but
even in the midst of all his own sufferings, he found ways of aiding his
fellow-victims and inspiring them with the hopes denied to himself.
Roderigo had escaped long before, and from that time was making constant
exertion to raise the needful amount to redeem Miguel from the Dey, but
not till September, 1580, did he succeed in effecting his release; some
biographers making it a still later date.

His father had long been dead, and his mother and sisters gathered what
they could, but the combined family efforts were insufficient. There was
a society of pious and generous monks, who made special exertions to
assist in the liberation of Christian captives, and they finally made up
the amount demanded by Azan for Cervantes' release.

Worn down in spirit, broken in health, crushed at heart, who may venture
to speak of the effect upon him when he once more found himself at home
and in the embraces of his family? He himself says: "What transport in
life can equal that which a man feels on the restoration of his
liberty?" There is probably no more thrilling or exact an account of the
Algerine slavery than he has given in "Don Quixote." Whether his love
for a military life still pursued him, whether he desired an opportunity
for revenge upon his persecutors, or whether it was fatality,--maimed
and ruined as he was he once more entered the army. We cannot analyze
his motive. He makes his bachelor Sampson say, "The historian must pen
things not as they ought to have been but as they really were, without
adding to or diminishing aught from the truth." The lives of literary
men are not always devoid of stirring incidents. M. Viardot says of
him: "Cervantes was an illustrious man before he became an illustrious
author; the doer of great deeds before he produced an immortal book."
Don Lope de Figueras then commanded a regiment of tried and veteran
soldiers in the army of the Duke of Alva, in Portugal. His brother
Roderigo was serving in it when he joined it; and as Figueras had known
Cervantes in former campaigns, it is most probable he was in his
regiment. Later on, we find Cervantes accompanying the Marquis de Santa
Cruz on an expedition to the Azores, serving long and bravely under him.
The conquest of the Azores is described as a fiercely won but brilliant
victory over all the islands; and Cervantes immortalized the genius and
gallantry of the admiral in a sonnet.

The spirit of adventure ran high among the Castilians, whil