Sancho Galloping with Two Branches

Gustave Doré illustrated the 1863 French publication of Cervantes' "L'ingénieux hidalgo don Quichotte de la Manche," published in Paris by Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie. His designs were engraved by Héliodore Joseph Pisan. The same plates were used for an English translation from 1870, "The History of Don Quixote," published in London by Cassell, Petter, and Galpin. The English edition, with its vivid illustrations by Doré, helped popularize Cervantes' tale among British and American audiences.
This scene illustrates a passage from Volume 1, Chapter 24. The peasant squire Sancho Panza rides Don Quixote's horse, Rocinante, as Don Quixote begins a period of penance in the Sierra Morena. Sancho is on his way to deliver a letter in verse to Dulcinea, a princess who Don Quixote imagines as his beloved. To find his way back to Don Quixote, Sancho lays branches at intervals along his journey.