Note 8 — THE LIFE OF CERVANTES.

To this adventure he doubtless alludes, in the story of the Captive; who says, that when he and his fellow-slaves were deliberating about ransoming one of their number, who should go to Valencia and Mayorca, and procure a vessel with which he might return and fetch off the rest, the renegado who was of their council opposed the scheme, observing, that those who are once delivered seldom think of performing the promises they have made in captivity: as a confirmation of the truth of what he alledged, he briefly recounted a case which had lately happened to some Christian gentlemen, attended with the strangest circumstances ever known, even in those parts, where the most uncommon and surprizing events occur almost every day.