PART I - CHAPTER XIX.

by Miguel de Cervantes

　　OF THE SHREWD DISCOURSE WHICH SANCHO HELD WITH HIS MASTER, AND OF THEADVENTURE THAT BEFELL HIM WITH A DEAD BODY, TOGETHER WITH OTHER NOTABLEOCCURRENCES"It seems to me, senor, that all these mishaps that have befallen us oflate have been without any doubt a punishment for the offence committedby your worship against the order of chivalry in not keeping the oath youmade not to eat bread off a tablecloth or embrace the queen, and all therest of it that your worship swore to observe until you had taken thathelmet of Malandrino's, or whatever the Moor is called, for I do not verywell remember.""Thou art very right, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "but to tell the truth,it had escaped my memory; and likewise thou mayest rely upon it that theaffair of the blanket happened to thee because of thy fault in notreminding me of it in time; but I will make amends, for there are ways ofcompounding for everything in the order of chivalry.""Why! have I taken an oath of some sort, then?" said Sancho."It makes no matter that thou hast not taken an oath," said Don Quixote;"suffice it that I see thou art not quite clear of complicity; andwhether or no, it will not be ill done to provide ourselves with aremedy.""In that case," said Sancho, "mind that your worship does not forget thisas you did the oath; perhaps the phantoms may take it into their heads toamuse themselves once more with me; or even with your worship if they seeyou so obstinate."While engaged in this and other talk, night overtook them on the roadbefore they had reached or discovered any place of shelter; and what madeit still worse was that they were dying of hunger, for with the loss ofthe alforjas they had lost their entire larder and commissariat; and tocomplete the misfortune they met with an adventure which without anyinvention had really the appearance of one. It so happened that the nightclosed in somewhat darkly, but for all that they pushed on, Sanchofeeling sure that as the road was the king's highway they mightreasonably expect to find some inn within a league or two. Going along,then, in this way, the night dark, the squire hungry, the mastersharp-set, they saw coming towards them on the road they were travellinga great number of lights which looked exactly like stars in motion.Sancho was taken aback at the sight of them, nor did Don Quixotealtogether relish them: the one pulled up his ass by the halter, theother his hack by the bridle, and they stood still, watching anxiously tosee what all this would turn out to be, and found that the lights wereapproaching them, and the nearer they came the greater they seemed, atwhich spectacle Sancho began to shake like a man dosed with mercury, andDon Quixote's hair stood on end; he, however, plucking up spirit alittle, said:"This, no doubt, Sancho, will be a most mighty and perilous adventure, inwhich it will be needful for me to put forth all my valour andresolution.""Unlucky me!" answered Sancho; "if this adventure happens to be one ofphantoms, as I am beginning to think it is, where shall I find the ribsto bear it?""Be they phantoms ever so much," said Don Quixote, "I will not permitthem to touch a thread of thy garments; for if they played tricks withthee the time before, it was because I was unable to leap the walls ofthe yard; but now we are on a wide plain, where I shall be able to wieldmy sword as I please.""And if they enchant and cripple you as they did the last time," saidSancho, "what difference will it make being on the open plain or not?""For all that," replied Don Quixote, "I entreat thee, Sancho, to keep agood heart, for experience will tell thee what mine is.""I will, please God," answered Sancho, and the two retiring to one sideof the road set themselves to observe closely what all these movinglights might be; and very soon afterwards they made out some twentyencamisados, all on horseback, with lighted torches in their hands, theawe-inspiring aspect of whom completely extinguished the courage ofSancho, who began to chatter with his teeth like one in the cold fit ofan ague; and his heart sank and his teeth chattered still more when theyperceived distinctly that behind them there came a litter covered overwith black and followed by six more mounted figures in mourning down tothe very feet of their mules--for they could perceive plainly they werenot horses by the easy pace at which they went. And as the encamisadoscame along they muttered to themselves in a low plaintive tone. Thisstrange spectacle at such an hour and in such a solitary place was quiteenough to strike terror into Sancho's heart, and even into his master's;and (save in Don Quixote's case) did so, for all Sancho's resolution hadnow broken down. It was just the opposite with his master, whoseimagination immediately conjured up all this to him vividly as one of theadventures of his books.He took it into his head that the litter was a bier on which was bornesome sorely wounded or slain knight, to avenge whom was a task reservedfor him alone; and without any further reasoning he laid his lance inrest, fixed himself firmly in his saddle, and with gallant spirit andbearing took up his position in the middle of the road where theencamisados must of necessity pass; and as soon as he saw them near athand he raised his voice and said:"Halt, knights, or whosoever ye may be, and render me account of who yeare, whence ye come, where ye go, what it is ye carry upon that bier,for, to judge by appearances, either ye have done some wrong or somewrong has been done to you, and it is fitting and necessary that I shouldknow, either that I may chastise you for the evil ye have done, or elsethat I may avenge you for the injury that has been inflicted upon you.""We are in haste," answered one of the encamisados, "and the inn is faroff, and we cannot stop to render you such an account as you demand;" andspurring his mule he moved on.Don Quixote was mightily provoked by this answer, and seizing the mule bythe bridle he said, "Halt, and be more mannerly, and render an account ofwhat I have asked of you; else, take my defiance to combat, all of you."The mule was shy, and was so frightened at her bridle being seized thatrearing up she flung her rider to the ground over her haunches. Anattendant who was on foot, seeing the encamisado fall, began to abuse DonQuixote, who now moved to anger, without any more ado, laying his lancein rest charged one of the men in mourning and brought him badly woundedto the ground, and as he wheeled round upon the others the agility withwhich he attacked and routed them was a sight to see, for it seemed justas if wings had that instant grown upon Rocinante, so lightly and proudlydid he bear himself. The encamisados were all timid folk and unarmed, sothey speedily made their escape from the fray and set off at a run acrossthe plain with their lighted torches, looking exactly like maskersrunning on some gala or festival night. The mourners, too, enveloped andswathed in their skirts and gowns, were unable to bestir themselves, andso with entire safety to himself Don Quixote belaboured them all anddrove them off against their will, for they all thought it was no man buta devil from hell come to carry away the dead body they had in thelitter.Sancho beheld all this in astonishment at the intrepidity of his lord,and said to himself, "Clearly this master of mine is as bold and valiantas he says he is."A burning torch lay on the ground near the first man whom the mule hadthrown, by the light of which Don Quixote perceived him, and coming up tohim he presented the point of the lance to his face, calling on him toyield himself prisoner, or else he would kill him; to which the prostrateman replied, "I am prisoner enough as it is; I cannot stir, for one of mylegs is broken: I entreat you, if you be a Christian gentleman, not tokill me, which will be committing grave sacrilege, for I am a licentiateand I hold first orders.""Then what the devil brought you here, being a churchman?" said DonQuixote."What, senor?" said the other. "My bad luck.""Then still worse awaits you," said Don Quixote, "if you do not satisfyme as to all I asked you at first.""You shall be soon satisfied," said the licentiate; "you must know, then,that though just now I said I was a licentiate, I am only a bachelor, andmy name is Alonzo Lopez; I am a native of Alcobendas, I come from thecity of Baeza with eleven others, priests, the same who fled with thetorches, and we are going to the city of Segovia accompanying a dead bodywhich is in that litter, and is that of a gentleman who died in Baeza,where he was interred; and now, as I said, we are taking his bones totheir burial-place, which is in Segovia, where he was born.""And who killed him?" asked Don Quixote."God, by means of a malignant fever that took him," answered thebachelor."In that case," said Don Quixote, "the Lord has relieved me of the taskof avenging his death had any other slain him; but, he who slew himhaving slain him, there is nothing for it but to be silent, and shrugone's shoulders; I should do the same were he to slay myself; and I wouldhave your reverence know that I am a knight of La Mancha, Don Quixote byname, and it is my business and calling to roam the world righting wrongsand redressing injuries.""I do not know how that about righting wrongs can be," said the bachelor,"for from straight you have made me crooked, leaving me with a broken legthat will never see itself straight again all the days of its life; andthe injury you have redressed in my case has been to leave me injured insuch a way that I shall remain injured for ever; and the height ofmisadventure it was to fall in with you who go in search of adventures.""Things do not all happen in the same way," answered Don Quixote; "it allcame, Sir Bachelor Alonzo Lopez, of your going, as you did, by night,dressed in those surplices, with lighted torches, praying, covered withmourning, so that naturally you looked like something evil and of theother world; and so I could not avoid doing my duty in attacking you, andI should have attacked you even had I known positively that you were thevery devils of hell, for such I certainly believed and took you to be.""As my fate has so willed it," said the bachelor, "I entreat you, sirknight-errant, whose errand has been such an evil one for me, to help meto get from under this mule that holds one of my legs caught between thestirrup and the saddle.""I would have talked on till to-morrow," said Don Quixote; "how long wereyou going to wait before telling me of your distress?"He at once called to Sancho, who, however, had no mind to come, as he wasjust then engaged in unloading a sumpter mule, well laden with provender,which these worthy gentlemen had brought with them. Sancho made a bag ofhis coat, and, getting together as much as he could, and as the bag wouldhold, he loaded his beast, and then hastened to obey his master's call,and helped him to remove the bachelor from under the mule; then puttinghim on her back he gave him the torch, and Don Quixote bade him followthe track of his companions, and beg pardon of them on his part for thewrong which he could not help doing them.And said Sancho, "If by chance these gentlemen should want to know whowas the hero that served them so, your worship may tell them that he isthe famous Don Quixote of La Mancha, otherwise called the Knight of theRueful Countenance."The bachelor then took his departure.I forgot to mention that before he did so he said to Don Quixote,"Remember that you stand excommunicated for having laid violent hands ona holy thing, juxta illud, si quis, suadente diabolo.""I do not understand that Latin," answered Don Quixote, "but I know wellI did not lay hands, only this pike; besides, I did not think I wascommitting an assault upon priests or things of the Church, which, like aCatholic and faithful Christian as I am, I respect and revere, but uponphantoms and spectres of the other world; but even so, I remember how itfared with Cid Ruy Diaz when he broke the chair of the ambassador of thatking before his Holiness the Pope, who excommunicated him for the same;and yet the good Roderick of Vivar bore himself that day like a verynoble and valiant knight."On hearing this the bachelor took his departure, as has been said,without making any reply; and Don Quixote asked Sancho what had inducedhim to call him the "Knight of the Rueful Countenance" more then than atany other time."I will tell you," answered Sancho; "it was because I have been lookingat you for some time by the light of the torch held by that unfortunate,and verily your worship has got of late the most ill-favoured countenanceI ever saw: it must be either owing to the fatigue of this combat, orelse to the want of teeth and grinders.""It is not that," replied Don Quixote, "but because the sage whose dutyit will be to write the history of my achievements must have thought itproper that I should take some distinctive name as all knights of yoredid; one being 'He of the Burning Sword,' another 'He of the Unicorn,'this one 'He of the Damsels,' that 'He of the Phoenix,' another 'TheKnight of the Griffin,' and another 'He of the Death,' and by these namesand designations they were known all the world round; and so I say thatthe sage aforesaid must have put it into your mouth and mind just now tocall me 'The Knight of the Rueful Countenance,' as I intend to callmyself from this day forward; and that the said name may fit me better, Imean, when the opportunity offers, to have a very rueful countenancepainted on my shield.""There is no occasion, senor, for wasting time or money on making thatcountenance," said Sancho; "for all that need be done is for your worshipto show your own, face to face, to those who look at you, and withoutanything more, either image or shield, they will call you 'Him of theRueful Countenance' and believe me I am telling you the truth, for Iassure you, senor (and in good part be it said), hunger and the loss ofyour grinders have given you such an ill-favoured face that, as I say,the rueful picture may be very well spared."Don Quixote laughed at Sancho's pleasantry; nevertheless he resolved tocall himself by that name, and have his shield or buckler painted as hehad devised.Don Quixote would have looked to see whether the body in the litter werebones or not, but Sancho would not have it, saying:"Senor, you have ended this perilous adventure more safely for yourselfthan any of those I have seen: perhaps these people, though beaten androuted, may bethink themselves that it is a single man that has beatenthem, and feeling sore and ashamed of it may take heart and come insearch of us and give us trouble enough. The ass is in proper trim, themountains are near at hand, hunger presses, we have nothing more to dobut make good our retreat, and, as the saying is, the dead to the graveand the living to the loaf."And driving his ass before him he begged his master to follow, who,feeling that Sancho was right, did so without replying; and afterproceeding some little distance between two hills they found themselvesin a wide and retired valley, where they alighted, and Sancho unloadedhis beast, and stretched upon the green grass, with hunger for sauce,they breakfasted, dined, lunched, and supped all at once, satisfyingtheir appetites with more than one store of cold meat which the deadman's clerical gentlemen (who seldom put themselves on short allowance)had brought with them on their sumpter mule. But another piece ofill-luck befell them, which Sancho held the worst of all, and that wasthat they had no wine to drink, nor even water to moisten their lips; andas thirst tormented them, Sancho, observing that the meadow where theywere was full of green and tender grass, said what will be told in thefollowing chapter.