It is by rugged paths like these they go
That scale the heights of immortality,
Unreached by those that falter here below."
"Woe is me!" exclaimed the niece, "my lord is a poet, too! Heknows everything, and he can do everything; I will bet, if he chose toturn mason, he could make a house as easily as a cage."
"I can tell you, niece," replied Don Quixote, "if these chivalrousthoughts did not engage all my faculties, there would be nothingthat I could not do, nor any sort of knickknack that would not comefrom my hands, particularly cages and tooth-picks."
At this moment there came a knocking at the door, and when theyasked who was there, Sancho Panza made answer that it was he. Theinstant the housekeeper knew who it was, she ran to hide herself so asnot to see him; in such abhorrence did she hold him. The niece let himin, and his master Don Quixote came forward to receive him with openarms, and the pair shut themselves up in his room, where they hadanother conversation not inferior to the previous one.CHAPTER VII
OF WHAT PASSED BETWEEN DON QUIXOTE AND HIS SQUIRE, TOGETHER WITHOTHER VERY NOTABLE INCIDENTS
THE instant the housekeeper saw Sancho Panza shut himself in withher master, she guessed what they were about; and suspecting thatthe result of the consultation would be a resolve to undertake a thirdsally, she seized her mantle, and in deep anxiety and distress, ran tofind the bachelor Samson Carrasco, as she thought that, being awell-spoken man, and a new friend of her master's, he might be able topersuade him to give up any such crazy notion. She found him pacingthe patio of his house, and, perspiring and flurried, she fell athis feet the moment she saw him.
Carrasco, seeing how distressed and overcome she was, said to her,"What is this, mistress housekeeper? What has happened to you? Onewould think you heart-broken."
"Nothing, Senor Samson," said she, "only that my master isbreaking out, plainly breaking out."
"Whereabouts is he breaking out, senora?" asked Samson; "has anypart of his body burst?"
"He is only breaking out at the door of his madness," she replied;"I mean, dear senor bachelor, that he is going to break out again （andthis will be the third time） to hunt all over the world for what hecalls ventures, though I can't make out why he gives them that name.The first time he was brought back to us slung across the back of anass, and belaboured all over; and the second time he came in anox-cart, shut up in a cage, in which he persuaded himself he wasenchanted, and the poor creature was in such a state that the motherthat bore him would not have known him; lean, yellow, with his eyessunk deep in the cells of his skull; so that to bring him round again,ever so little, cost me more than six hundred eggs, as God knows,and all the world, and my hens too, that won't let me tell a lie."
"That I can well believe," replied the bachelor, "for they are sogood and so fat, and so well-bred, that they would not say one thingfor another, though they were to burst for it. In short then, mistresshousekeeper, that is all, and there is nothing the matter, except whatit is feared Don Quixote may do?"
"No, senor," said she.
"Well then," returned the bachelor, "don't be uneasy, but go home inpeace; get me ready something hot for breakfast, and while you areon the way say the prayer of Santa Apollonia, that is if you knowit; for I will come presently and you will see miracles."
"Woe is me," cried the housekeeper, "is it the prayer of SantaApollonia you would have me say? That would do if it was the toothachemy master had; but it is in the brains, what he has got."
"I know what I am saying, mistress housekeeper; go, and don't setyourself to argue with me, for you know I am a bachelor ofSalamanca, and one can't be more of a bachelor than that," repliedCarrasco; and with this the housekeeper retired, and the bachelor wentto look for the curate, and arrange with him what will be told inits proper place.
While Don Quixote and Sancho were shut up together, they had adiscussion which the history records with great precision andscrupulous exactness. Sancho said to his master, "Senor, I have educedmy wife to let me go with your worship wherever you choose to takeme."
"Induced, you should say, Sancho," said Don Quixote; "not educed."
"Once or twice, as well as I remember," replied Sancho, "I havebegged of your worship not to mend my words, if so be as youunderstand what I mean by them; and if you don't understand them tosay 'Sancho,' or 'devil,' 'I don't understand thee; and if I don'tmake my meaning plain, then you may correct me, for I am so focile-"
"I don't understand thee, Sancho," said Don Quixote at once; "forI know not what 'I am so focile' means."
"'So focile' means I am so much that way," replied Sancho.
"I understand thee still less now," said Don Quixote.
"Well, if you can't understand me," said Sancho, "I don't know howto put it; I know no more, God help me."
"Oh, now I have hit it," said Don Quixote; "thou wouldst say thouart so docile, tractable, and gentle that thou wilt take what I say tothee, and submit to what I teach thee."
"I would bet," said Sancho, "that from the very first you understoodme, and knew what I meant, but you wanted to put me out that you mighthear me make another couple of dozen blunders."
"May be so," replied Don Quixote; "but to come to the point, whatdoes Teresa say?"
"Teresa says," replied Sancho, "that I should make sure with yourworship, and 'let papers speak and beards be still,' for 'he who bindsdoes not wrangle,' since one 'take' is better than two 'I'll givethee's;' and I say a woman's advice is no great thing, and he whowon't take it is a fool."
"And so say I," said Don Quixote; "continue, Sancho my friend; goon; you talk pearls to-day."
"The fact is," continued Sancho, "that, as your worship knows betterthan I do, we are all of us liable to death, and to-day we are, andto-morrow we are not, and the lamb goes as soon as the sheep, andnobody can promise himself more hours of life in this world than Godmay be pleased to give him; for death is deaf, and when it comes toknock at our life's door, it is always urgent, and neither prayers,nor struggles, nor sceptres, nor mitres, can keep it back, as commontalk and report say, and as they tell us from the pulpits every day."
"All that is very true," said Don Quixote; "but I cannot make outwhat thou art driving at."
"What I am driving at," said Sancho, "is that your worship settlesome fixed wages for me, to be paid monthly while I am in yourservice, and that the same he paid me out of your estate; for Idon't care to stand on rewards which either come late, or ill, ornever at all; God help me with my own. In short, I would like toknow what I am to get, be it much or little; for the hen will lay onone egg, and many littles make a much, and so long as one gainssomething there is nothing lost. To he sure, if it should happen （whatI neither believe nor expect） that your worship were to give me thatisland you have promised me, I am not so ungrateful nor so graspingbut that I would be willing to have the revenue of such islandvalued and stopped out of my wages in due promotion."
"Sancho, my friend," replied Don Quixote, "sometimes proportionmay be as good as promotion."
"I see," said Sancho; "I'll bet I ought to have said proportion, andnot promotion; but it is no matter, as your worship has understoodme."
"And so well understood," returned Don Quixote, "that I have seeninto the depths of thy thoughts, and know the mark thou art shootingat with the countless shafts of thy proverbs. Look here, Sancho, Iwould readily fix thy wages if I had ever found any instance in thehistories of the knights-errant to show or indicate, by theslightest hint, what their squires used to get monthly or yearly;but I have read all or the best part of their histories, and Icannot remember reading of any knight-errant having assigned fixedwages to his squire; I only know that they all served on reward, andthat when they least expected it, if good luck attended their masters,they found themselves recompensed with an island or somethingequivalent to it, or at the least they were left with a title andlordship. If with these hopes and additional inducements you,Sancho, please to return to my service, well and good; but tosuppose that I am going to disturb or unhinge the ancient usage ofknight-errantry, is all nonsense. And so, my Sancho, get you back toyour house and explain my intentions to your Teresa, and if shelikes and you like to be on reward with me, bene quidem; if not, weremain friends; for if the pigeon-house does not lack food, it willnot lack pigeons; and bear in mind, my son, that a good hope is betterthan a bad holding, and a good grievance better than a badcompensation. I speak in this way, Sancho, to show you that I canshower down proverbs just as well as yourself; and in short, I mean tosay, and I do say, that if you don't like to come on reward with me,and run the same chance that I run, God be with you and make a saintof you; for I shall find plenty of squires more obedient andpainstaking, and not so thickheaded or talkative as you are."