By this time the canon's servants, who had gone to the inn tofetch the sumpter mule, had returned, and making a carpet and thegreen grass of the meadow serve as a table, they seated themselvesin the shade of some trees and made their repast there, that thecarter might not be deprived of the advantage of the spot, as has beenalready said. As they were eating they suddenly heard a loud noise andthe sound of a bell that seemed to come from among some brambles andthick bushes that were close by, and the same instant they observeda beautiful goat, spotted all over black, white, and brown, spring outof the thicket with a goatherd after it, calling to it and utteringthe usual cries to make it stop or turn back to the fold. The fugitivegoat, scared and frightened, ran towards the company as if seekingtheir protection and then stood still, and the goatherd coming upseized it by the horns and began to talk to it as if it were possessedof reason and understanding: "Ah wanderer, wanderer, Spotty, Spotty;how have you gone limping all this time? What wolves have frightenedyou, my daughter? Won't you tell me what is the matter, my beauty? Butwhat else can it be except that you are a she, and cannot keepquiet? A plague on your humours and the humours of those you takeafter! Come back, come back, my darling; and if you will not be sohappy, at any rate you will be safe in the fold or with yourcompanions; for if you who ought to keep and lead them, go wanderingastray, what will become of them?"
The goatherd's talk amused all who heard it, but especially thecanon, who said to him, "As you live, brother, take it easy, and benot in such a hurry to drive this goat back to the fold; for, beinga female, as you say, she will follow her natural instinct in spite ofall you can do to prevent it. Take this morsel and drink a sup, andthat will soothe your irritation, and in the meantime the goat willrest herself," and so saying, he handed him the loins of a cold rabbiton a fork.
The goatherd took it with thanks, and drank and calmed himself,and then said, "I should be sorry if your worships were to take me fora simpleton for having spoken so seriously as I did to this animal;but the truth is there is a certain mystery in the words I used. Iam a clown, but not so much of one but that I know how to behave tomen and to beasts."
"That I can well believe," said the curate, "for I know already byexperience that the woods breed men of learning, and shepherds'harbour philosophers."
"At all events, senor," returned the goatherd, "they shelter menof experience; and that you may see the truth of this and grasp it,though I may seem to put myself forward without being asked, I will,if it will not tire you, gentlemen, and you will give me yourattention for a little, tell you a true story which will confirmthis gentleman's word （and he pointed to the curate） as well as myown."
To this Don Quixote replied, "Seeing that this affair has acertain colour of chivalry about it, I for my part, brother, will hearyou most gladly, and so will all these gentlemen, from the highintelligence they possess and their love of curious novelties thatinterest, charm, and entertain the mind, as I feel quite sure yourstory will do. So begin, friend, for we are all prepared to listen."
"I draw my stakes," said Sancho, "and will retreat with this pastyto the brook there, where I mean to victual myself for three days; forI have heard my lord, Don Quixote, say that a knight-errant's squireshould eat until he can hold no more, whenever he has the chance,because it often happens them to get by accident into a wood sothick that they cannot find a way out of it for six days; and if theman is not well filled or his alforjas well stored, there he may stay,as very often he does, turned into a dried mummy."
"Thou art in the right of it, Sancho," said Don Quixote; "go wherethou wilt and eat all thou canst, for I have had enough, and only wantto give my mind its refreshment, as I shall by listening to thisgood fellow's story."
"It is what we shall all do," said the canon; and then begged thegoatherd to begin the promised tale.
The goatherd gave the goat which he held by the horns a couple ofslaps on the back, saying, "Lie down here beside me, Spotty, for wehave time enough to return to our fold." The goat seemed to understandhim, for as her master seated himself, she stretched herself quietlybeside him and looked up in his face to show him she was all attentionto what he was going to say, and then in these words he began hisstory.
CHAPTER LI
WHICH DEALS WITH WHAT THE GOATHERD TOLD THOSE WHO WERE CARRYINGOFF DON QUIXOTE
THREE leagues from this valley there is a village which, thoughsmall, is one of the richest in all this neighbourhood, and in itthere lived a farmer, a very worthy man, and so much respected that,although to be so is the natural consequence of being rich, he waseven more respected for his virtue than for the wealth he hadacquired. But what made him still more fortunate, as he saidhimself, was having a daughter of such exceeding beauty, rareintelligence, gracefulness, and virtue, that everyone who knew her andbeheld her marvelled at the extraordinary gifts with which heavenand nature had endowed her. As a child she was beautiful, shecontinued to grow in beauty, and at the age of sixteen she was mostlovely. The fame of her beauty began to spread abroad through allthe villages around- but why do I say the villages around, merely,when it spread to distant cities, and even made its way into the hallsof royalty and reached the ears of people of every class, who camefrom all sides to see her as if to see something rare and curious,or some wonder-working image?
Her father watched over her and she watched over herself; forthere are no locks, or guards, or bolts that can protect a younggirl better than her own modesty. The wealth of the father and thebeauty of the daughter led many neighbours as well as strangers toseek her for a wife; but he, as one might well be who had the disposalof so rich a jewel, was perplexed and unable to make up his mind towhich of her countless suitors he should entrust her. I was oneamong the many who felt a desire so natural, and, as her father knewwho I was, and I was of the same town, of pure blood, in the bloomof life, and very rich in possessions, I had great hopes of success.There was another of the same place and qualifications who also soughther, and this made her father's choice hang in the balance, for hefelt that on either of us his daughter would be well bestowed; so toescape from this state of perplexity he resolved to refer the matterto Leandra （for that is the name of the rich damsel who has reduced meto misery）， reflecting that as we were both equal it would be bestto leave it to his dear daughter to choose according to herinclination- a course that is worthy of imitation by all fathers whowish to settle their children in life. I do not mean that they oughtto leave them to make a choice of what is contemptible and bad, butthat they should place before them what is good and then allow them tomake a good choice as they please. I do not know which Leandrachose; I only know her father put us both off with the tender age ofhis daughter and vague words that neither bound him nor dismissedus. My rival is called Anselmo and I myself Eugenio- that you may knowthe names of the personages that figure in this tragedy, the end ofwhich is still in suspense, though it is plain to see it must bedisastrous.
About this time there arrived in our town one Vicente de la Roca,the son of a poor peasant of the same town, the said Vicente havingreturned from service as a soldier in Italy and divers other parts.A captain who chanced to pass that way with his company had carriedhim off from our village when he was a boy of about twelve years,and now twelve years later the young man came back in a soldier'suniform, arrayed in a thousand colours, and all over glass trinketsand fine steel chains. To-day he would appear in one gay dress,to-morrow in another; but all flimsy and gaudy, of little substanceand less worth. The peasant folk, who are naturally malicious, andwhen they have nothing to do can be malice itself, remarked allthis, and took note of his finery and jewellery, piece by piece, anddiscovered that he had three suits of different colours, withgarters and stockings to match; but he made so many arrangements andcombinations out of them, that if they had not counted them, anyonewould have sworn that he had made a display of more than ten suitsof clothes and twenty plumes. Do not look upon all this that I amtelling you about the clothes as uncalled for or spun out, for theyhave a great deal to do with the story. He used to seat himself on abench under the great poplar in our plaza, and there he would keepus all hanging open-mouthed on the stories he told us of his exploits.There was no country on the face of the globe he had not seen, norbattle he had not been engaged in; he had killed more Moors than thereare in Morocco and Tunis, and fought more single combats, according tohis own account, than Garcilaso, Diego Garcia de Paredes and athousand others he named, and out of all he had come victoriouswithout losing a drop of blood. On the other hand he showed marks ofwounds, which, though they could not be made out, he said were gunshotwounds received in divers encounters and actions. Lastly, withmonstrous impudence he used to say "you" to his equals and eventhose who knew what he was, and declare that his arm was his fatherand his deeds his pedigree, and that being a soldier he was as good asthe king himself. And to add to these swaggering ways he was atrifle of a musician, and played the guitar with such a flourishthat some said he made it speak; nor did his accomplishments end here,for he was something of a poet too, and on every trifle thathappened in the town he made a ballad a league long.