Cardenio Timeline and Summary

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• Don Quixote first comes across Cardenio's saddle pack and wallet, which Sancho gladly ransacks. Shortly thereafter, Don Quixote and Sancho see Cardenio staring down at them from higher up the mountain they're on. They try to chase him and ask him who he is, but he vanishes.
• Cardenio shows up again after Don Quixote and Sancho have found a shepherd to help them track the dude down. He agrees to start telling his story to them.
• It turns out that Cardenio is in love with a woman named Lucinda whom he has known since childhood. But Cardenio's friend, Don Fernando, has betrayed Cardenio in order to have Lucinda for himself.
• Brokenhearted, Cardenio ran off into the wilderness to live as a hermit, which is what he is when Don Quixote and Sancho first meet him.
• While all of this is happening, Don Quixote, Sancho, and Cardenio come across a beautiful woman who has also started living in the mountains. Her name is Dorotea, and she has been deceived by the same Don Fernando who betrayed Cardenio.
• Cardenio recognizes Dorotea as the same beautiful country girl Don Fernando was in love with just before he started pursuing Lucinda. Don Fernando convinced Dorotea to have sex with him under the promise of marriage, then ditched her after the sex was over.
• Now that they've run into Dorotea, Cardenio seems to recover some of his wits. He realizes that Don Fernando's marriage to Lucinda might not be legally binding if she was already promised to him (Cardenio). He also finds out from Dorotea that Lucinda immediately fled from Don Fernando after the wedding.
• Cardenio decides to travel with Don Quixote, Sancho, and Dorotea to track down Lucinda.
• Don Quixote, Sancho, Cardenio, and Dorotea (along with the curate and the barber from Don Quixote's village) spend the next night at an inn. Late in the evening, the door bursts open and a group of people come in. Among them is a man holding a woman by the wrist.
• It turns out that the man is Don Fernando, and the woman is Lucinda. After Dorotea begs Fernando to return her love, the dude eventually caves. Lucinda is restored to Cardenio and the two will presumably live happily ever after… as long as Cardenio takes care of that whole assault problem he has.