PART II - CHAPTER LXVIII.

by Miguel de Cervantes

　　OF THE BRISTLY ADVENTURE THAT BEFELL DON QUIXOTEThe night was somewhat dark, for though there was a moon in the sky itwas not in a quarter where she could be seen; for sometimes the ladyDiana goes on a stroll to the antipodes, and leaves the mountains allblack and the valleys in darkness. Don Quixote obeyed nature so far as tosleep his first sleep, but did not give way to the second, very differentfrom Sancho, who never had any second, because with him sleep lasted fromnight till morning, wherein he showed what a sound constitution and fewcares he had. Don Quixote's cares kept him restless, so much so that heawoke Sancho and said to him, "I am amazed, Sancho, at the unconcern ofthy temperament. I believe thou art made of marble or hard brass,incapable of any emotion or feeling whatever. I lie awake while thousleepest, I weep while thou singest, I am faint with fasting while thouart sluggish and torpid from pure repletion. It is the duty of goodservants to share the sufferings and feel the sorrows of their masters,if it be only for the sake of appearances. See the calmness of the night,the solitude of the spot, inviting us to break our slumbers by a vigil ofsome sort. Rise as thou livest, and retire a little distance, and with agood heart and cheerful courage give thyself three or four hundred lasheson account of Dulcinea's disenchantment score; and this I entreat ofthee, making it a request, for I have no desire to come to grips withthee a second time, as I know thou hast a heavy hand. As soon as thouhast laid them on we will pass the rest of the night, I singing myseparation, thou thy constancy, making a beginning at once with thepastoral life we are to follow at our village.""Senor," replied Sancho, "I'm no monk to get up out of the middle of mysleep and scourge myself, nor does it seem to me that one can pass fromone extreme of the pain of whipping to the other of music. Will yourworship let me sleep, and not worry me about whipping myself? or you'llmake me swear never to touch a hair of my doublet, not to say my flesh.""O hard heart!" said Don Quixote, "O pitiless squire! O breadill-bestowed and favours ill-acknowledged, both those I have done theeand those I mean to do thee! Through me hast thou seen thyself agovernor, and through me thou seest thyself in immediate expectation ofbeing a count, or obtaining some other equivalent title, for I-posttenebras spero lucem.""I don't know what that is," said Sancho; "all I know is that so long asI am asleep I have neither fear nor hope, trouble nor glory; and goodluck betide him that invented sleep, the cloak that covers over all aman's thoughts, the food that removes hunger, the drink that drives awaythirst, the fire that warms the cold, the cold that tempers the heat,and, to wind up with, the universal coin wherewith everything is bought,the weight and balance that makes the shepherd equal with the king andthe fool with the wise man. Sleep, I have heard say, has only one fault,that it is like death; for between a sleeping man and a dead man there isvery little difference.""Never have I heard thee speak so elegantly as now, Sancho," said DonQuixote; "and here I begin to see the truth of the proverb thou dostsometimes quote, 'Not with whom thou art bred, but with whom thou artfed.'""Ha, by my life, master mine," said Sancho, "it's not I that am stringingproverbs now, for they drop in pairs from your worship's mouth fasterthan from mine; only there is this difference between mine and yours,that yours are well-timed and mine are untimely; but anyhow, they are allproverbs."At this point they became aware of a harsh indistinct noise that seemedto spread through all the valleys around. Don Quixote stood up and laidhis hand upon his sword, and Sancho ensconced himself under Dapple andput the bundle of armour on one side of him and the ass's pack-saddle onthe other, in fear and trembling as great as Don Quixote's perturbation.Each instant the noise increased and came nearer to the two terrifiedmen, or at least to one, for as to the other, his courage is known toall. The fact of the matter was that some men were taking above sixhundred pigs to sell at a fair, and were on their way with them at thathour, and so great was the noise they made and their grunting andblowing, that they deafened the ears of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, andthey could not make out what it was. The wide-spread grunting drove cameon in a surging mass, and without showing any respect for Don Quixote'sdignity or Sancho's, passed right over the pair of them, demolishingSancho's entrenchments, and not only upsetting Don Quixote but sweepingRocinante off his feet into the bargain; and what with the trampling andthe grunting, and the pace at which the unclean beasts went, pack-saddle,armour, Dapple and Rocinante were left scattered on the ground and Sanchoand Don Quixote at their wits' end.Sancho got up as well as he could and begged his master to give him hissword, saying he wanted to kill half a dozen of those dirty unmannerlypigs, for he had by this time found out that that was what they were."Let them be, my friend," said Don Quixote; "this insult is the penaltyof my sin; and it is the righteous chastisement of heaven that jackalsshould devour a vanquished knight, and wasps sting him and pigs tramplehim under foot.""I suppose it is the chastisement of heaven, too," said Sancho, "thatflies should prick the squires of vanquished knights, and lice eat them,and hunger assail them. If we squires were the sons of the knights weserve, or their very near relations, it would be no wonder if the penaltyof their misdeeds overtook us, even to the fourth generation. But whathave the Panzas to do with the Quixotes? Well, well, let's lie down againand sleep out what little of the night there's left, and God will send usdawn and we shall be all right.""Sleep thou, Sancho," returned Don Quixote, "for thou wast born to sleepas I was born to watch; and during the time it now wants of dawn I willgive a loose rein to my thoughts, and seek a vent for them in a littlemadrigal which, unknown to thee, I composed in my head last night.""I should think," said Sancho, "that the thoughts that allow one to makeverses cannot be of great consequence; let your worship string verses asmuch as you like and I'll sleep as much as I can;" and forthwith, takingthe space of ground he required, he muffled himself up and fell into asound sleep, undisturbed by bond, debt, or trouble of any sort. DonQuixote, propped up against the trunk of a beech or a cork tree--for CideHamete does not specify what kind of tree it was--sang in this strain tothe accompaniment of his own sighs: When in my mind I muse, O Love, upon thy cruelty, To death I flee, In hope therein the end of all to find. But drawing near That welcome haven in my sea of woe, Such joy I know, That life revives, and still I linger here. Thus life doth slay, And death again to life restoreth me; Strange destiny, That deals with life and death as with a play! He accompanied each verse with many sighs and not a few tears, just likeone whose heart was pierced with grief at his defeat and his separationfrom Dulcinea.And now daylight came, and the sun smote Sancho on the eyes with hisbeams. He awoke, roused himself up, shook himself and stretched his lazylimbs, and seeing the havoc the pigs had made with his stores he cursedthe drove, and more besides. Then the pair resumed their journey, and asevening closed in they saw coming towards them some ten men on horsebackand four or five on foot. Don Quixote's heart beat quick and Sancho'squailed with fear, for the persons approaching them carried lances andbucklers, and were in very warlike guise. Don Quixote turned to Sanchoand said, "If I could make use of my weapons, and my promise had not tiedmy hands, I would count this host that comes against us but cakes andfancy bread; but perhaps it may prove something different from what weapprehend." The men on horseback now came up, and raising their lancessurrounded Don Quixote in silence, and pointed them at his back andbreast, menacing him with death. One of those on foot, putting his fingerto his lips as a sign to him to be silent, seized Rocinante's bridle anddrew him out of the road, and the others driving Sancho and Dapple beforethem, and all maintaining a strange silence, followed in the steps of theone who led Don Quixote. The latter two or three times attempted to askwhere they were taking him to and what they wanted, but the instant hebegan to open his lips they threatened to close them with the points oftheir lances; and Sancho fared the same way, for the moment he seemedabout to speak one of those on foot punched him with a goad, and Dapplelikewise, as if he too wanted to talk. Night set in, they quickened theirpace, and the fears of the two prisoners grew greater, especially as theyheard themselves assailed with--"Get on, ye Troglodytes;" "Silence, yebarbarians;" "March, ye cannibals;" "No murmuring, ye Scythians;" "Don'topen your eyes, ye murderous Polyphemes, ye blood-thirsty lions," andsuchlike names with which their captors harassed the ears of the wretchedmaster and man. Sancho went along saying to himself, "We, tortolites,barbers, animals! I don't like those names at all; 'it's in a bad windour corn is being winnowed;' 'misfortune comes upon us all at once likesticks on a dog,' and God grant it may be no worse than them that thisunlucky adventure has in store for us."Don Quixote rode completely dazed, unable with the aid of all his wits tomake out what could be the meaning of these abusive names they calledthem, and the only conclusion he could arrive at was that there was nogood to be hoped for and much evil to be feared. And now, about an hourafter midnight, they reached a castle which Don Quixote saw at once wasthe duke's, where they had been but a short time before. "God bless me!"said he, as he recognised the mansion, "what does this mean? It is allcourtesy and politeness in this house; but with the vanquished good turnsinto evil, and evil into worse."They entered the chief court of the castle and found it prepared andfitted up in a style that added to their amazement and doubled theirfears, as will be seen in the following chapter.