Don Quixote Volume 1, Chapter 26

Don Quijote decides to imitate Amadís's mournful madness, and tears a long piece off his shirt tails, making knots in it to use as a rosary. He spends his time saying thousands of Hail Marys, marching back and forth across the meadow, writing poems into trees and sand, and conversing with the spirits of the meadow (to whom he had introduced himself his first day there).

Meanwhile, Sancho (in front of the inn where he was blanket tossed), meets up with the priest and the barber from La Mancha who recognize him. At first, he evades their question as to Don Quijote's whereabouts, but then comes clean when they say it looks as if he murdered his master (since he is riding his horse). He then realizes that he does not have the Dulcinea letter, nor the one about the donkeys; which causes him to punch himself in the face several times till his nose bleeds. The priest and the barber set his mind at ease about these matters and enjoy his botched remembrances of the letter to Dulcinea. They soon realize that Sancho has been swept up into Don Quijote's madness, and while they go in to eat (promising to bring food back out for Sancho) the priest devises a plan to get Don Quijote's back home. The priest would pose as a damsel in distress, with the barber as his squire, and beg for Don Quijote's help in undoing a wrong done to her.