Peace at the Inn and the Ox-Cart Cage — Don Quixote

The curate talks the Holy Brotherhood officers out of arresting Don Quixote for freeing the galley slaves: even if they take him, they will have to let a madman go. The officers then settle the pack-saddle fight, swapping saddles but not girths. The curate secretly buys the barber's basin for eight reals. Don Luis's servants agree that one of them may stay with Don Fernando. The landlord demands payment for wine-skins; Don Fernando pays, the judge offers, and the inn grows so quiet that Quixote compares it to the peace of Octavianus instead of Agramante's camp.

Clear of quarrels, he kneels to Princess Dorothea and urges an immediate start on the Micomicona quest before the giant can fortify himself. She answers in the same lofty style and puts herself in his hands. Sancho mutters that there is more mischief in the village than anyone hears of: this queen rubs noses with a man behind every door, and another may reap their labours. Quixote erupts. Dorothea saves Sancho by blaming the castle's enchantment, and even the blanket toss is declared illusory again, though Sancho still knows he was tossed by flesh and blood.

After two days the curate and barber decide to take Quixote home without dragging Dorothea back as Micomicona. They hire an ox-cart, build a wooden cage, disguise the company, seize him asleep, bind him, and nail him inside while a barber's voice prophesies marriage to Dulcinea and future wages for Sancho. Quixote accepts captivity as enchantment and comforts himself with the prophecy. Sancho sees through the masks but keeps quiet until the cage is loaded on the cart.