About the things that happened to Sancho on the road and other things that cannot be surpassed.
BECAUSE HE’d stopped to visit with Ricote, Sancho didn’t have enough time to get back to the duke’s castle that day—although he was just half a league away—when a very dark and cloudy night overtook him. But since it was summer, it didn’t bother him very much, so he veered off the road intending to wait for morning. As his ill-fated luck would have it, when he was looking for a place to get comfortable, both he and the grey fell into a deep and very dark pit among some ruined buildings, and as he fell, he commended himself to God with all his heart, fearing he wouldn’t stop until he reached the depths of the abyss; but it wasn’t to be so, because at three fathoms the donkey hit the bottom. Sancho found himself still on top and without any injury or harm. He felt his whole body and held his breath to see if he was in one piece or punctured somewhere, and, finding himself in good shape, in one piece, and with all his health, he couldn’t thank God, our Lord, sufficiently for the favor He’d done him, because he doubtless thought that he’d been smashed into a thousand pieces. He also felt the walls of the pit with his hands to see if there was a way he could get out without anyone’s help. But he found them all smooth and without any place to grab on to, and this made him very upset, especially when he heard the grey complain piteously and in such pain—and it was no exaggeration—nor did he lament without cause since in truth he wasn’t in a very good state.
“Ay!” said Sancho Panza just then, “what unexpected things happen at every step to those of us who live in this world! Who would have thought that the one who was enthroned as governor of an ínsula yesterday, giving orders to his servants and vassals, today would find himself buried in a pit, with no one—neither a servant nor a vassal—to lend a hand or come to his aid? Here we will perish of hunger, my donkey and I, unless we die first—he from his bruises and I from my sorrows.
“I probably won’t be near as lucky as my master was when he went down into that enchanted Cave of Montesinos, where he found people to entertain him better than at home—like going to a freshly made bed and a table laid. There he saw beautiful and peaceful visions, and here I’ll see—or I think I’ll see—toads and snakes. Woe is me! Where have my folly and fantasy led me? They’ll take my bones from here when heaven is pleased for them to find me, gnawed, white, and scraped, and those of my good grey with them; and maybe that’s how they’ll be able to tell who we are—at least those who have heard that Sancho Panza was never separated from his donkey, nor his donkey from Sancho Panza. Once again I say, wretched us, for our ill-luck wouldn’t let us die at home, surrounded by our family, and even if no one could remedy our misfortune, at least someone would be there to mourn us, and in the last moment of our passing on, they would close our eyes!
“Oh, my companion and friend, how poorly I’ve rewarded you for your good service! Forgive me and ask Fortune the best way you know how, to deliver us from this wretched pass in which we find ourselves. And if we can get out, I promise to put a crown of laurel on your head so that you’ll appear to be a poet laureate, and I also promise to double your feed.”
In this way, Sancho Panza lamented and his donkey listened to him and didn’t say a word back, such was the bad state and anguish in which the poor creature found himself. Finally, having spent the whole night in wretched complaints and lamentations, the day came, and through its light Sancho saw that it was impossible to extricate himself from that pit without help, and he began to wail and shout in case someone might hear him. But all his cries were given in the wilderness, since in that whole area there was no one who could hear him; and then he gave himself up for dead. The grey lay on his back and Sancho Panza helped him stand up, though he could hardly stay upright. And taking out of the packsaddle—which had suffered the same misfortune of the fall—a piece of bread, he gave it to his donkey, which didn’t taste bad to him, and Sancho said to him as if he understood: “«With bread all sorrows are lessened».”
Just then, he noticed that there was a hole on one side of the pit through which a person could pass, if he bent over and hunched up. Sancho Panza went over, crouched down, and went into it, and saw that there was a spacious area on the other side. He could see this because through what might be called a ceiling, a ray of sunlight came through that illuminated the area. He could see that it extended into another large area, and when he realized that, he went back to where the donkey was, and with a stone began to dig the earth out around the hole so that in a short time he’d enlarged it so that the donkey could pass through easily; so he took the halter and began to walk through that grotto to see if there was an exit on the other side. Sometimes he walked in the dark and sometimes without light, but never without fear.
“God Almighty help me!” he said to himself. “This misadventure for me would better be an adventure for my master don Quixote. He certainly would take these depths and dungeons for flowering gardens, and for the palaces of Galiana, and would expect to get out from this darkness and peril to some flowering meadow. But I, unfortunate man that I am, lacking in advice and poor in spirit, at every step, I think suddenly another pit, deeper than this one, will open and swallow me up. «I welcome misfortune if it comes alone».”
In this way, and with these thoughts, it seemed him that he must have traveled more than half a league, at the end of which he saw a blurred light which seemed to be from the sun that came in from somewhere, and this seemed to indicate that what he had thought to be the road to the other life had an opening at the end.
Here Cide Hamete Benengeli leaves him and goes back to dealing with don Quixote, who was exhilarated and joyful as he waited for the battle with the thief of the honor of doña Rodríguez’s daughter, for whom he planned to redress the wrong and injury that had been done to her in such a foul way.
It happened, then, that when he was out one morning to train and practice for what he had to do in the battle he was to engage in the following day, lunging this way and attacking that way with Rocinante, he almost drove his horse into a pit that, if he hadn’t pulled up short, he would have certainly tumbled into. But he did stop his horse in time and he didn’t fall in. He went a few steps forward without dismounting and looked into the depths, and while he was looking in, he heard loud shouts coming from inside, and listening attentively, he could perceive and understand that the one who was shouting said: “Hello up there! Is there some Christian who can hear me, or some charitable knight who will take pity on a sinner buried alive, or an unfortunate unbegoverned governor?”
It seemed to don Quixote that he was hearing Sancho Panza’s voice, which left him stunned and astonished, and raising his voice as loud as he could, he said: “Who is down there? Who is wailing?”
“Who else could it be, and who else would be wailing,” the voice responded, “but the defeated Sancho Panza, governor—because of his sins and bad luck—of the ínsula Barataria, squire of the famous knight don Quixote de La Mancha?”
When don Quixote heard this, his wonder doubled, and his astonishment grew, since he came to think that Sancho Panza must be dead, and his soul must be in purgatory. And with this in mind he said: “I beseech you by all that I can beseech you as a Catholic Christian to tell me who you are, and if you are a soul in torment, tell me what I can do for you. Since my profession is to favor and succor needy people, it extends to succoring and helping those needy people in the other world who cannot help themselves.”
“In that case,” the voice responded, “your grace who is speaking to me must be my master don Quixote de La Mancha, and even your voice belongs to none other, without a doubt.”
“I am don Quixote,” replied don Quixote, “the one whose profession it is to succor and help the living and the dead with their needs. For this reason, tell me who you are. You’ve astonished me. If you’re my squire Sancho Panza, and you’ve died, since the devils haven’t carried you off and by the grace of God you’re in purgatory, our Holy Mother the Roman Catholic Church has services to deliver you from the torment you’re in, and I’ll go to the Church and plead for you with all the resources that I have. For this reason, tell me who you are.”
“I swear,” the voices answered, “on whose ever birth you may want me to swear, señor don Quixote de La Mancha, that I’m your squire Sancho Panza, and I’ve never died in all the days of my life, but rather, having left my government for things and reasons that will require time to explain, last night I fell into this pit where I stand, the grey with me, and he won’t let me lie, because—as further proof—he’s here with me.”
And just then the donkey seemed to understand what Sancho said and instantly began to bray so loudly that the whole cave reverberated.
“Excellent witness!” said don Quixote. “I recognize the bray as if I had given birth to it, and I hear your voice, Sancho mío. Wait for me while I go to the duke’s castle nearby, and I’ll bring someone to take you out of this pit where your sins must have led you.”
“Go your grace,” said Sancho, “and come back soon, because by the only true God, I can’t stand being buried alive here, and I’m dying of fear.”
Don Quixote left him and went to the castle to tell the duke and duchess about what happened to Sancho Panza, which astonished them no little, although they realized that he must have fallen into the far end of the cave that had been there from time immemorial. But they couldn’t figure out how he’d left his government without their having found out in advance. Finally, as they say, «they took rope and tackle», and with the effort of many people and with a lot of work they lifted the grey and Sancho Panza from that darkness into the light of day.
A student happened to see him and said: “In this way all bad governors should come out of their governments, just like this one coming out of the depths of the abyss, dying of hunger, pale, and without a blanca, the way I look at it.”
Sancho heard what had been said and replied: “Only eight or ten days ago, brother gossip, I went to govern the ínsula they gave me, during which time I never saw my stomach full even for an hour. Doctors pursued me and enemies have crunched my bones. I’ve had no time to collect bribes or fees, and since this is so, as it is, in my opinion, I didn’t deserve to leave it this way. But «man proposes and God disposes», and God knows best what is good for every man and «as the time, so the tactics», and «let no one say ‘I’ll not drink of that water’» and «where you expect bacon there aren’t any stakes» and God understands me, and that’s enough and I’ll say no more, even though I could.”
“Don’t get angry, Sancho, nor let yourself be grieved at what you hear, or there’ll be no end of it. Come with a clear conscience and let them say what they want, and it’s just as hard to tie the tongues of backbiters as it is to «put up doors in the countryside». If the governor leaves office rich they’ll say he was a thief; and if he leaves it poor, he’s a numbskull and an idiot.”
“I’ll bet,” responded Sancho, “that this time they’ll consider me more a dummy than a thief.”
While they were conversing, don Quixote and Sancho arrived at the castle—surrounded by boys and many other people—where the duke and duchess were waiting for them in a gallery. Sancho refused to go up to see them until he had first put the grey in the stable—because he said that he’d spent a bad night in that “lodging”—and then he went up to see his masters, before whom he got on his knees and said: “I, señores, because your greatnesses wanted it, and not because I deserved it, went to govern your ínsula Barataria, in which «I entered naked and naked I am, I neither lose not gain». If I governed well or poorly, there are witnesses who will say what they want. I’ve clarified doubts, judged lawsuits, always dying of hunger, since that’s what doctor Pedro Recio, native of Tirteafuera, the physician of the ínsula and specifically to the governor, wanted. Enemies attacked us by night; it was tough for a while, but the people of the ínsula say that we came out on top because of the might of my arm. May God give them as much health as they are truthful.
“In short, during this time I’ve weighed the duties and obligations that being a governor takes with it, and I’ve discovered on my own that I can’t bear the burden of them, my ribs can’t stand them, and they’re not a weight I would like to carry nor are they arrows for my quiver. And so, before the government could hit me broadside, I hit the government broadside, and yesterday morning I left the ínsula as I found it, with the same streets, houses, and roofs that it had when I went to it. I asked no one for a loan, nor did I receive any profit, and although I planned to make some useful laws, I made none at all, fearful that they wouldn’t be observed, and that’s the same thing as not making them.
“I left, as I say, the ínsula, without any retinue other than my grey. I fell into a pit and went through it until this morning, when, with the light of day, I saw a way out, but not such an easy one, and if heaven hadn’t sent me my master don Quixote, I would have stayed there until the end of the world. So, mis señores duke and duchess, here’s your governor Sancho Panza, who has learned in the ten days that he had his government that he wouldn’t give anything to be a governor not only of an ínsula, but also of the whole world. And with this idea in mind, kissing your graces’ feet and imitating the game boys play in which they say: «you leap over then give me one», I give a leap over the government and I go back to serving my master, don Quixote. Because, although I eat my bread with some trepidation, at least I get full, and as far as I’m concerned, if I’m full, it’s all the same to me if it’s with carrots or partridges.”
With this Sancho ended his long speech, and don Quixote was always uneasy fearing that he would say thousands of foolish remarks, and when he saw him finish with so few, he gave thanks to heaven in his heart, and the duke embraced Sancho and told him that he was very sorry that he’d left his government so soon. But he would arrange for Sancho to be given another office on his estate with less responsibility and greater profit. The duchess embraced him as well, and ordered that he be very well treated since he looked like he was badly beaten and worse abused.