Don Quixote - Part I

"Well!" said Don Quixote, "and doth she not of a truth accompany and

adorn this greatness with a thousand million charms of mind! But one

thing thou wilt not deny, Sancho; when thou camest close to her didst

thou not perceive a Sabaean odour, an aromatic fragrance, a, I know not

what, delicious, that I cannot find a name for; I mean a redolence, an

exhalation, as if thou wert in the shop of some dainty glover?"

"All I can say is," said Sancho, "that I did perceive a little odour,

something goaty; it must have been that she was all in a sweat with hard

work."

"It could not be that," said Don Quixote, "but thou must have been

suffering from cold in the head, or must have smelt thyself; for I know

well what would be the scent of that rose among thorns, that lily of the

field, that dissolved amber."

"Maybe so," replied Sancho; "there often comes from myself that same

odour which then seemed to me to come from her grace the lady Dulcinea;

but that's no wonder, for one devil is like another."

"Well then," continued Don Quixote, "now she has done sifting the corn

and sent it to the mill; what did she do when she read the letter?"

"As for the letter," said Sancho, "she did not read it, for she said she

could neither read nor write; instead of that she tore it up into small

pieces, saying that she did not want to let anyone read it lest her

secrets should become known in the village, and that what I had told her

by word of mouth about the love your worship bore her, and the

extraordinary penance you were doing for her sake, was enough; and, to

make an end of it, she told me to tell your worship that she kissed your

hands, and that she had a greater desire to see you than to write to you;

and that therefore she entreated and commanded you, on sight of this

present, to come out of these thickets, and to have done with carrying on

absurdities, and to set out at once for El Toboso, unless something else

of greater importance should happen, for she had a great desire to see

your worship. She laughed greatly when I told her how your worship was

called The Knight of the Rueful Countenance; I asked her if that Biscayan

the other day had been there; and she told me he had, and that he was an

honest fellow; I asked her too about the galley slaves, but she said she

had not seen any as yet."