His master, Juan Lopez de Hoyos, admired and encouraged him in these pursuits, and, it would seem, endeavoured to bring him into notice. The death of Isabella of Valois, wife of Philip II., which happened in 1569, elicited the tribute of many an elegy from the poets of Madrid. The name of this queen is rendered romantic to us by its association with that of the unfortunate prince don Carlos, and the legend of his unhappy attachment and consequent death. Of course these circumstances were not the subject of verse intended for the royal ear; but Isabella was beloved and mourned with more sincerity than queens usually are. Lopez de Hoyos published a book called "History and true relation of the sickness, pious death, and sumptuous funeral obsequies, of the serene queen of Spain, donna Isabella of Valois." This publication includes various elegies, one of which is thus introduced:—"These Castilian redondillas on the death of her majesty, which, as appears, indulge in rhetorical imagery, and at the conclusion address her majesty, are by Miguel de Cervantes, cur dear and beloved pupil." Besides this, the book contains another elegy addressed by the whole school to the cardinal Espinosa, also written by Cervantes. Neither of these poems give promise; they are common-place, wordy, and deficient both in sentiment and imagination.
In the same year that these poems were published Cervantes quitted Madrid. It is usually supposed that he left it in despair, to seek his fortune elsewhere; but there can be no doubt that he left it in the service of cardinal Acquaviva. On the death of the queen, pope Pius V. sent a nuncio to Madrid to condole with Philip II., and to seek compensation for certain dues of the church, denied by the king's ministers at Milan. The nuncio was a Roman prelate, named Giulio Acquaviva son of the duke of Atri, who was created cardinal on his return to Italy. His mission displeased the king, who, bigot as he was, never yielded any point to the court of Rome. He remained, therefore, but a short time, receiving an order, two months after his arrival, to return to Italy by way of Valencia and Barcelona. As Cervantes himself mentions that he was at Rome immediately after in the household of the cardinal, there can be little doubt that he was preferred to this situation while he was at Madrid. 1568.
Ætat.
21. Preferred, we say, because in those days the sons of poor gentlemen often began their early career in the households of princes, thus forming high connections, and securing a patron for life. We may believe that the recommendation of De Hoyos, and the talents of the youth, induced the cardinal to choose him. In the suite of his new master Cervantes visited Valencia and Barcelona, and traversed the south of France,—places which he afterwards described in his writings, and which he at no other time had an opportunity of visiting.
1569.
Ætat.
22.
What hopes and views he nourished in his own heart on visiting Rome we cannot tell. He was now in his twenty-third year. His temperament was ardent and aspiring, his tastes decidedly literary; but with no bent towards the clerical profession. That he had hopes we cannot doubt; and little doubt is there that these hopes proved, as he says; "light as the winds and shifting as the sands;" for he had not been a year at Rome when he changed the whole course of his life, and volunteered as a soldier. "The war against the Turks," his biographer, Los Rios, observes, "which was declared in 1570, gave him an opportunity of adopting a more noble profession, and one more consonant to his birth and valour;" and we may remark, that whatever hardships he suffered in his military career, Cervantes prided himself upon it to the end of his life. He always calls himself a soldier; and his heart is in the argument, when Don Quixote, comparing the student's and the soldier's life, gives preference to the latter as the more noble.
1570.
Ætat.
23.
To return to the Turkish war, during which he served. The sultan Selim, being desirous of possessing himself of the island of Cyprus, broke the peace which he had made with the Venetian republic, and sent an armament for the conquest of this island. The Venetians implored the aid of the Christian sovereigns. Pope Pius V., in consequence, sent a force, commanded by Marco Antonio Colonna, duke of Paliano. Cervantes enlisted under this general, and served during the campaign, which began late in the year, the object of which was to succour Cyprus, and raise the siege of Nicosia. The dissentions among the commanders sent by the various Christian princes prevented, however, the good they were sent to do. The Turks took Nicosia by assault, and proceeded to other conquests.
1571.
Ætat.
24.
During the following year greater efforts were made by the Christians. The combined fleet of Venice, Spain, and of the pope, assembled at Messina. Marco Antonio Colonna continued to command the papal galleys, Doria the Venetians; while the combined forces of all parties were placed under the command of don John of Austria, a gallant prince, the natural son of the emperor Charles V. Cervantes served in the company of the brave captain Diego de Urbino, a detachment of the tercio (regiment) of Miguel de Moncada.
Don John collected at Barcelona all the veteran troops whom he had tried in the war against the Moriscos in Andalusia; and among others, the renowned tercios of don Miguel de Moncada and don Lope de Figueroa; and, sailing for Italy, cast anchor off Genoa on the 26th June with forty-seven galleys. Thence he proceeded to Messina, where the combined fleet met. In the distribution now made of the troops on board the various vessels, the two new companies of veterans, taken from the tercios of Moncada, those of Urbina and Rodrigo de Mora, were embarked on board the Italian galleys of Doria. Cervantes followed his captain on board the Marquesa, commanded by Francesco Santo Pietro.[57]
The fleet of the confederates, after having succoured Corfu, went in pursuit of the enemy, and found the Turkish fleet, on the morning of the 7th October, in the entrance of the gulph of Lepanto. The battle began about noon: the confederates achieved a splendid victory; but it was a very sanguinary one, and, not being followed up by other successes, it remained a useless trophy of Christian valour.