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The Third BookChapter I.
Chapter I.
Wherein Is Rehearsed The Unfortunate Adventure Which Happened To Don Quixote,
By Encountering With Certain Yanguesian Carriers
The wise Cid Hamet Benengeli recounteth that, as soon as Don Quixote had
taken leave of the goatherds, his hosts the night before, and of all those
that were present at the burial of the shepherd Chrysostom, he and his squire
did presently enter into the same wood into which they had seen the beautiful
shepherdess Marcela enter before. And, having travelled in it about the space
of two hours without finding of her, they arrived in fine to a pleasant
meadow, enriched with abundance of flourishing grass, near unto which runs a
delightful and refreshing stream, which did invite, yea, constrain them
thereby to pass over the heat of the day, which did then begin to enter with
great fervour and vehemency. Don Quixote and Sancho alighted, and, leaving the
ass and Rozinante to the spaciousness of these plains to feed on the plenty of
grass that was there, they ransacked their wallet, where, without any
ceremony, the master and man did eat, with good accord and fellowship, what
they found therein. Sancho had neglected to tie Rozinante, sure that he knew
him to be so sober and little wanton as all the mares of the pasture of
Cordova could not make him to think the least sinister thought. But fortune
did ordain, or rather the devil, who sleeps not at all hours, that a troop of
Gallician mares, belonging to certain Yanguesian carriers, did feed up and
down in the same valley; which carriers are wont, with their beasts, to pass
over the heats in places situated near unto grass and water, and that wherein
Don Quixote happened to be was very fit for their purpose. It therefore befel
that Rozinante took a certain desire to solace himself with the lady mares,
and therefore, as soon as he had smelt them, abandoning his natural pace and
custom, without taking leave of his master, he began a little swift trot, and
went to communicate his necessities to them. But they, who, as it seemed, had
more desire to feed than to solace them, entertained him with their heels and
teeth in such sort as they broke all this girths, and left him in his naked
hair, having overthrown the saddle. But that which surely grieved him most
was, that the carriers, perceiving the violence that was offered by him to
their mares, repaired presently to their succours, with clubs and truncheons,
and did so belabour him as they fairly laid him along. Now, in this season,
Don Quixote and Sancho (which beheld the bombasting of Rozinante) approached
breathless; and Don Quixote said to Sancho, `For as much as I can perceive,
friend Sancho, these men are no knights, but base, rascally people of vile
quality; I say it, because thou mayst help me to take due revenge for the
outrage which they have done before our face to Rozinante.` `What a devil`
quoth Sancho, `what revenge should we take, if these be more than twenty, and
we but two, and peradventure but one and a half?` `I am worth a hundred,`
replied Don Quixote; and, without making any longer discourse, he set hand to
his sword, and flew upon the Yanguesians; and Sancho Panza, moved by his
lord`s example, did the like; when, with the first blow, Don Quixote piercing
a buff coat that one of them wore, wounded him grievously in the shoulder. The
Yanguesians, seeing themselves so rudely handled by two men only, they being
so many, ran to the stakes and truncheons of their carriage, and, hemming in
their adversaries in the midst of them, they laid on them with admirable speed
and vehemency. True it is, that at the second peal they struck Sancho down to
the ground; and the like happened to Don Quixote, his dexterity and courage
being nothing available in that trance, and, his fate so ordaining, he fell
just at his courser`s feet, who had not yet gotten up; by which we may ponder
the fury wherewithal truncheons batter, being placed in wrathful and rustical
fists. The carriers perceiving the evil they had committed, trussing up their
loading with all possible speed, followed on their way, leaving both the
adventures in a bad fashion, and a worse talent.
The first that came to himself was Sancho Panza, who, seeing his lord
near unto him, said, with a weak and pitiful voice, `Sir Don Quixote! oh, sir
Don Quixote!` `What wouldst thou have, brother Sancho?` replied the knight,
with the like effeminate and doleful tune, `I would,` quoth Sancho, `have of
your worship a draught or two of the liquor of Feoblas, if you have any of it
at hand; perhaps it is good to cure broken bones as well as it helps wounds.`
`What would we want, unhappy that I am!` replied Don Quixote, `if I had it
here; but I swear unto thee, Sancho Panza, by the faith of a knight - errant,
that before two days pass (if fortune dispose not otherwise), I will have it
in my power, or it shall hardly escape my hands.` `I pray you,` quoth Sancho,
`within how many days, think you, shall we be able to stir our feet?` `I can
say of myself,` quoth the crushed knight, `that I cannot set a certain term to
the days of our recovery; but I am in the fault of all, for I should not have
drawn my sword against men that are not knights as well as I am; and therefore
I believe that the god of battles hath permitted that this punishment should
be given unto me, in pain of transgressing the laws of knighthood. Wherefore,
brother Sancho, it is requisite that thou beest advertised of that which I
shall say unto thee now, for it importeth both our goods very much; and is,
that when thou beholdest that the like rascally rabble do us any wrong, do not
wait till I set hand to my sword against them, for I will not do it in any
sort; but draw thou thine, and chastise them at thy pleasure; and if any
knights shall come to their assistance and succour, I shall know then how to
defend thee, and offend them with all my force; for thou hast by this
perceived, by a thousand signs and experiences, how far the valour of this
mine invincible arm extendeth itself`: - so arrogant remained the poor knight,
through the victory he had gotten of the hardy Biscaine. But this advice of
his lord seemed not so good to Sancho Panza as that he would omit to answer
unto him, saying, `Sir, I am a peaceable, quiet, and sober man, and can
dissemble any injury, for I have wife and children to maintain and bring up;
wherefore, let this likewise be an advice to you (seeing it cannot be a
commandment), that I will not set hand to my sword in any wise, be it against
clown or knight; and that, from this time forward, I do pardon, before God,
all the wrongs that they have done, or shall do unto me, whether they were,
be, or shall be done by high or low person, rich or poor, gentleman or churl,
without excepting any state or condition.` Which being heard by his lord, he
said: `I could wish to have breath enough that I might answer thee with a
little more ease, or that the grief which I feel in this rib were assuaged
ever so little, that I might, Panza, make thee understand the error wherein
thou art. Come here, poor fool! if the gale of fortune, hitherto so contrary,
do turn in our favour, swelling the sails of our desire in such sort as we may
securely and without any hindrance arrive at the haven of any of those islands
which I have promised unto thee, what would become of thee if I, conquering
it, did make thee lord thereof, seeing thou wouldst disable thyself, in
respect thou art not a knight, nor desirest to be one, nor wouldst have valour
or will to revenge thine injuries, or to defend thy lordship`s? For thou must
understand that, in the kingdoms and provinces newly conquered, the minds of
the inhabitants are never so thoroughly appeased or wedded to the affection of
their new lord, that it is not to be feared that they will work some novelty
to alter things again, and turn, as men say, afresh to try fortune; and it is
therefore requisite that the new possessor have understanding to govern, and
valour to offend, and defend himself in any adventure whatsoever.` `In this
last that hath befallen us,` quoth Sancho, `I would I had had that
understanding and valour of which you speak; but I vow unto you, by the faith
of a poor man, that I am now fitter for plaisters than discourses. I pray you
try whether you can arise, and we will help Rozinante, although he deserves it
not; for he was the principal cause of all these troubles. I would never have
believed the like before of Rozinante, whom I ever held to be as chaste and
peaceable a person as myself. In fine, they say well, that one must have a
long time to come to the knowledge of bodies, and that there`s nothing in this
life secure. Who durst affirm that, after those mighty blows which you gave to
that unfortunate knight - errant, would succeed so in post, and as it were in
your pursuit, this so furious a tempest of staves, that hath discharged itself
on our shoulders?` `Thine, Sancho,` replied Don Quixote, `are perhaps
accustomed to bear the like showers, but mine, nursed between cottons and
hollands, it is most evident that they must feel the grief of this disgrace.
And were it not that I imagine (but why do I say imagine?) I know certainly
that all these incommodities are annexed to the exercise of arms I would here
die for very wrath and displeasure.` To this the squire answered: `Sir seeing
these disgraces are of the essence of knighthood I pray you whether they
succeed very often, or whether they have certain times limited wherein they
befall? For methinks, within two adventures more, we shall wholly remain
disenabled for the third if the gods in mercy do not succour us.`
`Know, friend Sancho,` replied Don Quixote, `that the life of knights
errant is subject to a thousand dangers and misfortunes; and it is also as
well, in the next degree and power, to make them kings and emperors, as
experience hath shown in sundry knights, of whose histories I have entire
notice. And I could recount unto thee now (did the pain I suffer permit me) of
some of them which have mounted to those high degrees which I have said only
by the valour of their arm; and the very same men found them both before and
after, in divers miseries and calamities. For the valorous Amadis of Gaul saw
himself in the power of his moral enemy, Arcalaus the enchanter, of whom the
opinion runs infallible, that he gave unto him, being his prisoner, more than
two hundred stripes with his horse - bridle, after he had tied him to a pillar
in his base - court. And there is, moreover, a secret author of no little
credit, who says, that the Cavalier del Febo, being taken in a gin, like unto
a snatch, that slipped under his feet in a certain castle, after the fall
found himself in a deep dungeon under the earth, bound hands and feet; and
there they gave unto him a clyster of snow - water and sand, which brought him
almost to the end of his life; and were it not that he was succoured in that
great distress by a wise man, his very great friend, it had gone ill with the
poor knight, So that I may very well pass among so many worthy persons; for
the dangers and disgraces they suffered were greater than those which we do
now endure. For, Sancho, I would have thee to understand, that these wounds
which are given to one with those instruments that are in one`s hand, by
chance, do not disgrace a man. And it is written in the laws of single combat,
in express terms, that if the shoemaker strike another with the last which he
hath in his hand, although it be certainly of wood, yet cannot it be said that
he who was striken had the bastinado. I say this, to the end thou mayst not
think, although we remain bruised in this last conflict, that therefore we be
disgraced; for the arms which those men bore, and wherewithal they laboured
us, were none other than their pack - staves, and, as far as I can remember,
never a one of them had a tuck, sword, or dagger.` `They gave me no leisure,`
answered Sancho, `to look to them so nearly; for scarce had I laid hand on my
truncheon, when they blessed my shoulders with their pins, in such sort as
they wholly deprived me of my sight and the force of my feet together,
striking me down on the place where I yet lie straight, and where the pain of
the disgrace received by our cudgelling doth not so much pinch me as the grief
of the blows, which shall remain as deeply imprinted in my memory as they do
in my back.`
`For all this, thou shalt understand, brother Panza,` replied Don
Quixote, `that there is no remembrance which time will not end, nor grief
which death will not consume,` `What greater misfortune,` quoth Sancho, `can
there be than that which only expecteth time and death to end and consume it?
If this our disgrace were of that kind which might be cured by a pair or two
of plaisters, it would not be so evil; but I begin to perceive that all the
salves of an hospital will not suffice to bring them to any good terms.` Leave
off, Sancho, and gather strength out of weakness,` said Don Quixote, `for so
will I likewise do; and let us see how doth Rozinante, for methinks that the
least part of this mishap hath not fallen to his lot.` `You ought not to
marvel at that,` quoth Sancho, `seeing he is likewise a knight - errant; that
whereat I wonder is that mine ass remains there without payment, where we are
come away without ribs.` "Fortune leaves always one door open in disasters,`
quoth Don Quixote, `whereby to remedy them. I say it, because that little
beast may supply Rozinante`s want, by carrying off me from hence unto some
castle, wherein I may be cured of my wounds. Nor do I hold this kind of riding
dishonourable; for I remember to have read that the good old Silenus, tutor of
the merry god of laughter, when he entered into the city of the hundred gates,
rode very fairly mounted on a goodly ass.` `It is like, quoth Sancho, `that he
rode, as you say, upon an ass; but there is great difference betwixt riding
and being cast athwart upon one like a sack of rubbish.` To this Don Quixote
answered: `The wounds that are received in battle do rather give honour than
deprive men of it; wherefore, friend Panza, do not reply any more unto me,
but, as I have said, arise as well as thou canst, and lay me as thou pleaseth
upon thy beast, and let us depart from hence before the night overtake us in
these deserts.` `Yet I have heard you say,` quoth Panza, `that it was an
ordinary custom of knights - errant to sleep in downs and deserts the most of
the year, and that so to do they hold for very good hap.` `That is,` said Don
Quixote, `when they have none other shift, or when they are in love; and this
so true as that there hath been a knight that hath dwelth on a rock, exposed
to the sun and the shadow, and other annoyances of heaven, for the space of
two years, without his lady`s knowledge. And Amadis was one of that kind, when
calling himself Beltenebros, he dwelt in the Poor Rock, nor do I know
punctually eight years or eight months, for I do not remember the history
well; let it suffice that there he dwelt doing of penance, for some disgust
which I know not, that his lady, Oriana, did him. But, leaving that apart,
Sancho, despatch and away before some other disgrace happen, like that of
Rozinante, to the ass.`
`Even there lurks the devil,` quoth Sancho; and so, breathing thirty sobs
and threescore sighs, and a hundred and twenty discontents and execrations
against him that had brought him there, he arose, remaining bent in the midst
of the way, like unto a Turkish bow, without being able to address himself;
and, notwithstanding all this difficulty, he harnessed his ass (who had been
also somewhat distracted by the overmuch liberty of that day), and after he
hoisted up Rozinante, who, were he endowed with a tongue to complain, would
certainly have borne his lord and Sanco company. In the end Sancho laid Don
Quixote on the ass, and tied Rozinante unto him, and, leading the ass by the
halter, travelled that way which he deemed might conduct him soonest toward
the highway. And fortune, which guided his affairs from good to better, after
he had travelled a little league, discovered it unto him, near unto which he
saw an inn, which, in despite of him, and for Don Quixote`s pleasure, must
needs be a castle. Sancho contended that it was an inn, and his lord that it
was not; and their controversy endured so long as they had leisure, before
they could decide it, to arrive at the lodging; into which Sancho, without
further verifying of the dispute, entered with all his loading.
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