_IV.--Sancho Governs His Island_

Nothing short of a prison cell could keep Don Quixote from his sallies,
and soon he was on the road again, accompanied by his faithful squire.
To Sancho, who believed his master mad, and whose chief aim in life was
filling his own stomach, these adventures of the Don had but one end,
the governorship of the promised island. While he thought the knight
mad, he believed in him; and while he was selfish, he loved his master,
as the tale tells.

It chanced that one day they came upon a frolicsome duke and duchess who
had heard of their adventures, and who instantly set themselves to enjoy
so rare a sport as that offered by the entertainment of the knight and
his squire. The Don was invited to the duke's castle as a mighty hero,
and there treated with all possible honour; but some tricks were played
upon him which were certainly unworthy of the duke's courtesy.
Nevertheless, this visit had the happiest culmination, since it was from
the hands of the duke that Sancho at last received his governorship.
Making pretence that a certain town on his estate, named Barataria, was
an island, the duke dispatched Sancho to govern it; and after an
affecting farewell with his master, who gave him the wisest possible
advice on the subject of statecraft, Sancho set out in a glittering
cavalcade to take up his governorship, with his beloved Dapple led
behind.

After a magnificent entry into the city, Sancho Panza was called upon to
give judgment in certain teasing disputes, and this he did with such wit
and such wholesome commonsense that he delighted all who heard him.
Well-pleased with himself, he sat down in a grand hall to a solitary
banquet, with a physician standing by his side. No sooner had Sancho
tasted a dish than the physician touched it with a wand, and a page bore
it swiftly away. At first Sancho was confounded by this interference
with his appetite, but presently he grew bold and expostulated;
whereupon the physician said that his mission was to overlook the
governor's health, and to see that he ate nothing which was prejudicial
to his physical well-being, since the happiness of the state depended
upon the health of its governor. Sancho bore it for some time, but at
length, starting up, he bade the physician avaunt, saying, "By the sun's
light, I'll get me a good cudgel, and beginning with your carcase, will
so belabour all the physic-mongers in the island, that I will not leave
one of