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."
"I swear it," said Don Quixote, "and for greater security I will puta flag-stone over it; for I would have you know, Senor Don Antonio"（he had by this time learned his name）， "that you are addressing onewho, though he has ears to hear, has no tongue to speak; so that youmay safely transfer whatever you have in your bosom into mine, andrely upon it that you have consigned it to the depths of silence."
"In reliance upon that promise," said Don Antonio, "I willastonish you with what you shall see and hear, and relieve myself ofsome of the vexation it gives me to have no one to whom I canconfide my secrets, for they are not of a sort to be entrusted toeverybody."
Don Quixote was puzzled, wondering what could be the object ofsuch precautions; whereupon Don Antonio taking his hand passed it overthe bronze head and the whole table and the pedestal of jasper onwhich it stood, and then said, "This head, Senor Don Quixote, has beenmade and fabricated by one of the greatest magicians and wizards theworld ever saw, a Pole, I believe, by birth, and a pupil of the famousEscotillo of whom such marvellous stories are told. He was here inmy house, and for a consideration of a thousand crowns that I gave himhe constructed this head, which has the property and virtue ofanswering whatever questions are put to its ear. He observed thepoints of the compass, he traced figures, he studied the stars, hewatched favourable moments, and at length brought it to the perfectionwe shall see to-morrow, for on Fridays it is mute, and this beingFriday we must wait till the next day. In the interval your worshipmay consider what you would like to ask it; and I know by experiencethat in all its answers it tells the truth."
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