Kabanata Kabanata 116 · CHAPTER LXIV. TREATING OF THE ADVENTURE WHICH GAVE DON QUIXOTE MORE UNHAPPINESS THAN

. CHAPTER LXIV. TREATING OF THE ADVENTURE WHICH GAVE DON QUIXOTE MORE UNHAPPINESS THAN

CHAPTER LXIV.

TREATING OF THE ADVENTURE WHICH GAVE DON QUIXOTE MORE UNHAPPINESS THAN

ALL THAT HAD HITHERTO BEFALLEN HIM

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The wife of Don Antonio Moreno, so the history says, was extremely

happy to see Ana Felix in her house. She welcomed her with great

kindness, charmed as well by her beauty as by her intelligence; for in

both respects the fair Morisco was richly endowed, and all the people

of the city flocked to see her as though they had been summoned by the

ringing of the bells.

Don Quixote told Don Antonio that the plan adopted for releasing Don

Gregorio was not a good one, for its risks were greater than its

advantages, and that it would be better to land himself with his arms

and horse in Barbary; for he would carry him off in spite of the whole

Moorish host, as Don Gaiferos carried off his wife Melisendra.

“Remember, your worship,” observed Sancho on hearing him say so, “Señor

Don Gaiferos carried off his wife from the mainland, and took her to

France by land; but in this case, if by chance we carry off Don

Gregorio, we have no way of bringing him to Spain, for there’s the sea

between.”

“There’s a remedy for everything except death,” said Don Quixote; “if

they bring the vessel close to the shore we shall be able to get on

board though all the world strive to prevent us.”

“Your worship hits it off mighty well and mighty easy,” said Sancho;

“but ‘it’s a long step from saying to doing;’ and I hold to the

renegade, for he seems to me an honest good-hearted fellow.”

Don Antonio then said that if the renegade did not prove successful,

the expedient of the great Don Quixote’s expedition to Barbary should

be adopted. Two days afterwards the renegade put to sea in a light

vessel of six oars a-side manned by a stout crew, and two days later

the galleys made sail eastward, the general having begged the viceroy

to let him know all about the release of Don Gregorio and about Ana

Felix, and the viceroy promised to do as he requested.

One morning as Don Quixote went out for a stroll along the beach,

arrayed in full armour (for, as he often said, that was “his only gear,

his only rest the fray,” and he never was without it for a moment), he

saw coming towards him a knight, also in full armour, with a shining

moon painted on his shield, who, on approaching sufficiently near to be

heard, said in a loud voice, addressing himself to Don Quixote,

“Illustrious knight, and never sufficiently extolled Don Quixote of La

Mancha, I am the Knight of the White Moon, whose unheard-of

achievements will perhaps have recalled him to thy memory. I come to do

battle with thee and prove the might of thy arm, to the end that I make

thee acknowledge and confess that my lady, let her be who she may, is

incomparably fairer than thy Dulcinea del Toboso. If thou dost

acknowledge this fairly and openly, thou shalt escape death and save me

the trouble of inflicting it upon thee; if thou fightest and I vanquish

thee, I demand no other satisfaction than that, laying aside arms and

abstaining from going in quest of adventures, thou withdraw and betake

thyself to thine own village for the space of a year, and live there

without putting hand to sword, in peace and quiet and beneficial

repose, the same being needful for the increase of thy substance and

the salvation of thy soul; and if thou dost vanquish me, my head shall

be at thy disposal, my arms and horse thy spoils, and the renown of my

deeds transferred and added to thine. Consider which will be thy best

course, and give me thy answer speedily, for this day is all the time I

have for the despatch of this business.”

Don Quixote was amazed and astonished, as well at the Knight of the

White Moon’s arrogance, as at his reason for delivering the defiance,

and with calm dignity he answered him, “Knight of the White Moon, of

whose achievements I have never heard until now, I will venture to

swear you have never seen the illustrious Dulcinea; for had you seen

her I know you would have taken care not to venture yourself upon this

issue, because the sight would have removed all doubt from your mind

that there ever has been or can be a beauty to be compared with hers;

and so, not saying you lie, but merely that you are not correct in what

you state, I accept your challenge, with the conditions you have

proposed, and at once, that the day you have fixed may not expire; and

from your conditions I except only that of the renown of your

achievements being transferred to me, for I know not of what sort they

are nor what they may amount to; I am satisfied with my own, such as

they be. Take, therefore, the side of the field you choose, and I will

do the same; and to whom God shall give it may Saint Peter add his

blessing.”

The Knight of the White Moon had been seen from the city, and it was

told the viceroy how he was in conversation with Don Quixote. The

viceroy, fancying it must be some fresh adventure got up by Don Antonio

Moreno or some other gentleman of the city, hurried out at once to the

beach accompanied by Don Antonio and several other gentlemen, just as

Don Quixote was wheeling Rocinante round in order to take up the

necessary distance. The viceroy upon this, seeing that the pair of them

were evidently preparing to come to the charge, put himself between

them, asking them what it was that led them to engage in combat all of

a sudden in this way. The Knight of the White Moon replied that it was

a question of precedence of beauty; and briefly told him what he had

said to Don Quixote, and how the conditions of the defiance agreed upon

on both sides had been accepted. The viceroy went over to Don Antonio,

and asked in a low voice did he know who the Knight of the White Moon

was, or was it some joke they were playing on Don Quixote. Don Antonio

replied that he neither knew who he was nor whether the defiance was in

joke or in earnest. This answer left the viceroy in a state of

perplexity, not knowing whether he ought to let the combat go on or

not; but unable to persuade himself that it was anything but a joke he

fell back, saying, “If there be no other way out of it, gallant

knights, except to confess or die, and Don Quixote is inflexible, and

your worship of the White Moon still more so, in God’s hand be it, and

fall on.”

He of the White Moon thanked the viceroy in courteous and well-chosen

words for the permission he gave them, and so did Don Quixote, who

then, commending himself with all his heart to heaven and to his

Dulcinea, as was his custom on the eve of any combat that awaited him,

proceeded to take a little more distance, as he saw his antagonist was

doing the same; then, without blast of trumpet or other warlike

instrument to give them the signal to charge, both at the same instant

wheeled their horses; and he of the White Moon, being the swifter, met

Don Quixote after having traversed two-thirds of the course, and there

encountered him with such violence that, without touching him with his

lance (for he held it high, to all appearance purposely), he hurled Don

Quixote and Rocinante to the earth, a perilous fall. He sprang upon him

at once, and placing the lance over his visor said to him, “You are

vanquished, sir knight, nay dead unless you admit the conditions of our

defiance.”

Don Quixote, bruised and stupefied, without raising his visor said in a

weak feeble voice as if he were speaking out of a tomb, “Dulcinea del

Toboso is the fairest woman in the world, and I the most unfortunate

knight on earth; it is not fitting that this truth should suffer by my

feebleness; drive your lance home, sir knight, and take my life, since

you have taken away my honour.”

“That will I not, in sooth,” said he of the White Moon; “live the fame

of the lady Dulcinea’s beauty undimmed as ever; all I require is that

the great Don Quixote retire to his own home for a year, or for so long

a time as shall by me be enjoined upon him, as we agreed before

engaging in this combat.”

The viceroy, Don Antonio, and several others who were present heard all

this, and heard too how Don Quixote replied that so long as nothing in

prejudice of Dulcinea was demanded of him, he would observe all the

rest like a true and loyal knight. The engagement given, he of the

White Moon wheeled about, and making obeisance to the viceroy with a

movement of the head, rode away into the city at a half gallop. The

viceroy bade Don Antonio hasten after him, and by some means or other

find out who he was. They raised Don Quixote up and uncovered his face,

and found him pale and bathed with sweat.

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Rocinante from the mere hard measure he had received lay unable to stir

for the present. Sancho, wholly dejected and woebegone, knew not what

to say or do. He fancied that all was a dream, that the whole business

was a piece of enchantment. Here was his master defeated, and bound not

to take up arms for a year. He saw the light of the glory of his

achievements obscured; the hopes of the promises lately made him swept

away like smoke before the wind; Rocinante, he feared, was crippled for

life, and his master’s bones out of joint; for if he were only shaken

out of his madness it would be no small luck. In the end they carried

him into the city in a hand-chair which the viceroy sent for, and

thither the viceroy himself returned, eager to ascertain who this

Knight of the White Moon was who had left Don Quixote in such a sad

plight.

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