The Enchanter's Revenge — Don Quixote

Don Quixote wakes shouting about a tourney and stops the curate's scrutiny mid-sentence. That night the housekeeper burns the yard pile and every book left in the house. The narrator notes that lazy judgment sends worthy volumes to the fire with the guilty, and the curate walls up the library so the cause may remove the effect.

Two days later Quixote finds a plastered wall where his books were. The housekeeper and niece tell an elaborate lie: a magician on a serpent flew through the roof and stole room and all. Quixote not only believes it but corrects the name to Friston and supplies the enemy's motive from his romances. After fifteen quiet days he debates the curate and barber, insisting the world needs knight-errants again.

Then he recruits Sancho Panza, a poor neighbour, with promises of an island governorship. He sells and pawns for gear, lets Sancho bring his ass, and one night they slip out unseen. On the road Sancho asks about the island; Quixote promises kingdoms, and Sancho doubts his wife could wear a crown. The second sally begins with a delusion reinforced and a pragmatist riding behind.