and calling his secretary, shut himself in with him in his own room,
and without putting it off any longer set about answering his master
Don Quixote at once; and he bade the secretary write down what he told
him, without adding or suppressing anything, which he did; and the
answer was to the following effect.

SANCHO PANZA'S LETTER TO DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA

"The pressure of business is so great upon me that I have no time to
scratch my head or even to cut my nails; and I have them so long--God
send a remedy for it. I say this, master of my soul, that you may not
be surprised if I have not until now sent you word of how I fare, well
or ill, in this government, in which I am suffering more hunger than
when we two were wandering through the woods and wastes.

"My lord the duke wrote to me the other day to warn me that certain
spies had got into this island to kill me: but up to the present I
have not found out any except a certain doctor who receives a salary
in this town for killing all the governors that come here; he is
called Doctor Pedro Recio, and is from Tirteafuera; so you see what a
name he has to make me dread dying under his hands. This doctor says
of himself that he does not cure diseases when there are any, but
prevents them coming, and the medicines he uses are diet and more
diet, until he brings one down to bare bones; as if leanness was not
worse than fever.

"In short, he is killing me with hunger, and I am dying myself of
vexation: for when I thought I was coming to this government to get my
meat hot and my drink cool, and take my ease between holland sheets on
feather-beds, I find I have come to do penance as if I was a hermit;
and as I don't do it willingly, I suspect that in the end the Devil
will carry me off.

"So far I have not handled any dues or taken any bribes, and I don't
know what to think of it: for here they tell me that the governors
that come to this island, before entering it, have plenty of money
either given to them or lent to them by the people of the town; and
that this is the usual custom, not only here but with all who enter
upon governments.

"Last night going the rounds I came upon a fair damsel in man's
clothes, and a brother of hers dressed as a woman: my head carver has
fallen in love with the girl, and has in his own mind chosen her for a
wife, so he says, and I have chosen the youth for a son-in-law; to-day
we are going to explain our intentions to the fath