Note 18 — LIFE OF CERVANTES.

In the story of the “Captive,” in Don Quixote, there is one passage in which Cervantes alludes, in a direct manner, to himself. It occurs in the description given by Captain Viedma of the imprisonment of himself and his companions in the Bagnios of Algiers, and is as follows:—“One Spanish soldier only, whose name was something or other (un tal) de Saavedra, Aga Hassan treated with greater consideration than the rest. This soldier did things which will remain in the memory of the Algerines for many years to come; all for the sake of recovering his liberty, and that of his companions. For the least of many things that he did, we all feared that he would be empaled alive—and he feared it himself oftener than once.”