Don Quixote_ Translation by Edith Grossman (HarperCollins) - Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra [484]
“Señor, under these cloths are wooden images carved in relief for an altarpiece that we’re erecting in our village; we carry them covered so they won’t be damaged, and on our shoulders so they won’t break.”
“If you would be so kind,” responded Don Quixote, “I should like very much to see them, for images that are carried with so much care undoubtedly are good.”
“Well, of course they are!” said another. “They cost enough: the truth is that every one of them costs more than fifty ducados; so that your grace can see the truth of this, just wait, and your grace will see with your own eyes.”
And he stood up, stopped eating, and went to remove the covering of the first image, which turned out to be St. George mounted on a horse, a serpent lying coiled at his feet, its mouth run through by a lance, all of it depicted with the customary ferocity. The entire image seemed to glitter like gold, as they say. When he saw it, Don Quixote said:
“This was one of the best knights errant the divine militia ever had: his name was Don St. George,1and he was also a protector of damsels. Let us see this next one.”
The man uncovered it, and it seemed to be St. Martin astride a horse as he divided his cape with the poor man; and as soon as he saw it, Don Quixote said:
“This knight was another Christian seeker of adventures, and I believe he was more generous than brave, as you can see, Sancho, for he is dividing his cape with the poor man and giving him half, and no doubt it must have been winter then; otherwise, he was so charitable he would have given him the entire cape.”
“That couldn’t have been the reason,” said Sancho, “but he must have been paying attention to the proverb that says: ‘For giving and keeping you need some brains.’”
Don Quixote laughed and asked them to remove another cloth, and beneath it was revealed the image of the patron saint of Spain on horseback, his sword stained with blood, riding down Moors and trampling on their heads; and when he saw it, Don Quixote said:
“This one certainly is a knight, a member of the squadrons of Christ; his name is St. James the Moorkiller, one of the most valiant saints and knights the world has ever had, and that heaven has now.”
Then they removed another cloth, and it covered the fall of St. Paul from his horse, with all the details that are usually depicted in images of his conversion. It looked so lifelike that one would say that Christ was speaking and Paul responding.
“This,” said Don Quixote, “was the greatest enemy the Church of God Our Lord had at the time, and the greatest defender it will ever have; a knight errant in life, and a steadfast saint in death, a tireless worker in the vineyard of the Lord, a teacher of peoples whose school was heaven and whose professor and master was Jesus Christ Himself.”
There were no more images, and so Don Quixote said they should be covered again, and he told the men who were carrying them:
“Brothers, I take it as a good omen that I have seen what I have seen here, because these saints and knights professed what I profess, which is the practice of arms; the difference, however, between me and them is that they were saints and fought in the divine manner, and I am a sinner and fight in the human manner. They conquered heaven by force of arms, for ‘the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,’1 and so far I do not know what I am conquering by the force of my labors, but if my Dulcinea of Toboso were to be free of the ills she is suffering, thereby improving my fortune and strengthening my judgment, it might be that my feet would travel a better road than the one I follow now.”
“May God hear and sin be deaf,” said Sancho.
The men were as baffled by Don Quixote’s appearance as they were by his words,