A goatherd’s story leads to an almighty punch-up, which is interrupted by a procession praying for rain. Don Quixote disrupts that, and gets knocked down, apparently dead.
narrative
The canon of Toledo confronts Don Quixote, and tries to reason with him. This only confirms the opinion that the knight is mad. Then a goatherd arrives on the scene.
Seeing that Don Quixote might discover their deception, the priest and the barber hurry him away in a cage on the back of an ox cart. He still thinks he’s enchanted by a spell.
In a succession brawls, officers of the law try to arrest Don Quixote, but are dissuaded. When the knight wants to ride off, he’s bound and loaded onto an ox cart in a cage.
The judge’s young daughter is in love with one of his footmen, who isn’t who he might appear. Two women play a trick on Don Quixote, and the barber wants his brass basin back.
The man from Algiers completes the story of how he escaped with the Moorish woman. When a judge arrives at the inn, he thinks he recognises him as one of his brothers.
The man accompanying a Moorish woman tells his life story, how he became a slave to the King of Algiers, then came into contact with the mysterious woman.
Arrivals at the inn bring an unexpected turn of events: first four horsemen and a lady who end the deception of Princess Micomicona, then a man and a woman from Algiers.
The Priest continues reading The Tale of Inappropriate Curiosity. Towards the end, he’s interrupted when Don Quixote dreams he kills a giant. The story is completed once order returns to the inn.
After the group escorting Don Quixote from the mountains arrives at an inn, the knight retires to bed, while the others hear a story about knights read aloud. And this is that story.
