第84章 CHAPTER XXXIV(1)

BEFORE setting out from Seville we had had our Foreign Office passports duly VISED. Our profession was given as that of travelling artists, and the VISE included the permission to carry arms. More than once the sight of our pistols caused us to be stopped by the CARABINEROS. On one occasion these road-guards disputed the wording of the VISE. They protested that 'armas' meant 'escopetas,' not pistols, which were forbidden. Cayley indignantly retorted, 'Nothing is forbidden to Englishmen. Besides, it is specified in our passports that we are 'personas de toda confianza,' which checkmated them.

We both sketched, and passed ourselves off as 'retratistas'

(portrait painters), and did a small business in this way - rather in the shape of caricatures, I fear, but which gave much satisfaction. We charged one peseta (seven-pence), or two, a head, according to the means of the sitter. The fiction that we were earning our bread wholesomely tended to moderate the charge for it.

Passing through the land of Don Quixote's exploits, we reverentially visited any known spot which these had rendered famous. Amongst such was the VENTA of Quesada, from which, or from Quixada, as some conjecture, the knight derived his surname. It was here, attracted by its castellated style, and by two 'ladies of pleasure' at its door - whose virginity he at once offered to defend, that he spent the night of his first sally. It was here that, in his shirt, he kept guard till morning over the armour he had laid by the well. It was here that, with his spear, he broke the head of the carrier whom he took for another knight bent on the rape of the virgin princesses committed to his charge. Here, too, it was that the host of the VENTA dubbed him with the coveted knighthood which qualified him for his noble deeds.

To Quesada we wended our way. We asked the Senor Huesped whether he knew anything of the history of his VENTA. Was it not very ancient?

'Oh no, it was quite modern. But on the site of it had stood a fine VENTA which was burnt down at the time of the war.'

'An old building?'

'Yes, indeed! A COSA DE SIEMPRE - thing of always. Nothing, was left of it now but that well, and the stone trough.'

These bore marks of antiquity, and were doubtless as the gallant knight had left them. Curiously, too, there were remains of an outhouse with a crenellated parapet, suggestive enough of a castle.

From Quesada we rode to Argamasilla del Alba, where Cervantes was imprisoned, and where the First Part of Don Quixote was written.

In his Life of Cervantes, Don Gregorio Mayano throws some doubt upon this. Speaking of the attacks of his contemporary, the 'Aragonian,' Don Gregorio writes (I give Ozell's translation): 'As for this scandalous fellow's saying that Cervantes wrote his First Part of "Don Quixote" in a prison, and that that might make it so dull and incorrect, Cervantes did not think fit to give any answer concerning his being imprisoned, perhaps to avoid giving offence to the ministers of justice; for certainly his imprisonment must not have been ignominious, since Cervantes himself voluntarily mentions it in his Preface to the First Part of "Don Quixote."'

This reasoning, however, does not seem conclusive; for the only reference to the subject in the preface is as follows:

'What could my sterile and uncultivated genius produce but the history of a child, meagre, adust, and whimsical, full of various wild imaginations never thought of before; like one you may suppose born in a prison, where every inconvenience keeps its residence, and every dismal sound its habitation?'

We took up our quarters in the little town at the 'Posada de la Mina.' While our OLLA was being prepared; we asked the hostess whether she had ever heard of the celebrated Don Miguel de Cervantes, who had been imprisoned there? (I will quote Cayley).

'No, Senores; I think I have heard of one Cervantes, but he does not live here at present.'

'Do you know anything of Don Quixote?'

'Oh, yes. He was a great CABALLERO, who lived here some years ago. His house is over the way, on the other side of the PLAZA, with the arms over the door. The father of the Alcalde is the oldest man in the PUEBLO; perhaps he may remember him.'

We were amused at his hero's fame outliving that of the author. But is it not so with others - the writers of the Book of Job, of the Pentateuch, and perhaps, too, of the 'Iliad,' if not of the 'Odyssey'?

But, to let Cayley speak:

'While we were undressing to go to bed, three gentlemen were announced and shown in. We begged them to be seated. . . .

We sat opposite on the ends of our respective beds to hear what they might have to communicate. A venerable old man opened the conference.

'"We have understood, gentlemen, that you have come hither seeking for information respecting the famous Don Quixote, and we have come to give you such information as we may; but, perhaps you will understand me better if I speak in Latin."

'"We have learnt the Latin at our schools, but are more accustomed to converse in Castilian; pray proceed."

'"I am the Medico of the place, an old man, as you see; and what little I know has reached me by tradition. It is reported that Cervantes was paying his addresses to a young lady, whose name was Quijana or Quijada. The Alcalde, disapproving of the suit, put him into a dungeon under his house, and kept him there a year. Once he escaped and fled, but he was taken in Toboso, and brought back. Cervantes wrote 'Don Quixote' as a satire on the Alcalde, who was a very proud man, full of chivalresque ideas. You can see the dungeon to-morrow; but you should see the BATANES (water-mills) of the Guadiana, whose 'golpear' so terrified Sancho Panza. They are at about three leagues distance."'