Sancho skipped his siesta that day. As he had promised, he went to the duchess as soon as he had eaten. She sat him on a low chair beside her, and her maids gathered round to listen. Now that no one was eavesdropping, she said, she wanted him to clear up some doubts that had come to her while reading the book.
“Good Sancho never saw the lady Dulcinea and never delivered the letter, since the notebook stayed behind in the Sierra Morena. So how did he dare invent her answer, and even say he found her winnowing wheat? It was all a joke and a lie.”
Without answering, Sancho got up and, finger to his lips and back bent, went round the room lifting every curtain before he sat down again. Now that he had seen no one was listening, he said, he would tell all. He considered his master stark mad, he said. So he could make him believe things with neither head nor tail. Making him believe near El Toboso that Dulcinea was enchanted was one of them.