Don Quixote_ Translation by Edith Grossman (HarperCollins) - Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra [110]
“I can’t do that,” responded Sancho, “because when I leave your grace I’m filled with fear that plagues me with a thousand different kinds of sudden frights and visions. And I just want to let you know this, so that from now on I won’t have to move a finger’s width from your presence.”
“So be it,” said the Knight of the Sorrowful Face. “I am very pleased that you wish to take advantage of my courage, which will not fail you even if your spirit fails your body. Come now, and follow after me slowly, or however you can, and let your eyes be like lanterns; we shall circle round this hillock, and perhaps we shall come across that man we saw who is, beyond any doubt, the owner of what we have found.”
To which Sancho responded:
“It would be much better not to look for him, because if we find him and he’s the owner of the money, of course I’ll have to return it to him, so it would be better not to undertake a useless task, and let me keep it in good faith until its rightful owner appears in a way that’s not so strange or troublesome, and maybe by that time I’ll have spent it, and then by the king’s law I won’t have to pay because I’ll be a pauper.”
“You are mistaken about that, Sancho,” responded Don Quixote, “for now that we have begun to suspect who the owner is, and have had him practically in front of us, we are obliged to search for him and return the money, and if we do not search for him, the strong suspicion we have that he is the owner makes us as culpable as if he really were. Therefore, Sancho my friend, do not let the search for him grieve you, for my grief will be taken away if I find him.”
And so he spurred Rocinante, and Sancho followed on his customary donkey,2 and when they had ridden around part of the mountain, they discovered in a stream, lying dead and half-eaten by dogs and pecked at by crows, a mule that was saddled and bridled, which was further confirmation of their suspicion that the fleeing man was the owner of both the mule and the saddle cushion.
As they were looking at the mule, they heard a whistle like that of a shepherd tending his flock, and suddenly, on their left, they saw a good number of goats and, behind the goats, at the top of the mountain, the goatherd, who was a very old man. Don Quixote called to him and asked him to come down. He shouted in response, asking what had brought them to this place that was rarely, if ever, visited except by goats or wolves or the other animals that lived there. Sancho responded that he should come down, and they would give him a good accounting of everything. The goatherd came down, and when he reached Don Quixote, he said:
“I’ll wager you’re looking at the mule that’s lying dead in that gully. By my faith, it’s been there for six months. Tell me: have you run across the owner?”
“We have not run across anyone,” responded Don Quixote, “but we found a saddle cushion and traveling case not far from here.”
“I found them, too,” responded the goatherd, “but I never wanted to pick them up or go near them because I was afraid there’d be trouble and they’d say I stole them; the devil’s sly, and he puts things under our feet that make us stumble and fall, and we don’t know how or why.”
“That’s just what I say,” responded Sancho. “I found them, too, and I didn’t want to get within a stone’s throw of them: I left them there, and there they remain, just as they were; I don’t want a dog with a bell around its neck.”3
“Tell me, my good man,” said Don Quixote, “do you know who the owner of these articles might be?”
“What I can tell you,” said the goatherd, “is that there’s a sheepfold about three leagues from here, and about six months ago, more or less, a young gentleman came there, very courteous in his manner and bearing, riding on that same mule that’s lying there dead, and with the same saddle cushion and traveling case you say you found and didn’t touch. He asked us which part of this country was