How Don Quixote Set Free Many Miserable Creatures, Who Were Carried, Much Against Their Wills, to a Place They Did Not Like.
The next adventure begins when Don Quixote stops some guards who are taking twelve prisoners in a chain gang to the place where they will serve as galley slaves. After listening to the story of each prisoner, the knight demands that the guards set them free for "'tis a hard case to make slaves of men whom God and nature made free." The guard refuses, and while Don Quixote fights with him, the prisoners use the opportunity to struggle out of their chains. When the guards are all subdued, Don Quixote demands of each prisoner that he present himself before the Lady Dulcinea and describe how he gained his freedom. The ringleader, a notorious rogue named Gines de Passamonte, realizes that the knight is mad, and he signals to his companions. All the prisoners throw stones at their liberator until he is knocked down. Stealing whatever they can find, they swiftly scatter and disappear along their separate ways.
