 It is, of course, the yet-to-be-published manuscript of "Don Quixote de la Mancha", Cervantes's masterpiece.In defending himself, Cervantes begins to narrate his story of Don Quixote, with Cervantes as the Don Quixote, the role of Sancho enacted by Cervantes' own manservant, and the other characters in the story played by the other prisoners.The work is not, and does not pretend to be, an accurate rendition of either Cervantes' life or the novel "Don Quixote" (for example, Cervantes had no direct contact with the Inquisition at any time in his life), although it draws on both for inspiration and on the latter for characters.