Sancho’s faithful companionship with Dapple after leaving the governorship

Sancho Panza’s faithful companionship with Dapple becomes especially visible when Sancho gives up the governorship and, soon afterward, the two endure a dangerous fall into a pit. Sancho treats the donkey not as mere transport but as a comrade in hardship: affection, shared vulnerability, and everyday care bind them more securely than the authority and comforts of office.

Leaving the Governorship

After the night’s ordeal at the castle, Sancho rises bruised and exhausted, dresses, and makes his way to the stable. There he embraces Dapple and kisses him on the forehead, with tears in his eyes. He recalls that before he left to pursue ambition, his days were happy when his chief concerns were keeping Dapple’s harness in repair and feeding him. He speaks of the donkey as his companion through toil and sorrow, making their shared history the measure by which he judges his recent rise in status.

Sancho saddles Dapple and struggles painfully onto his back. He tells the people around him that governing is not the work for which he was born: farming suits him better, and he would rather have a modest meal and freedom than fine clothing and a life constrained by office. His departure is therefore more than a resignation. By returning to Dapple and the ordinary work he knows, he turns away from the burdens of ambition and resumes the life in which the two had been inseparable companions.

The Fall into the Pit

Later, after a delay in the company of Ricote, Sancho and Dapple are caught by night near the duke’s castle. While searching for somewhere to rest, they fall into a deep pit among old buildings. Dapple reaches the bottom, and Sancho lands on his back; Sancho checks himself and finds that he is unhurt, but the smooth sides of the pit offer no way out. Hearing Dapple’s distressed cries, he imagines the two of them dying there without help.

Sancho’s fear turns at once toward their shared fate. He pictures their bones eventually being found together, reasoning that people would recognize them because Sancho had never been apart from his ass, nor the ass from Sancho. He apologizes for having repaid Dapple’s faithful service so poorly and promises, if they escape, to crown him with laurel and give him extra feed. The promise is comic in its imagined ceremony, but its feeling is plain: even in despair, Sancho addresses Dapple as a friend whose loyalty deserves acknowledgment.

Care and Companionship

At daybreak Sancho calls for help, but no one answers. Dapple is lying on his back, barely able to keep his feet when Sancho helps him up. Sancho then takes bread from the pair’s provisions and gives it to the donkey. His care moves from words to action: he helps Dapple stand and shares the food that remains, treating the animal’s distress as part of their common hardship.

When Sancho discovers an opening in the pit, he works at the clay with a stone until there is room for Dapple to pass. He then takes the donkey by the halter and sets out with him through the cavern, advancing sometimes in darkness and sometimes with light, but never without fear. The episode carries forward the attachment declared at Sancho’s departure: Dapple is present not only in Sancho’s memories of a freer life but beside him in immediate danger, while Sancho’s loyalty is shown in the effort he makes to keep them together.