Cervantes was ransomed from Moorish slavery on September 19, 1580.

Don Quixote is also know by its full title The Ingenious Nobleman Mister Quixote of La Mancha.  It is the Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra which was published in two volumes in 1605 and 1615.  This is the single most influential literary work from the Spanish Golden Age.  Some even state this is the best literary work ever written.  This was written among other works by a military man once held as a slave in Algiers.

This classic story tells of a Spanish nobleman named Mr. Alonso Quixano who has read so many chivalric romances that on losing his mind, he sets out to revive chivalry, undo wrongs and bring justice to the world as Don Quixote.  Early on, he recruits a farmer name Sancho Panza as his squire.  On finding himself employed by a quaint madman, the farmer uses wit to come to the rescue of the would be knight over and over again.

Throughout this novel, Cervantes uses realism, metatheatre and intertexuality to tale a morality tale of wide expanse.  These techniques had major influence on such diverse writers as Dumas, Twain, Rostand and even the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

Don Quixote, Part I, Chapter VI, may be read here:

http://www.bartleby.com/14/106.html

Alternatively, it may be listened to in an audiobook format here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8fByN9SaH8&t=40s

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwcsEyAnFbM