"Well, then, if you are joking I am not," replied Don Quixote. "Lookhere, my lively gentleman, if these, instead of being fulling hammers,had been some perilous adventure, have I not, think you, shown thecourage required for the attempt and achievement? Am I, perchance,being, as I am, a gentleman, bound to know and distinguish soundsand tell whether they come from fulling mills or not; and that, whenperhaps, as is the case, I have never in my life seen any as you have,low boor as you are, that have been born and bred among them? But turnme these six hammers into six giants, and bring them to beard me,one by one or all together, and if I do not knock them head overheels, then make what mockery you like of me."
"No more of that, senor," returned Sancho; "I own I went a littletoo far with the joke. But tell me, your worship, now that peace ismade between us （and may God bring you out of all the adventuresthat may befall you as safe and sound as he has brought you out ofthis one）， was it not a thing to laugh at, and is it not a good story,the great fear we were in?- at least that I was in; for as to yourworship I see now that you neither know nor understand what eitherfear or dismay is."
"I do not deny," said Don Quixote, "that what happened to us maybe worth laughing at, but it is not worth making a story about, for itis not everyone that is shrewd enough to hit the right point of athing."
"At any rate," said Sancho, "your worship knew how to hit theright point with your pike, aiming at my head and hitting me on theshoulders, thanks be to God and my own smartness in dodging it. Butlet that pass; all will come out in the scouring; for I have heard say'he loves thee well that makes thee weep;' and moreover that it is theway with great lords after any hard words they give a servant togive him a pair of breeches; though I do not know what they give afterblows, unless it be that knights-errant after blows give islands, orkingdoms on the mainland."
"It may be on the dice," said Don Quixote, "that all thou sayestwill come true; overlook the past, for thou art shrewd enough toknow that our first movements are not in our own control; and onething for the future bear in mind, that thou curb and restrain thyloquacity in my company; for in all the books of chivalry that Ihave read, and they are innumerable, I never met with a squire whotalked so much to his lord as thou dost to thine; and in fact I feelit to be a great fault of thine and of mine: of thine, that thouhast so little respect for me; of mine, that I do not make myself morerespected. There was Gandalin, the squire of Amadis of Gaul, thatwas Count of the Insula Firme, and we read of him that he alwaysaddressed his lord with his cap in his hand, his head bowed down andhis body bent double, more turquesco. And then, what shall we say ofGasabal, the squire of Galaor, who was so silent that in order toindicate to us the greatness of his marvellous taciturnity his name isonly once mentioned in the whole of that history, as long as it istruthful? From all I have said thou wilt gather, Sancho, that theremust be a difference between master and man, between lord andlackey, between knight and squire: so that from this day forward inour intercourse we must observe more respect and take lessliberties, for in whatever way I may be provoked with you it will bebad for the pitcher. The favours and benefits that I have promised youwill come in due time, and if they do not your wages at least will notbe lost, as I have already told you."
"All that your worship says is very well," said Sancho, "but Ishould like to know （in case the time of favours should not come,and it might be necessary to fall back upon wages） how much did thesquire of a knight-errant get in those days, and did they agree by themonth, or by the day like bricklayers?"
"I do not believe," replied Don Quixote, "that such squires wereever on wages, but were dependent on favour; and if I have nowmentioned thine in the sealed will I have left at home, it was witha view to what may happen; for as yet I know not how chivalry willturn out in these wretched times of ours, and I do not wish my soul tosuffer for trifles in the other world; for I would have thee know,Sancho, that in this there is no condition more hazardous than that ofadventurers."
"That is true," said Sancho, "since the mere noise of the hammers ofa fulling mill can disturb and disquiet the heart of such a valianterrant adventurer as your worship; but you may be sure I will not openmy lips henceforward to make light of anything of your worship's,but only to honour you as my master and natural lord."
"By so doing," replied Don Quixote, "shalt thou live long on theface of the earth; for next to parents, masters are to be respected asthough they were parents."
CHAPTER XXI
WHICH TREATS OF THE EXALTED ADVENTURE AND RICH PRIZE OF MAMBRINO'SHELMET, TOGETHER WITH OTHER THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO OUR INVINCIBLEKNIGHT
IT NOW began to rain a little, and Sancho was for going into thefulling mills, but Don Quixote had taken such an abhorrence to them onaccount of the late joke that he would not enter them on anyaccount; so turning aside to right they came upon another road,different from that which they had taken the night before. Shortlyafterwards Don Quixote perceived a man on horseback who wore on hishead something that shone like gold, and the moment he saw him heturned to Sancho and said:
"I think, Sancho, there is no proverb that is not true, all beingmaxims drawn from experience itself, the mother of all the sciences,especially that one that says, 'Where one door shuts, anotheropens.' I say so because if last night fortune shut the door of theadventure we were looking for against us, cheating us with the fullingmills, it now opens wide another one for another better and morecertain adventure, and if I do not contrive to enter it, it will be myown fault, and I cannot lay it to my ignorance of fulling mills, orthe darkness of the night. I say this because, if I mistake not, therecomes towards us one who wears on his head the helmet of Mambrino,concerning which I took the oath thou rememberest."
"Mind what you say, your worship, and still more what you do,"said Sancho, "for I don't want any more fulling mills to finish offfulling and knocking our senses out."
"The devil take thee, man," said Don Quixote; "what has a helmetto do with fulling mills?"
"I don't know," replied Sancho, "but, faith, if I might speak as Iused, perhaps I could give such reasons that your worship would seeyou were mistaken in what you say."
"How can I be mistaken in what I say, unbelieving traitor?" returnedDon Quixote; "tell me, seest thou not yonder knight coming towardsus on a dappled grey steed, who has upon his head a helmet of gold?"
"What I see and make out," answered Sancho, "is only a man on a greyass like my own, who has something that shines on his head."
"Well, that is the helmet of Mambrino," said Don Quixote; "standto one side and leave me alone with him; thou shalt see how, withoutsaying a word, to save time, I shall bring this adventure to anissue and possess myself of the helmet I have so longed for."
"I will take care to stand aside," said Sancho; "but God grant, Isay once more, that it may be marjoram and not fulling mills."
"I have told thee, brother, on no account to mention those fullingmills to me again," said Don Quixote, "or I vow- and I say no more-I'll full the soul out of you."
Sancho held his peace in dread lest his master should carry outthe vow he had hurled like a bowl at him.
The fact of the matter as regards the helmet, steed, and knight thatDon Quixote saw, was this. In that neighbourhood there were twovillages, one of them so small that it had neither apothecary's shopnor barber, which the other that was close to it had, so the barber ofthe larger served the smaller, and in it there was a sick man whorequired to be bled and another man who wanted to be shaved, and onthis errand the barber was going, carrying with him a brass basin; butas luck would have it, as he was on the way it began to rain, andnot to spoil his hat, which probably was a new one, he put the basinon his head, and being clean it glittered at half a league's distance.He rode upon a grey ass, as Sancho said, and this was what made itseem to Don Quixote to be a dapple-grey steed and a knight and agolden helmet; for everything he saw he made to fall in with his crazychivalry and ill-errant notions; and when he saw the poor knightdraw near, without entering into any parley with him, at Rocinante'stop speed he bore down upon him with the pike pointed low, fullydetermined to run him through and through, and as he reached him,without checking the fury of his charge, he cried to him:
"Defend thyself, miserable being, or yield me of thine own accordthat which is so reasonably my due."
The barber, who without any expectation or apprehension of it sawthis apparition coming down upon him, had no other way of savinghimself from the stroke of the lance but to let himself fall off hisass; and no sooner had he touched the ground than he sprang up morenimbly than a deer and sped away across the plain faster than thewind.
He left the basin on the ground, with which Don Quixote contentedhimself, saying that the pagan had shown his discretion and imitatedthe beaver, which finding itself pressed by the hunters bites and cutsoff with its teeth that for which, by its natural instinct, it knowsit is pursued.