"When I went to give it to her," replied Sancho, "she was hard at itswaying from side to side with a lot of wheat she had in the sieve,and she said to me, 'Lay the letter, friend, on the top of thatsack, for I cannot read it until I have done sifting all this."
"Discreet lady!" said Don Quixote; "that was in order to read itat her leisure and enjoy it; proceed, Sancho; while she was engaged inher occupation what converse did she hold with thee? What did sheask about me, and what answer didst thou give? Make haste; tell meall, and let not an atom be left behind in the ink-bottle."
"She asked me nothing," said Sancho; "but I told her how yourworship was left doing penance in her service, naked from the waistup, in among these mountains like a savage, sleeping on the ground,not eating bread off a tablecloth nor combing your beard, weepingand cursing your fortune."
"In saying I cursed my fortune thou saidst wrong," said Don Quixote;"for rather do I bless it and shall bless it all the days of my lifefor having made me worthy of aspiring to love so lofty a lady asDulcinea del Toboso."
"And so lofty she is," said Sancho, "that she overtops me by morethan a hand's-breadth."
"What! Sancho," said Don Quixote, "didst thou measure with her?"
"I measured in this way," said Sancho; "going to help her to put asack of wheat on the back of an ass, we came so close together thatI could see she stood more than a good palm over me."
"Well!" said Don Quixote, "and doth she not of a truth accompany andadorn this greatness with a thousand million charms of mind! But onething thou wilt not deny, Sancho; when thou camest close to herdidst thou not perceive a Sabaean odour, an aromatic fragrance, a, Iknow not what, delicious, that I cannot find a name for; I mean aredolence, an exhalation, as if thou wert in the shop of some daintyglover?"
"All I can say is," said Sancho, "that I did perceive a littleodour, something goaty; it must have been that she was all in asweat with hard work."
"It could not be that," said Don Quixote, "but thou must have beensuffering from cold in the head, or must have smelt thyself; for Iknow well what would be the scent of that rose among thorns, that lilyof the field, that dissolved amber."
"Maybe so," replied Sancho; "there often comes from myself that sameodour which then seemed to me to come from her grace the ladyDulcinea; but that's no wonder, for one devil is like another."
"Well then," continued Don Quixote, "now she has done sifting thecorn and sent it to the mill; what did she do when she read theletter?"
"As for the letter," said Sancho, "she did not read it, for she saidshe could neither read nor write; instead of that she tore it upinto small pieces, saying that she did not want to let anyone readit lest her secrets should become known in the village, and thatwhat I had told her by word of mouth about the love your worshipbore her, and the extraordinary penance you were doing for her sake,was enough; and, to make an end of it, she told me to tell yourworship that she kissed your hands, and that she had a greaterdesire to see you than to write to you; and that therefore sheentreated and commanded you, on sight of this present, to come outof these thickets, and to have done with carrying on absurdities,and to set out at once for El Toboso, unless something else of greaterimportance should happen, for she had a great desire to see yourworship. She laughed greatly when I told her how your worship wascalled The Knight of the Rueful Countenance; I asked her if thatBiscayan the other day had been there; and she told me he had, andthat he was an honest fellow; I asked her too about the galley slaves,but she said she had not seen any as yet."
"So far all goes well," said Don Quixote; "but tell me what jewelwas it that she gave thee on taking thy leave, in return for thytidings of me? For it is a usual and ancient custom with knights andladies errant to give the squires, damsels, or dwarfs who bringtidings of their ladies to the knights, or of their knights to theladies, some rich jewel as a guerdon for good news,' andacknowledgment of the message."
"That is very likely," said Sancho, "and a good custom it was, to mymind; but that must have been in days gone by, for now it would seemto be the custom only to give a piece of bread and cheese; becausethat was what my lady Dulcinea gave me over the top of the yard-wallwhen I took leave of her; and more by token it was sheep's-milkcheese."
"She is generous in the extreme," said Don Quixote, "and if shedid not give thee a jewel of gold, no doubt it must have beenbecause she had not one to hand there to give thee; but sleeves aregood after Easter; I shall see her and all shall be made right. Butknowest thou what amazes me, Sancho? It seems to me thou must havegone and come through the air, for thou hast taken but little morethan three days to go to El Toboso and return, though it is morethan thirty leagues from here to there. From which I am inclined tothink that the sage magician who is my friend, and watches over myinterests （for of necessity there is and must be one, or else I shouldnot be a right knight-errant）， that this same, I say, must have helpedthee to travel without thy knowledge; for some of these sages willcatch up a knight-errant sleeping in his bed, and without hisknowing how or in what way it happened, he wakes up the next daymore than a thousand leagues away from the place where he went tosleep. And if it were not for this, knights-errant would not be ableto give aid to one another in peril, as they do at every turn. For aknight, maybe, is fighting in the mountains of Armenia with somedragon, or fierce serpent, or another knight, and gets the worst ofthe battle, and is at the point of death; but when he least looksfor it, there appears over against him on a cloud, or chariot of fire,another knight, a friend of his, who just before had been inEngland, and who takes his part, and delivers him from death; and atnight he finds himself in his own quarters supping very much to hissatisfaction; and yet from one place to the other will have been twoor three thousand leagues. And all this is done by the craft and skillof the sage enchanters who take care of those valiant knights; sothat, friend Sancho, I find no difficulty in believing that thoumayest have gone from this place to El Toboso and returned in such ashort time, since, as I have said, some friendly sage must havecarried thee through the air without thee perceiving it."
"That must have been it," said Sancho, "for indeed Rocinante wentlike a gipsy's ass with quicksilver in his ears."
"Quicksilver!" said Don Quixote, "aye and what is more, a legionof devils, folk that can travel and make others travel without beingweary, exactly as the whim seizes them. But putting this aside, whatthinkest thou I ought to do about my lady's command to go and see her?For though I feel that I am bound to obey her mandate, I feel too thatI am debarred by the boon I have accorded to the princess thataccompanies us, and the law of chivalry compels me to have regardfor my word in preference to my inclination; on the one hand thedesire to see my lady pursues and harasses me, on the other mysolemn promise and the glory I shall win in this enterprise urge andcall me; but what I think I shall do is to travel with all speed andreach quickly the place where this giant is, and on my arrival I shallcut off his head, and establish the princess peacefully in herrealm, and forthwith I shall return to behold the light thatlightens my senses, to whom I shall make such excuses that she will beled to approve of my delay, for she will see that it entirely tends toincrease her glory and fame; for all that I have won, am winning, orshall win by arms in this life, comes to me of the favour sheextends to me, and because I am hers."
"Ah! what a sad state your worship's brains are in!" said Sancho."Tell me, senor, do you mean to travel all that way for nothing, andto let slip and lose so rich and great a match as this where they giveas a portion a kingdom that in sober truth I have heard say is morethan twenty thousand leagues round about, and abounds with allthings necessary to support human life, and is bigger than Portugaland Castile put together? Peace, for the love of God! Blush for whatyou have said, and take my advice, and forgive me, and marry at oncein the first village where there is a curate; if not, here is ourlicentiate who will do the business beautifully; remember, I am oldenough to give advice, and this I am giving comes pat to thepurpose; for a sparrow in the hand is better than a vulture on thewing, and he who has the good to his hand and chooses the bad, thatthe good he complains of may not come to him."
"Look here, Sancho," said Don Quixote. "If thou art advising me tomarry, in order that immediately on slaying the giant I may becomeking, and be able to confer favours on thee, and give thee what I havepromised, let me tell thee I shall be able very easily to satisfythy desires without marrying; for before going into battle I will makeit a stipulation that, if I come out of it victorious, even I do notmarry, they shall give me a portion portion of the kingdom, that I maybestow it upon whomsoever I choose, and when they give it to me uponwhom wouldst thou have me bestow it but upon thee?"
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