Part 3

Another, and to all appearance, a more practicable plan of escape, contrived in 1579, was foiled by the treachery of a Dominican monk. Hassan, to whom the design was disclosed, affected at first to have no suspicion of it; hoping by that means to ensure its detection. The Christians, however, soon learned that their project was discovered. A native of Valencia, settled as a merchant in Algiers, had promised to aid the escape of the prisoners. This man spared no endeavours to prevail on Cervantes to slip away furtively and unknown to his companions. He even undertook to convey him safely on board a vessel about to sail for Spain; for knowing that the Moors would resort to every extremity to extort a confession, the merchant feared that his own life and property might be endangered. Cervantes had by this time broken from prison, and was concealed in the house of a friend; consequently he might with perfect ease and safety have effected his escape on board the ship in the manner proposed. But he would not listen to the suggestion of deserting his companions, and he quieted the apprehensions of the merchant by the most solemn assurance, that neither the fear of torture or death would wring from him a word of avowal that could in any degree compromise a friend. Meanwhile, an order of the Dey was proclaimed through the streets of Algiers, commanding the Slave Cervantes to deliver himself up, and warning those who might harbour him, that they would incur the punishment of death. The fugitive, anxious to screen his friends from all risk, surrendered himself. Aga Hassan, without a moment’s hesitation, ordered him to be hanged. After his hands were tied behind his back, and the rope put round his neck, he was informed that he might yet save his own life by the disclosure of his accomplices. But, faithful to that generosity of feeling, which was one of the most prominent traits in his character, Cervantes persisted in declaring that he alone had wished to escape; but to avoid being further pressed by questions, he named as the accomplices of his design, four Spaniards who had, some time previously, obtained their liberation by the payment of ransom-money. The intercession of an influential renegade, who was an attached friend of Cervantes, induced the Dey once more to spare his life; but he was thrown into a dungeon of the Bagnio, heavily fettered, and watched with the strictest vigilance.

The next project conceived by Cervantes, exceeded in boldness all that he had previously concerted. It was of so wild and romantic a character, that its reality might naturally warrant disbelief, were it not authenticated by trustworthy evidence. This scheme was nothing less than the excitement of an insurrection among the Christian slaves in Algiers, who were to make themselves masters of the city, and transfer it to the dominion of Phillip II. Notwithstanding the rigorous nature of his imprisonment, he contrived to take some steps towards the execution of this bold enterprise. Whether the project was thwarted by discovery, or to what other cause its frustration was assignable does not clearly appear. Certain it is, however, that the Dey of Algiers regarded Cervantes as the boldest and most ingenious of all his Christian slaves. Father Diego de Haedo relates, that so greatly did Aga Hassan fear Cervantes, that he used to say, “he should consider his slaves, his barks, and the whole city of Algiers perfectly safe, _could he but get rid of that one-handed Spaniard_!”

At length, the freedom so ardently sighed for, and for the attainment of which so many fruitless efforts had been made, was recovered, at a time when even Cervantes himself, sanguine as he was, had well nigh relinquished all hope of ever again being restored to his country.

In the year 1580, Juan Gil and Antonio de la Bella, two monks of the order of the Santissima Trinidad, were sent from Spain to Algiers; the former as _Redentor_, or slave ransomer, for the Province of Castile, and the latter in the same capacity for the Province of Andalusia. The father of Cervantes was by this time dead, and the family were left in rather straitened circumstances;--nevertheless they succeeded, by dint of great exertion, in raising some money to assist in ransoming their relative. Doña Leonora de Cortinas, the mother of Cervantes, contributed two hundred and fifty ducats;--and Doña Andrea de Cervantes, his sister, gave fifty.[20] The family naturally hoped that the high testimonials of courage and merit, furnished in favour of Cervantes by his former military comrades, together with the letter of recommendation from the Duke de Sesa to the king, would gain the interest of the Court in his behalf. But the appeals addressed to that high quarter were responded to with only lukewarm interest, and accordingly the Monks departed with a sum very inadequate to the accomplishment of the object of their mission, which was to obtain the release of some of the principal captives. Doña Leonora de Cortinas furnished the Redentores with a description of her son, setting forth that he was a native of Alcalá, and the slave of Dali-Mami, the captain of the Dey’s barks,[21] that he was thirty-three years of age and had lost his left hand. A description of himself given by Cervantes to the authorities in Algiers is as follows--“A native of Alcalá de Henares, aged thirty-one, of middle height, having a thick beard (_bien barbado_), disabled of the use of the left arm and wanting the left hand; captured on board the galley _El Sol_, when on his passage from Spain to Naples, where he had been long in the service of His Majesty.”[22]

The Redentores arrived in Algiers on the 29th of May, 1580. At that very time the Dey was on the eve of resigning his authority in favour of another Pacha, who was elected to the government of Algiers. Hassan, who had been recalled by the Sultan to Constantinople, was preparing to return thither. Cervantes, being one of the captives he intended to take with him, was actually on board a galley, and ready to sail for the Turkish capital, when the slave ransomers arrived in Algiers. There was no time to be lost, and negotiations for the ransom were set on foot without a moment’s delay. The amount demanded was more than double the sum which the Redentores were authorised to pay. However, Father Juan Gil made up the deficiency by devoting to the release of Cervantes a portion of the money advanced by the friends of other captives, who being then absent from Algiers, their ransom could not be effected. The Redentores pledged themselves to refund the money on their return to Spain, and by these arrangements, together with some abatement in the demand of Aga Hassan, Cervantes obtained his release on the 19th of September, 1580.

But joyfully as he hailed the prospect of returning to his native land, he nevertheless resolved, ere he should quit Algiers, to controvert certain calumnies circulated against him, which he conceived were calculated to impugn his honour. The Dominican Monk, who had betrayed the last plan formed by the Spanish captives for their escape, and who had thereby incurred the hatred of all the Christians in Algiers, sought in revenge to cast on Cervantes the odium of having caused the failure of the enterprise. Cervantes, whose nice sense of honour urged him to free himself from even the slightest trace of suspicion, appealed to the testimony of twelve of his fellow captives, all of them men of high character and members of noble Spanish families. Their evidence refuted in the most complete and satisfactory way the calumnious charges of the Benedictine monk. They unanimously declared that though there were many noble Spanish cavaliers in Algiers, not one was more distinguished for honourable and generous sentiment than Miguel de Cervantes; and that he had invariably manifested the sincerest interest and sympathy for his countrymen and fellow-captives, all of whom regarded him in the light of a brother.

On the 22nd of October, 1580, after five years of detention in Algiers, Cervantes embarked for Spain. He had now before him the cheering prospect of that happiness which he himself has declared to be “one of the greatest that can be enjoyed in this life;--the return to one’s native country after prolonged captivity.” “There is,” he adds, “no happiness like the recovery of lost freedom.”[23]

On his return to Spain, about the end of the year 1580, he repaired straight to Madrid, where his mother and sister were then residing. The reduced circumstances in which he found his family determined him once more to try his fortune as a soldier. At this time, Philip II. was intent on completing his conquest of Portugal by the acquisition of the rich colonial dependencies of that kingdom. It had been determined to maintain a Castilian army in Portugal, for the purpose of preserving public tranquillity, enforcing obedience to the authorities of King Philip, and preparing the reduction of the Azores or Terceras Islands. Rodrigo Cervantes, who on his return from Algiers, had resumed military service, was now in the army of occupation in Portugal, and he was speedily joined there by his brother Miguel.

In the spring of 1581, both the brothers sailed from Lisbon in one of the ships of an armament commanded by General Don Lope de Figueroa. This armament was sent to the aid of Don Pedro Valdez, who had been commissioned to reduce the Azores Islands to the authority of the Spanish crown. A misunderstanding arose between Figueroa and Valdez, on the subject of an attempted landing at Tercera, and not being able to come to an agreement they carried on their operations separately, and after a short time both returned to Portugal.

The Spanish Government found reason to suspect that the pretensions of Don Antonio, Prior of Ocrato,[24] were secretly favoured by France and England, and that the ships of those powers, and especially those of France kept up the spirit of rebellion in the Azores. Phillip II., determined to repress these proceedings, and to take measures for the protection of the Spanish Galeones employed in transporting the treasures of the colonies to the mother country. He accordingly ordered several armaments which had been for some time in preparation in the maritime provinces of Spain, to assemble in the Tagus. It was understood that a French squadron had already put to sea with hostile designs on the Portuguese dependencies; and Phillip on receipt of this intelligence gave the command of the Spanish naval force to the celebrated Admiral Don Álvaro de Bazán, Marques de Santa Cruz. The fleet, having on board several regiments of infantry, sailed from the Tagus on the 10th of July, 1582, and the Spaniards soon fell in with the French squadron. The result was an engagement in which the French ships were dispersed or destroyed. Cervantes states that he was himself engaged in this action, together with his brother Rodrigo, but he enters into no particulars respecting it. Both the brothers likewise served in the expedition which sailed from Lisbon in the following year, 1583, under the command of the Marques de Santa Cruz. The Spaniards effected a landing at Tercera, on the 23rd of June, and the result was the surrender of that island. The submission of the rest of the Azores speedily followed, and the partizans of Don Antonio were finally put down. The campaign being thus gloriously ended, Don Álvaro de Bazán returned to Spain, and on the 15th of September, he entered Cádiz greeted by signal demonstrations of popular triumph.

On the Atlantic, as well as in the Levant, Cervantes had been an eye-witness of the gallant achievements of the great naval hero of Spain. As a soldier he had served under his authority, as a philosopher, he had contemplated his virtues; and he rendered to his glory a poetic tribute of admiration and gratitude. He wrote a sonnet on Don Álvaro de Bazán, which was published by the Licentiate Cristobal Mosquera de Figueroa, in the _Comentarios de la jornada de las Islas Azores_. In _Don Quixote_, he also pays an emphatic and well merited compliment to the courage of the celebrated admiral, in that passage where the captive describing the storming of Navarino, says:--“In this campaign, the galley called the Prize, whose commander was a son of the famous corsair Barbarossa, was taken by the captain galley, of Naples, called the She-Wolf, commanded by that thunderbolt of war, that father of the soldiers,--that fortunate and invincible Captain Don Álvaro de Bazán, Marques de Santa Cruz.”

During the time he remained with his regiment in Portugal, Cervantes mingled freely in society, and made himself familiarly acquainted with the language as well as with the manners and customs of the people of the country. His society was sought, and wherever he went he was kindly and hospitably received. That his sojourn in Portugal impressed him with pleasing and grateful recollections, is evident, from the observations here and there scattered through several of his works, especially _Persiles_. Contrary to the prevailing taste of his countrymen, (for the Spaniards usually entertain no great partiality for the Portuguese language,) Cervantes was charmed with it; pronouncing it to be “a sweet and pleasing tongue,” (_lengua dulce y agradable_). The people he characterizes as agreeable, courteous, and generous. Speaking of the women, he says, their beauty inspires admiration and love, (_la hermosura de las mujeres admira y enamora_). Lisbon, he calls a great and famous city, and he declares that Portugal may altogether be regarded as the land of promise (_tierra de promisión_). With such strong predilections in favour of the country and everything belonging to it, it can scarcely be matter of surprise that Cervantes should have become enamoured of a Portuguese lady, and that the attachment should have been reciprocal. His biographers are silent respecting the connections of this lady, nor do they even mention her name; but all concur in stating that the fruit of this attachment was a daughter, who was known by the name of Doña Isabel de Saavedra. This daughter was the companion of Cervantes through all the vicissitudes of his subsequent life, and after his marriage she constantly resided under the same roof with him and his wife.

On his return to Spain after the successful issue of the Azores expedition, Cervantes’ pecuniary condition would seem to have been very similar to that of Horace after the battle of Philippi.[25] He found himself utterly destitute, and had no means of subsistence save such as he could procure by writing verses. Heretofore his life had been pretty equally divided between war and literature, “now taking up the sword and now the pen,”[26]--like many other eminent Spaniards of that age, who were distinguished equally as soldiers and writers. Even in the dungeons of Algiers, and amidst the most stirring events of war, Cervantes never wholly relinquished his love of literary composition; and many of his sonnets, and other little fugitive poems, bear evidence that, in seasons of trial and suffering, he courted the solace of the Muse. It has been conjectured, and with much appearance of probability, that many of the sonnets, canzonets, and ballads introduced in the _Galatea_, were composed amidst the active duties of the author’s military career, and during the weary hours of his captivity.

The _Galatea_ was the first work which Cervantes submitted to the press, and it was published in 1584. It is a pastoral romance, partly in prose, and partly in verse, in the style of the Diana of Montemayor; but exhibiting still greater resemblance to Gil Polo’s continuation of Montemayor’s poem. Very little ingenuity is shewn in the invention of the fable; it is merely an insipid story of pastoral life, in the affected and unnatural style so much in fashion in the sixteenth century.

In this frame-work the author has grouped together a rich collection of metrical compositions, in all the various styles of versification practised by the old Spanish and Italian poets. “The story,” observes Bouterwek, “is merely the thread which holds the beautiful garland together; for the poems are the portions of the work most particularly deserving of attention. They are as numerous as they are various, and should the title of Cervantes to rank among the most eminent poets, or his originality in versified composition be called in question, an attentive perusal of the romance of _Galatea_, must banish every doubt upon these points.”[27]

Lope de Vega, and other contemporary writers, have affirmed that the shepherdess, who is the heroine of the romance, was not a mere imaginary character; but that under the name of _Galatea_ Cervantes pourtrayed the lady to whom he was subsequently married. According to the same authorities, Cervantes represented himself in the character of Ercilio, “_pastor en riberas del Tajo_,”[28] who is enamoured of _Galatea_, “_pastora nacida en las orillas de aquel río_.”[29] It is also believed that the pastoral names of Thyrsis, Damon, &c., are merely fictitious denominations for several of the most celebrated poets of his own time.[30]

On the 12th of December, 1584, Cervantes was united in marriage to Doña Catalina de Salazar, a lady connected with a distinguished Spanish family. She was the daughter of Don Fernando de Salazar y Vozmediano, and of Doña Catalina de Palacios. Doña Catalina brought her husband some little fortune, upon which the newly married couple lived as long as it lasted. After his marriage, Cervantes definitively left the army, and for a time fixed his abode at Esquivias, in which town his wife’s family resided.

The proximity of Esquivias to Madrid, enabled him to make frequent visits to the capital. There he formed acquaintance with most of the distinguished Spanish writers of the day, and he became a member of one of those numerous literary academies which in the reign of Charles V. were established in Spain in imitation of those of Italy. About this time Cervantes began to apply himself zealously to dramatic composition. The taste for theatrical amusements, then so popular in Spain, rendered play writing a ready mode of turning literary talent to profitable account. But there is reason to infer that inclination no less than the prospect of pecuniary gain, prompted Cervantes to write for the stage; and the complacency with which, at a subsequent period of his life, he looked back to his early comedies proves that he thought himself entitled to no little distinction as a dramatic author. That he should so far have mistaken the true bent of his genius, is one of those unaccountable fallacies of judgment, from which even the shrewdest minds are not always exempt. Those of his plays which in the opinion of Cervantes himself possessed peculiar merit, are of that class which was so popular among the Spaniards of the sixteenth century, and called _Comedias de capa y espada_.[31] In his _Viaje del Parnaso_, alluding to these plays, the author says--“If they were not my own I should declare that they merit all the praise they have obtained.” One of them, _la Confusa_, he declares to be “a good one among the best.”[32] _La Confusa_ is one of the many dramatic works of Cervantes, which there is reason to fear are totally lost.

Bouterwek, whilst admitting the general failure of Cervantes as a writer for the stage, nevertheless declares that the high merits of the tragedy of _Numancia_ might well pardon the self-deception under which the author laboured in respect to the limits of his talent in dramatic literature. “With all its imperfections,” observes the celebrated German critic, “the tragedy of _Numancia_ is a noble production, and, like _Don Quixote_, it is unparalleled in the class of literature to which it belongs. It proves that under different circumstances the author of _Don Quixote_ might have been the Æschylus of Spain. The conception is stamped by the deepest pathos and the execution, at least taken as a whole, is vigorous and dignified.”[33] The tragedy of _Numancia_ and the comedy of _El Trato de Argel_ (life in Algiers), were accidentally discovered in manuscript about the end of the last century; after having been supposed to be irretrievably lost.

During the interval of his alternate residence in Esquivias and Madrid, it is computed that Cervantes must have written between twenty and thirty dramatic pieces. Among those successfully performed at the theatres of Madrid were _Los Tratos de Argel_, _La Numancia_ and _La Batalla naval_. In these pieces the author ventured to depart from the forms of the old Spanish drama; and these changes, together with other innovations he introduced, were very favourably received by the public.

But in spite of this partial success, the scanty emolument he acquired by writing for the stage, was inadequate to the maintenance of his family; the more especially as his two sisters were wholly dependent on him for support; for his brother Rodrigo, who was still in the army, was engaged in the wars in Flanders. At this time the position of Cervantes was peculiarly unfortunate and discouraging. He was now upwards of forty years of age and deprived of the use of one arm; and neither his military services nor his literary labours had obtained for him any adequate reward. These considerations determined him to enter upon some other career of occupation less precarious than that which he had pursued since his retirement from the army; and he thought himself exceedingly lucky when an opportunity occurred, which enabled him to escape from the literary drudgery to which he had for some years been doomed. To quote his own words, he joyfully “laid aside the pen and relinquished play writing.” (_Abandonó la pluma y las Comedias._)

Antonio de Guevara had just then been appointed Commissary-General, (_Proveedor-General_), for provisioning the Spanish armadas fitted out for South America. This post was one of considerable importance, and its extensive and various duties required the aid of four assistant commissaries. Through the influence of Guevara, Cervantes was appointed to one of the last-mentioned posts, and in April, 1589, he removed to Seville to enter upon the duties of his office.

It is probable that this change of residence was not less agreeable to him than the change of his occupation; for several members of the respective families of Cervantes and Saavedra were settled in Seville, then the most populous and opulent city in Spain. It is a fact worthy of mention, that two of these relatives of Cervantes were distinguished for their literary talent. The author of _Don Quixote_ himself renders an eulogistic tribute to Gonzalo Cervantes de Saavedra, a famous soldier and poet;[34] and Nicholas Antonio mentions another Cervantes de Saavedra, who distinguished himself as a writer. Both were Sevillians.