This chapter opens with the words of its author, Cide Hamete Benengeli. Arab and man of La Mancha both, he calls this story by these names. A most solemn, high-sounding, tiny, sweet and imagined history.
When Don Quixote raised his eyes, about twelve men were coming on foot along his road. They were strung like beads by the neck on one great iron chain, and every one of them wore handcuffs. Two men on horseback carried wheel-lock guns, and two on foot carried short spears and swords to guard them.
As soon as Sancho saw them, he spoke. “That’s a chain of galley slaves. Men being taken off by force, by the king’s order, to row.”