Dorothea’s abandonment by Don Fernando is a story of a marriage promise turned into betrayal, followed by a flight that leaves her vulnerable to further exploitation. Told by Dorothea herself in the Sierra Morena, the episode traces how rank, family honor, and her belief in Don Fernando’s sworn pledge shaped her choices—and how his disappearance forced her to protect herself alone.

Setting and Unequal Positions

Dorothea places her story in Andalusia, in a town whose duke’s title made him one of Spain’s Grandees. Her parents were vassals of the duke: people of humble, peasant origin but substantial wealth. Dorothea describes herself as their only child and the center of their hopes. She had responsibility for much of the household’s work, overseeing accounts and the returns from sowing and harvest, as well as the oil mills, wine presses, flocks, and herds. Her practical authority within the household did not erase the social distinction between her family and Don Fernando, the younger son of the duke.

That difference shaped the way Dorothea understood his pursuit. Her parents warned that his attention might serve his own pleasure rather than her welfare, and offered to arrange a marriage with someone she chose from their town or the surrounding area. Dorothea did not claim to be unmoved by his admiration, but says that her sense of right and her parents’ counsel kept her from encouraging him. Her account distinguishes his noble standing and persuasive manner from any reliable promise of care.

The Promise and Its Breach

When Don Fernando learned that Dorothea’s parents were considering a marriage for her, he appeared in her locked chamber at night. Dorothea says that his sudden presence left her unable to call out or resist as he took her in his arms. He answered her objections with professions of love, tears, and assurances of marriage. She reminded him that being his vassal did not make her his slave, and that his birth gave him no right to dishonor hers. She also made clear that she would yield herself only to a lawful husband.

Don Fernando then pledged himself to her, invoking Heaven and an image of the Virgin as witnesses. Dorothea called her waiting-maid into the room so that there would be an earthly witness as well as divine ones. In the moment, she weighed the promise against her fear that Don Fernando might use force and leave her without a way to prove that he had entered her chamber against her will. His oaths, apparent emotion, and social grace persuaded her to trust that he would honor the pledge. Dorothea presents that trust not as proof that his intentions were sincere, but as the decision that made his subsequent desertion a betrayal.

Don Fernando left before daybreak, giving Dorothea a ring as a token and repeating that she could rely on his word. He returned the following night, but then disappeared from her life for more than a month, although she believed he remained in town. Dorothea waited and concealed her distress from her parents, afraid that questions about her melancholy would force her into further lies. The ring and promise therefore became reminders of a commitment she had been left to interpret without explanation or confirmation.

News of Luscinda and the Flight

The news that broke Dorothea’s expectation was a report that Don Fernando had married Luscinda, a woman of distinguished family. Cardenio, listening as Dorothea tells the story, reacts visibly when he hears Luscinda’s name, but Dorothea continues. Rather than confront Don Fernando in the streets, she decides to go to the neighboring city herself. She changes into clothes obtained from one of her father’s farm servants, confides her situation to him, and prepares a woman’s dress, jewels, and money in a linen pillowcase. She leaves her parents’ house at night with the servant, hoping at least to demand an account from the man who had pledged himself to her.

In the city she learns that Don Fernando’s betrothal to Luscinda has not unfolded as a straightforward marriage. According to the account Dorothea hears, Luscinda fainted after consenting to become his bride; a paper in her own handwriting declared that she was already Cardenio’s and had accepted Don Fernando only at her parents’ command. Dorothea is also told that Don Fernando tried to attack Luscinda with a dagger, that Luscinda later affirmed her prior marriage to Cardenio, and that Cardenio had left in despair. Luscinda herself had disappeared from her parents’ house. This news gives Dorothea a reason to hope that Don Fernando may yet acknowledge his promise to her, but she cannot find him.

Instead, a public notice offers a reward for finding Dorothea and describes the clothes she is wearing. The notice says that the young man who accompanied her took her from her parents’ home. Hearing this, Dorothea fears that her reputation has been damaged not only by her flight but also by the identity and social standing of her companion. She leaves the city that night with him and hides in the most wooded part of the mountains.

Flight, Further Danger, and Concealment

The journey does not end with escape from the town. In the mountains, the servant who had accompanied Dorothea attempts to take advantage of her isolation. When she rebukes his advances, he turns from persuasion to violence. Dorothea pushes him over a precipice, but says she does not know whether he survives. Exhausted and frightened, she goes deeper into the mountains, intent on avoiding both her father and those searching for her.

After an unstated number of months, Dorothea finds work as a herdsman’s servant in a remote part of the Sierra Morena, hiding her hair and presenting herself as a man. When her employer discovers that she is a woman and shows the same kind of designs as the earlier servant, she chooses to leave rather than test her strength against him. This time there is no nearby precipice or other means of stopping him. She retreats among the crags, where she hopes to remain hidden and prays for help or the strength to escape her misfortunes. Her account ends in concealment, not in reunion or restored security.

Narrative Significance

Dorothea’s account makes her flight the consequence of a chain of unequal encounters rather than a single act of departure. Don Fernando’s rank and access allow him to enter her chamber, make promises, and leave; Dorothea, despite her wealth and management of her parents’ estate, must calculate the risk to her honor and seek protection through a witness, a disguise, and flight. Later, the public notice transforms her effort to confront him into a question of reputation, while isolation exposes her to danger from the servant and her employer.

The episode is also a story within the larger narrative: Dorothea recounts it to listeners in the Sierra Morena, where Cardenio recognizes the connection between her story and his own as soon as she names Luscinda. The interruption of one apparent marriage by the revelation of another’s prior claim binds the characters’ separate misfortunes together. Dorothea’s final concealment keeps the consequences of Don Fernando’s broken pledge unresolved at the point where her account ends.