The servant tied to a tree whom Don Quixote tries to help in Part I is Andrés.
Don Quixote finds Andrés being beaten by his master, Juan Haldudo, who claims the boy has neglected his duties. Andrés says the real dispute concerns unpaid wages. Believing he has encountered a helpless victim in need of a knight’s protection, Don Quixote orders Haldudo to stop, release the servant, and pay what he owes.
Haldudo agrees only because Don Quixote is armed and threatening. Once Don Quixote rides away, however, the master resumes the beating and punishes Andrés even more severely. The episode is an early example of the gap between Don Quixote’s idealistic intentions and the real consequences of his interventions.
Readers sometimes confuse Andrés with other figures from the novel, such as Cardenio or Basilio. Andrés is a minor servant in Part I, while Basilio is the barber who becomes Kitri’s lover in the ballet adaptation. The scene appears early in Cervantes’s 1605 first part.