{"id":246,"date":"2019-12-01T16:45:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T16:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.publiconsulting.com\/wordpress\/donquixoteoflamancha\/chapter\/second-part-chapter-x-2\/"},"modified":"2020-03-23T07:57:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T07:57:42","slug":"second-part-chapter-x","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/www.publiconsulting.com\/wordpress\/donquixoteoflamancha\/chapter\/second-part-chapter-x\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Part. Chapter X"},"content":{"raw":"CHAPTER X<\/a>\r\n
\r\n

Which recounts Sancho\u2019s ingenuity in enchanting the lady Dulcinea, and other events as ridiculous as they are true<\/span><\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n

When the author of this great history came to recount what is recounted in this chapter, he says he would have preferred to pass over it in silence, fearful it would not be given credence, for the madness of Don Quixote here reached the limits and boundaries of the greatest madnesses that can be imagined, and even passed two crossbow shots beyond them. But finally, despite this fear and trepidation, he wrote down the mad acts just as Don Quixote performed them, not adding or subtracting an atom of truth from the history and not concerning himself about the accusations that he was a liar, which might be made against him; and he was right, because truth may be stretched thin and not break, and it always floats on the surface of the lie, like oil on water.<\/p>\r\n

And so, continuing his history, he says that as soon as Don Quixote had entered the wood, oak grove, or forest near the great Toboso, he ordered Sancho to return to the city and not appear again in his presence without first having spoken on his behalf to his lady, asking her to be so kind as to allow herself to be seen by her captive knight and deign to give him her blessing so that he might hope for a most happy conclusion for all his undertakings and arduous enterprises. Sancho agreed to do everything exactly as ordered and to bring back a reply as good as the one he had brought the first time.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGo, my friend,\u201d replied Don Quixote, \u201cand do not become disconcerted when you find yourself looking at the light emanating from the sun of beauty which you will seek. Oh, you are more fortunate than all the squires in the world! Remember everything and do not miss a detail of how she receives you: if her color changes as you give her my message; <\/a>if she becomes agitated or troubled when she hears my name; if she moves about on her pillows, if you happen to find her in the richly furnished antechamber of her rank;352<\/a><\/span><\/sup> if she is standing, look at her to see if she shifts from one foot to another; if she repeats her answer two or three times; if she changes from gentle to severe, from harsh to loving; if she raises her hand to her hair to smooth it, although it is not disarranged; finally, my friend, observe all her actions and movements, because if you relate them to me just as they occurred, I shall interpret what she keeps hidden in the secret places of her heart in response to the fact of my love; for you must know, Sancho, if you do not know it already, that with lovers, the external actions and movements, revealed when the topic of their love arises, are reliable messengers bringing the news of what transpires deep in their souls. Go, my friend, and may better fortune than mine guide you, and may you return with greater success than I dare hope for as I wait in this bitter solitude in which you leave me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go and come back very quickly,\u201d said Sancho, \u201cand swell that heart of yours, which can\u2019t be any bigger now than a hazelnut, and remember what they say: a good heart beats bad luck, and where there is no bacon, there are no stakes,353<\/a><\/span><\/sup> and they also say that a hare leaps out when you least expect it. I\u2019m saying this because if we didn\u2019t find my lady\u2019s palaces or castles last night, now that it\u2019s day I think I\u2019ll find them when I least expect to, and once I\u2019ve found them, just leave everything to me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, Sancho,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201cyou certainly bring in proverbs that suit our affairs perfectly, and I hope God gives me as much good fortune in my desires.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

This having been said, Sancho turned away and urged on his donkey, and Don Quixote remained on horseback, resting in the stirrups and leaning on his lance, full of melancholy and confused imaginings, and there we will leave him and go with Sancho Panza, who rode away no less confused and thoughtful than his master; in fact, as soon as he had emerged from the wood he turned his head, and seeing that Don Quixote was nowhere in sight, he dismounted his donkey, sat at the foot of a tree, and began to talk to himself, saying:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNow, Sancho my brother, let\u2019s find out where your grace is going. Are you going to look for some donkey that\u2019s been lost?\u201d \u201cNo, of course <\/a>not.\u201d \u201cWell, what are you going to look for?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m going to look for a princess\u2014like that was an easy thing to do\u2014who is the sun of beauty and the rest of heaven, too.\u201d \u201cAnd where do you think you\u2019ll find all that, Sancho?\u201d \u201cWhere? In the great city of Toboso.\u201d \u201cAll right, for whose sake are you going to look for her?\u201d \u201cFor the sake of the famous knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, who rights wrongs, and gives food to the thirsty, and drink to the hungry.\u201d \u201cAll that\u2019s very fine. Do you know where her house is, Sancho?\u201d \u201cMy master says it has to be royal palaces or noble castles.\u201d \u201cHave you, by chance, ever seen her?\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve never seen her, and neither has my master.\u201d \u201cAnd do you think it would be the right and proper thing to do, if the people of Toboso found out that you\u2019re here intending to coax away their princesses and disturb their ladies, for them to batter your ribs with sticks and break every bone in your body?\u201d \u201cThe truth is they\u2019d be right, unless they remembered that I\u2019m following orders, and that<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n

You are the messenger, my friend,<\/p>\r\n

and do not deserve the blame.\u201d354<\/a><\/span><\/sup><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\u201cDon\u2019t rely on that, Sancho, because Manchegans are as quick-tempered as they are honorable, and they don\u2019t put up with anything from anybody. By God, if they suspect what you\u2019re up to, then I predict bad luck for you.\u201d \u201cGet out, you dumb bastard! Let the lighting strike somebody else! Not me, I\u2019m not going to look for trouble to please somebody else! Besides, looking for Dulcinea in Toboso will be like looking for a Mar\u00eda in Ravenna or a bachelor in Salamanca. The devil, the devil and nobody else has gotten me into this!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Sancho held this soliloquy with himself, and the conclusion he drew was that he talked to himself again, saying:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell now: everything has a remedy except death, under whose yoke we all have to pass, even if we don\u2019t want to, when our life ends. I\u2019ve seen a thousand signs in this master of mine that he\u2019s crazy enough to be tied up, and I\u2019m not far behind, I\u2019m as much a fool as he is because I follow and serve him, if that old saying is true: \u2018Tell me who your friends are and I\u2019ll tell you who you are,\u2019 and that other one that says, \u2018Birds of a feather flock together.\u2019 Then, being crazy, which is what he is, with the kind of craziness that most of the time takes one thing for another, and <\/a>thinks white is black and black is white, like the time he said that the windmills were giants, and the friars\u2019 mules dromedaries, and the flocks of sheep enemy armies, and many other things of that nature, it won\u2019t be very hard to make him believe that a peasant girl, the first one I run into here, is the lady Dulcinea; and if he doesn\u2019t believe it, I\u2019ll swear it\u2019s true; and if he swears it isn\u2019t, I\u2019ll swear again that it is; and if he insists, I\u2019ll insist more; and so I\u2019ll always have the last word, no matter what. Maybe I\u2019ll be so stubborn he won\u2019t send me out again carrying his messages, seeing the bad answers I bring back, or maybe he\u2019ll believe, which is what I think will happen, that one of those evil enchanters he says are his enemies changed her appearance to hurt him and do him harm.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

When Sancho Panza had this idea his spirit grew calm, and he considered his business successfully concluded, and he stayed there until the afternoon so that Don Quixote would think that he\u2019d had time to go to Toboso and come back; and everything went so well for him that when he stood up to mount the donkey, he saw that coming toward him from the direction of Toboso were three peasant girls on three jackasses, or jennies, since the author does not specify which they were, though it is more likely that they were she-donkeys, for they are the ordinary mounts of village girls, but since not much depends on this, there is no reason to spend more time verifying it. In short: as soon as Sancho saw the peasant girls, he rode back as fast as he could to look for his master, Don Quixote, and found him heaving sighs and saying a thousand amorous lamentations. As soon as Don Quixote saw him, he said:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat news, Sancho my friend? Shall I mark this day with a white stone or a black?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt would be better,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cfor your grace to mark it in red paint, like the names of the professors,355<\/a><\/span><\/sup> so that everybody who looks can see it clearly.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThat means,\u201d replied Don Quixote, \u201cthat you bring good news.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSo good,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cthat all your grace has to do is spur Rocinante and ride into the open and you\u2019ll see the lady Dulcinea of Toboso, who is coming to see your grace with two of her damsels.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHoly God! What are you saying, Sancho my friend?\u201d said Don Quixote. \u201cDo not deceive me, or try to lighten my true sorrows with false joys.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat good would it do me to deceive your grace,\u201d responded <\/a>Sancho, \u201cespecially since you\u2019re so close to discovering that what I say is true? Use your spurs, Se\u00f1or, and come with me, and you\u2019ll see the princess riding toward us, our mistress, all dressed and adorned, like the person she is. She and her damsels are all shining gold, all strands of pearls, all diamonds, all rubies, all brocade cloth ten levels high,356<\/a><\/span><\/sup> their hair, hanging loose down their backs, is like rays of the sun dancing in the wind; best of all, they\u2019re riding three piebald pilfers, the prettiest sight you\u2019ll ever see.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou must mean palfreys,<\/span> Sancho.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not much difference,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cbetween pilfers<\/span> and palfreys,<\/span> but no matter what they\u2019re riding, they\u2019re the best-looking ladies anybody could want to see, especially my lady the Princess Dulcinea, who dazzles the senses.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cLet us go, Sancho my friend,\u201d responded Don Quixote, \u201cand to celebrate this news, as unexpected as it is good, I promise you the best spoils that I shall win in the first adventure I have, and if this does not satisfy you, I promise you the foals that my three mares drop this year, for as you know, they are in the village pasture,357<\/a><\/span><\/sup> ready to give birth.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take the foals,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cbecause it\u2019s not very certain that the spoils of your first adventure will be any good.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

At this point they left the wood and saw the three village girls close by. Don Quixote looked carefully up and down the road to Toboso, and since he saw no one but the three peasants, he was bewildered and asked Sancho if he had left them outside the city.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat do you mean, outside the city?\u201d he responded. \u201cBy any chance are your grace\u2019s eyes in the back of your head? Is that why you don\u2019t see them riding toward us, shining like the sun at midday?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSancho, I do not see anything,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201cexcept three peasant girls on three donkeys.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGod save me now from the devil!\u201d responded Sancho. \u201cIs it possible that three snow white palfreys, or whatever they\u2019re called, look like donkeys to your grace? God help us, may this beard of mine be plucked out if that\u2019s true!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, I can tell you, friend Sancho,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201cthat it is as true that they are jackasses, or jennies, as it is that I am Don Quixote and you Sancho Panza; at least, that is what they seem to be.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDon\u2019t speak, Se\u00f1or,\u201d said Sancho, \u201cdon\u2019t say those things, but clear the mist from your eyes and come and do reverence to the lady of your thoughts, who is almost here.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

And having said this, he went forward to receive the three village girls, and after dismounting from his donkey, he grasped the halter of one of the three peasant girls\u2019 mounts, fell to his knees, and said:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cQueen and princess and duchess of beauty, may your high mightiness be pleased to receive into your good graces and disposition your captive knight, who is there, turned into marble, confused and struck dumb at finding himself in your magnificent presence. I am Sancho Panza, his squire, and he is the much traveled Don Quixote of La Mancha, also called The Knight of the Sorrowful Face.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By this time Don Quixote had kneeled down next to Sancho and looked, with startled eyes and confused vision, at the person Sancho was calling queen and lady, and since he could see nothing except a peasant girl, and one not especially attractive, since she was round-faced and snub-nosed, he was so astounded and amazed that he did not dare open his mouth. The peasant girls were equally astonished at seeing those two men, so different from each other, kneeling and not allowing their companion to continue on her way; but the one who had been stopped was annoyed and angry, and breaking the silence, she said:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOut of the way, damn it, and let us pass; we\u2019re in a hurry!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

To which Sancho responded:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cO princess and universal lady of Toboso! How can your magnanimous heart not soften at seeing the pillar and support of knight errantry on his knees in your sublimal presence?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Hearing which, another of the girls said:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHey, whoa, I\u2019ll tan your hide, you miserable donkey! Look at how the gentry are making fun of us country girls now, like we didn\u2019t know how to give as good as we get! You go on your way, and let us go on ours, if you want to stay healthy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cStand up, Sancho,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201cfor I see that Fortune, not satisfied with my sorrows, has captured all the roads by which some joy might come to the wretched spirit that inhabits this flesh. And thou, O highest virtue that can be desired, summit of human courtesy, sole remedy for this afflicted heart that adoreth thee! The wicked enchanter who pursueth me hath placed clouds and cataracts over my eyes, so that for them alone but not for others he hath changed and transformed thy peerless beauty and countenance into the figure of a poor peasant, and if <\/a>he hath not also turned mine into that of a monster abominable in thy sight, ceaseth not to regard me kindly and lovingly and see in this submission of mine as I kneel before thy deformed beauty, the humility with which my soul adoreth thee.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou can tell that to my grandpa!\u201d responded the village girl. \u201cI just love listening to crackpated things! Step aside and let us pass, and we\u2019ll thank you for it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Sancho stepped aside and let her pass, delighted to have gotten out of his difficulty so easily.<\/p>\r\n

As soon as the peasant girl who had played the part of Dulcinea was released, she spurred her pilfer<\/span> with a goad that she had on the end of a stick and began to gallop across the meadow. And since the goad irritated the jenny more than usual, she began to buck and threw the lady Dulcinea to the ground; when Don Quixote saw this, he hurried to help her up, and Sancho began to adjust and tighten her packsaddle, which had slipped under the donkey\u2019s belly. When the saddle had been put in place, and Don Quixote tried to lift his enchanted lady in his arms and put her back on the donkey, the lady got up from the ground and saved him the trouble, because she moved back, ran a short distance, and, placing both hands on the donkey\u2019s rump, jumped right into the saddle, as agile as a hawk and sitting astride as if she were a man; and then Sancho said:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBy St. Roque, our mistress is faster than a falcon, and she could teach the most skilled Cordoban or Mexican how to ride! She was over the hind bow of the saddle in one jump, and without any spurs she makes that palfrey run like a zebra. And her damsels are not far behind; they\u2019re all running like the wind.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

And it was true, because when Dulcinea was mounted, they all spurred their mounts and fell in behind her and broke into a gallop and did not look back for more than half a league. Don Quixote followed them with his eyes, and when he could no longer see them, he turned to Sancho and said:<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSancho, what do you think of how the enchanters despise me? Look at the extent of their malice and ill will, for they have chosen to deprive me of the happiness I might have had at seeing my lady in her rightful person. In truth, I was born to be a model of misfortune, the target and mark for the arrows of affliction. And you must also know, Sancho, that it was not enough for these traitors to have changed and transformed my Dulcinea, but they had to transform and change her into a figure as low-<\/a>born and ugly as that peasant, and take away something that so rightfully belongs to noble ladies, which is a sweet smell, since they are always surrounded by perfumes and flowers. For I shall tell you, Sancho, that when I came to help Dulcinea onto her palfrey, as you call it, though it looked like a donkey to me, I smelled an odor of raw garlic that almost made me faint and poisoned my soul.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOh, you dogs!\u201d shouted Sancho. \u201cOh, you miserable, evil enchanters, if only I could see you all strung by the gills like sardines on a fisherman\u2019s reed! You know so much, and can do so much, and do even more evil. It should have been enough, you villains, to turn the pearls of my lady\u2019s eyes into cork-tree galls, and her hair of purest gold into the bristles of a red ox tail, and all her good features into bad, without doing anything to her smell, because from that we could have imagined what was hidden beneath her ugly shell; though to tell you the truth, I never saw her ugliness, only her beauty, which was made even greater by a mole she had on the right side of her lip, like a mustache, with six or seven blond hairs like threads of gold and longer than a span.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThat mole,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201caccording to the correspondence that exists between those on the face and those on the body, must be matched by another that Dulcinea has on the broad part of her thigh, on the same side as the one on her face, but the hairs you have mentioned are very long for a mole.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, I can tell your grace,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cthat they looked like they\u2019d been born there.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI can believe it, my friend,\u201d replied Don Quixote, \u201cbecause nature put nothing on Dulcinea that was not perfect and complete, and so, if she had a hundred moles like the one you describe, on her they would not be moles but shining moons and stars. But tell me, Sancho: the saddle that seemed like a packsaddle to me, the one that you adjusted, was it a simple saddle or a sidesaddle?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt was,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cjust a high-bowed saddle, with a covering so rich it must have been worth half a kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnd to think I did not see all of that, Sancho!\u201d said Don Quixote. \u201cNow I say it again, and shall say it a thousand more times: I am the most unfortunate of men.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

When he heard the foolish things said by his master, who had been so exquisitely deceived, it was all the scoundrel Sancho could do to hide his laughter. Finally, after much more conversation between them, they re-<\/a>mounted their animals and followed the road to Zaragoza, where they hoped to arrive in time to take part in the solemn festival held in that celebrated city every year. But before they arrived, certain things happened to them, so numerous, great, and unusual that they deserve to be described and read, as will soon be seen.<\/p>\r\n","rendered":"

CHAPTER X<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Which recounts Sancho\u2019s ingenuity in enchanting the lady Dulcinea, and other events as ridiculous as they are true<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

When the author of this great history came to recount what is recounted in this chapter, he says he would have preferred to pass over it in silence, fearful it would not be given credence, for the madness of Don Quixote here reached the limits and boundaries of the greatest madnesses that can be imagined, and even passed two crossbow shots beyond them. But finally, despite this fear and trepidation, he wrote down the mad acts just as Don Quixote performed them, not adding or subtracting an atom of truth from the history and not concerning himself about the accusations that he was a liar, which might be made against him; and he was right, because truth may be stretched thin and not break, and it always floats on the surface of the lie, like oil on water.<\/p>\n

And so, continuing his history, he says that as soon as Don Quixote had entered the wood, oak grove, or forest near the great Toboso, he ordered Sancho to return to the city and not appear again in his presence without first having spoken on his behalf to his lady, asking her to be so kind as to allow herself to be seen by her captive knight and deign to give him her blessing so that he might hope for a most happy conclusion for all his undertakings and arduous enterprises. Sancho agreed to do everything exactly as ordered and to bring back a reply as good as the one he had brought the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo, my friend,\u201d replied Don Quixote, \u201cand do not become disconcerted when you find yourself looking at the light emanating from the sun of beauty which you will seek. Oh, you are more fortunate than all the squires in the world! Remember everything and do not miss a detail of how she receives you: if her color changes as you give her my message; <\/a>if she becomes agitated or troubled when she hears my name; if she moves about on her pillows, if you happen to find her in the richly furnished antechamber of her rank;352<\/a><\/span><\/sup> if she is standing, look at her to see if she shifts from one foot to another; if she repeats her answer two or three times; if she changes from gentle to severe, from harsh to loving; if she raises her hand to her hair to smooth it, although it is not disarranged; finally, my friend, observe all her actions and movements, because if you relate them to me just as they occurred, I shall interpret what she keeps hidden in the secret places of her heart in response to the fact of my love; for you must know, Sancho, if you do not know it already, that with lovers, the external actions and movements, revealed when the topic of their love arises, are reliable messengers bringing the news of what transpires deep in their souls. Go, my friend, and may better fortune than mine guide you, and may you return with greater success than I dare hope for as I wait in this bitter solitude in which you leave me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go and come back very quickly,\u201d said Sancho, \u201cand swell that heart of yours, which can\u2019t be any bigger now than a hazelnut, and remember what they say: a good heart beats bad luck, and where there is no bacon, there are no stakes,353<\/a><\/span><\/sup> and they also say that a hare leaps out when you least expect it. I\u2019m saying this because if we didn\u2019t find my lady\u2019s palaces or castles last night, now that it\u2019s day I think I\u2019ll find them when I least expect to, and once I\u2019ve found them, just leave everything to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Sancho,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201cyou certainly bring in proverbs that suit our affairs perfectly, and I hope God gives me as much good fortune in my desires.\u201d<\/p>\n

This having been said, Sancho turned away and urged on his donkey, and Don Quixote remained on horseback, resting in the stirrups and leaning on his lance, full of melancholy and confused imaginings, and there we will leave him and go with Sancho Panza, who rode away no less confused and thoughtful than his master; in fact, as soon as he had emerged from the wood he turned his head, and seeing that Don Quixote was nowhere in sight, he dismounted his donkey, sat at the foot of a tree, and began to talk to himself, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, Sancho my brother, let\u2019s find out where your grace is going. Are you going to look for some donkey that\u2019s been lost?\u201d \u201cNo, of course <\/a>not.\u201d \u201cWell, what are you going to look for?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m going to look for a princess\u2014like that was an easy thing to do\u2014who is the sun of beauty and the rest of heaven, too.\u201d \u201cAnd where do you think you\u2019ll find all that, Sancho?\u201d \u201cWhere? In the great city of Toboso.\u201d \u201cAll right, for whose sake are you going to look for her?\u201d \u201cFor the sake of the famous knight Don Quixote of La Mancha, who rights wrongs, and gives food to the thirsty, and drink to the hungry.\u201d \u201cAll that\u2019s very fine. Do you know where her house is, Sancho?\u201d \u201cMy master says it has to be royal palaces or noble castles.\u201d \u201cHave you, by chance, ever seen her?\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve never seen her, and neither has my master.\u201d \u201cAnd do you think it would be the right and proper thing to do, if the people of Toboso found out that you\u2019re here intending to coax away their princesses and disturb their ladies, for them to batter your ribs with sticks and break every bone in your body?\u201d \u201cThe truth is they\u2019d be right, unless they remembered that I\u2019m following orders, and that<\/p>\n

\n

You are the messenger, my friend,<\/p>\n

and do not deserve the blame.\u201d354<\/a><\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t rely on that, Sancho, because Manchegans are as quick-tempered as they are honorable, and they don\u2019t put up with anything from anybody. By God, if they suspect what you\u2019re up to, then I predict bad luck for you.\u201d \u201cGet out, you dumb bastard! Let the lighting strike somebody else! Not me, I\u2019m not going to look for trouble to please somebody else! Besides, looking for Dulcinea in Toboso will be like looking for a Mar\u00eda in Ravenna or a bachelor in Salamanca. The devil, the devil and nobody else has gotten me into this!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sancho held this soliloquy with himself, and the conclusion he drew was that he talked to himself again, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cWell now: everything has a remedy except death, under whose yoke we all have to pass, even if we don\u2019t want to, when our life ends. I\u2019ve seen a thousand signs in this master of mine that he\u2019s crazy enough to be tied up, and I\u2019m not far behind, I\u2019m as much a fool as he is because I follow and serve him, if that old saying is true: \u2018Tell me who your friends are and I\u2019ll tell you who you are,\u2019 and that other one that says, \u2018Birds of a feather flock together.\u2019 Then, being crazy, which is what he is, with the kind of craziness that most of the time takes one thing for another, and <\/a>thinks white is black and black is white, like the time he said that the windmills were giants, and the friars\u2019 mules dromedaries, and the flocks of sheep enemy armies, and many other things of that nature, it won\u2019t be very hard to make him believe that a peasant girl, the first one I run into here, is the lady Dulcinea; and if he doesn\u2019t believe it, I\u2019ll swear it\u2019s true; and if he swears it isn\u2019t, I\u2019ll swear again that it is; and if he insists, I\u2019ll insist more; and so I\u2019ll always have the last word, no matter what. Maybe I\u2019ll be so stubborn he won\u2019t send me out again carrying his messages, seeing the bad answers I bring back, or maybe he\u2019ll believe, which is what I think will happen, that one of those evil enchanters he says are his enemies changed her appearance to hurt him and do him harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Sancho Panza had this idea his spirit grew calm, and he considered his business successfully concluded, and he stayed there until the afternoon so that Don Quixote would think that he\u2019d had time to go to Toboso and come back; and everything went so well for him that when he stood up to mount the donkey, he saw that coming toward him from the direction of Toboso were three peasant girls on three jackasses, or jennies, since the author does not specify which they were, though it is more likely that they were she-donkeys, for they are the ordinary mounts of village girls, but since not much depends on this, there is no reason to spend more time verifying it. In short: as soon as Sancho saw the peasant girls, he rode back as fast as he could to look for his master, Don Quixote, and found him heaving sighs and saying a thousand amorous lamentations. As soon as Don Quixote saw him, he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat news, Sancho my friend? Shall I mark this day with a white stone or a black?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be better,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cfor your grace to mark it in red paint, like the names of the professors,355<\/a><\/span><\/sup> so that everybody who looks can see it clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means,\u201d replied Don Quixote, \u201cthat you bring good news.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo good,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cthat all your grace has to do is spur Rocinante and ride into the open and you\u2019ll see the lady Dulcinea of Toboso, who is coming to see your grace with two of her damsels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoly God! What are you saying, Sancho my friend?\u201d said Don Quixote. \u201cDo not deceive me, or try to lighten my true sorrows with false joys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat good would it do me to deceive your grace,\u201d responded <\/a>Sancho, \u201cespecially since you\u2019re so close to discovering that what I say is true? Use your spurs, Se\u00f1or, and come with me, and you\u2019ll see the princess riding toward us, our mistress, all dressed and adorned, like the person she is. She and her damsels are all shining gold, all strands of pearls, all diamonds, all rubies, all brocade cloth ten levels high,356<\/a><\/span><\/sup> their hair, hanging loose down their backs, is like rays of the sun dancing in the wind; best of all, they\u2019re riding three piebald pilfers, the prettiest sight you\u2019ll ever see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must mean palfreys,<\/span> Sancho.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not much difference,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cbetween pilfers<\/span> and palfreys,<\/span> but no matter what they\u2019re riding, they\u2019re the best-looking ladies anybody could want to see, especially my lady the Princess Dulcinea, who dazzles the senses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us go, Sancho my friend,\u201d responded Don Quixote, \u201cand to celebrate this news, as unexpected as it is good, I promise you the best spoils that I shall win in the first adventure I have, and if this does not satisfy you, I promise you the foals that my three mares drop this year, for as you know, they are in the village pasture,357<\/a><\/span><\/sup> ready to give birth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take the foals,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cbecause it\u2019s not very certain that the spoils of your first adventure will be any good.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point they left the wood and saw the three village girls close by. Don Quixote looked carefully up and down the road to Toboso, and since he saw no one but the three peasants, he was bewildered and asked Sancho if he had left them outside the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean, outside the city?\u201d he responded. \u201cBy any chance are your grace\u2019s eyes in the back of your head? Is that why you don\u2019t see them riding toward us, shining like the sun at midday?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSancho, I do not see anything,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201cexcept three peasant girls on three donkeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGod save me now from the devil!\u201d responded Sancho. \u201cIs it possible that three snow white palfreys, or whatever they\u2019re called, look like donkeys to your grace? God help us, may this beard of mine be plucked out if that\u2019s true!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I can tell you, friend Sancho,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201cthat it is as true that they are jackasses, or jennies, as it is that I am Don Quixote and you Sancho Panza; at least, that is what they seem to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t speak, Se\u00f1or,\u201d said Sancho, \u201cdon\u2019t say those things, but clear the mist from your eyes and come and do reverence to the lady of your thoughts, who is almost here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

And having said this, he went forward to receive the three village girls, and after dismounting from his donkey, he grasped the halter of one of the three peasant girls\u2019 mounts, fell to his knees, and said:<\/p>\n

\u201cQueen and princess and duchess of beauty, may your high mightiness be pleased to receive into your good graces and disposition your captive knight, who is there, turned into marble, confused and struck dumb at finding himself in your magnificent presence. I am Sancho Panza, his squire, and he is the much traveled Don Quixote of La Mancha, also called The Knight of the Sorrowful Face.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

By this time Don Quixote had kneeled down next to Sancho and looked, with startled eyes and confused vision, at the person Sancho was calling queen and lady, and since he could see nothing except a peasant girl, and one not especially attractive, since she was round-faced and snub-nosed, he was so astounded and amazed that he did not dare open his mouth. The peasant girls were equally astonished at seeing those two men, so different from each other, kneeling and not allowing their companion to continue on her way; but the one who had been stopped was annoyed and angry, and breaking the silence, she said:<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of the way, damn it, and let us pass; we\u2019re in a hurry!\u201d<\/p>\n

To which Sancho responded:<\/p>\n

\u201cO princess and universal lady of Toboso! How can your magnanimous heart not soften at seeing the pillar and support of knight errantry on his knees in your sublimal presence?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearing which, another of the girls said:<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, whoa, I\u2019ll tan your hide, you miserable donkey! Look at how the gentry are making fun of us country girls now, like we didn\u2019t know how to give as good as we get! You go on your way, and let us go on ours, if you want to stay healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStand up, Sancho,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201cfor I see that Fortune, not satisfied with my sorrows, has captured all the roads by which some joy might come to the wretched spirit that inhabits this flesh. And thou, O highest virtue that can be desired, summit of human courtesy, sole remedy for this afflicted heart that adoreth thee! The wicked enchanter who pursueth me hath placed clouds and cataracts over my eyes, so that for them alone but not for others he hath changed and transformed thy peerless beauty and countenance into the figure of a poor peasant, and if <\/a>he hath not also turned mine into that of a monster abominable in thy sight, ceaseth not to regard me kindly and lovingly and see in this submission of mine as I kneel before thy deformed beauty, the humility with which my soul adoreth thee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell that to my grandpa!\u201d responded the village girl. \u201cI just love listening to crackpated things! Step aside and let us pass, and we\u2019ll thank you for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sancho stepped aside and let her pass, delighted to have gotten out of his difficulty so easily.<\/p>\n

As soon as the peasant girl who had played the part of Dulcinea was released, she spurred her pilfer<\/span> with a goad that she had on the end of a stick and began to gallop across the meadow. And since the goad irritated the jenny more than usual, she began to buck and threw the lady Dulcinea to the ground; when Don Quixote saw this, he hurried to help her up, and Sancho began to adjust and tighten her packsaddle, which had slipped under the donkey\u2019s belly. When the saddle had been put in place, and Don Quixote tried to lift his enchanted lady in his arms and put her back on the donkey, the lady got up from the ground and saved him the trouble, because she moved back, ran a short distance, and, placing both hands on the donkey\u2019s rump, jumped right into the saddle, as agile as a hawk and sitting astride as if she were a man; and then Sancho said:<\/p>\n

\u201cBy St. Roque, our mistress is faster than a falcon, and she could teach the most skilled Cordoban or Mexican how to ride! She was over the hind bow of the saddle in one jump, and without any spurs she makes that palfrey run like a zebra. And her damsels are not far behind; they\u2019re all running like the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it was true, because when Dulcinea was mounted, they all spurred their mounts and fell in behind her and broke into a gallop and did not look back for more than half a league. Don Quixote followed them with his eyes, and when he could no longer see them, he turned to Sancho and said:<\/p>\n

\u201cSancho, what do you think of how the enchanters despise me? Look at the extent of their malice and ill will, for they have chosen to deprive me of the happiness I might have had at seeing my lady in her rightful person. In truth, I was born to be a model of misfortune, the target and mark for the arrows of affliction. And you must also know, Sancho, that it was not enough for these traitors to have changed and transformed my Dulcinea, but they had to transform and change her into a figure as low-<\/a>born and ugly as that peasant, and take away something that so rightfully belongs to noble ladies, which is a sweet smell, since they are always surrounded by perfumes and flowers. For I shall tell you, Sancho, that when I came to help Dulcinea onto her palfrey, as you call it, though it looked like a donkey to me, I smelled an odor of raw garlic that almost made me faint and poisoned my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, you dogs!\u201d shouted Sancho. \u201cOh, you miserable, evil enchanters, if only I could see you all strung by the gills like sardines on a fisherman\u2019s reed! You know so much, and can do so much, and do even more evil. It should have been enough, you villains, to turn the pearls of my lady\u2019s eyes into cork-tree galls, and her hair of purest gold into the bristles of a red ox tail, and all her good features into bad, without doing anything to her smell, because from that we could have imagined what was hidden beneath her ugly shell; though to tell you the truth, I never saw her ugliness, only her beauty, which was made even greater by a mole she had on the right side of her lip, like a mustache, with six or seven blond hairs like threads of gold and longer than a span.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat mole,\u201d said Don Quixote, \u201caccording to the correspondence that exists between those on the face and those on the body, must be matched by another that Dulcinea has on the broad part of her thigh, on the same side as the one on her face, but the hairs you have mentioned are very long for a mole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I can tell your grace,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cthat they looked like they\u2019d been born there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can believe it, my friend,\u201d replied Don Quixote, \u201cbecause nature put nothing on Dulcinea that was not perfect and complete, and so, if she had a hundred moles like the one you describe, on her they would not be moles but shining moons and stars. But tell me, Sancho: the saddle that seemed like a packsaddle to me, the one that you adjusted, was it a simple saddle or a sidesaddle?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was,\u201d responded Sancho, \u201cjust a high-bowed saddle, with a covering so rich it must have been worth half a kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to think I did not see all of that, Sancho!\u201d said Don Quixote. \u201cNow I say it again, and shall say it a thousand more times: I am the most unfortunate of men.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he heard the foolish things said by his master, who had been so exquisitely deceived, it was all the scoundrel Sancho could do to hide his laughter. Finally, after much more conversation between them, they re-<\/a>mounted their animals and followed the road to Zaragoza, where they hoped to arrive in time to take part in the solemn festival held in that celebrated city every year. But before they arrived, certain things happened to them, so numerous, great, and unusual that they deserve to be described and read, as will soon be seen.<\/p>\n

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