OF THE END OF THE NOTABLE ADVENTURE OF THE OFFICERS OF THE HOLY
BROTHERHOOD; AND OF THE GREAT FEROCITY OF OUR WORTHY KNIGHT, DON QUIXOTE
While Don Quixote was talking in this strain, the
curate was endeavouring to persuade the officers that
he was out of his senses, as they might perceive by
his deeds and his words, and that they need not press
the matter any further, for even if they arrested
him and carried him off, they would have to release
him by-and-by as a madman; to which the holder of
the warrant replied that he had nothing to do with
inquiring into Don Quixote’s madness, but only
to execute his superior’s orders, and that once
taken they might let him go three hundred times if
they liked.
“For all that,” said the curate, “you
must not take him away this time, nor will he, it
is my opinion, let himself be taken away.”
In short, the curate used such arguments, and Don
Quixote did such mad things, that the officers would
have been more mad than he was if they had not perceived
his want of wits, and so they thought it best to allow
themselves to be pacified, and even to act as peacemakers
between the barber and Sancho Panza, who still continued
their altercation with much bitterness. In the
end they, as officers of justice, settled the question
by arbitration in such a manner that both sides were,
if not perfectly contented, at least to some extent
satisfied; for they changed the pack-saddles, but
not the girths or head-stalls; and as to Mambrino’s
helmet, the curate, under the rose and without Don
Quixote’s knowing it, paid eight reals for the
basin, and the barber executed a full receipt and
engagement to make no further demand then or thenceforth
for evermore, amen. These two disputes, which
were the most important and gravest, being settled,
it only remained for the servants of Don Luis to consent
that three of them should return while one was left
to accompany him whither Don Fernando desired to take
him; and good luck and better fortune, having already
begun to solve difficulties and remove obstructions
in favour of the lovers and warriors of the inn, were
pleased to persevere and bring everything to a happy
issue; for the servants agreed to do as Don Luis wished;
which gave Dona Clara such happiness that no one could
have looked into her face just then without seeing
the joy of her heart. Zoraida, though she did
not fully comprehend all she saw, was grave or gay
without knowing why, as she watched and studied the
various countenances, but particularly her Spaniard’s,
whom she followed with her eyes and clung to with
her soul. The gift and compensation which the
curate gave the barber had not escaped the landlord’s
notice, and he demanded Don Quixote’s reckoning,
together with the amount of the damage to his wine-skins,
and the loss of his wine, swearing that neither Rocinante
nor Sancho’s ass should leave the inn until
