Don Quixote's lowest moment

Don Quixote's lowest moment comes deep into volume two - just when I'd been thinking that actually he's not as crazy as he seems, he can actually be quite valorous and he breaks up the fight that could have ruined Quiteria's wedding, and so forth, he and Sancho Panza are set upon by some villagers who take offense at Sancho's braying, thinking that he's mocking them (reference back to a long story about two guys who go off in search of a lost donkey - don't ask) and one of the men knocks Sancho off his donkey and they start pummeling him - and what does DQ do? He takes off for the hills. Now you can't actually blame him for his fear, nor for his unwillingness to take on a much larger group - though he's perfectly willing to do so when the group is unarmed or unprepared or peaceable or purely one of his figments (e.g., the windmills) - but here's an occasion - the 2nd actually (the blanket tossing in volume one being akind of a touchstone for Sancho's judgment of DQ) - in which he's really needed. Now, suddenly, he sees things clearly and assesses the odds and takes off. Fortunately, SP is picked up off the ground and put on his donkey (never named, BTW) and sent after DQ. Then, perhaps worse, DQ has a whole raft of excuses: he wasn't running away, it was a tactical retreat, etc. Almost as bad as the statement he's made a few times that knights can never fight commoners, even to protect their squires. How very convenient and self-serving! Reminds me of he famous RI politician who suspiciously withdrew all his funds from a credit union just before the credit union collapsed - and he defended himself saying, it wasn't a withdrawal, it was a transaction. Hm.