OF THE INTERVIEW THE CURATE AND THE BARBER HAD WITH DON QUIXOTE ABOUT HIS

MALADY

Cide Hamete Benengeli, in the Second Part of this history, and third

sally of Don Quixote, says that the curate and the barber remained nearly

a month without seeing him, lest they should recall or bring back to his

recollection what had taken place. They did not, however, omit to visit

his niece and housekeeper, and charge them to be careful to treat him

with attention, and give him comforting things to eat, and such as were

good for the heart and the brain, whence, it was plain to see, all his

misfortune proceeded. The niece and housekeeper replied that they did so,

and meant to do so with all possible care and assiduity, for they could

perceive that their master was now and then beginning to show signs of

being in his right mind. This gave great satisfaction to the curate and

the barber, for they concluded they had taken the right course in

carrying him off enchanted on the ox-cart, as has been described in the

First Part of this great as well as accurate history, in the last chapter

thereof. So they resolved to pay him a visit and test the improvement in

his condition, although they thought it almost impossible that there

could be any; and they agreed not to touch upon any point connected with

knight-errantry so as not to run the risk of reopening wounds which were

still so tender.

They came to see him consequently, and found him sitting up in bed in a

green baize waistcoat and a red Toledo cap, and so withered and dried up

that he looked as if he had been turned into a mummy. They were very

cordially received by him; they asked him after his health, and he talked

to them about himself very naturally and in very well-chosen language. In

the course of their conversation they fell to discussing what they call

State-craft and systems of government, correcting this abuse and

condemning that, reforming one practice and abolishing another, each of

the three setting up for a new legislator, a modern Lycurgus, or a

brand-new Solon; and so completely did they remodel the State, that they

seemed to have thrust it into a furnace and taken out something quite

different from what they had put in; and on all the subjects they dealt

with, Don Quixote spoke with such good sense that the pair of examiners

were fully convinced that he was quite recovered and in his full senses.

The niece and housekeeper were present at the conversation and could not

find words enough to express their thanks to God at seeing their master

so clear in his mind; the curate, however, changing his original plan,

which was to avoid touching upon matters of chivalry, resolved to test

Don Quixote's recovery thoroughly, and see whether it were genuine or

not; and so, from one subject to another, he came at last to talk of the

news that had come from the capital, and, among other things, he said it

was considered certain that the Turk was coming down with a powerful

fleet, and that no one knew what his purpose was, or when the great storm

would burst; and that all Christendom was in apprehension of this, which

almost every year calls us to arms, and that his Majesty had made

provision for the security of the coasts of Naples and Sicily and the

island of Malta.




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