"For all your worship says," said Sancho, "it is not becoming thatthere should he no thanks on our part for two hundred gold crowns thatthe duke's majordomo has given me in a little purse which I carry nextmy heart, like a warming plaster or comforter, to meet any chancecalls; for we shan't always find castles where they'll entertain us;now and then we may light upon roadside inns where they'll cudgel us."
In conversation of this sort the knight and squire errant werepursuing their journey, when, after they had gone a little more thanhalf a league, they perceived some dozen men dressed like labourersstretched upon their cloaks on the grass of a green meadow eatingtheir dinner. They had beside them what seemed to be white sheetsconcealing some objects under them, standing upright or lying flat,and arranged at intervals. Don Quixote approached the diners, and,saluting them courteously first, he asked them what it was thosecloths covered. "Senor," answered one of the party, "under thesecloths are some images carved in relief intended for a retablo weare putting up in our village; we carry them covered up that theymay not be soiled, and on our shoulders that they may not be broken."
"With your good leave," said Don Quixote, "I should like to seethem; for images that are carried so carefully no doubt must be fineones."
"I should think they were!" said the other; "let the money they costspeak for that; for as a matter of fact there is not one of themthat does not stand us in more than fifty ducats; and that yourworship may judge; wait a moment, and you shall see with your owneyes;" and getting up from his dinner he went and uncovered thefirst image, which proved to be one of Saint George on horsebackwith a serpent writhing at his feet and the lance thrust down itsthroat with all that fierceness that is usually depicted. The wholegroup was one blaze of gold, as the saying is. On seeing it DonQuixote said, "That knight was one of the best knights-errant the armyof heaven ever owned; he was called Don Saint George, and he wasmoreover a defender of maidens. Let us see this next one."
The man uncovered it, and it was seen to be that of Saint Martinon his horse, dividing his cloak with the beggar. The instant DonQuixote saw it he said, "This knight too was one of the Christianadventurers, but I believe he was generous rather than valiant, asthou mayest perceive, Sancho, by his dividing his cloak with thebeggar and giving him half of it; no doubt it was winter at thetime, for otherwise he would have given him the whole of it, socharitable was he."
"It was not that, most likely," said Sancho, "but that he heldwith the proverb that says, 'For giving and keeping there's need ofbrains.'"
Don Quixote laughed, and asked them to take off the next cloth,underneath which was seen the image of the patron saint of theSpains seated on horseback, his sword stained with blood, trampling onMoors and treading heads underfoot; and on seeing it Don Quixoteexclaimed, "Ay, this is a knight, and of the squadrons of Christ! Thisone is called Don Saint James the Moorslayer, one of the bravestsaints and knights the world ever had or heaven has now."
They then raised another cloth which it appeared covered SaintPaul falling from his horse, with all the details that are usuallygiven in representations of his conversion. When Don Quixote saw it,rendered in such lifelike style that one would have said Christ wasspeaking and Paul answering, "This," he said, "was in his time thegreatest enemy that the Church of God our Lord had, and the greatestchampion it will ever have; a knight-errant in life, a steadfast saintin death, an untiring labourer in the Lord's vineyard, a teacher ofthe Gentiles, whose school was heaven, and whose instructor and masterwas Jesus Christ himself."
There were no more images, so Don Quixote bade them cover them upagain, and said to those who had brought them, "I take it as a happyomen, brothers, to have seen what I have; for these saints and knightswere of the same profession as myself, which is the calling of arms;only there is this difference between them and me, that they weresaints, and fought with divine weapons, and I am a sinner and fightwith human ones. They won heaven by force of arms, for heavensuffereth violence; and I, so far, know not what I have won by dint ofmy sufferings; but if my Dulcinea del Toboso were to be releasedfrom hers, perhaps with mended fortunes and a mind restored toitself I might direct my steps in a better path than I am following atpresent."
"May God hear and sin be deaf," said Sancho to this.
The men were filled with wonder, as well at the figure as at thewords of Don Quixote, though they did not understand one half ofwhat he meant by them. They finished their dinner, took their imageson their backs, and bidding farewell to Don Quixote resumed theirjourney.
Sancho was amazed afresh at the extent of his master's knowledge, asmuch as if he had never known him, for it seemed to him that there wasno story or event in the world that he had not at his fingers' endsand fixed in his memory, and he said to him, "In truth, master mine,if this that has happened to us to-day is to be called an adventure,it has been one of the sweetest and pleasantest that have befallenus in the whole course of our travels; we have come out of itunbelaboured and undismayed, neither have we drawn sword nor have wesmitten the earth with our bodies, nor have we been left famishing;blessed be God that he has let me see such a thing with my own eyes!"
"Thou sayest well, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "but remember alltimes are not alike nor do they always run the same way; and thesethings the vulgar commonly call omens, which are not based upon anynatural reason, will by him who is wise be esteemed and reckoned happyaccidents merely. One of these believers in omens will get up of amorning, leave his house, and meet a friar of the order of the blessedSaint Francis, and, as if he had met a griffin, he will turn about andgo home. With another Mendoza the salt is spilt on his table, andgloom is spilt over his heart, as if nature was obliged to givewarning of coming misfortunes by means of such trivial things asthese. The wise man and the Christian should not trifle with what itmay please heaven to do. Scipio on coming to Africa stumbled as heleaped on shore; his soldiers took it as a bad omen; but he,clasping the soil with his arms, exclaimed, 'Thou canst not escape me,Africa, for I hold thee tight between my arms.' Thus, Sancho,meeting those images has been to me a most happy occurrence."
"I can well believe it," said Sancho; "but I wish your worship wouldtell me what is the reason that the Spaniards, when they are aboutto give battle, in calling on that Saint James the Moorslayer, say'Santiago and close Spain!' Is Spain, then, open, so that it isneedful to close it; or what is the meaning of this form?"
"Thou art very simple, Sancho," said Don Quixote; "God, look you,gave that great knight of the Red Cross to Spain as her patron saintand protector, especially in those hard struggles the Spaniards hadwith the Moors; and therefore they invoke and call upon him as theirdefender in all their battles; and in these he has been many a timeseen beating down, trampling under foot, destroying and slaughteringthe Hagarene squadrons in the sight of all; of which fact I could givethee many examples recorded in truthful Spanish histories."
Sancho changed the subject, and said to his master, "I marvel,senor, at the boldness of Altisidora, the duchess's handmaid; hewhom they call Love must have cruelly pierced and wounded her; theysay he is a little blind urchin who, though blear-eyed, or moreproperly speaking sightless, if he aims at a heart, be it ever sosmall, hits it and pierces it through and through with his arrows. Ihave heard it said too that the arrows of Love are blunted androbbed of their points by maidenly modesty and reserve; but withthis Altisidora it seems they are sharpened rather than blunted."
"Bear in mind, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "that love is influencedby no consideration, recognises no restraints of reason, and is of thesame nature as death, that assails alike the lofty palaces of kingsand the humble cabins of shepherds; and when it takes entirepossession of a heart, the first thing it does is to banish fear andshame from it; and so without shame Altisidora declared her passion,which excited in my mind embarrassment rather than commiseration."
"Notable cruelty!" exclaimed Sancho; "unheard-of ingratitude! Ican only say for myself that the very smallest loving word of herswould have subdued me and made a slave of me. The devil! What aheart of marble, what bowels of brass, what a soul of mortar! But Ican't imagine what it is that this damsel saw in your worship thatcould have conquered and captivated her so. What gallant figure wasit, what bold bearing, what sprightly grace, what comeliness offeature, which of these things by itself, or what all together,could have made her fall in love with you? For indeed and in truthmany a time I stop to look at your worship from the sole of yourfoot to the topmost hair of your head, and I see more to frightenone than to make one fall in love; moreover I have heard say thatbeauty is the first and main thing that excites love, and as yourworship has none at all, I don't know what the poor creature fell inlove with."
"Recollect, Sancho," replied Don Quixote, "there are two sorts ofbeauty, one of the mind, the other of the body; that of the minddisplays and exhibits itself in intelligence, in modesty, inhonourable conduct, in generosity, in good breeding; and all thesequalities are possible and may exist in an ugly man; and when it isthis sort of beauty and not that of the body that is the attraction,love is apt to spring up suddenly and violently. I, Sancho, perceiveclearly enough that I am not beautiful, but at the same time I knowI am not hideous; and it is enough for an honest man not to be amonster to he an object of love, if only he possesses the endowmentsof mind I have mentioned."
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