Don Quixote_ Translation by Edith Grossman (HarperCollins) - Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra [188]
“Didn’t I tell you?” said Sancho when he heard this. “I told you I wasn’t drunk: now you can see if my master hasn’t slaughtered and salted that giant! Now it’s for sure:1 my countship’s on the way!”
Who would not have laughed at the foolishness of both master and servant? Everyone did except the innkeeper, who cursed his luck; but at last, with no small effort, the barber, Cardenio, and the priest returned Don Quixote to the bed, where he fell asleep, showing signs of great weariness. They left him sleeping and went out to the entrance to the inn to console Sancho Panza for not having found the giant’s head, though it was more difficult for them to placate the innkeeper, who was in despair at the sudden demise of his wineskins. And the innkeeper’s wife said, with great cries and shouts:
“It was an evil moment and a cursed hour when this knight errant came into my house; he costs me so much, I wish I’d never laid eyes on him. The last time, he left without paying the cost of a night, a meal, a bed, straw, and barley, for him and his squire and a horse and a donkey, saying that he was an adventuring knight, may God give him unlucky adventures, him and all the adventurers in the world, and that’s why he wasn’t obliged to pay anything, according to the tariff regulations of errant knighthood. Then, on his account, this other gentleman comes along and takes away my oxtail, and gives it back with more than two cuartillos’2 worth of damage, with not a hair on it, so it’s no good for the thing my husband wanted it for. And then, the finishing touch, he slashes my wineskins and spills my wine, and I only wish it was his blood that was spilled. Well, he won’t get away with it! By the bones of my father and my mother’s old white head, he’ll pay me every cuarto3 he owes or my name isn’t what it is, and I’m not my parents’ daughter!”
These words and others like them were said in great anger by the innkeeper’s wife, and her good maid, Maritornes, assisted her in this. Her daughter said nothing, and from time to time she smiled. The priest restored calm by promising to do everything in his power to compensate them for their loss, the wineskins as well as the wine, and in particular the damage to the oxtail, which they valued so highly. Dorotea consoled Sancho Panza, promising him that as soon as it was certain his master had cut off the giant’s head and she was peacefully ruling her kingdom again, she would give him the best countship in all the land. Sancho was comforted by this, and he assured the princess that she could be certain he had seen the head of the giant, who seemed to have a beard that came down to his waist, and if the head could not be found, it was because everything that happened in that house was enchantment, as he had learned the last time he stayed here. Dorotea said she believed him, and he should not worry; everything would be fine and turn out just as he wished.
When everyone was calm, the priest wanted to finish reading the novel because he saw that he had almost reached the end. Cardenio, Dorotea, and all the others asked him to finish it, and the priest, who wished to satisfy everyone and wanted to read it as well, continued the story.
And so, because of Anselmo’s certainty regarding Camila’s virtue, he led a carefree and contented life, and Camila intentionally showed coldness to Lotario so that Anselmo would believe her feelings toward him were the opposite of what they truly were; to give this even more weight, Lotario asked permission not to visit his friend’s house anymore since it was clear that the sight of him troubled Camila a great deal, but the deluded Anselmo said that under no circumstances would he allow any such thing; in this way, in a thousand ways, Anselmo constructed his own dishonor, believing that he was creating his own delight.
In the meantime, the delight Leonela took in freely engaging in her love affair went so far that she cared