In 1568 there came to Madrid—charged with a message of condolence from the Pope to Philip IL, on the death of his son Don Carlos, and with sundry complaints respecting default of allegiance to Rome—the Cardinal Aequavi va, who, though only in his twenty-fifth year, had already earned a name for culture and a good disposition to letters. With him Cervantes took service as a camarero or page,— an employment held to be no humiliation in that age even to young men of noble birth,—returning in the suite of his patron to Rome by way of Valencia, Barcelona, and the south of France. Apparently the post was not to the taste of one in whom the sight of Italy—then for the greater part a fief of Spain—awakened more of warlike than of poetic ambition. In the beginning of 1570 the cardinal’s page exchanged his livery for the soldier’s uniform, enlisting in the company of the famous Captain Don Diego de Urbina of the regiment of Don Miguel de Moncada. It was the period when the military glory of Spain was at the highest, and the profession of arms the surest road to advancement. The first campaign of Cervantes was made at sea, his regiment being engaged in the expedition which, in the summer of 1570, under the orders of the Papal general, Marco Antonio Colonna, made an ineffectual attempt to relieve the Island of Cyprus, then hotly besieged by the Turks. The capture of Nicosia by the Mahometans, and the fall of the island, which spread consternation throughout Christendom, gave rise to the memorable Holy League against Selim II. Through the exhortations of the Pope, Pius V., Spain and Venice were induced to lay aside for a time their old dissensions and to unite with Rome in an attempt to bridle the Ottomans, then in the flush and vigour of théir genius. The pact between these Christian powers was formally ratified on the 25th of May 1571, the confederates binding themselves to “make perpetual war” not only against the Turks but against the Moors of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

The armament provided—the expenses of which were distributed among the three states in the proportion of three-sixths to Spain, two-sixths to Venice, and one-sixth to Rome—was to consist of 200 galleys of war, with 100 store-ships, 50,000 infantry, 4500 light horse, and a sufficient supply of artillery and ammunition. The generalissimo whom the unanimous voice of the allies called to the command of this fleet—the most formidable which had ever been assembled in the Mediterranean—was Don John of Austria, the natural son of Charles V., then in his twenty-fourth year,—a youth not more recommended by his near connection with the Spanish king than by his brilliant talents, amiable character, and great popularity. The mutual jealousies and fears of the allied princes, and the hesitation of Philip II. to entrust so important a command to his half-brother, the object of his secret envy and distrust, caused many delays in the assembling of the Christian forces, and gave the Turks ample time for preparation. The armada, after rendezvousing at Messina, put to sea finally in quest of the enemy on the 15th of September. The company in which Cervantes still served as a private soldier was embarked in the galley “La Marquesa,” commanded by Francisco San Pietro. After relieving and provisioning Corfu, Don John came up with the Turkish fleet on the 7th of October, drawn up in order of battle in the Gulf of Lepanto. The Christians advanced in three divisions, their right commanded by the Genoese admiral, Juan Andrea Doria, the centre under Don John himself, and the left under Agostino Barbarigo, the Venetian Proveditore; the Marques de Santa Cruz, with his squadron, being in reserve. The “Marquesa” was on the left wing, having on board Miguel de Cervantes, who lay in his cabin ill of a fever. On coming into action, his ship being in the van of the squadron, Cervantes’s captain and comrades besought him to remain quietly in his bed, but he, according to the sworn testimony of ear-witnesses, asked them what would they think of him if he did not do his duty, and declared his resolve to die fighting for God and his king, rather than remain under shelter and take care of his health. His entreaties to be allowed to share in the fighting having been granted, Cervantes was stationed with twelve soldiers under his command in what was reckoned the post of greatest danger, namely, in the boat which hung by the galley side, most exposed to the enemy’s fire. Here he performed his part in that glorious day’s work so valiantly as to attract the notice of his commanders, even of Don John himself. The vessel immediately opposed to the “Marquesa” was the galley of the Capitan Pasha of Alexandria, who commanded on the Turkish right, bearing the royal standard of Egypt. After a stubborn resistance, and the slaughter of 500 of her crew, she was compelled to surrender, her fate involving the flight or capture of the entire squadron, and contributing materially to the final defeat of the Turks. On their right wing the Christians were less successful,—"Marco Antonio Colonna having to encounter the celebrated renegade, Uluch Ali, a sea-captain of great skill and experience, to whose good conduct and abilities Cervantes himself, with characteristic generosity, bears witness. The issue was highly honourable to the allied arms The victory at Lepanto, though barren of results, and spoilt by the contentions among the Christian leaders, broke the spell of Turkish invincibility at sea, and is to be reckoned among the most glorious feats of arms ever performed by Spain when at the zenith of her greatness. In this battle, to the remembrance of which he ever fondly clung, which he loved to speak of as the proudest event of his life, Cervantes was severely wounded—receiving two gun-shot wounds in the chest and one in the ιert hand, which was maimed and rendered useless “for the greater glory of the right,” as its owner said, holding this defect ever after to be his greatest ornament. Lepanto was to Spain what Salamis was to Athens. All Europe rang with the fame of “the man sent from God whose name was John,” according to the fervent exclamation of the grateful Pope when he heard the news of the victory; and the exploits of Doria, Colonna, and Santa Cruz were on all men’s tongues. But while generals and admirals are now forgotten, it is a striking evidence of the power of genius to override even the traditions of patriotism and of warlike glory that of all the memories which survive of this once renowned day, that which remains green and flourishing is of the private soldier who fought in the “Marquesa,” of him whom his countrymen love to designate as El Manco de Lepanto. It would be absurd to attribute to the single arm of Miguel de Cervantes any appreciable share in the event of that day, but making all allowances for the partiality of his biographers, there can be no reason to doubt that Cervantes did earn a very extraordinary amount of renown for his behaviour in the battle. As a private soldier he was not debarred, according to the fashion of the times, from receiving from his superiors those marks of consideration due to men of good birth and breeding; yet the extraordinary favours bestowed on him by Don John and the other leaders, the letters of credit which they gave him on his return to Spain, the numerous references to him by his contemporaries, and the influence he afterwards exercised among his fellow-captives at Algiers, are sufficient to prove that at this early period of his life Cervantes had attained to much distinction over and above what he had won as a man of letters.

After the battle of Lepanto the lateness of the season compelled Don John to return to Sicily, leaving the Turks leisure to recover from their losses and to recruit their strength. The wounded were tended at Messina, among whom Cervantes was visited in the hospital by Don John in person, receiving upon his recovery a special increase of pay to the amount of three crowns a month. From the company of Moncada our soldier was now transferred to that of Don Ponce de Leon, in the Tercio de Figueroa, the most distinguished of all the Spanish regiments of that period—of that famous infantry which sustained the Spanish dominion over half Europe, making, in the words of the chronicler, “the earth tremble with their muskets.” The further enterprizes of the League at sea were checked by the growing dissensions between Spain and Venice, and also by the quarrel now on foot between the former nation and its old rival France. The jealousies between the -confederate princes extended to their commanders, and it was in vain that Don John urged upon his allies the necessity of striking another blow at the Turk before he had time to repair his shattered forces. It was 1 not until the 9th of August 1572, that the Christian fleet again set sail for the scene of its great exploit of the year previous. In this second campaign, through the supineness of the leaders, perhaps from some incapacity of the generalissimo, scarcely fitted by age or force of character to control so vast and incongruous a host, but chiefly from the superior skill and vigilance of the Turkish commanderin-chief, a post now held by Uluch Ali, the armada did nothing more than make a feeble demonstration against the enemy’s fleet, which was found at anchor in Navarino Bay. Cervantes, who has given a minute account of this inglorious affair in his story of the captive in Don Quixote, served in this expedition in the squadron commanded by Antonio Colonna. Returning to Messina to winter, thearmada was next year dispersed in consequence of the dissolution of the Holy League, the Venetians having concluded a separate peace with the Turks. In 1573 Cervantes took part in the expedition of Don John against Tunis and in the capture of the Goleta—his wounds being still unhealed, as we learn from his letter to Mateo Vasquez. That winter he was in garrison in Sardinia, and in the next spring in Lombardy, being ordered to Messina in August 1574, and thence to Naples. On the 15th of June 1575 he obtained leave of the viceroy, the Duke de Sesa, to visit Spain, and thus ended the first portion of his military career, with small profit but with much honour. During his five years’ active service by land and sea, however, Cervantes had acquired that knowledge of men and life which was so useful to him in after years. He had visited the most famous cities of Italy, and had stored his mind with impressions of her art and literary culture, traces of which are to be found in all his writings, even to the extent of making him liable to the charge of introducing Italian idioms into his style. Of his intercourse with Italian men of letters there is no evidence, though his works furnish abundant testimony of his familiarity with the best models of Italian literature. That he had won the respect and esteem of his commanders as a good soldier is proved by the highly flattering letters which he received from Don John, recommending him to the king for promotion as a man of singular merit and of great services; also from the viceroy of Naples, speaking of him as a worthy but unfortunate soldier who, “by his noble virtue and temper, had secured the good will of his comrades and officers.” Furnished with these letters, which in the event were to prove to him so fatal a possession, Cervantes, with his brother Rodrigo, embarked at Naples in the galley “El SoL” On the 26th of September, when off the coast of Minorca, his vessel fell in with a squadron of Algerine cruizers under the command of the dreaded pirate captain, Arnaut Mami. Attacked by three of the enemy’s ships, the Spanish galley, after an obstinate resistance, in which Cervantes bore a conspicuous part, was forced to surrender to overwhelming odds, and was brought in a prize to Algiers. On the division of the prisoners Cervantes fell to the lot of Déli Mami, a Greek renegade, noted for his ferocity and greed among the Algerines. The letters of Don John and the viceroy of Naples found on this Spanish soldier served but to mislead his captors as to his true rank, and therefore to stimulate their cupidity and to aggravate his sufferings. Being supposed to be able to purchase his liberty at a high price, Cervantes was guarded with special care, and that he might be induced the more quickly to ransom himself, he was loaded with chains and treated with extraordinary rigour. According to the testimony of Father Haedo, in whose curious and important work on the Topography of Algiers, published in 1612, we have the most valuable authority for this period of Cervantes’s life, and who was an eye-witness of the cruelties practised in this pirates’ den upon the Christian slaves, the captivity of Cervantes was one of the hardest ever known in Algiers. It was borne with a courage and constancy which, had there been nothing else to make his name memorable, must have sufficed to rank Cervantes among the heroes of his age and country. No episode more romantic is contained in the books of chivalry. No adventures more strange were encountered by any knight-errant. Not Amadis nor Esplandian, nor any of those whose fabled deeds had kindled his youthful imagination displayed a loftier spirit of honour or more worthily discharged his knightly devoir than did Miguel de Cervantes when in duresse at Algiers. A slave in the power of the bitter enemy of his creed and nation, cut off in the hey-day of his fame from the path of ambition which fortune seemed to have opened to him, no lot could be more cruel than that which in the prime of his manhood and genius fell to our hero. Nor is there any chapter of his life more honourable than the record of the singular daring, fortitude, patience, and cheerfulness with which he bore his fate during this miserable period of five years. With no other support than his own indomitable spirit, forgotten by those whom he had served, unable to receive any help from his friends, subjected to every kind of hardship which the tyranny or caprice of his masters might order, pursued by an unrelenting evil destiny which seemed in this, as in every other passage of his career, to mock at his efforts to live that high heroic life which he had conceived to himself, this poor maimed soldier was looked up to by that wretched colony of Christian captives, including among them many men of higher birth and rank, as their chief counsellor, comforter, and guide. In the formal information laid before the commissary of the Spanish Government at Algiers, Father Juan Gil, of the order of the Redemptorists, very particular testimony is borne by Cervantes’s fellow-captives to his character and conduct, as one who bore himself always as a faithful Christian, who cheered those who were despondent, who shared with the poor the little which he possessed, who helped the sick in their necessities, who risked every danger in the cause of the faith, behaving himself always like a true soldier of the king and a noble gentleman,—all which good record is confirmed by the honest father himself of his own personal knowledge.

The captivity of Cervantes in Algiers lasted five years, during which period he never ceased to plot schemes of deliverance, which, however daringly conceived and skilfully planned, were doomed to be always foiled by accident or by treachery. On such occasions he was invariably the first to come forward to shield his associates and to take the whole blame upon himself, rendering himself liable to the barbarous punishments then inflicted by the Algerines upon such of their slaves as sought to escape from their chains. Twice was Cervantes brought into the king’s presence, with a rope round his neck, to be hanged. Once he was ordered two thousand blows with a stick, the penalty being remitted at the last moment only through the...