"Very true," said Samson, "and good Sancho Panza's view of thesecases is quite
right."
"Sirs, not so fast," said Don Quixote, "'in last year's neststhere are no birds
this year.' I was mad, now I am in my senses; I wasDon Quixote of La Mancha, I am
now, as I said, Alonso Quixano theGood; and may my repentance and sincerity restore
me to the esteem youused to have for me; and now let Master Notary proceed.
"Item, I leave all my property absolutely to Antonia Quixana myniece, here present,
after all has been deducted from the mostavailable portion of it that may be required
to satisfy the bequests Ihave made. And the first disbursement I desire to be made
is thepayment of the wages I owe for the time my housekeeper has servedme, with
twenty ducats, over and above, for a gown. The curate and thebachelor Samson Carrasco,
now present, I appoint my executors.
"Item, it is my wish that if Antonia Quixana, my niece, desires tomarry, she
shall marry a man of whom it shall be first of allascertained by information taken
that he does not know what books ofchivalry are; and if it should be proved that
he does, and if, inspite of this, my niece insists upon marrying him, and does marry
him,then that she shall forfeit the whole of what I have left her, whichmy executors
shall devote to works of charity as they please.
"Item, I entreat the aforesaid gentlemen my executors, that, ifany happy chance
should lead them to discover the author who is saidto have written a history now
going about under the title of 'SecondPart of the Achievements of Don Quixote of
La Mancha,' they beg of himon my behalf as earnestly as they can to forgive me for
having been,without intending it, the cause of his writing so many and suchmonstrous
absurdities as he has written in it; for I am leaving theworld with a feeling of
compunction at having provoked him to writethem."
With this he closed his will, and a faintness coming over him hestretched himself
out at full length on the bed. All were in a flutterand made haste to relieve him,
and during the three days he livedafter that on which he made his will he fainted
away very often. Thehouse was all in confusion; but still the niece ate and thehousekeeper
drank and Sancho Panza enjoyed himself; for inheritingproperty wipes out or softens
down in the heir the feeling of griefthe dead man might be expected to leave behind
him.
At last Don Quixote's end came, after he had received all thesacraments, and
had in full and forcible terms expressed hisdetestation of books of chivalry. The
notary was there at the time,and he said that in no book of chivalry had he ever
read of anyknight-errant dying in his bed so calmly and so like a Christian asDon
Quixote, who amid the tears and lamentations of all presentyielded up his spirit,
that is to say died. On perceiving it thecurate begged the notary to bear witness
that Alonso Quixano the Good,commonly called Don Quixote of La Mancha, had passed
away from thispresent life, and died naturally; and said he desired this testimonyin
order to remove the possibility of any other author save CideHamete Benengeli bringing
him to life again falsely and makinginterminable stories out of his achievements.
Such was the end of the Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha, whosevillage Cide Hamete
would not indicate precisely, in order to leaveall the towns and villages of La
Mancha to contend among themselvesfor the right to adopt him and claim him as a
son, as the seven citiesof Greece contended for Homer. The lamentations of Sancho
and theniece and housekeeper are omitted here, as well as the new epitaphsupon his
tomb; Samson Carrasco, however, put the following lines:
A doughty gentleman lies here;A stranger all his life to fear;Nor in his death
could Death prevail,In that last hour, to make him quail.He for the world but little
cared;And at his feats the world was scared;A crazy man his life he passed,But in
his senses died at last.
And said most sage Cide Hamete to his pen, "Rest here, hung up bythis brass wire,
upon this shelf, O my pen, whether of skilful make orclumsy cut I know not; here
shalt thou remain long ages hence,unless presumptuous or malignant story-tellers
take thee down toprofane thee. But ere they touch thee warn them, and, as best thoucanst,
say to them:
Hold off! ye weaklings; hold your hands!Adventure it let none,For this emprise,
my lord the king,Was meant for me alone.
For me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him; it was his to act,mine to write;
we two together make but one, notwithstanding and inspite of that pretended Tordesillesque
writer who has ventured orwould venture with his great, coarse, ill-trimmed ostrich
quill towrite the achievements of my valiant knight;- no burden for hisshoulders,
nor subject for his frozen wit: whom, if perchance thoushouldst come to know him,
thou shalt warn to leave at rest where theylie the weary mouldering bones of Don
Quixote, and not to attempt tocarry him off, in opposition to all the privileges
of death, to OldCastile, making him rise from the grave where in reality and truthhe
lies stretched at full length, powerless to make any thirdexpedition or new sally;
for the two that he has already made, so muchto the enjoyment and approval of everybody
to whom they have becomeknown, in this as well as in foreign countries, are quite
sufficientfor the purpose of turning into ridicule the whole of those made bythe
whole set of the knights-errant; and so doing shalt thou dischargethy Christian
calling, giving good counsel to one that bearsill-will to thee. And I shall remain
satisfied, and proud to have beenthe first who has ever enjoyed the fruit of his
writings as fully ashe could desire; for my desire has been no other than to deliverover
to the detestation of mankind the false and foolish tales ofthe books of chivalry,
which, thanks to that of my true Don Quixote,are even now tottering, and doubtless
doomed to fall for ever.Farewell."
End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes
Project Gutenberg's Etext of Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes#1 in our series
by CervantesTranslated by John Ormsby
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Don Quixote
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Translated by John Ormsby
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