Hamete Explains the Plot and Altisidora's Hell — Don Quixote

Sancho would rather sleep alone after his martyrdom, but Don Quixote keeps him awake praising the power of cold-hearted scorn that slew Altisidora until Sancho begs to be let sleep or throw himself from the window, and complains that no pain matched the insult of smacks from duennas, confound them. They sleep, and Cide Hamete explains how bachelor Samson Carrasco, after failing as the Knight of the Mirrors, put a white moon upon his shield, overcame Quixote at Barcelona, and returned to tell the duke, who then staged the catafalque and sent servants to capture the pair; Hamete adds that the concocters of the joke are as crazy as the victims and the duke and duchess not two fingers' breadth from fools themselves.

Altisidora visits the bedchamber claiming she died of Quixote's cruelty until Love restored her through Sancho's sufferings, and describes hell's gate where devils played tennis with books as balls, knocking the Second Part of the History of Don Quixote of La Mancha not by Cide Hamete into the depths while Quixote says he is not the one that history treats of. She turns furious, calls him Don Stockfish, and confesses all that you have seen to-night has been make-believe; the musician of the catafalque visits, the duke and duchess arrive, Quixote prescribes honest and constant employment in lace-making, Altisidora withdraws, and they depart the same evening.