That Gives an Account of Things Which You'll Know When You Read It.
Halfway toward dawn, Don Quixote and Sancho descend the hill and enter the silent, sleeping village. The knight heads for Dulcinea's palace, but the lofty building turns out to be a church. Sancho offers no help for, he says; it is too dark for him to recognize their whereabouts. "You that have seen it a thousand times should locate the place," he tells the Don, but his master says that he admires the Lady only by hearsay and never saw where she lives. "To be plain with you," Sancho confesses, "I saw her but by hearsay, too, and the answer [to the letter] I brought you was by hearsay as well as the rest, and I know the Lady Dulcinea no more than the man in the moon." Before Don Quixote can digest this astounding news, a ploughman suddenly appears but is unable to give them directions.
Sancho now offers a welcome suggestion: that his master remain in a nearby wood while he seeks Dulcinea. He will tell her that Don Quixote attends her and will then report back to his master what her instructions are.
