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By Root 803 0

’s the way it should be; anything else is going around on all fours. You’re the wife of a governor, and nobody’s going to talk about you behind your back! I’m sending you a green hunting tunic that my lady the duchess gave me; make it into a skirt and bodice for our daughter. I’ve heard in this land that Don Quixote, my master, is a sane madman and an amusing fool, and that I’m just as good as he is. We’ve been in the Cave of Montesinos, and the wise Merlin has picked me for the disenchantment of Dulcinea of Toboso, who’s called Aldonza Lorenzo there where you are; with the three thousand and three hundred lashes, less five, that I’ll give myself, she’ll be as disenchanted as the mother who bore her. Don’t tell anybody about this, because if you tell your business in public, some will say it’s white, and others that it’s black. In a few days I’ll leave for the governorship, and I’m going there with a real desire to make money because I’ve been told that all new governors have this same desire; I’ll see how things are there and let you know whether or not you should come to be with me. The gray is fine and sends you his best; I don’t plan to leave him even if they make me Grand Turk. My lady the duchess kisses your hands a thousand times; send her back two thousand, because there’s nothing that costs less or is cheaper, as my master says, than good manners. It was not God’s will to grant me another case with another hundred escudos in it, like before, but don’t feel bad about that, Teresa; the man who sounds the alarm is safe, and it’ll all come out in the wash of the governorship; what does make me very sad is that they’ve told me that if I try to take something away from it, I’ll go hungry afterwards, and if that’s true it won’t be very cheap for me, though the maimed and wounded already have their soft job in the alms they beg; so one way or another, you’ll be rich and have good luck. God grant you that, if He can, and keep me safe to serve you. From this castle, on the twentieth of July, 1614.

Your husband the governor,

SANCHO PANZA

As soon as the duchess finished reading the letter, she said to Sancho:

“There are two things in which the good governor is slightly mistaken: one, when he says or implies that this governorship has been given to him in exchange for the lashes that he’ll give himself, when he knows and cannot deny that when my lord the duke promised it to him, nobody even dreamed there were lashes in the world; the other is that he shows himself to be very greedy, and I wouldn’t want it to be oregano;3 greed rips the sack, and a greedy governor dispenses unjust justice.”

“I didn’t mean it that way, Señora,” responded Sancho, “and if your grace thinks the letter isn’t the way it should be, there’s nothing to do but tear it up and make a new one, though it may be even worse if it’s left up to my poor wits.”

“No, no,” replied the duchess, “this is fine, and I want the duke to see it.”

Having said this, they went out to a garden where they were to have dinner that day. The duchess showed Sancho’s letter to the duke, who derived a good deal of pleasure from it. They ate, and after the table had been cleared, and after amusing themselves for some time with Sancho’s delicious talk, they suddenly heard the mournful sound of a fife and a harsh, strident drum. Everyone seemed startled by the confused, martial, and melancholy harmony, especially Don Quixote, who in his agitation could barely keep his seat; regarding Sancho, we need say only that fear carried him to his customary refuge, which was the side or the skirts of the duchess, because, really and truly, the sound they heard was extremely sad and melancholy.

And with all of them in this state of perplexity, they saw two men dressed in mourning come into the garden, their robes so long and flowing that they trailed along the ground; they were playing two large drums that were also covered in black. Beside them a man played the fife, as pitch black and dark as the rest. Following the three men was a personage with a gigantic body, cloaked, rather than