Don Quixote - Part I

"All the while the good-natured improvised courier was telling me this, I

hung upon his words, my legs trembling under me so that I could scarcely

stand. However, I opened the letter and read these words:

"'The promise Don Fernando gave you to urge your father to speak to mine,

he has fulfilled much more to his own satisfaction than to your

advantage. I have to tell you, senor, that he has demanded me for a wife,

and my father, led away by what he considers Don Fernando's superiority

over you, has favoured his suit so cordially, that in two days hence the

betrothal is to take place with such secrecy and so privately that the

only witnesses are to be the Heavens above and a few of the household.

Picture to yourself the state I am in; judge if it be urgent for you to

come; the issue of the affair will show you whether I love you or not.

God grant this may come to your hand before mine shall be forced to link

itself with his who keeps so ill the faith that he has pledged.'

"Such, in brief, were the words of the letter, words that made me set out

at once without waiting any longer for reply or money; for I now saw

clearly that it was not the purchase of horses but of his own pleasure

that had made Don Fernando send me to his brother. The exasperation I

felt against Don Fernando, joined with the fear of losing the prize I had

won by so many years of love and devotion, lent me wings; so that almost

flying I reached home the same day, by the hour which served for speaking

with Luscinda. I arrived unobserved, and left the mule on which I had

come at the house of the worthy man who had brought me the letter, and

fortune was pleased to be for once so kind that I found Luscinda at the

grating that was the witness of our loves. She recognised me at once, and

I her, but not as she ought to have recognised me, or I her. But who is

there in the world that can boast of having fathomed or understood the

wavering mind and unstable nature of a woman? Of a truth no one. To

proceed: as soon as Luscinda saw me she said, 'Cardenio, I am in my

bridal dress, and the treacherous Don Fernando and my covetous father are

waiting for me in the hall with the other witnesses, who shall be the

witnesses of my death before they witness my betrothal. Be not

distressed, my friend, but contrive to be present at this sacrifice, and

if that cannot be prevented by my words, I have a dagger concealed which

will prevent more deliberate violence, putting an end to my life and

giving thee a first proof of the love I have borne and bear thee.' I

replied to her distractedly and hastily, in fear lest I should not have

time to reply, 'May thy words be verified by thy deeds, lady; and if thou

hast a dagger to save thy honour, I have a sword to defend thee or kill

myself if fortune be against us.'