"I have not noticed," said the page; "but no doubt he wears them."
"Ah! my God!" said Sanchica, "what a sight it must be to see myfather in tights! Isn't it odd that ever since I was born I have had alonging to see my father in trunk-hose?"
"As things go you will see that if you live," said the page; "by Godhe is in the way to take the road with a sunshade if the governmentonly lasts him two months more."
The curate and the bachelor could see plainly enough that the pagespoke in a waggish vein; but the fineness of the coral beads, andthe hunting suit that Sancho sent （for Teresa had already shown itto them） did away with the impression; and they could not helplaughing at Sanchica's wish, and still more when Teresa said, "Senorcurate, look about if there's anybody here going to Madrid orToledo, to buy me a hooped petticoat, a proper fashionable one ofthe best quality; for indeed and indeed I must do honour to myhusband's government as well as I can; nay, if I am put to it and haveto, I'll go to Court and set a coach like all the world; for she whohas a governor for her husband may very well have one and keep one."
"And why not, mother!" said Sanchica; "would to God it were to-dayinstead of to-morrow, even though they were to say when they saw meseated in the coach with my mother, 'See that rubbish, thatgarlic-stuffed fellow's daughter, how she goes stretched at her easein a coach as if she was a she-pope!' But let them tramp through themud, and let me go in my coach with my feet off the ground. Bad luckto backbiters all over the world; 'let me go warm and the people maylaugh.' Do I say right, mother?"
"To be sure you do, my child," said Teresa; "and all this good luck,and even more, my good Sancho foretold me; and thou wilt see, mydaughter, he won't stop till he has made me a countess; for to makea beginning is everything in luck; and as I have heard thy good fathersay many a time （for besides being thy father he's the father ofproverbs too）， 'When they offer thee a heifer, run with a halter; whenthey offer thee a government, take it; when they would give thee acounty, seize it; when they say, "Here, here!" to thee withsomething good, swallow it.' Oh no! go to sleep, and don't answerthe strokes of good fortune and the lucky chances that are knocking atthe door of your house!"
"And what do I care," added Sanchica, "whether anybody says whenhe sees me holding my head up, 'The dog saw himself in hempenbreeches,' and the rest of it?"
Hearing this the curate said, "I do believe that all this familyof the Panzas are born with a sackful of proverbs in their insides,every one of them; I never saw one of them that does not pour them outat all times and on all occasions."
"That is true," said the page, "for Senor Governor Sancho uttersthem at every turn; and though a great many of them are not to thepurpose, still they amuse one, and my lady the duchess and the dukepraise them highly."
"Then you still maintain that all this about Sancho's governmentis true, senor," said the bachelor, "and that there actually is aduchess who sends him presents and writes to him? Because we, althoughwe have handled the present and read the letters, don't believe it andsuspect it to be something in the line of our fellow-townsman DonQuixote, who fancies that everything is done by enchantment; and forthis reason I am almost ready to say that I'd like to touch and feelyour worship to see whether you are a mere ambassador of theimagination or a man of flesh and blood."
"All I know, sirs," replied the page, "is that I am a realambassador, and that Senor Sancho Panza is governor as a matter offact, and that my lord and lady the duke and duchess can give, andhave given him this same government, and that I have heard the saidSancho Panza bears himself very stoutly therein; whether there beany enchantment in all this or not, it is for your worships to settlebetween you; for that's all I know by the oath I swear, and that is bythe life of my parents whom I have still alive, and love dearly."
"It may be so," said the bachelor; "but dubitat Augustinus."
"Doubt who will," said the page; "what I have told you is the truth,and that will always rise above falsehood as oil above water; if notoperibus credite, et non verbis. Let one of you come with me, and hewill see with his eyes what he does not believe with his ears."
"It's for me to make that trip," said Sanchica; "take me with you,senor, behind you on your horse; for I'll go with all my heart tosee my father."
"Governors' daughters," said the page, "must not travel along theroads alone, but accompanied by coaches and litters and a great numberof attendants."
"By God," said Sanchica, "I can go just as well mounted on a she-assas in a coach; what a dainty lass you must take me for!"
"Hush, girl," said Teresa; "you don't know what you're talkingabout; the gentleman is quite right, for 'as the time so thebehaviour;' when it was Sancho it was 'Sancha;' when it is governorit's 'senora;' I don't know if I'm right."
"Senora Teresa says more than she is aware of," said the page;"and now give me something to eat and let me go at once, for I mean toreturn this evening."
"Come and do penance with me," said the curate at this; "forSenora Teresa has more will than means to serve so worthy a guest."
The page refused, but had to consent at last for his own sake; andthe curate took him home with him very gladly, in order to have anopportunity of questioning him at leisure about Don Quixote and hisdoings. The bachelor offered to write the letters in reply for Teresa;but she did not care to let him mix himself up in her affairs, for shethought him somewhat given to joking; and so she gave a cake and acouple of eggs to a young acolyte who was a penman, and he wrote forher two letters, one for her husband and the other for the duchess,dictated out of her own head, which are not the worst inserted in thisgreat history, as will be seen farther on.
CHAPTER LI
OF THE PROGRESS OF SANCHO'S GOVERNMENT, AND OTHER SUCHENTERTAINING MATTERS
DAY came after the night of the governor's round; a night whichthe head-carver passed without sleeping, so were his thoughts of theface and air and beauty of the disguised damsel, while the majordomospent what was left of it in writing an account to his lord and ladyof all Sancho said and did, being as much amazed at his sayings asat his doings, for there was a mixture of shrewdness and simplicity inall his words and deeds. The senor governor got up, and by DoctorPedro Recio's directions they made him break his fast on a littleconserve and four sups of cold water, which Sancho would havereadily exchanged for a piece of bread and a bunch of grapes; butseeing there was no help for it, he submitted with no little sorrow ofheart and discomfort of stomach; Pedro Recio having persuaded him thatlight and delicate diet enlivened the wits, and that was what was mostessential for persons placed in command and in responsible situations,where they have to employ not only the bodily powers but those ofthe mind also.
By means of this sophistry Sancho was made to endure hunger, andhunger so keen that in his heart he cursed the government, and evenhim who had given it to him; however, with his hunger and his conservehe undertook to deliver judgments that day, and the first thing thatcame before him was a question that was submitted to him by astranger, in the presence of the majordomo and the other attendants,and it was in these words: "Senor, a large river separated twodistricts of one and the same lordship- will your worship please topay attention, for the case is an important and a rather knotty one?Well then, on this river there was a bridge, and at one end of it agallows, and a sort of tribunal, where four judges commonly sat toadminister the law which the lord of river, bridge and the lordshiphad enacted, and which was to this effect, 'If anyone crosses bythis bridge from one side to the other he shall declare on oathwhere he is going to and with what object; and if he swears truly,he shall be allowed to pass, but if falsely, he shall be put todeath for it by hanging on the gallows erected there, without anyremission.' Though the law and its severe penalty were known, manypersons crossed, but in their declarations it was easy to see atonce they were telling the truth, and the judges let them pass free.It happened, however, that one man, when they came to take hisdeclaration, swore and said that by the oath he took he was going todie upon that gallows that stood there, and nothing else. The judgesheld a consultation over the oath, and they said, 'If we let thisman pass free he has sworn falsely, and by the law he ought to die;but if we hang him, as he swore he was going to die on that gallows,and therefore swore the truth, by the same law he ought to go free.'It is asked of your worship, senor governor, what are the judges to dowith this man? For they are still in doubt and perplexity; andhaving heard of your worship's acute and exalted intellect, theyhave sent me to entreat your worship on their behalf to give youropinion on this very intricate and puzzling case."
To this Sancho made answer, "Indeed those gentlemen the judgesthat send you to me might have spared themselves the trouble, for Ihave more of the obtuse than the acute in me; but repeat the case overagain, so that I may understand it, and then perhaps I may be ableto hit the point."