this was some
new craze of their friend's and tried to persuade him not to talk
thus, now that they had just got news of his peerless Dulcinea and
were all of them about to become shepherds in order to keep him
company; and they begged him to be rational and talk no more nonsense.
But soon they realized that Don Quixote was not jesting, for he begged
them to send for a notary, and while the bachelor went to fetch him,
the barber went to soothe the women; and the curate alone remained
with Don Quixote to confess him.

When the good curate came out after the confession, the women gathered
about him and when he told them that Don Quixote was indeed dying,
they broke into sobs, for they loved him genuinely and dearly. The
notary then came, and Don Quixote made his will. The first person he
thought of was his faithful and beloved companion, Sancho Panza, whose
simplicity and affection he rewarded by leaving him all the money of
his own that was now in Sancho's possession. Had he had a kingdom to
give him, he said, it would scarcely have been sufficient reward for
all that Sancho had done for him. Then turning to Sancho, who stood at
his bedside with tears in his eyes, he said to him: "Forgive me, my
friend, that I led thee to seem as mad as myself, making thee fall
into the same error I myself fell into, that there were and still are
knights errant in the world."

"Ah," said Sancho, in a voice that was choked with tears, "do not die,
master, but take my advice and live many years; for the foolishest
thing a man can do in this life is to let himself die without rhyme or
reason, without anybody killing him, or any hands but melancholy's
making an end of him. Come, do not be lazy, but get up from your bed
and let us take to the fields in a shepherd's trim as we agreed!
Perhaps behind some bush we shall find the Lady Dulcinea disenchanted,
as fine as fine can be. If it be that you are dying of vexation at
having been vanquished, lay the blame on me, and say you were thrown
because I girthed Rocinante badly."

But although Samson Carrasco tried to persuade the dying knight that
Sancho had reasoned rightly, they at last came to the conclusion that
Don Quixote really was in his right senses, and that God had worked a
miracle.

They now let the notary proceed and one of the stipulations in the
will was that if his niece, Antonia Quixana, ever married a man who
had read books of chivalry, she should by so doing forfeit all that