IN WHICH IS CONTINUED THE STORY OF THE FAMOUS PRINCESS MICOMICONA, WITH

OTHER DROLL ADVENTURES

To all this Sancho listened with no little sorrow at heart to see how his

hopes of dignity were fading away and vanishing in smoke, and how the

fair Princess Micomicona had turned into Dorothea, and the giant into Don

Fernando, while his master was sleeping tranquilly, totally unconscious

of all that had come to pass. Dorothea was unable to persuade herself

that her present happiness was not all a dream; Cardenio was in a similar

state of mind, and Luscinda's thoughts ran in the same direction. Don

Fernando gave thanks to Heaven for the favour shown to him and for having

been rescued from the intricate labyrinth in which he had been brought so

near the destruction of his good name and of his soul; and in short

everybody in the inn was full of contentment and satisfaction at the

happy issue of such a complicated and hopeless business. The curate as a

sensible man made sound reflections upon the whole affair, and

congratulated each upon his good fortune; but the one that was in the

highest spirits and good humour was the landlady, because of the promise

Cardenio and the curate had given her to pay for all the losses and

damage she had sustained through Don Quixote's means. Sancho, as has been

already said, was the only one who was distressed, unhappy, and dejected;

and so with a long face he went in to his master, who had just awoke, and

said to him:

"Sir Rueful Countenance, your worship may as well sleep on as much as you

like, without troubling yourself about killing any giant or restoring her

kingdom to the princess; for that is all over and settled now."

"I should think it was," replied Don Quixote, "for I have had the most

prodigious and stupendous battle with the giant that I ever remember

having had all the days of my life; and with one back-stroke-swish!--I

brought his head tumbling to the ground, and so much blood gushed forth

from him that it ran in rivulets over the earth like water."

"Like red wine, your worship had better say," replied Sancho; "for I

would have you know, if you don't know it, that the dead giant is a

hacked wine-skin, and the blood four-and-twenty gallons of red wine that

it had in its belly, and the cut-off head is the bitch that bore me; and

the devil take it all."

"What art thou talking about, fool?" said Don Quixote; "art thou in thy

senses?"

"Let your worship get up," said Sancho, "and you will see the nice

business you have made of it, and what we have to pay; and you will see

the queen turned into a private lady called Dorothea, and other things

that will astonish you, if you understand them."




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