PART I - CHAPTER XXII.

by Miguel de Cervantes

　　OF THE FREEDOM DON QUIXOTE CONFERRED ON SEVERAL UNFORTUNATES WHO AGAINSTTHEIR WILL WERE BEING CARRIED WHERE THEY HAD NO WISH TO GOCide Hamete Benengeli, the Arab and Manchegan author, relates in thismost grave, high-sounding, minute, delightful, and original history thatafter the discussion between the famous Don Quixote of La Mancha and hissquire Sancho Panza which is set down at the end of chapter twenty-one,Don Quixote raised his eyes and saw coming along the road he wasfollowing some dozen men on foot strung together by the neck, like beads,on a great iron chain, and all with manacles on their hands. With themthere came also two men on horseback and two on foot; those on horsebackwith wheel-lock muskets, those on foot with javelins and swords, and assoon as Sancho saw them he said:"That is a chain of galley slaves, on the way to the galleys by force ofthe king's orders.""How by force?" asked Don Quixote; "is it possible that the king usesforce 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 exercise of myoffice, to put down force and to succour and help the wretched.""Recollect, your worship," said Sancho, "Justice, which is the kinghimself, is not using force or doing wrong to such persons, but punishingthem for their crimes."The chain of galley slaves had by this time come up, and Don Quixote invery courteous language asked those who were in custody of it to be goodenough to tell him the reason or reasons for which they were conductingthese people in this manner. One of the guards on horseback answered thatthey were galley slaves belonging to his majesty, that they were going tothe galleys, and that was all that was to be said and all he had anybusiness to know."Nevertheless," replied Don Quixote, "I should like to know from each ofthem separately the reason of his misfortune;" to this he added more tothe same effect to induce them to tell him what he wanted so civilly thatthe 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 or readthem; come and ask themselves; they can tell if they choose, and theywill, for these fellows take a pleasure in doing and talking aboutrascalities."With this permission, which Don Quixote would have taken even had theynot granted it, he approached the chain and asked the first for whatoffences 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 they sendpeople to the galleys I might have been rowing in them long ago.""The love is not the sort your worship is thinking of," said the galleyslave; "mine was that I loved a washerwoman's basket of clean linen sowell, and held it so close in my embrace, that if the arm of the law hadnot forced it from me, I should never have let it go of my own will tothis moment; I was caught in the act, there was no occasion for torture,the case was settled, they treated me to a hundred lashes on the back,and three years of gurapas besides, and that was the end of it.""What are gurapas?" asked Don Quixote."Gurapas are galleys," answered the galley slave, who was a young man ofabout four-and-twenty, and said he was a native of Piedrahita.Don Quixote asked the same question of the second, who made no reply, sodowncast and melancholy was he; but the first answered for him, and said,"He, sir, goes as a canary, I mean as a musician and a singer.""What!" said Don Quixote, "for being musicians and singers are peoplesent to the galleys too?""Yes, sir," answered the galley slave, "for there is nothing worse thansinging under suffering.""On the contrary, I have heard say," said Don Quixote, "that he who singsscares away his woes.""Here it is the reverse," said the galley slave; "for he who sings onceweeps all his life.""I do not understand it," said Don Quixote; but one of the guards said tohim, "Sir, to sing under suffering means with the non sancta fraternityto confess under torture; they put this sinner to the torture and heconfessed his crime, which was being a cuatrero, that is acattle-stealer, and on his confession they sentenced him to six years inthe galleys, besides two bundred lashes that he has already had on theback; and he is always dejected and downcast because the other thievesthat were left behind and that march here ill-treat, and snub, and jeer,and despise him for confessing and not having spirit enough to say nay;for, say they, 'nay' has no more letters in it than 'yea,' and a culpritis well off when life or death with him depends on his own tongue and noton that of witnesses or evidence; and to my thinking they are not veryfar out.""And I think so too," answered Don Quixote; then passing on to the thirdhe asked him what he had asked the others, and the man answered veryreadily and unconcernedly, "I am going for five years to their ladyshipsthe gurapas for the want of ten ducats.""I will give twenty with pleasure to get you out of that trouble," saidDon Quixote."That," said the galley slave, "is like a man having money at sea when heis dying of hunger and has no way of buying what he wants; I say sobecause if at the right time I had had those twenty ducats that yourworship now offers me, I would have greased the notary's pen andfreshened up the attorney's wit with them, so that to-day I should be inthe middle of the plaza of the Zocodover at Toledo, and not on this roadcoupled like a greyhound. But God is great; patience--there, that'senough of it."Don Quixote passed on to the fourth, a man of venerable aspect with awhite beard falling below his breast, who on hearing himself asked thereason of his being there began to weep without answering a word, but thefifth acted as his tongue and said, "This worthy man is going to thegalleys for four years, after having gone the rounds in ceremony and onhorseback.""That means," said Sancho Panza, "as I take it, to have been exposed toshame in public.""Just so," replied the galley slave, "and the offence for which they gavehim that punishment was having been an ear-broker, nay body-broker; Imean, in short, that this gentleman goes as a pimp, and for havingbesides a certain touch of the sorcerer about him.""If that touch had not been thrown in," said Don Quixote, "he would notdeserve, for mere pimping, to row in the galleys, but rather to commandand be admiral of them; for the office of pimp is no ordinary one, beingthe office of persons of discretion, one very necessary in a well-orderedstate, and only to be exercised by persons of good birth; nay, thereought to be an inspector and overseer of them, as in other offices, andrecognised number, as with the brokers on change; in this way many of theevils would be avoided which are caused by this office and calling beingin the hands of stupid and ignorant people, such as women more or lesssilly, and pages and jesters of little standing and experience, who onthe most urgent occasions, and when ingenuity of contrivance is needed,let the crumbs freeze on the way to their mouths, and know not which istheir right hand. I should like to go farther, and give reasons to showthat it is advisable to choose those who are to hold so necessary anoffice in the state, but this is not the fit place for it; some day Iwill expound the matter to some one able to see to and rectify it; all Isay now is, that the additional fact of his being a sorcerer has removedthe sorrow it gave me to see these white hairs and this venerablecountenance in so painful a position on account of his being a pimp;though I know well there are no sorceries in the world that can move orcompel the will as some simple folk fancy, for our will is free, nor isthere herb or charm that can force it. All that certain silly women andquacks do is to turn men mad with potions and poisons, pretending thatthey have power to cause love, for, as I say, it is an impossibility tocompel 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 pimp Icannot deny it; but I never thought I was doing any harm by it, for myonly object was that all the world should enjoy itself and live in peaceand quiet, without quarrels or troubles; but my good intentions wereunavailing to save me from going where I never expect to come back from,with this weight of years upon me and a urinary ailment that never givesme a moment's ease;" and again he fell to weeping as before, and suchcompassion did Sancho feel for him that he took out a real of four fromhis bosom and gave it to him in alms.Don Quixote went on and asked another what his crime was, and the mananswered with no less but rather much more sprightliness than the lastone."I am here because I carried the joke too far with a couple of cousins ofmine, and with a couple of other cousins who were none of mine; in short,I carried the joke so far with them all that it ended in such acomplicated increase of kindred that no accountant could make it clear:it was all proved against me, I got no favour, I had no money, I was nearhaving my neck stretched, they sentenced me to the galleys for six years,I accepted my fate, it is the punishment of my fault; I am a young man;let life only last, and with that all will come right. If you, sir, haveanything wherewith to help the poor, God will repay it to you in heaven,and we on earth will take care in our petitions to him to pray for thelife and health of your worship, that they may be as long and as good asyour amiable appearance deserves."This one was in the dress of a student, and one of the guards said he wasa great talker and a very elegant Latin scholar.Behind all these there came a man of thirty, a very personable fellow,except that when he looked, his eyes turned in a little one towards theother. He was bound differently from the rest, for he had to his leg achain so long that it was wound all round his body, and two rings on hisneck, one attached to the chain, the other to what they call a"keep-friend" or "friend's foot," from which hung two irons reaching tohis waist with two manacles fixed to them in which his hands were securedby a big padlock, so that he could neither raise his hands to his mouthnor lower his head to his hands. Don Quixote asked why this man carriedso many more chains than the others. The guard replied that it wasbecause he alone had committed more crimes than all the rest puttogether, and was so daring and such a villain, that though they marchedhim in that fashion they did not feel sure of him, but were in dread ofhis making his escape."What crimes can he have committed," said Don Quixote, "if they have notdeserved a heavier punishment than being sent to the galleys?""He goes for ten years," replied the guard, "which is the same thing ascivil death, and all that need be said is that this good fellow is thefamous Gines de Pasamonte, otherwise called Ginesillo de Parapilla.""Gently, senor commissary," said the galley slave at this, "let us haveno fixing of names or surnames; my name is Gines, not Ginesillo, and myfamily name is Pasamonte, not Parapilla as you say; let each one mind hisown business, and he will be doing enough.""Speak with less impertinence, master thief of extra measure," repliedthe commissary, "if you don't want me to make you hold your tongue inspite of your teeth.""It is easy to see," returned the galley slave, "that man goes as Godpleases, but some one shall know some day whether I am called Ginesillode Parapilla or not.""Don't they call you so, you liar?" said the guard."They do," returned Gines, "but I will make them give over calling me so,or I will be shaved, where, I only say behind my teeth. If you, sir, haveanything to give us, give it to us at once, and God speed you, for youare becoming tiresome with all this inquisitiveness about the lives ofothers; if you want to know about mine, let me tell you I am Gines dePasamonte, whose life is written by these fingers.""He says true," said the commissary, "for he has himself written hisstory as grand as you please, and has left the book in the prison in pawnfor two hundred reals.""And I mean to take it out of pawn," said Gines, "though it were in fortwo hundred ducats.""Is it so good?" said Don Quixote."So good is it," replied Gines, "that a fig for 'Lazarillo de Tormes,'and all of that kind that have been written, or shall be written comparedwith it: all I will say about it is that it deals with facts, and factsso neat and diverting that no lies could match them.""And how is the book entitled?" asked Don Quixote."The 'Life of Gines de Pasamonte,'" replied the subject of it."And is it finished?" asked Don Quixote."How can it be finished," said the other, "when my life is not yetfinished? All that is written is from my birth down to the point whenthey sent me to the galleys this last time.""Then you have been there before?" said Don Quixote."In the service of God and the king I have been there for four yearsbefore now, and I know by this time what the biscuit and courbash arelike," replied Gines; "and it is no great grievance to me to go back tothem, for there I shall have time to finish my book; I have still manythings left to say, and in the galleys of Spain there is more than enoughleisure; though I do not want much for what I have to write, for I haveit by heart.""You seem a clever fellow," said Don Quixote."And an unfortunate one," replied Gines, "for misfortune alwayspersecutes good wit.""It persecutes rogues," said the commissary."I told you already to go gently, master commissary," said Pasamonte;"their lordships yonder never gave you that staff to ill-treat uswretches here, but to conduct and take us where his majesty orders you;if not, by the life of-never mind-; it may be that some day the stainsmade in the inn will come out in the scouring; let everyone hold histongue and behave well and speak better; and now let us march on, for wehave had quite enough of this entertainment."The commissary lifted his staff to strike Pasamonte in return for histhreats, but Don Quixote came between them, and begged him not to ill-usehim, as it was not too much to allow one who had his hands tied to havehis tongue a trifle free; and turning to the whole chain of them he said:"From all you have told me, dear brethren, make out clearly that thoughthey have punished you for your faults, the punishments you are about toendure do not give you much pleasure, and that you go to them very muchagainst the grain and against your will, and that perhaps this one's wantof courage under torture, that one's want of money, the other's want ofadvocacy, and lastly the perverted judgment of the judge may have beenthe cause of your ruin and of your failure to obtain the justice you hadon your side. All which presents itself now to my mind, urging,persuading, and even compelling me to demonstrate in your case thepurpose for which Heaven sent me into the world and caused me to makeprofession of the order of chivalry to which I belong, and the vow I tooktherein to give aid to those in need and under the oppression of thestrong. But as I know that it is a mark of prudence not to do by foulmeans what may be done by fair, I will ask these gentlemen, the guardsand commissary, to be so good as to release you and let you go in peace,as there will be no lack of others to serve the king under morefavourable circumstances; for it seems to me a hard case to make slavesof those whom God and nature have made free. Moreover, sirs of theguard," added Don Quixote, "these poor fellows have done nothing to you;let each answer for his own sins yonder; there is a God in Heaven whowill not forget to punish the wicked or reward the good; and it is notfitting that honest men should be the instruments of punishment toothers, they being therein no way concerned. This request I make thusgently and quietly, that, if you comply with it, I may have reason forthanking you; and, if you will not voluntarily, this lance and swordtogether with the might of my arm shall compel you to comply with it byforce.""Nice nonsense!" said the commissary; "a fine piece of pleasantry he hascome out with at last! He wants us to let the king's prisoners go, as ifwe had any authority to release them, or he to order us to do so! Go yourway, sir, and good luck to you; put that basin straight that you've goton your head, and don't go looking for three feet on a cat.""'Tis you that are the cat, rat, and rascal," replied Don Quixote, andacting on the word he fell upon him so suddenly that without giving himtime to defend himself he brought him to the ground sorely wounded with alance-thrust; and lucky it was for him that it was the one that had themusket. The other guards stood thunderstruck and amazed at thisunexpected event, but recovering presence of mind, those on horsebackseized their swords, and those on foot their javelins, and attacked DonQuixote, who was waiting for them with great calmness; and no doubt itwould have gone badly with him if the galley slaves, seeing the chancebefore them of liberating themselves, had not effected it by contrivingto break the chain on which they were strung. Such was the confusion,that the guards, now rushing at the galley slaves who were breakingloose, now to attack Don Quixote who was waiting for them, did nothing atall that was of any use. Sancho, on his part, gave a helping hand torelease Gines de Pasamonte, who was the first to leap forth upon theplain free and unfettered, and who, attacking the prostrate commissary,took from him his sword and the musket, with which, aiming at one andlevelling at another, he, without ever discharging it, drove every one ofthe guards off the field, for they took to flight, as well to escapePasamonte's musket, as the showers of stones the now released galleyslaves were raining upon them. Sancho was greatly grieved at the affair,because he anticipated that those who had fled would report the matter tothe Holy Brotherhood, who at the summons of the alarm-bell would at oncesally forth in quest of the offenders; and he said so to his master, andentreated him to leave the place at once, and go into hiding in thesierra that was close by."That is all very well," said Don Quixote, "but I know what must be donenow;" and calling together all the galley slaves, who were now runningriot, and had stripped the commissary to the skin, he collected themround him to hear what he had to say, and addressed them as follows: "Tobe grateful for benefits received is the part of persons of good birth,and one of the sins most offensive to God is ingratitude; I say sobecause, sirs, ye have already seen by manifest proof the benefit ye havereceived of me; in return for which I desire, and it is my good pleasurethat, laden with that chain which I have taken off your necks, ye at onceset out and proceed to the city of El Toboso, and there presentyourselves before the lady Dulcinea del Toboso, and say to her that herknight, he of the Rueful Countenance, sends to commend himself to her;and that ye recount to her in full detail all the particulars of thisnotable adventure, up to the recovery of your longed-for liberty; andthis done ye may go where ye will, and good fortune attend you."Gines de Pasamonte made answer for all, saying, "That which you, sir, ourdeliverer, demand of us, is of all impossibilities the most impossible tocomply with, because we cannot go together along the roads, but onlysingly and separate, and each one his own way, endeavouring to hideourselves in the bowels of the earth to escape the Holy Brotherhood,which, no doubt, will come out in search of us. What your worship may do,and fairly do, is to change this service and tribute as regards the ladyDulcinea del Toboso for a certain quantity of ave-marias and credos whichwe will say for your worship's intention, and this is a condition thatcan be complied with by night as by day, running or resting, in peace orin war; but to imagine that we are going now to return to the flesh-potsof Egypt, I mean to take up our chain and set out for El Toboso, is toimagine that it is now night, though it is not yet ten in the morning,and to ask this of us is like asking pears of the elm tree.""Then by all that's good," said Don Quixote (now stirred to wrath), "Donson of a bitch, Don Ginesillo de Paropillo, or whatever your name is, youwill have to go yourself alone, with your tail between your legs and thewhole chain on your back."Pasamonte, who was anything but meek (being by this time thoroughlyconvinced that Don Quixote was not quite right in his head as he hadcommitted such a vagary as to set them free), finding himself abused inthis fashion, gave the wink to his companions, and falling back theybegan to shower stones on Don Quixote at such a rate that he was quiteunable to protect himself with his buckler, and poor Rocinante no moreheeded the spur than if he had been made of brass. Sancho planted himselfbehind his ass, and with him sheltered himself from the hailstorm thatpoured on both of them. Don Quixote was unable to shield himself so wellbut that more pebbles than I could count struck him full on the body withsuch force that they brought him to the ground; and the instant he fellthe student pounced upon him, snatched the basin from his head, and withit struck three or four blows on his shoulders, and as many more on theground, knocking it almost to pieces. They then stripped him of a jacketthat he wore over his armour, and they would have stripped off hisstockings if his greaves had not prevented them. From Sancho they tookhis coat, leaving him in his shirt-sleeves; and dividing among themselvesthe remaining spoils of the battle, they went each one his own way, moresolicitous about keeping clear of the Holy Brotherhood they dreaded, thanabout burdening themselves with the chain, or going to present themselvesbefore the lady Dulcinea del Toboso. The ass and Rocinante, Sancho andDon Quixote, were all that were left upon the spot; the ass with droopinghead, serious, shaking his ears from time to time as if he thought thestorm of stones that assailed them was not yet over; Rocinante stretchedbeside his master, for he too had been brought to the ground by a stone;Sancho stripped, and trembling with fear of the Holy Brotherhood; and DonQuixote fuming to find himself so served by the very persons for whom hehad done so much.