Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

  "What sound is that, Sancho?"

  "I don't know, Senor," he responded. "It must be something new; adventures and misadventures never begin for no reason."

  He tried his luck again, and things went so smoothly that with no more noise or disturbance than the last time, he found himself rid of the burden that had caused him so much grief. But since Don Quixote had a sense of smell as acute as his hearing, and Sancho was joined so closely to him, and the vapors rose up almost in a straight line, some unavoidably reached his nostrils, and as soon as they did he came to the assistance of his nostrils and squeezed them closed between two fingers, and in a somewhat nasal voice, he said:

  "It seems to me, Sancho, that you are very frightened."

  "Yes, I am," responded Sancho, "but what makes your grace see that now more than ever?"

  "Because you smell now more than ever, and not of amber," responded Don Quixote.

  "That might be," said Sancho, "but it's not my fault, it's your grace's for choosing the most ungodly times to put me through the strangest paces."

  "Take three or four of them back, friend," said Don Quixote without removing his fingers from his nose, "and from now on be more mindful of your person and of what you owe to mine; engaging in so much conversation with you has caused this lack of respect."

  "I'll wager," replied Sancho, "that your grace thinks I've done something with my person I shouldn't have."

  "The less said the better, Sancho my friend," responded Don Quixote.

  Master and servant passed the night in these exchanges and others like them. But Sancho, seeing that morning would soon be upon them, very carefully unhobbled Rocinante and tied up his breeches. When Rocinante found himself free, though he was not by nature high-spirited, it seems he felt offended and began to paw the ground because--and for this I beg his pardon--he could not prance. Don Quixote, seeing that Rocinante was moving again, took this as a favorable sign and believed it meant he should embark on the fearful adventure. By this time dawn finally had made its presence known and changed the appearance of things, and Don Quixote saw that he was under some tall trees; they were chestnuts and cast a very dark shadow. He also heard that the pounding had not stopped, but he did not see who could be causing it, and so, with no further delay, he made Rocinante feel his spurs, and, turning to take his leave of Sancho, he ordered him to wait no more than three days, as he had already told him, and if at the end of that time he had not returned, Sancho could be certain it had been God's will that his master's days come to an end in that perilous adventure. Don Quixote told him again about the message and communication he was to take to his lady Dulcinea; as for payment for his services, Sancho should not be concerned because Don Quixote had made his will before leaving home, and in it the squire would find himself recompensed for everything relating to his salary, the amount prorated according to the length of time he had been in his service, but if God allowed him to emerge from this danger safe and sound and unharmed, then Sancho could be more than certain of the promised insula.

  Sancho began to cry again when he heard the sorrowful words of his good master, and he resolved not to leave him until the final conclusion and end of that affair.

  These tears and Sancho Panza's honorable decision lead the author of this history to conclude that he must have been wellborn and, at the very least, an Old Christian;3 the sentiment softened his master somewhat, but not enough for him to demonstrate any weakness; instead, dissimulating as much as he could, he began to ride toward the place where it seemed to him the sound of the water and the pounding originated.

  Sancho followed on foot, leading by the halter, as was his custom, the donkey who was his constant companion in good fortune and bad; having traveled some distance through those somber chesnut trees, they came upon a small meadow at the foot of some high crags over which a great rush of water fell. At the foot of the crags were some dilapidated hovels that looked more like ruins than houses, and they realized that the noise and din of the pounding, which had not ceased, was coming from these structures.

  Rocinante became agitated by the clamor of the water and the pounding, and Don Quixote, calming him, gradually approached the hovels, commending himself with all his heart to his lady, imploring that she favor him in this fearsome circumstance and undertaking, and he also commended himself to God, praying that He not forget him. Sancho did not leave his side, craning his neck and peering between the legs of Rocinante to see if he could see what it was that had so frightened and perplexed him.

  They must have gone another hundred paces when, as they turned a corner, there appeared, clear and plain, the unmistakable cause of the terrible-sounding and, for them, terrifying noise that had kept them frightened and perplexed the whole night. And it was--if you have not already guessed, O reader, in sorrow and anger!--six wooden fulling hammers that with their alternating strokes were responsible for the clamor.

  When Don Quixote saw this he fell silent and sat as if paralyzed from head to toe. Sancho looked at him and saw that his head hung down toward his chest, indicating that he was mortified. Don Quixote also looked at Sancho and saw that his cheeks were puffed out and his mouth full of laughter, clear signs that he soon would explode, and Don Quixote's melancholy was not so great that he could resist laughing at the sight of Sancho, and when Sancho saw that his master had begun, the floodgates opened with such force that he had to press his sides with his fists to keep from bursting with laughter. Four times he calmed down, and four times his laughter returned as powerfully as before; by now Don Quixote was sending him to the devil, especially when he heard him say, in a derisive tone:

  "'Sancho my friend, know that I was born, by the will of heaven, in this our iron age, to revive the one of gold, or the Golden Age. I am he for whom are reserved dangers, great deeds, valiant feats...'"

  And in this fashion he repeated all or most of the words that Don Quixote had said when they first heard the fearful pounding.

  Don Quixote, seeing that Sancho was mocking him, became so wrathful and angry that he raised his lance and struck him twice, blows so hard that if he had received them on his head instead of his back, his master would have been freed of the obligation of paying his salary, unless it was to his heirs. Sancho, seeing that his jokes were taken so seriously and fearing that his master would go even further, said to him very humbly:

  "Your grace should calm down; by God, I'm only joking."

  "Well, you may be joking, but I am not,"4 responded Don Quixote. "Come here, you merry man; do you think that if these were not fulling hammers but a dangerous adventure, I would not have displayed the courage needed to undertake and conclude it? Am I obliged, perchance, being, as I am, a knight, to recognize and differentiate sounds, and know which are fulling hammers and which are not? Moreover, it well might be, as is the case, that I have never seen them in my life, though you must have, being the lowborn peasant you are, and reared and born among them. If not, pretend that these six fulling hammers are six giants, and turn them on me one by one, or all together, and if I do not knock them all to the ground, you can mock me in any way you choose."

  "No more, Senor," replied Sancho. "I confess that I have gone a little too far with my joking. But tell me, your grace, now that we're at peace (and may God bring you as safe and sound through all the adventures you have as He has brought you through this one), wasn't it laughable how frightened we were, and wouldn't it make a good story? At least, how frightened I was, for I already know that your grace doesn't know what fright is or understand the meaning of fear or terror."

  "I do not deny," responded Don Quixote, "that what happened to us is deserving of laughter, but it does not deserve to be told, for not all persons are wise enough to put things in their proper place."

  "At least," responded Sancho, "your grace knew how to place the lance, aiming for my head and hitting me on the back, thanks be to God and the care I took to move to the side. Well, well, it all comes out in the end, for I've heard people say: 'The one who
hurts you is the one who loves you,' and I've also heard that great gentlemen, after speaking harshly to a servant, give him breeches, though I don't know what they give after beating him with a lance, unless knights errant give insulas after a beating, or kingdoms on dry land."

  "The dice may fall," said Don Quixote, "so that everything you say turns out to be true; forgive what happened, for you are clever and know that first impulses are not ours to control, but be advised of one thing: from now on you are to refrain and abstain from speaking too much to me, for in all the books of chivalry I have read, which are infinite in number, I have never found any squire who talks as much with his master as you do with yours. In truth I consider it a great fault, both on your part and on mine: on yours, because you do not have a high opinion of me; on mine, because I do not allow a higher opinion. For instance, Gandalin, the squire of Amadis of Gaul, became count of Insula Firme, yet one reads of him that he always spoke to his master with hat in hand, bending his head and bowing his body, more turquesco. 5 And what shall we say of Gasabal, the squire of Don Galaor, who was so silent that in order to declare to us the excellence of his wondrous silence, his name is mentioned only once in the course of that history, as great as it is true? From everything I have said you must infer, Sancho, that it is necessary to distinguish between master and minion, gentleman and servant, knight and squire. Therefore, from this day forward, we must treat each other with more respect and refrain from mockery, because no matter why I lose my temper with you, it will be bad for the pitcher.6 The rewards and benefits that I have promised you will come in time, and if they do not, your wages, at least, will not be lost, as I have already told you."

  "Everything your grace says is fine," said Sancho. "But I'd like to know, if the time for rewards happens not to come and it's necessary to fall back on wages, how much the squire of a knight errant earned in those days, and if he was paid by the month or by the day, like a mason's helpers."

  "I do not believe," Don Quixote responded, "that those squires ever received wages, but only favors. And if I have mentioned you in the last will and testament that I left in my house, it was because of what might happen, for I do not yet know the standing of chivalry in these our calamitous times, and I should not want my soul to suffer in the next world on account of trivial details. Because I want you to know, Sancho, that there is no profession more dangerous than that of adventuring knight."

  "That's true," said Sancho, "for just the noise of the fulling hammers could upset and disturb the heart of an adventuring knight errant as valiant as your grace. But you can be sure that from now on my lips will not open to joke about your grace's affairs, but only to honor you as my master and natural lord."

  "In that way," replied Don Quixote, "you will live long on the face of the earth, for after parents, masters must be respected as if they were progenitors."

  CHAPTER XXI

  Which relates the high adventure and rich prize of the helmet of Mambrino, as well as other things that befell our invincible knight

  At this point a light rain began to fall, and Sancho would have liked for them to take shelter in the fulling mill, but Don Quixote had acquired such an aversion to it because of the insufferable deception that under no circumstances did he wish to go inside, and so, turning to the right, they came upon another road similar to the one they had followed on the previous day.

  A short while later, Don Quixote caught sight of a man riding toward them and wearing on his head something that glistened as if it were made of gold, and no sooner had he seen him than he turned to Sancho and said:

  "It seems to me, Sancho, that there is no proverb that is not true, because all of them are judgments based on experience, the mother of all knowledge, in particular the one that says: 'One door closes and another opens.' I say this because if last night fortune closed the door on what we were seeking, deceiving us with fulling hammers, now she opens wide another that will lead to a better and truer adventure; if I do not succeed in going through this door, the fault will be mine, and I shall not be able to blame my ignorance of fulling hammers or the dark of night. I say this because, unless I am mistaken, coming toward us is a man who wears on his head the helmet of Mambrino,1 concerning which, as you well know, I have made a vow."

  "Your grace, be careful what you say, and more careful what you do," said Sancho, "for you wouldn't want this to be more fulling hammers that end up hammering and battering our senses."

  "The devil take the man!" replied Don Quixote. "What does a helmet have to do with fulling hammers?"

  "I don't know anything about that," responded Sancho, "but by my faith, if I could talk as much as I used to, maybe I could say some things that would make your grace see that you were mistaken in what you said."

  "How can I be mistaken in what I say, you doubting traitor?" said Don Quixote. "Tell me, do you not see that knight coming toward us, mounted on a dappled gray and wearing on his head a helmet of gold?"

  "What I see and can make out," responded Sancho, "is just a man riding a donkey that's gray like mine, and wearing something shiny on his head."

  "Well, that is the helmet of Mambrino," said Don Quixote. "Move aside and let me face him alone; you will see that without speaking a word so as not to waste time, I shall bring this adventure to a conclusion and acquire the helmet I have so long desired."

  "I'll be sure to move aside," replied Sancho, "but may it please God," he continued, "that it turns out to be oregano and not fulling hammers."2

  "I have already told you, brother, not to mention or even think about mentioning those fulling hammers to me," said Don Quixote, "or I swear...I shall say no more, but I shall hammer and full your soul."

  Sancho fell silent, fearful his master might carry out the vow, as roundly categorical as a ball, that he had hurled at him.

  This is the truth concerning the helmet, the horse, and the knight that Don Quixote saw: in that area there were two villages, one of them so small it did not have an apothecary or a barber, but the other, which was nearby, did, and so the barber in the larger one served the smaller, where a man happened to be sick and needed to be bled, and another needed to have his beard trimmed, and consequently the barber was traveling there, carrying a brass basin; as luck would have it, as he was traveling it began to rain, and to keep his hat from being stained, for it must have been new, he put the basin on his head, and since it was clean, at a distance of half a league, it glistened. He was riding a gray donkey, as Sancho had said, which gave rise to Don Quixote's thinking that he saw a dappled gray, a knight, and a gold helmet, for everything he saw he very easily accommodated to his chivalric nonsense and errant thoughts. And when he saw the poor gentleman approaching, without saying a word to him, and with Rocinante at full gallop, he attacked with lowered pike, intending to run him through, but when he drew near, without stopping the fury of his charge, he cried:

  "Defend yourself, base creature, or hand over to me of your own free will what is so rightly mine!"

  The barber, who never imagined or feared such a thing when he saw that apparition bearing down on him, had no other choice, in order to protect himself from the lance, than to fall off his donkey; and as soon as he touched the ground, he leaped up as nimbly as a deer and began to run across the plain, so fast the wind could not catch him. He left the basin on the ground, which satisfied Don Quixote, who said that the heathen had behaved with discretion and imitated the beaver, which, finding itself pursued by hunters, bites and tears off the thing for which he knows, by natural instinct, he is being hunted down.3 He told Sancho to pick up the helmet, and the squire, lifting the basin in his hands, said:

  "By God, this is a good basin and must be worth eight reales if it's worth a maravedi."

  And he gave it to his master, who then put it on his head, turning it around from one side to the other, looking for the visor; and since he did not find it, he said:

  "No doubt the heathen for whom this famous sallet helmet was first forged must have had an extremel
y large head; worst of all, half of it is missing."

  When Sancho heard the basin called a sallet, he could not contain his laughter, but then he recalled his master's wrath, and he broke off in the middle.

  "Why are you laughing, Sancho?" said Don Quixote.

  "It makes me laugh," he responded, "to think of the big head on that heathen owner of this old helmet, which looks exactly like a barber's basin."

  "Do you know what I imagine, Sancho? This famous piece of the enchanted helmet, by some strange accident, must have fallen into the hands of one who could not recognize or estimate its value, and not knowing what he was doing, and seeing that it was made of purest gold, he must have melted down one half to take advantage of its high price, and from the other half he made this, which resembles a barber's basin, as you say. Be that as it may, I recognize it, and its transmutation does not matter to me, for I shall repair it in the first village that has a blacksmith, and in a manner that will leave far behind the one made and forged by the god of smithies for the god of war;4 in the meantime, I shall do the best I can to wear it, for something is better than nothing, especially since it will serve quite well to protect me from any stones that people may throw at me."