conditions of the passage will be fully complied
with."

"But then, senor governor," replied the querist, "the man will have to
be divided into two parts; and if he is divided, of course he will
die; and so none of the requirements of the law will be carried out,
and it is absolutely necessary to comply with it."

"Look here, my good sir," said Sancho; "either I'm a numskull or else
there is the same reason for this passenger dying as for his living
and passing over the bridge; for if the truth saves him, the falsehood
equally condemns him; and that being the case, it is my opinion you
should say to the gentlemen who sent you to me, that as the arguments
for condemning him and for absolving him are exactly balanced, they
should let him pass freely, as it is always more praiseworthy to do
good than to do evil; this I would give signed with my name if I knew
how to sign; and what I have said in this case is not out of my own
head, but one of the many precepts my master Don Quixote gave me the
night before I left to become governor of this island, that came into
my mind, and it was this: that when there was any doubt about the
justice of a case I should lean to mercy; and it is God's will that I
should recollect it now, for it fits this case as if it was made for
it."

"That is true," said the major-domo; "and I maintain that Lycurgus
himself, who gave laws to the Lacedaemonians, could not have pronounced
a better decision than the great Panza has given; let the morning's
audience close with this, and I will see that the senor governor has
dinner entirely to his liking."

"That's all I ask for--fair play," said Sancho; "give me my dinner,
and then let it rain cases and questions on me, and I'll dispatch them
in a twinkling."

The major-domo kept his word, for he felt it against his conscience to
kill so wise a governor by hunger; particularly as he intended to have
done with him that same night, playing off the last joke he was
commissioned to practice upon him.

It came to pass then, that after he had dined that day in opposition
to the rules and aphorisms of Doctor Tirteafuera, as they were taking
away the cloth there came a courier with a letter from Don Quixote for
the governor. Sancho ordered the secretary to read it to himself, and
if there was nothing in it that demanded secrecy, to read it aloud.
The secretary did so, and after he had skimmed the contents he said,
"It may well be read aloud, for what Senor