PART II - CHAPTER XXXIX.

by Miguel de Cervantes

　　IN WHICH THE TRIFALDI CONTINUES HER MARVELLOUS AND MEMORABLE STORYBy every word that Sancho uttered, the duchess was as much delighted asDon Quixote was driven to desperation. He bade him hold his tongue, andthe Distressed One went on to say: "At length, after much questioning andanswering, as the princess held to her story, without changing or varyingher previous declaration, the Vicar gave his decision in favour of DonClavijo, and she was delivered over to him as his lawful wife; which theQueen Dona Maguncia, the Princess Antonomasia's mother, so took to heart,that within the space of three days we buried her.""She died, no doubt," said Sancho."Of course," said Trifaldin; "they don't bury living people in Kandy,only the dead.""Senor Squire," said Sancho, "a man in a swoon has been known to beburied before now, in the belief that he was dead; and it struck me thatQueen Maguncia ought to have swooned rather than died; because with lifea great many things come right, and the princess's folly was not so greatthat she need feel it so keenly. If the lady had married some page ofhers, or some other servant of the house, as many another has done, so Ihave heard say, then the mischief would have been past curing. But tomarry such an elegant accomplished gentleman as has been just nowdescribed to us--indeed, indeed, though it was a folly, it was not such agreat one as you think; for according to the rules of my master here--andhe won't allow me to lie--as of men of letters bishops are made, so ofgentlemen knights, specially if they be errant, kings and emperors may bemade.""Thou art right, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "for with a knight-errant, ifhe has but two fingers' breadth of good fortune, it is on the cards tobecome the mightiest lord on earth. But let senora the Distressed Oneproceed; for I suspect she has got yet to tell us the bitter part of thisso far sweet story.""The bitter is indeed to come," said the countess; "and such bitter thatcolocynth is sweet and oleander toothsome in comparison. The queen, then,being dead, and not in a swoon, we buried her; and hardly had we coveredher with earth, hardly had we said our last farewells, when, quis taliafando temperet a lachrymis? over the queen's grave there appeared,mounted upon a wooden horse, the giant Malambruno, Maguncia's firstcousin, who besides being cruel is an enchanter; and he, to revenge thedeath of his cousin, punish the audacity of Don Clavijo, and in wrath atthe contumacy of Antonomasia, left them both enchanted by his art on thegrave itself; she being changed into an ape of brass, and he into ahorrible crocodile of some unknown metal; while between the two therestands a pillar, also of metal, with certain characters in the Syriaclanguage inscribed upon it, which, being translated into Kandian, and nowinto Castilian, contain the following sentence: 'These two rash loversshall not recover their former shape until the valiant Manchegan comes todo battle with me in single combat; for the Fates reserve this unexampledadventure for his mighty valour alone.' This done, he drew from itssheath a huge broad scimitar, and seizing me by the hair he made asthough he meant to cut my throat and shear my head clean off. I wasterror-stricken, my voice stuck in my throat, and I was in the deepestdistress; nevertheless I summoned up my strength as well as I could, andin a trembling and piteous voice I addressed such words to him as inducedhim to stay the infliction of a punishment so severe. He then caused allthe duennas of the palace, those that are here present, to be broughtbefore him; and after having dwelt upon the enormity of our offence, anddenounced duennas, their characters, their evil ways and worse intrigues,laying to the charge of all what I alone was guilty of, he said he wouldnot visit us with capital punishment, but with others of a slow naturewhich would be in effect civil death for ever; and the very instant heceased speaking we all felt the pores of our faces opening, and prickingus, as if with the points of needles. We at once put our hands up to ourfaces and found ourselves in the state you now see."Here the Distressed One and the other duennas raised the veils with whichthey were covered, and disclosed countenances all bristling with beards,some red, some black, some white, and some grizzled, at which spectaclethe duke and duchess made a show of being filled with wonder. Don Quixoteand Sancho were overwhelmed with amazement, and the bystanders lost inastonishment, while the Trifaldi went on to say: "Thus did thatmalevolent villain Malambruno punish us, covering the tenderness andsoftness of our faces with these rough bristles! Would to heaven that hehad swept off our heads with his enormous scimitar instead of obscuringthe light of our countenances with these wool-combings that cover us! Forif we look into the matter, sirs (and what I am now going to say I wouldsay with eyes flowing like fountains, only that the thought of ourmisfortune and the oceans they have already wept, keep them as dry asbarley spears, and so I say it without tears), where, I ask, can a duennawith a beard to to? What father or mother will feel pity for her? Whowill help her? For, if even when she has a smooth skin, and a facetortured by a thousand kinds of washes and cosmetics, she can hardly getanybody to love her, what will she do when she shows a countenace turnedinto a thicket? Oh duennas, companions mine! it was an unlucky momentwhen we were born and an ill-starred hour when our fathers begot us!" Andas she said this she showed signs of being about to faint.