"Let the barber business be my look-out," said Sancho; "and yourworship's be it to strive to become a king, and make me a count."
"So it shall be," answered Don Quixote, and raising his eyes hesaw what will be told in the following chapter.
CHAPTER XXII
OF THE FREEDOM DON QUIXOTE CONFERRED ON SEVERAL UNFORTUNATES WHOAGAINST THEIR WILL WERE BEING CARRIED WHERE THEY HAD NO WISH TO GO
CIDE Hamete Benengeli, the Arab and Manchegan author, relates inthis most grave, high-sounding, minute, delightful, and originalhistory that after the discussion between the famous Don Quixote of LaMancha and his squire Sancho Panza which is set down at the end ofchapter twenty-one, Don Quixote raised his eyes and saw coming alongthe road he was following some dozen men on foot strung together bythe neck, like beads, on a great iron chain, and all with manacleson their hands. With them there came also two men on horseback and twoon foot; those on horseback with wheel-lock muskets, those on footwith javelins and swords, and as soon as Sancho saw them he said:
"That is a chain of galley slaves, on the way to the galleys byforce of the king's orders."
"How by force?" asked Don Quixote; "is it possible that the kinguses force against anyone?"
"I do not say that," answered Sancho, "but that these are peoplecondemned for their crimes to serve by force in the king's galleys."
"In fact," replied Don Quixote, "however it may be, these people aregoing where they are taking them by force, and not of their own will."
"Just so," said Sancho.
"Then if so," said Don Quixote, "here is a case for the exerciseof my office, to put down force and to succour and help the wretched."
"Recollect, your worship," said Sancho, "Justice, which is theking himself, is not using force or doing wrong to such persons, butpunishing them for their crimes."
The chain of galley slaves had by this time come up, and Don Quixotein very courteous language asked those who were in custody of it to begood enough to tell him the reason or reasons for which they wereconducting these people in this manner. One of the guards on horsebackanswered that they were galley slaves belonging to his majesty, thatthey were going to the galleys, and that was all that was to be saidand all he had any business to know.
"Nevertheless," replied Don Quixote, "I should like to know fromeach of them separately the reason of his misfortune;" to this headded more to the same effect to induce them to tell him what hewanted so civilly that the other mounted guard said to him:
"Though we have here the register and certificate of the sentence ofevery one of these wretches, this is no time to take them out orread them; come and ask themselves; they can tell if they choose,and they will, for these fellows take a pleasure in doing andtalking about rascalities."
With this permission, which Don Quixote would have taken even hadthey not granted it, he approached the chain and asked the first forwhat offences he was now in such a sorry case.
He made answer that it was for being a lover.
"For that only?" replied Don Quixote; "why, if for being lovers theysend people to the galleys I might have been rowing in them long ago."
"The love is not the sort your worship is thinking of," said thegalley slave; "mine was that I loved a washerwoman's basket of cleanlinen so well, and held it so close in my embrace, that if the armof the law had not forced it from me, I should never have let it go ofmy own will to this moment; I was caught in the act, there was nooccasion for torture, the case was settled, they treated me to ahundred lashes on the back, and three years of gurapas besides, andthat was the end of it."
"What are gurapas?" asked Don Quixote.
"Gurapas are galleys," answered the galley slave, who was a youngman of about four-and-twenty, and said he was a native of Piedrahita.
Don Quixote asked the same question of the second, who made noreply, so downcast and melancholy was he; but the first answered forhim, and said, "He, sir, goes as a canary, I mean as a musician anda singer."
"What!" said Don Quixote, "for being musicians and singers arepeople sent to the galleys too?"
"Yes, sir," answered the galley slave, "for there is nothing worsethan singing under suffering."
"On the contrary, I have heard say," said Don Quixote, "that hewho sings scares away his woes."
"Here it is the reverse," said the galley slave; "for he who singsonce weeps all his life."
"I do not understand it," said Don Quixote; but one of the guardssaid to him, "Sir, to sing under suffering means with the non sanctafraternity to confess under torture; they put this sinner to thetorture and he confessed his crime, which was being a cuatrero, thatis a cattle-stealer, and on his confession they sentenced him to sixyears in the galleys, besides two bundred lashes that he has alreadyhad on the back; and he is always dejected and downcast because theother thieves that were left behind and that march here ill-treat, andsnub, and jeer, and despise him for confessing and not having spiritenough to say nay; for, say they, 'nay' has no more letters in it than'yea,' and a culprit is well off when life or death with him dependson his own tongue and not on that of witnesses or evidence; and tomy thinking they are not very far out."
"And I think so too," answered Don Quixote; then passing on to thethird he asked him what he had asked the others, and the mananswered very readily and unconcernedly, "I am going for five years totheir ladyships the gurapas for the want of ten ducats."
"I will give twenty with pleasure to get you out of that trouble,"said Don Quixote.
"That," said the galley slave, "is like a man having money at seawhen he is dying of hunger and has no way of buying what he wants; Isay so because if at the right time I had had those twenty ducats thatyour worship now offers me, I would have greased the notary's penand freshened up the attorney's wit with them, so that to-day I shouldbe in the middle of the plaza of the Zocodover at Toledo, and not onthis road coupled like a greyhound. But God is great; patience- there,that's enough of it."
Don Quixote passed on to the fourth, a man of venerable aspectwith a white beard falling below his breast, who on hearing himselfasked the reason of his being there began to weep without answeringa word, but the fifth acted as his tongue and said, "This worthy manis going to the galleys for four years, after having gone the roundsin ceremony and on horseback."
"That means," said Sancho Panza, "as I take it, to have beenexposed to shame in public."
"Just so," replied the galley slave, "and the offence for which theygave him that punishment was having been an ear-broker, naybody-broker; I mean, in short, that this gentleman goes as a pimp, andfor having besides a certain touch of the sorcerer about him."
"If that touch had not been thrown in," said Don Quixote, "bewould not deserve, for mere pimping, to row in the galleys, but ratherto command and be admiral of them; for the office of pimp is noordinary one, being the office of persons of discretion, one verynecessary in a well-ordered state, and only to be exercised by personsof good birth; nay, there ought to be an inspector and overseer ofthem, as in other offices, and recognised number, as with thebrokers on change; in this way many of the evils would be avoidedwhich are caused by this office and calling being in the hands ofstupid and ignorant people, such as women more or less silly, andpages and jesters of little standing and experience, who on the mosturgent occasions, and when ingenuity of contrivance is needed, let thecrumbs freeze on the way to their mouths, and know not which istheir right hand. I should like to go farther, and give reasons toshow that it is advisable to choose those who are to hold so necessaryan office in the state, but this is not the fit place for it; some dayI will expound the matter to some one able to see to and rectify it;all I say now is, that the additional fact of his being a sorcerer hasremoved the sorrow it gave me to see these white hairs and thisvenerable countenance in so painful a position on account of his beinga pimp; though I know well there are no sorceries in the world thatcan move or compel the will as some simple folk fancy, for our will isfree, nor is there herb or charm that can force it. All that certainsilly women and quacks do is to turn men mad with potions and poisons,pretending that they have power to cause love, for, as I say, it is animpossibility to compel the will."
"It is true," said the good old man, "and indeed, sir, as far as thecharge of sorcery goes I was not guilty; as to that of being a pimpI cannot deny it; but I never thought I was doing any harm by it,for my only object was that all the world should enjoy itself and livein peace and quiet, without quarrels or troubles; but my goodintentions were unavailing to save me from going where I neverexpect to come back from, with this weight of years upon me and aurinary ailment that never gives me a moment's ease;" and again hefell to weeping as before, and such compassion did Sancho feel for himthat he took out a real of four from his bosom and gave it to him inalms.
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