Roque Guinart

Also known as: Roque · Role: captain of the robbers · First appears: Part 2, Ch. 60.2

At dawn in Part 2, Ch. 60.2, Roque Guinart’s robbers surrounded and captured Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. He stopped his men from stripping Sancho Panza, telling Don Quixote, “you have not fallen into the hands of any inhuman Busiris, but into Roque Guinart’s, which are more merciful than cruel.” When Claudia Jeronima, daughter of his friend Simon Forte and enemy of Clauquel Torrellas, sought safe-conduct to France and protection for her father, Roque agreed to investigate whether her enemy was dead before deciding what should be done. She refused his offer to accompany and protect her, and left him in tears.

In Ch. 60.3, Roque ordered the treasures and jewels taken from Sancho Panza’s Dapple restored, then divided the band’s stolen goods among his men with strict fairness. In Ch. 60.4, he spared Doña Guiomar de Quiñones after receiving eighty crowns and granted her safe passage, though he fatally wounded a squire who criticized his generosity. He also offered to teach Don Quixote knight-errantry, saying, “come with me, and I will show you how to become a knight-errant.”

Before reaching Barcelona, Roque announced that he would deliver Don Quixote and Sancho Panza there and sent a letter ahead through one of his squires. On Saint John’s Eve, he travelled with them by hidden roads and, after embracing both, gave them the ten crowns he had promised before leaving them. At the same time, the viceroy’s proclamations against Roque’s life kept him fearful and uneasy; he spent nights apart from his men because he trusted no one.