e Sancho untying the arch-criminal
Gines. They suddenly saw him free, and with him the rest of the
slaves, who had broken the chain; whereupon the guards fled in all
directions as fast as their legs could carry them.

When the fray was over, Don Quixote asked the galley-slaves to gather
around him, and to show him reverence for the deed he had done. He
further demanded that they, armed with their chains, proceed in a
body, to El Toboso to pay their respects to the fair Dulcinea. Gines
attempted to explain the necessity of each one hiding himself,
separately, in order to escape the pursuers, and offered to send up
prayers for her instead; but Don Quixote would not listen to any
argument. At last Gines decided he was quite mad, and when Don Quixote
started to abuse him, he lost his temper, and they all attacked the
knight with a rain of stones, until Rocinante and he both fell to the
ground. There they belabored him savagely. Sancho had taken refuge
behind his donkey, but the convicts found him, stripped him of his
jacket, and left him shivering in the cold.

While Don Quixote lay there, fearing the vengeance of the law and the
Holy Brotherhood for what he had done, he was also reviewing in rage
the ingratitude of mankind and the perversity of the iron age.

CHAPTER XXIII

OF WHAT BEFELL DON QUIXOTE IN THE SIERRA MORENA, WHICH IS ONE
OF THE RAREST ADVENTURES RELATED IN THIS VERACIOUS HISTORY

Sancho at last convinced his master that they had best hide in the
Sierra Morena mountains for a few days, in case a search should be
made for them; and Don Quixote was pleased to find that the provisions
carried by Sancho's ass had not disappeared. When night fell they took
refuge under some cork-trees between two rocks. Fate would have it
that to this very place should come that night the convict Gines.
While Sancho was slumbering peacefully, Gines stole his ass; and by
daybreak the thief was already far away. Don Quixote, awakened by
sorrowful wailing, in order to console his squire, promised him three
of his ass-colts at home in exchange. Then Sancho's tears stopped. But
he now had to travel on foot behind his master, and he tried to keep
up his humor by munching the provisions it had become his lot to
carry.

Suddenly he observed that his master had halted, and was poking with
his lance into some object lying on the road. He quickly ran up to him
and found an old saddle-pad with a torn knapsack tied to it. Sancho