[86] “Como soy aficionado á leer aunque sean los papeles rotos de las calles, llevado desta mi natural inclinacion, tomé un cartapacio,” etc., he says, (Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 9, ed. Clemencin, Madrid, 1833, 4to, Tom. I. p. 198), when giving an account of his taking up the waste paper at the silk-mercer’s, which, as he pretends, turned out to be the Life of Don Quixote in Arabic.
[87] The verses of Cervantes on this occasion may be found partly in Rios, “Pruebas de la Vida de Cervantes,” ed. Academia, Nos. 2-5, and partly in Navarrete, Vida, pp. 262, 263. They are poor, and the only circumstance that makes it worth while to refer to them is, that Hoyos, who was a professor of elegant literature, calls Cervantes repeatedly “caro discípulo,” and “amado discípulo”; and says that the Elegy is written “en nombre de todo el estudio.” These, with other miscellaneous poems of Cervantes, are collected for the first time in the first volume of the “Biblioteca de Autores Españoles,” by Aribau (Madrid, 1846, 8vo, pp. 612-620); and prove the pleasant relations in which Cervantes stood with some of the principal poets of his day, such as Padilla, Maldonado, Barros, Yague de Salas, Hernando de Herrera, etc.
[88] “No hay mejores soldados, que los que se trasplantan de la tierra de los estudios en los campos de la guerra; ninguno salió de estudiante para soldado, que no lo fuese por estremo,” etc. Persiles y Sigismunda, Lib. III. c. 10, Madrid, 1802, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 128.
[89] The regiment in which he served was one of the most famous in the armies of Philip II. It was the “Tercio de Flandes,” and at the head of it was Lope de Figueroa, who acts a distinguished part in two of the plays of Calderon,—“Amar despues de la Muerte,” and “El Alcalde de Zalamea.” Cervantes probably joined this favorite regiment again, when, as we shall see, he engaged in the expedition to Portugal in 1581, whither we know not only that he went that year, but that the Flanders regiment went also.
[90] All his works contain allusions to the experiences of his life, and especially to his travels. When he sees Naples in his imaginary Viage del of Parnaso, (c. 8, p. 126), he exclaims,—
Esta ciudad es Nápoles la ilustre,
Que yo pisé sus ruas mas de un año.
[91] “Si ahora me propusieran y facilitaran un imposible,” says Cervantes, in reply to the coarse personalities of Avellaneda, “quisiera ántes haberme hallado en aquella faccion prodigiosa, que sano ahora de mis heridas, sin haberme hallado en ella.” Prólogo á Don Quixote, Parte Segunda, 1615.
[92] One of the most trustworthy and curious sources for this part of the life of Cervantes is “La Historia y Topografia de Argel,” por D. Diego de Haedo, (Valladolid, 1612, folio), in which Cervantes is often mentioned, but which seems to have been overlooked in all inquiries relating to him, till Sarmiento stumbled upon it, in 1752. It is in this work that occur the words cited in the text, and which prove how formidable Cervantes had become to the Dey,—“Decia Asan Bajá, Rey de Argel, que como él tuviese guardado al estropeado Español tenia seguros sus cristianos, sus baxeles y aun toda la ciudad.” (f. 185.) And just before this, referring to the bold project of Cervantes to take the city by an insurrection of the slaves, Haedo says, “Y si á su animo, industria, y trazas, correspondiera la ventura, hoi fuera el dia, que Argel fuera de cristianos; porque no aspiraban á menos sus intentos.” All this, it should be recollected, was published four years before Cervantes’s death. The whole book, including not only the history, but the dialogues at the end on the sufferings and martyrdom of the Christians in Algiers, is very curious, and often throws a strong light on passages of Spanish literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which so often refer to the Moors and their Christian slaves on the coasts of Barbary.
[93] With true Spanish pride, Cervantes, when alluding to himself in the story of the Captive, (Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 40), says of the Dey, “Solo libró bien con él un soldado Español llamado tal de Saavedra, al qual con haber hecho cosas que quedarán en la memoria de aquellas gentes por muchos años, y todos por alcanzar libertad, jamas le dió palo, ni se lo mandó dar, ni le dixo mala palabra, y por la menor cosa de muchas que hizo, temiamos todos que habia de ser empalado, y así lo temió él mas de una vez.”