"As to whether you turn your back or not, I do not concernmyself," replied the master of fence; "though it might be that yourgrave would be dug on the spot where you planted your foot the firsttime; I mean that you would be stretched dead there for despisingskill with the sword."
"We shall soon see," replied Corchuelo, and getting off his assbriskly, he drew out furiously one of the swords the licentiatecarried on his beast.
"It must not be that way," said Don Quixote at this point; "I willbe the director of this fencing match, and judge of this oftendisputed question;" and dismounting from Rocinante and grasping hislance, he planted himself in the middle of the road, just as thelicentiate, with an easy, graceful bearing and step, advancedtowards Corchuelo, who came on against him, darting fire from hiseyes, as the saying is. The other two of the company, the peasants,without dismounting from their asses, served as spectators of themortal tragedy. The cuts, thrusts, down strokes, back strokes anddoubles, that Corchuelo delivered were past counting, and came thickerthan hops or hail. He attacked like an angry lion, but he was met by atap on the mouth from the button of the licentiate's sword thatchecked him in the midst of his furious onset, and made him kiss it asif it were a relic, though not as devoutly as relics are and oughtto he kissed. The end of it was that the licentiate reckoned up forhim by thrusts every one of the buttons of the short cassock hewore, tore the skirts into strips, like the tails of a cuttlefish,knocked off his hat twice, and so completely tired him out, that invexation, anger, and rage, he took the sword by the hilt and flungit away with such force, that one of the peasants that were there, whowas a notary, and who went for it, made an affidavit afterwards thathe sent it nearly three-quarters of a league, which testimony willserve, and has served, to show and establish with all certainty thatstrength is overcome by skill.
Corchuelo sat down wearied, and Sancho approaching him said, "Bymy faith, senor bachelor, if your worship takes my advice, you willnever challenge anyone to fence again, only to wrestle and throw thebar, for you have the youth and strength for that; but as for thesefencers as they call them, I have heard say they can put the pointof a sword through the eye of a needle."
"I am satisfied with having tumbled off my donkey," saidCorchuelo, "and with having had the truth I was so ignorant ofproved to me by experience;" and getting up he embraced thelicentiate, and they were better friends than ever; and not caringto wait for the notary who had gone for the sword, as they saw hewould be a long time about it, they resolved to push on so as to reachthe village of Quiteria, to which they all belonged, in good time.
During the remainder of the journey the licentiate held forth tothem on the excellences of the sword, with such conclusivearguments, and such figures and mathematical proofs, that all wereconvinced of the value of the science, and Corchuelo cured of hisdogmatism.
It grew dark; but before they reached the town it seemed to them allas if there was a heaven full of countless glittering stars in frontof it. They heard, too, the pleasant mingled notes of a variety ofinstruments, flutes, drums, psalteries, pipes, tabors, and timbrels,and as they drew near they perceived that the trees of a leafyarcade that had been constructed at the entrance of the town werefilled with lights unaffected by the wind, for the breeze at thetime was so gentle that it had not power to stir the leaves on thetrees. The musicians were the life of the wedding, wandering throughthe pleasant grounds in separate bands, some dancing, otherssinging, others playing the various instruments already mentioned.In short, it seemed as though mirth and gaiety were frisking andgambolling all over the meadow. Several other persons were engagedin erecting raised benches from which people might conveniently seethe plays and dances that were to be performed the next day on thespot dedicated to the celebration of the marriage of Camacho therich and the obsequies of Basilio. Don Quixote would not enter thevillage, although the peasant as well as the bachelor pressed him;he excused himself, however, on the grounds, amply sufficient in hisopinion, that it was the custom of knights-errant to sleep in thefields and woods in preference to towns, even were it under gildedceilings; and so turned aside a little out of the road, very muchagainst Sancho's will, as the good quarters he had enjoyed in thecastle or house of Don Diego came back to his mind.
CHAPTER XX
WHEREIN AN ACCOUNT IS GIVEN OF THE WEDDING OF CAMACHO THE RICH,TOGETHER WITH THE INCIDENT OF BASILIO THE POOR
SCARCE had the fair Aurora given bright Phoebus time to dry theliquid pearls upon her golden locks with the heat of his fervent rays,when Don Quixote, shaking off sloth from his limbs, sprang to his feetand called to his squire Sancho, who was still snoring; seeing whichDon Quixote ere he roused him thus addressed him: "Happy thou, aboveall the dwellers on the face of the earth, that, without envying orbeing envied, sleepest with tranquil mind, and that neither enchanterspersecute nor enchantments affright. Sleep, I say, and will say ahundred times, without any jealous thoughts of thy mistress to makethee keep ceaseless vigils, or any cares as to how thou art to pay thedebts thou owest, or find to-morrow's food for thyself and thy needylittle family, to interfere with thy repose. Ambition breaks not thyrest, nor doth this world's empty pomp disturb thee, for the utmostreach of thy anxiety is to provide for thy ass, since upon myshoulders thou hast laid the support of thyself, the counterpoiseand burden that nature and custom have imposed upon masters. Theservant sleeps and the master lies awake thinking how he is to feedhim, advance him, and reward him. The distress of seeing the skyturn brazen, and withhold its needful moisture from the earth, isnot felt by the servant but by the master, who in time of scarcity andfamine must support him who has served him in times of plenty andabundance."
To all this Sancho made no reply because he was asleep, nor would hehave wakened up so soon as he did had not Don Quixote brought him tohis senses with the butt of his lance. He awoke at last, drowsy andlazy, and casting his eyes about in every direction, observed,"There comes, if I don't mistake, from the quarter of that arcade asteam and a smell a great deal more like fried rashers thangalingale or thyme; a wedding that begins with smells like that, by myfaith, ought to be plentiful and unstinting."
"Have done, thou glutton," said Don Quixote; "come, let us go andwitness this bridal, and see what the rejected Basilio does."
"Let him do what he likes," returned Sancho; "be he not poor, hewould marry Quiteria. To make a grand match for himself, and hewithout a farthing; is there nothing else? Faith, senor, it's myopinion the poor man should be content with what he can get, and notgo looking for dainties in the bottom of the sea. I will bet my armthat Camacho could bury Basilio in reals; and if that be so, as nodoubt it is, what a fool Quiteria would be to refuse the finedresses and jewels Camacho must have given her and will give her,and take Basilio's bar-throwing and sword-play. They won't give a pintof wine at the tavern for a good cast of the bar or a neat thrust ofthe sword. Talents and accomplishments that can't be turned intomoney, let Count Dirlos have them; but when such gifts fall to onethat has hard cash, I wish my condition of life was as becoming asthey are. On a good foundation you can raise a good building, andthe best foundation in the world is money."
"For God's sake, Sancho," said Don Quixote here, "stop thatharangue; it is my belief, if thou wert allowed to continue all thoubeginnest every instant, thou wouldst have no time left for eatingor sleeping; for thou wouldst spend it all in talking."
"If your worship had a good memory," replied Sancho, "you wouldremember the articles of our agreement before we started from homethis last time; one of them was that I was to be let say all Iliked, so long as it was not against my neighbour or your worship'sauthority; and so far, it seems to me, I have not broken the saidarticle."
"I remember no such article, Sancho," said Don Quixote; "and even ifit were so, I desire you to hold your tongue and come along; for theinstruments we heard last night are already beginning to enliven thevalleys again, and no doubt the marriage will take place in the coolof the morning, and not in the heat of the afternoon."
Sancho did as his master bade him, and putting the saddle onRocinante and the pack-saddle on Dapple, they both mounted and at aleisurely pace entered the arcade. The first thing that presenteditself to Sancho's eyes was a whole ox spitted on a whole elm tree,and in the fire at which it was to be roasted there was burning amiddling-sized mountain of faggots, and six stewpots that stoodround the blaze had not been made in the ordinary mould of commonpots, for they were six half wine-jars, each fit to hold thecontents of a slaughter-house; they swallowed up whole sheep and hidthem away in their insides without showing any more sign of themthan if they were pigeons. Countless were the hares ready skinnedand the plucked fowls that hung on the trees for burial in the pots,numberless the wildfowl and game of various sorts suspended from thebranches that the air might keep them cool. Sancho counted more thansixty wine skins of over six gallons each, and all filled, as itproved afterwards, with generous wines. There were, besides, pilesof the whitest bread, like the heaps of corn one sees on thethreshing-floors. There was a wall made of cheeses arranged likeopen brick-work, and two cauldrons full of oil, bigger than those of adyer's shop, served for cooking fritters, which when fried weretaken out with two mighty shovels, and plunged into another cauldronof prepared honey that stood close by. Of cooks and cook-maids therewere over fifty, all clean, brisk, and blithe. In the capaciousbelly of the ox were a dozen soft little sucking-pigs, which, sewnup there, served to give it tenderness and flavour. The spices ofdifferent kinds did not seem to have been bought by the pound but bythe quarter, and all lay open to view in a great chest. In short,all the preparations made for the wedding were in rustic style, butabundant enough to feed an army.