With the adventure of the Sorrowful Duenna ending so happily, the duke and duchess decided to carry their pranks further. They had, after all, people right at hand who would take them as real. They gave their servants and villagers full instructions on how to treat Sancho on the island he was to govern. The day after the wooden horse flew, the duke bade Sancho make ready to set off as governor. His islanders were waiting for him like rain in May, he said.
Sancho bowed. “Ever since I came down from the sky and looked down from up there at the earth and saw how small it was, my wish to be governor has cooled off some. What’s so great about ruling a mustard seed, or so mighty about ruling six people the size of hazelnuts? If you’d give me half a league of sky, I’d take it more gladly than the biggest island in the world.”
The duke said he could not give anyone so much as a fingernail’s worth of sky. Such favors were God’s alone to grant, he said. What he could give was an island, well shaped, round and fertile. With some skill, Sancho could use the riches of that land to win the riches of heaven.