Cardenio's words completed the astonishment of Dorothea, and not knowing

how to return thanks for such an offer, she attempted to kiss his feet;

but Cardenio would not permit it, and the licentiate replied for both,

commended the sound reasoning of Cardenio, and lastly, begged, advised,

and urged them to come with him to his village, where they might furnish

themselves with what they needed, and take measures to discover Don

Fernando, or restore Dorothea to her parents, or do what seemed to them

most advisable. Cardenio and Dorothea thanked him, and accepted the kind

offer he made them; and the barber, who had been listening to all

attentively and in silence, on his part some kindly words also, and with

no less good-will than the curate offered his services in any way that

might be of use to them. He also explained to them in a few words the

object that had brought them there, and the strange nature of Don

Quixote's madness, and how they were waiting for his squire, who had gone

in search of him. Like the recollection of a dream, the quarrel he had

had with Don Quixote came back to Cardenio's memory, and he described it

to the others; but he was unable to say what the dispute was about.

At this moment they heard a shout, and recognised it as coming from

Sancho Panza, who, not finding them where he had left them, was calling

aloud to them. They went to meet him, and in answer to their inquiries

about Don Quixote, he told them how he had found him stripped to his

shirt, lank, yellow, half dead with hunger, and sighing for his lady

Dulcinea; and although he had told him that she commanded him to quit

that place and come to El Toboso, where she was expecting him, he had

answered that he was determined not to appear in the presence of her

beauty until he had done deeds to make him worthy of her favour; and if

this went on, Sancho said, he ran the risk of not becoming an emperor as

in duty bound, or even an archbishop, which was the least he could be;

for which reason they ought to consider what was to be done to get him

away from there. The licentiate in reply told him not to be uneasy, for

they would fetch him away in spite of himself. He then told Cardenio and

Dorothea what they had proposed to do to cure Don Quixote, or at any rate

take him home; upon which Dorothea said that she could play the

distressed damsel better than the barber; especially as she had there the

dress in which to do it to the life, and that they might trust to her

acting the part in every particular requisite for carrying out their

scheme, for she had read a great many books of chivalry, and knew exactly

the style in which afflicted damsels begged boons of knights-errant.




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