Quixote, "for it is displeasing to me; I have already pardoned thee for that, and thou knowest the common saying, 'For a fresh sin a fresh penance.'"[1]
While this was going on they saw coming along the road they were following a man mounted on an ass, who when he came close seemed to be a gypsy; but Sancho Panza, whose eyes and heart were there wherever he saw asses, no sooner beheld the man than he knew him to be Gines de Pasamonte; and by the thread of the gypsy he got at the ball, his ass,[2] for it was, in fact, Dapple that carried Pasamonte, who to escape recognition and to sell the ass had disguised himself as a gypsy, being able to speak the gypsy language, and many more, as well as if they were his own. Sancho saw him and recognized him, and the instant he did so he shouted to him, "Ginesillo, you thief, give up my treasure, release my life, embarrass thyself not with my repose, quit my ass, leave my delight, be off, rip, get thee gone, thief, and give up what is not thine."
There was no necessity for so many words or objurgations, for at the first one Gines jumped down, and at a trot like racing speed made off and got clear of them all. Sancho hastened to his Dapple, and embracing him he said, "How hast thou fared, my blessing, Dapple of my eyes, my comrade?" all the while kissing him and caressing him as if he were a human being. The ass held his peace, and let himself be kissed and caressed by Sancho without answering a single word. They all came up and congratulated him on having found Dapple, Don Quixote especially, who told him that notwithstanding this he would not cancel the order for the three ass-colts, for which Sancho thanked him.
While the two had been going along conversing in this fashion, the curate observed to Dorothea that she had shown great cleverness, as well in the story itself as in its conciseness, and the resemblance it bore to those of the books of chivalry. She said that she had many times amused herself reading them; but that she did not know the situation of the
- ↑ Prov. 177.
- ↑ A reference to the proverb Por el hilo se saca el ovillo (114). This passage down to "Sancho thanked him," like that describing the theft of the ass, was first inserted in Juan de la Cuseta's second edition. This, however, seems to be Cervantes' own work, as it agrees with c. iv. Pt. II. The printer, no doubt, did not see its relevancy, and therefore omitted it in the first edition.
