FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286  
287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   >>   >|  
okens of those same goats, and you'll see by that whether I'm telling the truth or not." "Tell us them then, Sancho," said the duchess. "Two of them," said Sancho, "are green, two blood-red, two blue, and one a mixture of all colours." "An odd sort of goat, that," said the duke; "in this earthly region of ours we have no such colours; I mean goats of such colours." "That's very plain," said Sancho; "of course there must be a difference between the goats of heaven and the goats of the earth." "Tell me, Sancho," said the duke, "did you see any he-goat among those goats?" "No, senor," said Sancho; "but I have heard say that none ever passed the horns of the moon." They did not care to ask him anything more about his journey, for they saw he was in the vein to go rambling all over the heavens giving an account of everything that went on there, without having ever stirred from the garden. Such, in short, was the end of the adventure of the Distressed Duenna, which gave the duke and duchess laughing matter not only for the time being, but for all their lives, and Sancho something to talk about for ages, if he lived so long; but Don Quixote, coming close to his ear, said to him, "Sancho, as you would have us believe what you saw in heaven, I require you to believe me as to what I saw in the cave of Montesinos; I say no more." CHAPTER XLII. OF THE COUNSELS WHICH DON QUIXOTE GAVE SANCHO PANZA BEFORE HE SET OUT TO GOVERN THE ISLAND, TOGETHER WITH OTHER WELL-CONSIDERED MATTERS The duke and duchess were so well pleased with the successful and droll result of the adventure of the Distressed One, that they resolved to carry on the joke, seeing what a fit subject they had to deal with for making it all pass for reality. So having laid their plans and given instructions to their servants and vassals how to behave to Sancho in his government of the promised island, the next day, that following Clavileno's flight, the duke told Sancho to prepare and get ready to go and be governor, for his islanders were already looking out for him as for the showers of May. Sancho made him an obeisance, and said, "Ever since I came down from heaven, and from the top of it beheld the earth, and saw how little it is, the great desire I had to be a governor has been partly cooled in me; for what is there grand in being ruler on a grain of mustard seed, or what dignity or authority in governing half a dozen men about as big
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286  
287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Sancho

 

colours

 
duchess
 

heaven

 
governor
 

Distressed

 

adventure

 
dignity
 

authority

 

successful


result

 

resolved

 

making

 
mustard
 

subject

 

GOVERN

 
ISLAND
 

TOGETHER

 

BEFORE

 

reality


pleased
 

MATTERS

 
CONSIDERED
 
governing
 

SANCHO

 
prepare
 

Clavileno

 

flight

 

showers

 

obeisance


islanders

 

beheld

 

instructions

 
servants
 

vassals

 

cooled

 

behave

 

promised

 

island

 

government


desire

 

partly

 
difference
 

passed

 

region

 

earthly

 

telling

 

mixture

 

journey

 
Quixote