The novel Don Quixote is both comic and tragic. This particular novel opens by briefly describing Don Quixote and his fascination with chivalric stories. With his "wits gone," Don Quixote decides to become a knight and travel the countryside righting wrongs and rescuing damsels in distress. He outfits himself in some old armor and professes his love and service to Aldonsa Lorenzo whom he refers to as Dulcinea Del Toboso. After a long, hot ride on his horse Rocinante, he comes upon an inn which he thinks is a castle and the innkeeper, whom he believes to be the king. That evening, Don talks the innkeeper into knighting him and the innkeeper agrees to do so, since it amuses him. He tells Don that he must return to his village for money, clean shirts, and other provisions. Don agrees, but before he is knighted he beats up two carriers who were attempting to water their mules at the trough were Don has hidden his armor. This caused such a commotion at the inn that the innkeeper quickly smacks Don on the neck instead of knighting him properly, but he is knighted and sent back to his village. On the way back, he encounters two adventures: a farmer whipping his servant, and the other six merchants from Toledo who refuses to agree that Dulcinea is the fairest maiden in the world. Don attacks them for this and gets a beating for his troubles. A peasant passing by recognizes Don Quixote and loads him across his donkey. They head back to the village as Don wildly describes his mishaps. Don Quixote returns to his village where he is met by his niece and his housekeeper, and he goes to sleep. While he is sleeping, his chivalric romance books are burned and the room is sealed off by well-intentioned friends and family. These people believe that Don's nonsense's is caused by the devil's work and the dangerous books that Don reads. Throughout the rest of the book, Friston is blamed for all of the misconceptions that Don Quixote experiences.