfy thisband that follows me, for 'it is by his singing the abbot gets hisdinner;' and then you may at once proceed on your journey, free andunhindered, with a safe-conduct which I shall give you, so that if youcome across any other bands of mine that I have scattered in theseparts, they may do you no harm; for I have no intention of doinginjury to soldiers, or to any woman, especially one of quality."

Profuse and hearty were the expressions of gratitude with whichthe captains thanked Roque for his courtesy and generosity; for suchthey regarded his leaving them their own money. Senora Dona Guiomar deQuinones wanted to throw herself out of the coach to kiss the feet andhands of the great Roque, but he would not suffer it on any account;so far from that, he begged her pardon for the wrong he had done herunder pressure of the inexorable necessities of his unfortunatecalling. The regent's lady ordered one of her servants to give theeighty crowns that had been assessed as her share at once, for thecaptains had already paid down their sixty. The pilgrims were about togive up the whole of their little hoard, but Roque bade them keepquiet, and turning to his men he said, "Of these crowns two fall toeach man and twenty remain over; let ten be given to these pilgrims,and the other ten to this worthy squire that he may be able to speakfavourably of this adventure;" and then having writing materials, withwhich he always went provided, brought to him, he gave them in writinga safe-conduct to the leaders of his bands; and bidding themfarewell let them go free and filled with admiration at hismagnanimity, his generous disposition, and his unusual conduct, andinclined to regard him as an Alexander the Great rather than anotorious robber.

One of the squires observed in his mixture of Gascon and Catalan,"This captain of ours would make a better friar than highwayman; if hewants to be so generous another time, let it be with his ownproperty and not ours."

The unlucky wight did not speak so low but that Roque overheard him,and drawing his sword almost split his head in two, saying, "That isthe way I punish impudent saucy fellows." They were all taken aback,and not one of them dared to utter a word, such deference did they payhim. Roque then withdrew to one side and wrote a letter to a friend ofhis at Barcelona, telling him that the famous Don Quixote of LaMancha, the knight-errant of whom there was so much talk, was withhim, and was, he assured him, the drollest and wisest man in theworld; and that in four days from that date, that is to say, onSaint John the Baptist's Day, he was going to deposit him in fullarmour mounted on his horse Rocinante, together with his squire Sanchoon an ass, in the middle of the strand of the city; and bidding himgive notice of this to his friends the Niarros, that they might divertthemselves with him. He wished, he said, his enemies the Cadells couldbe deprived of this pleasure; but that was impossible, because thecrazes and shrewd sayings of Don Quixote and the humours of his squireSancho Panza could not help giving general pleasure to all theworld. He despatched the letter by one of his squires, who, exchangingthe costume of a highwayman for that of a peasant, made his way intoBarcelona and gave it to the person to whom it was directed.

CHAPTER LXI

OF WHAT HAPPENED DON QUIXOTE ON ENTERING BARCELONA, TOGETHER WITHOTHER MATTERS THAT PARTAKE OF THE TRUE RATHER THAN OF THE INGENIOUS

Don Quixote passed three days and three nights with Roque, and hadhe passed three hundred years he would have found enough to observeand wonder at in his mode of life. At daybreak they were in onespot, at dinner-time in another; sometimes they fled without knowingfrom whom, at other times they lay in wait, not knowing for what. Theyslept standing, breaking their slumbers to shift from place toplace. There was nothing but sending out spies and scouts, postingsentinels and blowing the matches of harquebusses, though they carriedbut few, for almost all used flintlocks. Roque passed his nights insome place or other apart from his men, that they might not know wherehe was, for the many proclamations the viceroy of Barcelona had issuedagainst his life kept him in fear and uneasiness, and he did notventure to trust anyone, afraid that even his own men would kill himor deliver him up to the authorities; of a truth, a weary miserablelife! At length, by unfrequented roads, short cuts, and secretpaths, Roque, Don Quixote, and Sancho, together with six squires,set out for Barcelona. They reached the strand on Saint John's Eveduring the night; and Roque, after embracing Don Quixote and Sancho(to whom he presented the ten crowns he had promised but had not untilthen given), left them with many expressions of good-will on bothsides.

Roque went back, while Don Quixote remained on horseback, just as hewas, waiting for day, and it was not long before the countenance ofthe fair Aurora began to show itself at the balconies of the east,gladdening the grass and flowers, if not the ear, though to gladdenthat too there came at the same moment a sound of clarions anddrums, and a din of bells, and a tramp, tramp, and cries of "Clear theway there!" of some runners, that seemed to issue from the city. Thedawn made way for the sun that with a face broader than a bucklerbegan to rise slowly above the low line of the horizon; Don Quixoteand Sancho gazed all round them; they beheld the sea, a sight untilthen unseen by them; it struck them as exceedingly spacious and broad,much more so than the lakes of Ruidera which they had seen in LaMancha. They saw the galleys along the beach, which, lowering theirawnings, displayed themselves decked with streamers and pennons thattrembled in the breeze and kissed and swept the water, while onboard the bugles, trumpets, and clarions were sounding and filling theair far and near with melodious warlike notes. Then they began to moveand execute a kind of skirmish upon the calm water, while a vastnumber of horsemen on fine horses and in showy liveries, issuingfrom the city, engaged on their side in a somewhat similar movement.The soldiers on board the galleys kept up a ceaseless fire, which theyon the walls and forts of the city returned, and the heavy cannon rentthe air with the tremendous noise they made, to which the gangway gunsof the galleys replied. The bright sea, the smiling earth, the clearair -though at times darkened by the smoke of the guns- all seemedto fill the whole multitude with unexpected delight. Sancho couldnot make out how it was that those great masses that moved over thesea had so many feet.

And now the horsemen in livery came galloping up with shouts andoutlandish cries and cheers to where Don Quixote stood amazed andwondering; and one of them, he to whom Roque had sent word, addressinghim exclaimed, "Welcome to our city, mirror, beacon, star and cynosureof all knight-errantry in its widest extent! Welcome, I say, valiantDon Quixote of La Mancha; not the false, the fictitious, theapocryphal, that these latter days have offered us in lying histories,but the true, the legitimate, the real one that Cide Hamete Benengeli,flower of historians, has described to us!"

Don Quixote made no answer, nor did the horsemen wait for one, butwheeling again with all their followers, they began curvetting roundDon Quixote, who, turning to Sancho, said, "These gentlemen haveplainly recognised us; I will wager they have read our history, andeven that newly printed one by the Aragonese."

The cavalier who had addressed Don Quixote again approached himand said, "Come with us, Senor Don Quixote, for we are all of usyour servants and great friends of Roque Guinart's;" to which DonQuixote returned, "If courtesy breeds courtesy, yours, sir knight,is daughter or very nearly akin to the great Roque's; carry me whereyou please; I will have no will but yours, especially if you deignto employ it in your service."

The cavalier replied with words no less polite, and then, allclosing in around him, they set out with him for the city, to themusic of the clarions and the drums. As they were entering it, thewicked one, who is the author of all mischief, and the boys who arewickeder than the wicked one, contrived that a couple of theseaudacious irrepressible urchins should force their way through thecrowd, and lifting up, one of them Dapple's tail and the otherRocinante's, insert a bunch of furze under each. The poor beastsfelt the strange spurs and added to their anguish by pressing theirtails tight, so much so that, cutting a multitude of capers, theyflung their masters to the ground. Don Quixote, covered with shame andout of countenance, ran to pluck the plume from his poor jade'stail, while Sancho did the same for Dapple. His conductors tried topunish the audacity of the boys, but there was no possibility of doingso, for they hid themselves among the hundreds of others that werefollowing them. Don Quixote and Sancho mounted once more, and with thesame music and acclamations reached their conductor's house, which waslarge and stately, that of a rich gentleman, in short; and there forthe present we will leave them, for such is Cide Hamete's pleasure.

CHAPTER LXII

WHICH DEALS WITH THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENCHANTED HEAD, TOGETHERWITH OTHER TRIVIAL MATTERS WHICH CANNOT BE LEFT UNTOLD

Don Quixote's host was one Don Antonio Moreno by name, a gentlemanof wealth and intelligence, and very fond of diverting himself inany fair and good-natured way; and having Don Quixote in his househe set about devising modes of making him exhibit his mad points insome harmless fashion; for jests that give pain are no jests, and nosport is worth anything if it hurts another. The first thing he didwas to make Don Quixote take off his armour, and lead him, in thattight chamois suit we have already described and depicted more thanonce, out on a balcony overhanging one of the chief streets of thecity, in full view of the crowd and of the boys, who gazed at him asthey would at a monkey. The cavaliers in livery careered before himagain as though it were for him alone, and not to enliven the festivalof the day, that they wore it, and Sancho was in high delight, forit seemed to him that, how he knew not, he had fallen upon anotherCamacho's wedding, another house like Don Diego de Miranda's,another castle like the duke's. Some of Don Antonio's friends dinedwith him that day, and all showed honour to Don Quixote and treatedhim as a knight-errant, and he becoming puffed up and exalted inconsequence could not contain himself for satisfaction. Such werethe drolleries of Sancho that all the servants of the house, and allwho heard him, were kept hanging upon his lips. While at table DonAntonio said to him, "We hear, worthy Sancho, that you are so fondof manjar blanco and forced-meat balls, that if you have any left, youkeep them in your bosom for the next day."

"No, senor, that's not true," said Sancho, "for I am more cleanlythan greedy, and my master Don Quixote here knows well that we two areused to live for a week on a handful of acorns or nuts. To be sure, ifit so happens that they offer me a heifer, I run with a halter; Imean, I eat what I'm given, and make use of opportunities as I findthem; but whoever says that I'm an out-of-the-way eater or notcleanly, let me tell him that he is wrong; and I'd put it in adifferent way if I did not respect the honourable beards that are atthe table."

"Indeed," said Don Quixote, "Sancho's moderation and cleanlinessin eating might be inscribed and graved on plates of brass, to be keptin eternal remembrance in ages to come. It is true that when he ishungry there is a certain appearance of voracity about him, for heeats at a great pace and chews with both jaws; but cleanliness he isalways mindful of; and when he was governor he learned how to eatdaintily, so much so that he eats grapes, and even pomegranate pips,with a fork."

"What!" said Don Antonio, "has Sancho been a governor?"

"Ay," said Sancho, "and of an island called Barataria. I governed itto perfection for ten days; and lost my rest all the time; and learnedto look down upon all the governments in the world; I got out of it bytaking to flight, and fell into a pit where I gave myself up for dead,and out of which I escaped alive by a miracle."

Don Quixote then gave them a minute account of the whole affair ofSancho's government, with which he greatly amused his hearers.

On the cloth being removed Don Antonio, taking Don Quixote by thehand, passed with him into a distant room in which there was nothingin the way of furniture except a table, apparently of jasper,resting on a pedestal of the same, upon which was set up, after thefashion of the busts of the Roman emperors, a head which seemed tobe of bronze. Don Antonio traversed the whole apartment with DonQuixote and walked round the table several times, and then said, "Now,Senor Don Quixote, that I am satisfied that no one is listening to us,and that the door is shut, I will tell you of one of the rarestadventures, or more properly speaking strange things, that can beimagined, on condition that you will keep what I say to you in theremotest recesses of secrecy."

Title: Don Quixote
Author: Miqeul de Cervantes
Viewed 480881 times

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