Sancho Panza took pity on the showman.

"Come, come! Master Peter," said he, "don't cry. Don't be cast down.
My master will pay you when he comes to know that he has done you an
injury."

"Truly," said Peter, "if his honor will pay for my puppets.'ll ask no
more."

"How!" cried Don Quixote. "I do not see that I have injured you, good
Master Peter."

"Not injured me!" cried Master Peter. "Do but look at those figures
lying there, all hacked to bits."

"Well," said Don Quixote, "now I know for certain a truth I have
suspected before, that those accursed enchanters do nothing but put
before my eyes things as they are, and then presently after change
them as they please. Really and truly gentlemen, I vow and protest
that all that was acted here seemed to me to be real. I could not
contain my fury, and I acted as I thought was my duty. But if Master
Peter will tell me the value of the figures, I will pay for them all."

"Heaven bless your worship!" whined Master Peter. But had Don Quixote
known that this same Master Peter was the very man who stole Sancho
Panza's ass, perhaps he might have paid him in another way.