Zoraida's Letters and the Escape Plot — Don Quixote

Don Fernando recites two sonnets on the fallen Goletta and fort, and the captive, glad for news of his comrade Don Pedro de Aguilar, picks up the tale. After the Turkish victory the fleet returns to Constantinople; his master Uchali dies and he passes to Hassan Aga, a cruel renegade who becomes king of Algiers. In the baño he marks time among gentlemen awaiting ransom, while Hassan hangs and impales Christians daily on little provocation; only a Spanish soldier called something de Saavedra seems immune to the tyrant's whims, though his bold bids for liberty keep everyone in dread.

On the prison terrace a reed drops coins only to him after refusing his comrades: first ten cianis, then forty crowns and a letter from a Moorish woman who calls herself a child of Lela Marien and asks him to contrive their escape to Spain, offering marriage and money. A cross at the window confirms a Christian soul behind the lattice of Hadji Morato's house. He confides in a Murcian renegade who swears on a crucifix, translates her Arabic, and helps draft the answer pledging help and marriage; Zoraida sends more gold through the reed, identifies herself by name, and promises to wait in her father's garden by the Babazon gate.

She cannot buy a ship from the window alone, so they agree the renegade will pose as a fig-trading merchant and purchase a vessel in Algiers, partnering with a Tagarin Moor because renegades may not own small craft without suspicion. He warns that Christians ransomed alone often break their promises to return for the rest, citing a recent case of treachery at the baño, and insists the money go to him rather than a partial ransom that would expose Zoraida.

They give him five hundred crowns toward the boat and eight hundred toward the captive's release through a Valencian merchant's word, then ransom the three comrades as well so no one left behind can endanger the plot. Zoraida sends two thousand crowns more and sets the next Friday for the garden meeting. The chapter closes with the escape machinery in motion and the captive, now at liberty in Algiers, preparing to find Hadji Morato's house.