Sancho came up, and when he saw the countenance of the bachelor Carrasco,

he fell to crossing himself a thousand times, and blessing himself as

many more. All this time the prostrate knight showed no signs of life,

and Sancho said to Don Quixote, "It is my opinion, senor, that in any

case your worship should take and thrust your sword into the mouth of

this one here that looks like the bachelor Samson Carrasco; perhaps in

him you will kill one of your enemies, the enchanters."

"Thy advice is not bad," said Don Quixote, "for of enemies the fewer the

better;" and he was drawing his sword to carry into effect Sancho's

counsel and suggestion, when the squire of the Mirrors came up, now

without the nose which had made him so hideous, and cried out in a loud

voice, "Mind what you are about, Senor Don Quixote; that is your friend,

the bachelor Samson Carrasco, you have at your feet, and I am his

squire."

"And the nose?" said Sancho, seeing him without the hideous feature he

had before; to which he replied, "I have it here in my pocket," and

putting his hand into his right pocket, he pulled out a masquerade nose

of varnished pasteboard of the make already described; and Sancho,

examining him more and more closely, exclaimed aloud in a voice of

amazement, "Holy Mary be good to me! Isn't it Tom Cecial, my neighbour

and gossip?"

"Why, to be sure I am!" returned the now unnosed squire; "Tom Cecial I

am, gossip and friend Sancho Panza; and I'll tell you presently the means

and tricks and falsehoods by which I have been brought here; but in the

meantime, beg and entreat of your master not to touch, maltreat, wound,

or slay the Knight of the Mirrors whom he has at his feet; because,

beyond all dispute, it is the rash and ill-advised bachelor Samson

Carrasco, our fellow townsman."

At this moment he of the Mirrors came to himself, and Don Quixote

perceiving it, held the naked point of his sword over his face, and said

to him, "You are a dead man, knight, unless you confess that the peerless

Dulcinea del Toboso excels your Casildea de Vandalia in beauty; and in

addition to this you must promise, if you should survive this encounter

and fall, to go to the city of El Toboso and present yourself before her

on my behalf, that she deal with you according to her good pleasure; and

if she leaves you free to do yours, you are in like manner to return and

seek me out (for the trail of my mighty deeds will serve you as a guide

to lead you to where I may be), and tell me what may have passed between

you and her-conditions which, in accordance with what we stipulated

before our combat, do not transgress the just limits of knight-errantry."




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