Doña Rodriguez and the Midnight Drubbing — Don Quixote

Six days indoors, moody and bandaged from the cat, Don Quixote lies awake fearing Altisidora's assault on his chastity and vows Dulcinea stamped in his bowels; the door opens to Doña Rodriguez the duenna with candle and spectacles, and mutual fright sends her candle out and her sprawling on the floor.

Wrapped in yellow satin, he conjures a phantom until she names herself the duchess's duenna come to redress grievances; he refuses love messages, she returns with a wax candle lit, and he meditates on duennas while she tells her Asturian life and her courteous husband's death after a bodkin from his mistress.

The rich farmer's son seduced her daughter under promise of marriage, the duke hears but will not offend the lender father, and she asks Quixote by entreaty or arms to vindicate the girl she ranks above Altisidora, whispering all is not gold that glitters and walls have ears before describing the duchess's leg issues that discharge humours, which Quixote calls liquid amber and a very important matter for health.

The chamber door flies open with a bang, the candle falls, hands seize the duenna's throat and a slipper beats her petticoats while silent assailants strip and pinch Don Quixote in marvellous silence half an hour until the phantoms flee and she gathers her skirts without a word.

Quixote wonders which enchanter reduced him, sorely pinched and dejected in the dark, and Hamete turns to Sancho Panza and his government as the methodical story demands.