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VOLUME[ PART 2  ]  

CHAPTER[ XXIX. OF THE FAMOUS ADVENTURE OF THE ENCHANTED BARK

By stages as already described or left undescribed, two days after

quitting the grove Don Quixote and Sancho reached the river Ebro, and the

sight of it was a great delight to Don Quixote as he contemplated and

gazed upon the charms of its banks, the clearness of its stream, the

gentleness of its current and the abundance of its crystal waters; and

the pleasant view revived a thousand tender thoughts in his mind. Above

all, he dwelt upon what he had seen in the cave of Montesinos; for though

Master Pedro's ape had told him that of those things part was true, part

false, he clung more to their truth than to their falsehood, the very

reverse of Sancho, who held them all to be downright lies.

As they were thus proceeding, then, they discovered a small boat, without

oars or any other gear, that lay at the water's edge tied to the stem of

a tree growing on the bank. Don Quixote looked all round, and seeing

nobody, at once, without more ado, dismounted from Rocinante and bade

Sancho get down from Dapple and tie both beasts securely to the trunk of

a poplar or willow that stood there. Sancho asked him the reason of this

sudden dismounting and tying. Don Quixote made answer, "Thou must know,

Sancho, that this bark is plainly, and without the possibility of any

alternative, calling and inviting me to enter it, and in it go to give

aid to some knight or other person of distinction in need of it, who is

no doubt in some sore strait; for this is the way of the books of

chivalry and of the enchanters who figure and speak in them. When a

knight is involved in some difficulty from which he cannot be delivered

save by the hand of another knight, though they may be at a distance of

two or three thousand leagues or more one from the other, they either

take him up on a cloud, or they provide a bark for him to get into, and

in less than the twinkling of an eye they carry him where they will and

where his help is required; and so, Sancho, this bark is placed here for

the same purpose; this is as true as that it is now day, and ere this one

passes tie Dapple and Rocinante together, and then in God's hand be it to

guide us; for I would not hold back from embarking, though barefooted

friars were to beg me."

"As that's the case," said Sancho, "and your worship chooses to give in

to these--I don't know if I may call them absurdities--at every turn,

there's nothing for it but to obey and bow the head, bearing in mind the

proverb, 'Do as thy master bids thee, and sit down to table with him;'

but for all that, for the sake of easing my conscience, I warn your

worship that it is my opinion this bark is no enchanted one, but belongs

to some of the fishermen of the river, for they catch the best shad in

the world here."

As Sancho said this, he tied the beasts, leaving them to the care and

protection of the enchanters with sorrow enough in his heart. Don Quixote

bade him not be uneasy about deserting the animals, "for he who would

carry themselves over such longinquous roads and regions would take care

to feed them."

"I don't understand that logiquous," said Sancho, "nor have I ever heard

the word all the days of my life."

"Longinquous," replied Don Quixote, "means far off; but it is no wonder

thou dost not understand it, for thou art not bound to know Latin, like

some who pretend to know it and don't."

"Now they are tied," said Sancho; "what are we to do next?"

"What?" said Don Quixote, "cross ourselves and weigh anchor; I mean,

embark and cut the moorings by which the bark is held;" and the bark

began to drift away slowly from the bank. But when Sancho saw himself

somewhere about two yards out in the river, he began to tremble and give

himself up for lost; but nothing distressed him more than hearing Dapple

bray and seeing Rocinante struggling to get loose, and said he to his

master, "Dapple is braying in grief at our leaving him, and Rocinante is

trying to escape and plunge in after us. O dear friends, peace be with

you, and may this madness that is taking us away from you, turned into

sober sense, bring us back to you." And with this he fell weeping so

bitterly, that Don Quixote said to him, sharply and angrily, "What art

thou afraid of, cowardly creature? What art thou weeping at, heart of

butter-paste? Who pursues or molests thee, thou soul of a tame mouse?

What dost thou want, unsatisfied in the very heart of abundance? Art

thou, perchance, tramping barefoot over the Riphaean mountains, instead

of being seated on a bench like an archduke on the tranquil stream of

this pleasant river, from which in a short space we shall come out upon

the broad sea? But we must have already emerged and gone seven hundred or

eight hundred leagues; and if I had here an astrolabe to take the

altitude of the pole, I could tell thee how many we have travelled,

though either I know little, or we have already crossed or shall shortly

cross the equinoctial line which parts the two opposite poles midway."

"And when we come to that line your worship speaks of," said Sancho, "how

far shall we have gone?"

"Very far," said Don Quixote, "for of the three hundred and sixty degrees

that this terraqueous globe contains, as computed by Ptolemy, the

greatest cosmographer known, we shall have travelled one-half when we

come to the line I spoke of."

"By God," said Sancho, "your worship gives me a nice authority for what

you say, putrid Dolly something transmogrified, or whatever it is."

Don Quixote laughed at the interpretation Sancho put upon "computed," and

the name of the cosmographer Ptolemy, and said he, "Thou must know,

Sancho, that with the Spaniards and those who embark at Cadiz for the

East Indies, one of the signs they have to show them when they have

passed the equinoctial line I told thee of, is, that the lice die upon

everybody on board the ship, and not a single one is left, or to be found

in the whole vessel if they gave its weight in gold for it; so, Sancho,

thou mayest as well pass thy hand down thy thigh, and if thou comest upon

anything alive we shall be no longer in doubt; if not, then we have

crossed."

"I don't believe a bit of it," said Sancho; "still, I'll do as your

worship bids me; though I don't know what need there is for trying these

experiments, for I can see with my own eyes that we have not moved five

yards away from the bank, or shifted two yards from where the animals

stand, for there are Rocinante and Dapple in the very same place where we

left them; and watching a point, as I do now, I swear by all that's good,

we are not stirring or moving at the pace of an ant."

"Try the test I told thee of, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "and don't mind

any other, for thou knowest nothing about colures, lines, parallels,

zodiacs, ecliptics, poles, solstices, equinoxes, planets, signs,

bearings, the measures of which the celestial and terrestrial spheres are

composed; if thou wert acquainted with all these things, or any portion

of them, thou wouldst see clearly how many parallels we have cut, what

signs we have seen, and what constellations we have left behind and are

now leaving behind. But again I tell thee, feel and hunt, for I am

certain thou art cleaner than a sheet of smooth white paper."

Sancho felt, and passing his hand gently and carefully down to the hollow

of his left knee, he looked up at his master and said, "Either the test

is a false one, or we have not come to where your worship says, nor

within many leagues of it."

"Why, how so?" asked Don Quixote; "hast thou come upon aught?"

"Ay, and aughts," replied Sancho; and shaking his fingers he washed his

whole hand in the river along which the boat was quietly gliding in

midstream, not moved by any occult intelligence or invisible enchanter,

but simply by the current, just there smooth and gentle.

They now came in sight of some large water mills that stood in the middle

of the river, and the instant Don Quixote saw them he cried out, "Seest

thou there, my friend? there stands the castle or fortress, where there

is, no doubt, some knight in durance, or ill-used queen, or infanta, or

princess, in whose aid I am brought hither."

"What the devil city, fortress, or castle is your worship talking about,

senor?" said Sancho; "don't you see that those are mills that stand in

the river to grind corn?"

"Hold thy peace, Sancho," said Don Quixote; "though they look like mills

they are not so; I have already told thee that enchantments transform

things and change their proper shapes; I do not mean to say they really

change them from one form into another, but that it seems as though they

did, as experience proved in the transformation of Dulcinea, sole refuge

of my hopes."

By this time, the boat, having reached the middle of the stream, began to

move less slowly than hitherto. The millers belonging to the mills, when

they saw the boat coming down the river, and on the point of being sucked

in by the draught of the wheels, ran out in haste, several of them, with

long poles to stop it, and being all mealy, with faces and garments

covered with flour, they presented a sinister appearance. They raised

loud shouts, crying, "Devils of men, where are you going to? Are you mad?

Do you want to drown yourselves, or dash yourselves to pieces among these

wheels?"

"Did I not tell thee, Sancho," said Don Quixote at this, "that we had

reached the place where I am to show what the might of my arm can do? See

what ruffians and villains come out against me; see what monsters oppose

me; see what hideous countenances come to frighten us! You shall soon

see, scoundrels!" And then standing up in the boat he began in a loud

voice to hurl threats at the millers, exclaiming, "Ill-conditioned and

worse-counselled rabble, restore to liberty and freedom the person ye

hold in durance in this your fortress or prison, high or low or of

whatever rank or quality he be, for I am Don Quixote of La Mancha,

otherwise called the Knight of the Lions, for whom, by the disposition of

heaven above, it is reserved to give a happy issue to this adventure;"

and so saying he drew his sword and began making passes in the air at the

millers, who, hearing but not understanding all this nonsense, strove to

stop the boat, which was now getting into the rushing channel of the

wheels. Sancho fell upon his knees devoutly appealing to heaven to

deliver him from such imminent peril; which it did by the activity and

quickness of the millers, who, pushing against the boat with their poles,

stopped it, not, however, without upsetting and throwing Don Quixote and

Sancho into the water; and lucky it was for Don Quixote that he could

swim like a goose, though the weight of his armour carried him twice to

the bottom; and had it not been for the millers, who plunged in and

hoisted them both out, it would have been Troy town with the pair of

them. As soon as, more drenched than thirsty, they were landed, Sancho

went down on his knees and with clasped hands and eyes raised to heaven,

prayed a long and fervent prayer to God to deliver him evermore from the

rash projects and attempts of his master. The fishermen, the owners of

the boat, which the mill-wheels had knocked to pieces, now came up, and

seeing it smashed they proceeded to strip Sancho and to demand payment

for it from Don Quixote; but he with great calmness, just as if nothing

had happened him, told the millers and fishermen that he would pay for

the bark most cheerfully, on condition that they delivered up to him,

free and unhurt, the person or persons that were in durance in that

castle of theirs.

"What persons or what castle art thou talking of, madman? Art thou for

carrying off the people who come to grind corn in these mills?"

"That's enough," said Don Quixote to himself, "it would be preaching in

the desert to attempt by entreaties to induce this rabble to do any

virtuous action. In this adventure two mighty enchanters must have

encountered one another, and one frustrates what the other attempts; one

provided the bark for me, and the other upset me; God help us, this world

is all machinations and schemes at cross purposes one with the other. I

can do no more." And then turning towards the mills he said aloud,

"Friends, whoe'er ye be that are immured in that prison, forgive me that,

to my misfortune and yours, I cannot deliver you from your misery; this

adventure is doubtless reserved and destined for some other knight."

So saying he settled with the fishermen, and paid fifty reals for the

boat, which Sancho handed to them very much against the grain, saying,

"With a couple more bark businesses like this we shall have sunk our

whole capital."

The fishermen and the millers stood staring in amazement at the two

figures, so very different to all appearance from ordinary men, and were

wholly unable to make out the drift of the observations and questions Don

Quixote addressed to them; and coming to the conclusion that they were

madmen, they left them and betook themselves, the millers to their mills,

and the fishermen to their huts. Don Quixote and Sancho returned to their

beasts, and to their life of beasts, and so ended the adventure of the

enchanted bark.

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