PART II - CHAPTER IX.

by Miguel de Cervantes

　　WHEREIN IS RELATED WHAT WILL BE SEEN THERE'Twas at the very midnight hour--more or less--when Don Quixote andSancho quitted the wood and entered El Toboso. The town was in deepsilence, for all the inhabitants were asleep, and stretched on the broadof their backs, as the saying is. The night was darkish, though Sanchowould have been glad had it been quite dark, so as to find in thedarkness an excuse for his blundering. All over the place nothing was tobe heard except the barking of dogs, which deafened the ears of DonQuixote and troubled the heart of Sancho. Now and then an ass brayed,pigs grunted, cats mewed, and the various noises they made seemed louderin the silence of the night; all which the enamoured knight took to be ofevil omen; nevertheless he said to Sancho, "Sancho, my son, lead on tothe palace of Dulcinea, it may be that we shall find her awake.""Body of the sun! what palace am I to lead to," said Sancho, "when what Isaw her highness in was only a very little house?""Most likely she had then withdrawn into some small apartment of herpalace," said Don Quixote, "to amuse herself with damsels, as greatladies and princesses are accustomed to do.""Senor," said Sancho, "if your worship will have it in spite of me thatthe house of my lady Dulcinea is a palace, is this an hour, think you, tofind the door open; and will it be right for us to go knocking till theyhear us and open the door; making a disturbance and confusion all throughthe household? Are we going, do you fancy, to the house of our wenches,like gallants who come and knock and go in at any hour, however late itmay be?""Let us first of all find out the palace for certain," replied DonQuixote, "and then I will tell thee, Sancho, what we had best do; butlook, Sancho, for either I see badly, or that dark mass that one seesfrom here should be Dulcinea's palace.""Then let your worship lead the way," said Sancho, "perhaps it may be so;though I see it with my eyes and touch it with my hands, I'll believe itas much as I believe it is daylight now."Don Quixote took the lead, and having gone a matter of two hundred paceshe came upon the mass that produced the shade, and found it was a greattower, and then he perceived that the building in question was no palace,but the chief church of the town, and said he, "It's the church we havelit upon, Sancho.""So I see," said Sancho, "and God grant we may not light upon our graves;it is no good sign to find oneself wandering in a graveyard at this timeof night; and that, after my telling your worship, if I don't mistake,that the house of this lady will be in an alley without an outlet.""The curse of God on thee for a blockhead!" said Don Quixote; "where hastthou ever heard of castles and royal palaces being built in alleyswithout an outlet?""Senor," replied Sancho, "every country has a way of its own; perhapshere in El Toboso it is the way to build palaces and grand buildings inalleys; so I entreat your worship to let me search about among thesestreets or alleys before me, and perhaps, in some corner or other, I maystumble on this palace--and I wish I saw the dogs eating it for leadingus such a dance.""Speak respectfully of what belongs to my lady, Sancho," said DonQuixote; "let us keep the feast in peace, and not throw the rope afterthe bucket.""I'll hold my tongue," said Sancho, "but how am I to take it patientlywhen your worship wants me, with only once seeing the house of ourmistress, to know always, and find it in the middle of the night, whenyour worship can't find it, who must have seen it thousands of times?""Thou wilt drive me to desperation, Sancho," said Don Quixote. "Lookhere, heretic, have I not told thee a thousand times that I have neveronce in my life seen the peerless Dulcinea or crossed the threshold ofher palace, and that I am enamoured solely by hearsay and by the greatreputation she bears for beauty and discretion?""I hear it now," returned Sancho; "and I may tell you that if you havenot seen her, no more have I.""That cannot be," said Don Quixote, "for, at any rate, thou saidst, onbringing back the answer to the letter I sent by thee, that thou sawesther sifting wheat.""Don't mind that, senor," said Sancho; "I must tell you that my seeingher and the answer I brought you back were by hearsay too, for I can nomore tell who the lady Dulcinea is than I can hit the sky.""Sancho, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "there are times for jests and timeswhen jests are out of place; if I tell thee that I have neither seen norspoken to the lady of my heart, it is no reason why thou shouldst saythou hast not spoken to her or seen her, when the contrary is the case,as thou well knowest."While the two were engaged in this conversation, they perceived some onewith a pair of mules approaching the spot where they stood, and from thenoise the plough made, as it dragged along the ground, they guessed himto be some labourer who had got up before daybreak to go to his work, andso it proved to be. He came along singing the ballad that says--Ill did ye fare, ye men of France, In Roncesvalles chase--"May I die, Sancho," said Don Quixote, when he heard him, "if any goodwill come to us tonight! Dost thou not hear what that clown is singing?""I do," said Sancho, "but what has Roncesvalles chase to do with what wehave in hand? He might just as well be singing the ballad of Calainos,for any good or ill that can come to us in our business."By this time the labourer had come up, and Don Quixote asked him, "Canyou tell me, worthy friend, and God speed you, whereabouts here is thepalace of the peerless princess Dona Dulcinea del Toboso?""Senor," replied the lad, "I am a stranger, and I have been only a fewdays in the town, doing farm work for a rich farmer. In that houseopposite there live the curate of the village and the sacristan, and bothor either of them will be able to give your worship some account of thislady princess, for they have a list of all the people of El Toboso;though it is my belief there is not a princess living in the whole of it;many ladies there are, of quality, and in her own house each of them maybe a princess.""Well, then, she I am inquiring for will be one of these, my friend,"said Don Quixote."May be so," replied the lad; "God be with you, for here comes thedaylight;" and without waiting for any more of his questions, he whippedon his mules.Sancho, seeing his master downcast and somewhat dissatisfied, said tohim, "Senor, daylight will be here before long, and it will not do for usto let the sun find us in the street; it will be better for us to quitthe city, and for your worship to hide in some forest in theneighbourhood, and I will come back in the daytime, and I won't leave anook or corner of the whole village that I won't search for the house,castle, or palace, of my lady, and it will be hard luck for me if I don'tfind it; and as soon as I have found it I will speak to her grace, andtell her where and how your worship is waiting for her to arrange someplan for you to see her without any damage to her honour and reputation.""Sancho," said Don Quixote, "thou hast delivered a thousand sentencescondensed in the compass of a few words; I thank thee for the advice thouhast given me, and take it most gladly. Come, my son, let us go look forsome place where I may hide, while thou dost return, as thou sayest, toseek, and speak with my lady, from whose discretion and courtesy I lookfor favours more than miraculous."Sancho was in a fever to get his master out of the town, lest he shoulddiscover the falsehood of the reply he had brought to him in the SierraMorena on behalf of Dulcinea; so he hastened their departure, which theytook at once, and two miles out of the village they found a forest orthicket wherein Don Quixote ensconced himself, while Sancho returned tothe city to speak to Dulcinea, in which embassy things befell him whichdemand fresh attention and a new chapter.