These rational words surprised his niece, and she asked what he meant by them.  He answered that by God’s mercy his judgment had returned, free and clear.  “The cloud of ignorance,” said he, “is now removed, which continuous reading of those noxious books of knight-errantry had laid upon me.”  He said that his great grief now was the lateness with which enlightenment had come, leaving him so little time to prepare his soul for death.

The others coming in, Don Quixote made his confession, and one went to fetch Sancho Panza.  With tears in his eyes the squire sought his poor master’s side, and when in the first clause of his will Don Quixote made mention of Sancho, saying afterwards, “Pardon me, my friend, that I brought upon you the shame of my madness,” Sancho cried out, “Woe’s me, your worship, do not die this bout; take my counsel, and live many a good year.  For it is the maddest trick a man can play in his whole life to go out like the snuff of a candle, and die merely of the mulligrubs!”

The others admonished him in like spirit, but Don Quixote answered and said, “Gently, sirs! do not look in last year’s nests for the birds of this year.  I was mad, but now I have my reason.  I was Don Quixote of La Mancha; but to-day I am Alonso Quixano the Good.  I hope that my repentance and my sincerity will restore me to the esteem that once you had for me.  And now let Master Notary proceed.”  So he finished writing his will, and then fell into a swooning fit, and lay full length in his bed.  But he lingered some days, and when he did give up the ghost, or to speak more plainly, when he died, it was amidst the tears and lamentations of his family, and after he had received the last sacrament, and had expressed, in pathetic way, his horror at the books of chivalry.

* * * * *

ADALBERT VON CHAMISSO

Peter Schlemihl, the Shadowless Man

      Adalbert von Chamisso, a German lyric poet and scientist, was
     born on January 30, 1781, at the Castle of Boncourt, in the
     Champagne district of France.  His parents emigrated in 1790,
     and in 1796 he became page to the Queen of Prussia.  Two years
     afterwards he entered the army, which he left in 1806 to go to
     France, returning to Berlin in the following year.  In 1810 he
     proceeded to France once more, and thence to Geneva, where he
     began his study of natural history.  In 1815 he went with Otto
     von Kotzehue on a tour round the world, and on his return he
     settled in Berlin, having obtained a post in the Botanical
     Gardens.  He wrote several important books on botany,
     topography, and ethnology, but became even more famous through
     his poems, ballads and romances.  “Peter Schlemihl,” which was
     written in 1813 was published in the following year by
     Chamisso’s friend Fouque, and achieved so great a success that
     it was translated into most languages.  Chamisso died in Berlin
     on August 21, 1838.