Don Quixote_ Translation by Edith Grossman (HarperCollins) - Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra [234]
“Now, Señor Don Luis, you have no choice but to be patient and return home, unless you wish to see your father and my master in the next world, which is all that can be expected, considering the grief your absence has caused him.”
“But how did my father know,” said Don Luis, “that I was on this road and wearing these clothes?”
“You disclosed your intentions to a student,” responded the servant, “and he was moved by pity at your father’s distress when he realized you were gone, and revealed everything, and so your father dispatched four of his servants to look for you, and all of us are here to serve you, happier than you can imagine that we can return quickly and bring you back to the one who loves you so.”
“That shall be as I choose or as heaven decrees,” responded Don Luis.
“What is there for you to choose or heaven to decree other than your agreeing to return? Nothing else is possible.”
The muledriver’s boy next to whom Don Luis was lying heard all of this conversation; he got up and went to tell Don Fernando and Cardenio and the others what had happened, for by this time everyone was dressed, and he told them how a man had called the boy Don, and about the words that had passed between them, and how they wanted him to return to his father’s house but the boy did not want to. And this, in addition to what they already knew about him, which was the beautiful voice that heaven had granted him, filled them all with a great desire to know in detail who he was and even to help him if anyone was forcing him to do something he did not wish to do, and so they went to the place where he was still talking and protesting to his servant.
At this moment Dorotea came out of her room, and behind her was a greatly perturbed Doña Clara; Dorotea called Cardenio aside and briefly told him the tale of the singer and Doña Clara, and Cardenio told her about the arrival of the servants who were looking for the boy, and he did not say this so quietly that Clara could not hear; this so agitated her that if Dorotea had not held her up, she would have fallen to the ground. Cardenio told Dorotea that she and the girl should return to their room and that he would attempt to resolve everything, and they did as he asked.
The four men who had come looking for Don Luis were all inside the inn and standing around him, trying to persuade him that he should return immediately, and without any delay, to console his father. He responded that under no circumstances could he do so until he had concluded a matter upon which his life, his honor, and his heart depended. Then the servants urged him more insistently, saying that under no circumstances would they return without him and that they would bring him back whether he wished it or not.
“That you will not do,” replied Don Luis, “unless you bring me back dead; but no matter how you take me, I shall be without life.”
By this time everyone in the inn had come to listen to the dispute, especially Cardenio, Don Fernando, his companions, the judge, the priest, the barber, and Don Quixote, who thought it was no longer necessary to guard the castle. Cardenio, since he already knew the boy’s story, asked those who wanted to take him what reason they had to take him against his will.
“What moves us,” responded one of the four servants, “is the desire to return life to his father, who is in danger of losing it because of this gentleman’s absence.”
At this, Don Luis said:
“There is no reason to tell everyone here my business; I am a free man, and I shall return if I wish to, and if I do not, none of you can force me to.”
“Reason will force your grace,” the man responded, “and if that’s not enough, we’ll do what we came here to do, and what we are obliged to do.”
“Let us hear what is at the bottom of this,” said the judge.
But the servant, who recognized him as his master’s neighbor, responded:
“Señor Judge, doesn’t your grace know this gentleman? He