Don Quixote was about to thank him, when they heard behind them anoise as of a troop of horses; there was, however, but one, ridingon which at a furious pace came a youth, apparently about twenty yearsof age, clad in green damask edged with gold and breeches and aloose frock, with a hat looped up in the Walloon fashion,tight-fitting polished boots, gilt spurs, dagger and sword, and in hishand a musketoon, and a pair of pistols at his waist.
Roque turned round at the noise and perceived this comely figure,which drawing near thus addressed him, "I came in quest of thee,valiant Roque, to find in thee if not a remedy at least relief in mymisfortune; and not to keep thee in suspense, for I see thou dostnot recognise me, I will tell thee who I am; I am Claudia Jeronima,the daughter of Simon Forte, thy good friend, and special enemy ofClauquel Torrellas, who is thine also as being of the factionopposed to thee. Thou knowest that this Torrellas has a son who iscalled, or at least was not two hours since, Don Vicente Torrellas.Well, to cut short the tale of my misfortune, I will tell thee in afew words what this youth has brought upon me. He saw me, he paidcourt to me, I listened to him, and, unknown to my father, I lovedhim; for there is no woman, however secluded she may live or close shemay be kept, who will not have opportunities and to spare forfollowing her headlong impulses. In a word, he pledged himself to bemine, and I promised to be his, without carrying matters anyfurther. Yesterday I learned that, forgetful of his pledge to me, hewas about to marry another, and that he was to go this morning toplight his troth, intelligence which overwhelmed and exasperated me;my father not being at home I was able to adopt this costume yousee, and urging my horse to speed I overtook Don Vicente about aleague from this, and without waiting to utter reproaches or hearexcuses I fired this musket at him, and these two pistols besides, andto the best of my belief I must have lodged more than two bullets inhis body, opening doors to let my honour go free, enveloped in hisblood. I left him there in the hands of his servants, who did not dareand were not able to interfere in his defence, and I come to seek fromthee a safe-conduct into France, where I have relatives with whom Ican live; and also to implore thee to protect my father, so that DonVicente's numerous kinsmen may not venture to wreak their lawlessvengeance upon him."
Roque, filled with admiration at the gallant bearing, high spirit,comely figure, and adventure of the fair Claudia, said to her,"Come, senora, let us go and see if thy enemy is dead; and then wewill consider what will be best for thee." Don Quixote, who had beenlistening to what Claudia said and Roque Guinart said in reply to her,exclaimed, "Nobody need trouble himself with the defence of this lady,for I take it upon myself. Give me my horse and arms, and wait forme here; I will go in quest of this knight, and dead or alive I willmake him keep his word plighted to so great beauty."
"Nobody need have any doubt about that," said Sancho, "for my masterhas a very happy knack of matchmaking; it's not many days since heforced another man to marry, who in the same way backed out of hispromise to another maiden; and if it had not been for hispersecutors the enchanters changing the man's proper shape into alacquey's the said maiden would not be one this minute."
Roque, who was paying more attention to the fair Claudia's adventurethan to the words of master or man, did not hear them; and orderinghis squires to restore to Sancho everything they had stripped Dappleof, he directed them to return to the place where they had beenquartered during the night, and then set off with Claudia at fullspeed in search of the wounded or slain Don Vicente. They reachedthe spot where Claudia met him, but found nothing there save freshlyspilt blood; looking all round, however, they descried some peopleon the slope of a hill above them, and concluded, as indeed itproved to be, that it was Don Vicente, whom either dead or alive hisservants were removing to attend to his wounds or to bury him. Theymade haste to overtake them, which, as the party moved slowly, theywere able to do with ease. They found Don Vicente in the arms of hisservants, whom he was entreating in a broken feeble voice to leave himthere to die, as the pain of his wounds would not suffer him to go anyfarther. Claudia and Roque threw themselves off their horses andadvanced towards him; the servants were overawed by the appearanceof Roque, and Claudia was moved by the sight of Don Vicente, and goingup to him half tenderly half sternly, she seized his hand and saidto him, "Hadst thou given me this according to our compact thouhadst never come to this pass."
The wounded gentleman opened his all but closed eyes, andrecognising Claudia said, "I see clearly, fair and mistaken lady, thatit is thou that hast slain me, a punishment not merited or deserved bymy feelings towards thee, for never did I mean to, nor could I,wrong thee in thought or deed."
"It is not true, then," said Claudia, "that thou wert going thismorning to marry Leonora the daughter of the rich Balvastro?"
"Assuredly not," replied Don Vicente; "my cruel fortune must havecarried those tidings to thee to drive thee in thy jealousy to take mylife; and to assure thyself of this, press my hands and take me forthy husband if thou wilt; I have no better satisfaction to offerthee for the wrong thou fanciest thou hast received from me."
Claudia wrung his hands, and her own heart was so wrung that she layfainting on the bleeding breast of Don Vicente, whom a death spasmseized the same instant. Roque was in perplexity and knew not whatto do; the servants ran to fetch water to sprinkle their faces, andbrought some and bathed them with it. Claudia recovered from herfainting fit, but not so Don Vicente from the paroxysm that hadovertaken him, for his life had come to an end. On perceiving this,Claudia, when she had convinced herself that her beloved husband wasno more, rent the air with her sighs and made the heavens ring withher lamentations; she tore her hair and scattered it to the winds, shebeat her face with her hands and showed all the signs of grief andsorrow that could be conceived to come from an afflicted heart."Cruel, reckless woman!" she cried, "how easily wert thou moved tocarry out a thought so wicked! O furious force of jealousy, to whatdesperate lengths dost thou lead those that give thee lodging in theirbosoms! O husband, whose unhappy fate in being mine hath borne theefrom the marriage bed to the grave!"
So vehement and so piteous were the lamentations of Claudia thatthey drew tears from Roque's eyes, unused as they were to shed them onany occasion. The servants wept, Claudia swooned away again and again,and the whole place seemed a field of sorrow and an abode ofmisfortune. In the end Roque Guinart directed Don Vicente's servantsto carry his body to his father's village, which was close by, forburial. Claudia told him she meant to go to a monastery of which anaunt of hers was abbess, where she intended to pass her life with abetter and everlasting spouse. He applauded her pious resolution,and offered to accompany her whithersoever she wished, and toprotect her father against the kinsmen of Don Vicente and all theworld, should they seek to injure him. Claudia would not on anyaccount allow him to accompany her; and thanking him for his offers aswell as she could, took leave of him in tears. The servants of DonVicente carried away his body, and Roque returned to his comrades, andso ended the love of Claudia Jeronima; but what wonder, when it wasthe insuperable and cruel might of jealousy that wove the web of hersad story?
Roque Guinart found his squires at the place to which he had orderedthem, and Don Quixote on Rocinante in the midst of them delivering aharangue to them in which he urged them to give up a mode of life sofull of peril, as well to the soul as to the body; but as most of themwere Gascons, rough lawless fellows, his speech did not make muchimpression on them. Roque on coming up asked Sancho if his men hadreturned and restored to him the treasures and jewels they hadstripped off Dapple. Sancho said they had, but that three kerchiefsthat were worth three cities were missing.
"What are you talking about, man?" said one of the bystanders; "Ihave got them, and they are not worth three reals."
"That is true," said Don Quixote; "but my squire values them atthe rate he says, as having been given me by the person who gavethem."
Roque Guinart ordered them to be restored at once; and making hismen fall in in line he directed all the clothing, jewellery, and moneythat they had taken since the last distribution to be produced; andmaking a hasty valuation, and reducing what could not be dividedinto money, he made shares for the whole band so equitably andcarefully, that in no case did he exceed or fall short of strictdistributive justice.
When this had been done, and all left satisfied, Roque observed toDon Quixote, "If this scrupulous exactness were not observed withthese fellows there would be no living with them."
Upon this Sancho remarked, "From what I have seen here, justice issuch a good thing that there is no doing without it, even among thethieves themselves."
One of the squires heard this, and raising the butt-end of hisharquebuss would no doubt have broken Sancho's head with it had notRoque Guinart called out to him to hold his hand. Sancho wasfrightened out of his wits, and vowed not to open his lips so longas he was in the company of these people.