Don Quixote | Page 9

no Milton. His
verses are no worse than such things usually are; so much, at least, may
be said for them.
By the time the book appeared he had left Spain, and, as fate ordered it,
for twelve years, the most eventful ones of his life. Giulio, afterwards
Cardinal, Acquaviva had been sent at the end of 1568 to Philip II by the
Pope on a mission, partly of condolence, partly political, and on his
return to Rome, which was somewhat brusquely expedited by the King,
he took Cervantes with him as his camarero (chamberlain), the office
he himself held in the Pope's household. The post would no doubt have
led to advancement at the Papal Court had Cervantes retained it, but in
the summer of 1570 he resigned it and enlisted as a private soldier in
Captain Diego Urbina's company, belonging to Don Miguel de
Moncada's regiment, but at that time forming a part of the command of
Marc Antony Colonna. What impelled him to this step we know not,
whether it was distaste for the career before him, or purely military
enthusiasm. It may well have been the latter, for it was a stirring time;
the events, however, which led to the alliance between Spain, Venice,
and the Pope, against the common enemy, the Porte, and to the victory
of the combined fleets at Lepanto, belong rather to the history of
Europe than to the life of Cervantes. He was one of those that sailed
from Messina, in September 1571, under the command of Don John of
Austria; but on the morning of the 7th of October, when the Turkish
fleet was sighted, he was lying below ill with fever. At the news that

the enemy was in sight he rose, and, in spite of the remonstrances of his
comrades and superiors, insisted on taking his post, saying he preferred
death in the service of God and the King to health. His galley, the
Marquesa, was in the thick of the fight, and before it was over he had
received three gunshot wounds, two in the breast and one in the left
hand or arm. On the morning after the battle, according to Navarrete, he
had an interview with the commander-in-chief, Don John, who was
making a personal inspection of the wounded, one result of which was
an addition of three crowns to his pay, and another, apparently, the
friendship of his general.
How severely Cervantes was wounded may be inferred from the fact,
that with youth, a vigorous frame, and as cheerful and buoyant a
temperament as ever invalid had, he was seven months in hospital at
Messina before he was discharged. He came out with his left hand
permanently disabled; he had lost the use of it, as Mercury told him in
the "Viaje del Parnaso" for the greater glory of the right. This, however,
did not absolutely unfit him for service, and in April 1572 he joined
Manuel Ponce de Leon's company of Lope de Figueroa's regiment, in
which, it seems probable, his brother Rodrigo was serving, and shared
in the operations of the next three years, including the capture of the
Goletta and Tunis. Taking advantage of the lull which followed the
recapture of these places by the Turks, he obtained leave to return to
Spain, and sailed from Naples in September 1575 on board the Sun
galley, in company with his brother Rodrigo, Pedro Carrillo de
Quesada, late Governor of the Goletta, and some others, and furnished
with letters from Don John of Austria and the Duke of Sesa, the
Viceroy of Sicily, recommending him to the King for the command of
a company, on account of his services; a dono infelice as events proved.
On the 26th they fell in with a squadron of Algerine galleys, and after a
stout resistance were overpowered and carried into Algiers.
By means of a ransomed fellow-captive the brothers contrived to
inform their family of their condition, and the poor people at Alcala at
once strove to raise the ransom money, the father disposing of all he
possessed, and the two sisters giving up their marriage portions. But
Dali Mami had found on Cervantes the letters addressed to the King by

Don John and the Duke of Sesa, and, concluding that his prize must be
a person of great consequence, when the money came he refused it
scornfully as being altogether insufficient. The owner of Rodrigo,
however, was more easily satisfied; ransom was accepted in his case,
and it was arranged between the brothers that he should return to Spain
and procure a vessel in which he was to come back to Algiers and take
off Miguel and as many of their comrades as possible. This was not the
first attempt to escape that Cervantes had made. Soon