WHEREIN IT IS TOLD AND KNOWN WHO THE KNIGHT OF THE MIRRORS AND HIS SQUIRE
WERE
Don Quixote went off satisfied, elated, and vain-glorious in the highest
degree at having won a victory over such a valiant knight as he fancied
him of the Mirrors to be, and one from whose knightly word he expected to
learn whether the enchantment of his lady still continued; inasmuch as
the said vanquished knight was bound, under the penalty of ceasing to be
one, to return and render him an account of what took place between him
and her. But Don Quixote was of one mind, he of the Mirrors of another,
for he just then had no thought of anything but finding some village
where he could plaster himself, as has been said already. The history
goes on to say, then, that when the bachelor Samson Carrasco recommended
Don Quixote to resume his knight-errantry which he had laid aside, it was
in consequence of having been previously in conclave with the curate and
the barber on the means to be adopted to induce Don Quixote to stay at
home in peace and quiet without worrying himself with his ill-starred
adventures; at which consultation it was decided by the unanimous vote of
all, and on the special advice of Carrasco, that Don Quixote should be
allowed to go, as it seemed impossible to restrain him, and that Samson
should sally forth to meet him as a knight-errant, and do battle with
him, for there would be no difficulty about a cause, and vanquish him,
that being looked upon as an easy matter; and that it should be agreed
and settled that the vanquished was to be at the mercy of the victor.
Then, Don Quixote being vanquished, the bachelor knight was to command
him to return to his village and his house, and not quit it for two
years, or until he received further orders from him; all which it was
clear Don Quixote would unhesitatingly obey, rather than contravene or
fail to observe the laws of chivalry; and during the period of his
seclusion he might perhaps forget his folly, or there might be an
opportunity of discovering some ready remedy for his madness. Carrasco
undertook the task, and Tom Cecial, a gossip and neighbour of Sancho
Panza's, a lively, feather-headed fellow, offered himself as his squire.
Carrasco armed himself in the fashion described, and Tom Cecial, that he
might not be known by his gossip when they met, fitted on over his own
natural nose the false masquerade one that has been mentioned; and so
they followed the same route Don Quixote took, and almost came up with
him in time to be present at the adventure of the cart of Death and
finally encountered them in the grove, where all that the sagacious
reader has been reading about took place; and had it not been for the
extraordinary fancies of Don Quixote, and his conviction that the
bachelor was not the bachelor, senor bachelor would have been
incapacitated for ever from taking his degree of licentiate, all through
not finding nests where he thought to find birds.