"There's where it is, what I abominate, Senor Samson," said Sancho here;

"my master will attack a hundred armed men as a greedy boy would half a

dozen melons. Body of the world, senor bachelor! there is a time to

attack and a time to retreat, and it is not to be always 'Santiago, and

close Spain!' Moreover, I have heard it said (and I think by my master

himself, if I remember rightly) that the mean of valour lies between the

extremes of cowardice and rashness; and if that be so, I don't want him

to fly without having good reason, or to attack when the odds make it

better not. But, above all things, I warn my master that if he is to take

me with him it must be on the condition that he is to do all the

fighting, and that I am not to be called upon to do anything except what

concerns keeping him clean and comfortable; in this I will dance

attendance on him readily; but to expect me to draw sword, even against

rascally churls of the hatchet and hood, is idle. I don't set up to be a

fighting man, Senor Samson, but only the best and most loyal squire that

ever served knight-errant; and if my master Don Quixote, in consideration

of my many faithful services, is pleased to give me some island of the

many his worship says one may stumble on in these parts, I will take it

as a great favour; and if he does not give it to me, I was born like

everyone else, and a man must not live in dependence on anyone except

God; and what is more, my bread will taste as well, and perhaps even

better, without a government than if I were a governor; and how do I know

but that in these governments the devil may have prepared some trip for

me, to make me lose my footing and fall and knock my grinders out? Sancho

I was born and Sancho I mean to die. But for all that, if heaven were to

make me a fair offer of an island or something else of the kind, without

much trouble and without much risk, I am not such a fool as to refuse it;

for they say, too, 'when they offer thee a heifer, run with a halter; and

'when good luck comes to thee, take it in.'"

"Brother Sancho," said Carrasco, "you have spoken like a professor; but,

for all that, put your trust in God and in Senor Don Quixote, for he will

give you a kingdom, not to say an island."




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