And so saying he gave Rocinante the spur, and Sancho followed him onfoot and loaded, and after having partly made the circuit of themountain they found lying in a ravine, dead and half devoured bydogs and pecked by jackdaws, a mule saddled and bridled, all whichstill further strengthened their suspicion that he who had fled wasthe owner of the mule and the saddle-pad.
As they stood looking at it they heard a whistle like that of ashepherd watching his flock, and suddenly on their left there appeareda great number of goats and behind them on the summit of themountain the goatherd in charge of them, a man advanced in years.Don Quixote called aloud to him and begged him to come down to wherethey stood. He shouted in return, asking what had brought them to thatspot, seldom or never trodden except by the feet of goats, or of thewolves and other wild beasts that roamed around. Sancho in return badehim come down, and they would explain all to him.
The goatherd descended, and reaching the place where Don Quixotestood, he said, "I will wager you are looking at that hack mule thatlies dead in the hollow there, and, faith, it has been lying there nowthese six months; tell me, have you come upon its master about here?"
"We have come upon nobody," answered Don Quixote, "nor on anythingexcept a saddle-pad and a little valise that we found not far fromthis."
"I found it too," said the goatherd, "but I would not lift it nor gonear it for fear of some ill-luck or being charged with theft, for thedevil is crafty, and things rise up under one's feet to make onefall without knowing why or wherefore."
"That's exactly what I say," said Sancho; "I found it too, and Iwould not go within a stone's throw of it; there I left it, andthere it lies just as it was, for I don't want a dog with a bell."
"Tell me, good man," said Don Quixote, "do you know who is the ownerof this property?"
"All I can tell you," said the goatherd, "is that about six monthsago, more or less, there arrived at a shepherd's hut three leagues,perhaps, away from this, a youth of well-bred appearance andmanners, mounted on that same mule which lies dead here, and withthe same saddle-pad and valise which you say you found and did nottouch. He asked us what part of this sierra was the most rugged andretired; we told him that it was where we now are; and so in truthit is, for if you push on half a league farther, perhaps you willnot be able to find your way out; and I am wondering how you havemanaged to come here, for there is no road or path that leads tothis spot. I say, then, that on hearing our answer the youth turnedabout and made for the place we pointed out to him, leaving us allcharmed with his good looks, and wondering at his question and thehaste with which we saw him depart in the direction of the sierra; andafter that we saw him no more, until some days afterwards he crossedthe path of one of our shepherds, and without saying a word to him,came up to him and gave him several cuffs and kicks, and then turnedto the ass with our provisions and took all the bread and cheese itcarried, and having done this made off back again into the sierra withextraordinary swiftness. When some of us goatherds learned this wewent in search of him for about two days through the most remoteportion of this sierra, at the end of which we found him lodged in thehollow of a large thick cork tree. He came out to meet us with greatgentleness, with his dress now torn and his face so disfigured andburned by the sun, that we hardly recognised him but that his clothes,though torn, convinced us, from the recollection we had of them,that he was the person we were looking for. He saluted us courteously,and in a few well-spoken words he told us not to wonder at seeinghim going about in this guise, as it was binding upon him in orderthat he might work out a penance which for his many sins had beenimposed upon him. We asked him to tell us who he was, but we werenever able to find out from him: we begged of him too, when he wasin want of food, which he could not do without, to tell us where weshould find him, as we would bring it to him with all good-will andreadiness; or if this were not to his taste, at least to come andask it of us and not take it by force from the shepherds. He thankedus for the offer, begged pardon for the late assault, and promised forthe future to ask it in God's name without offering violence toanybody. As for fixed abode, he said he had no other than that whichchance offered wherever night might overtake him; and his wordsended in an outburst of weeping so bitter that we who listened tohim must have been very stones had we not joined him in it,comparing what we saw of him the first time with what we saw now; for,as I said, he was a graceful and gracious youth, and in hiscourteous and polished language showed himself to be of good birth andcourtly breeding, and rustics as we were that listened to him, even toour rusticity his gentle bearing sufficed to make it plain.
"But in the midst of his conversation he stopped and becamesilent, keeping his eyes fixed upon the ground for some time, duringwhich we stood still waiting anxiously to see what would come ofthis abstraction; and with no little pity, for from his behaviour, nowstaring at the ground with fixed gaze and eyes wide open withoutmoving an eyelid, again closing them, compressing his lips and raisinghis eyebrows, we could perceive plainly that a fit of madness ofsome kind had come upon him; and before long he showed that what weimagined was the truth, for he arose in a fury from the ground wherehe had thrown himself, and attacked the first he found near him withsuch rage and fierceness that if we had not dragged him off him, hewould have beaten or bitten him to death, all the while exclaiming,'Oh faithless Fernando, here, here shalt thou pay the penalty of thewrong thou hast done me; these hands shall tear out that heart ofthine, abode and dwelling of all iniquity, but of deceit and fraudabove all; and to these he added other words all in effectupbraiding this Fernando and charging him with treachery andfaithlessness.
"We forced him to release his hold with no little difficulty, andwithout another word he left us, and rushing off plunged in amongthese brakes and brambles, so as to make it impossible for us tofollow him; from this we suppose that madness comes upon him from timeto time, and that some one called Fernando must have done him awrong of a grievous nature such as the condition to which it hadbrought him seemed to show. All this has been since then confirmedon those occasions, and they have been many, on which he has crossedour path, at one time to beg the shepherds to give him some of thefood they carry, at another to take it from them by force; for whenthere is a fit of madness upon him, even though the shepherds offer itfreely, he will not accept it but snatches it from them by dint ofblows; but when he is in his senses he begs it for the love of God,courteously and civilly, and receives it with many thanks and not afew tears. And to tell you the truth, sirs," continued the goatherd,"it was yesterday that we resolved, I and four of the lads, two ofthem our servants, and the other two friends of mine, to go insearch of him until we find him, and when we do to take him, whetherby force or of his own consent, to the town of Almodovar, which iseight leagues from this, and there strive to cure him （if indeed hismalady admits of a cure）， or learn when he is in his senses who he is,and if he has relatives to whom we may give notice of hismisfortune. This, sirs, is all I can say in answer to what you haveasked me; and be sure that the owner of the articles you found is hewhom you saw pass by with such nimbleness and so naked."
For Don Quixote had already described how he had seen the man gobounding along the mountain side, and he was now filled with amazementat what he heard from the goatherd, and more eager than ever todiscover who the unhappy madman was; and in his heart he resolved,as he had done before, to search for him all over the mountain, notleaving a corner or cave unexamined until he had found him. But chancearranged matters better than he expected or hoped, for at that verymoment, in a gorge on the mountain that opened where they stood, theyouth he wished to find made his appearance, coming along talking tohimself in a way that would have been unintelligible near at hand,much more at a distance. His garb was what has been described, savethat as he drew near, Don Quixote perceived that a tattered doubletwhich he wore was amber-tanned, from which he concluded that one whowore such garments could not be of very low rank.
Approaching them, the youth greeted them in a harsh and hoarse voicebut with great courtesy. Don Quixote returned his salutation withequal politeness, and dismounting from Rocinante advanced withwell-bred bearing and grace to embrace him, and held him for some timeclose in his arms as if he had known him for a long time. The other,whom we may call the Ragged One of the Sorry Countenance, as DonQuixote was of the Rueful, after submitting to the embrace pushedhim back a little and, placing his hands on Don Quixote's shoulders,stood gazing at him as if seeking to see whether he knew him, not lessamazed, perhaps, at the sight of the face, figure, and armour of DonQuixote than Don Quixote was at the sight of him. To be brief, thefirst to speak after embracing was the Ragged One, and he said whatwill be told farther on.
CHAPTER XXIV
IN WHICH IS CONTINUED THE ADVENTURE OF THE SIERRA MORENA
THE history relates that it was with the greatest attention DonQuixote listened to the ragged knight of the Sierra, who began bysaying: