antes'
great-grandmother was a Saavedra, and that the soldier alluded to in the
text was really himself. It is impossible to explain satisfactorily the
sheathing of the tiger's claws on his account alone; did Cervantes
exercise unconsciously a mesmeric influence over Azan? Did Azan ascribe
his captive's defiance of death and worse than death to his bearing a
charmed life? Or did he hold him to be a man of such consequence in his
own country, that it was well to keep him in as good condition as Azan's
greed would permit? We shall never know; only there remains Cervantes'
emphatic declaration that during the five long years of his captivity no
man's hand was ever lifted against him.

Meanwhile, having no more money wherewith to ransom his son, Rodrigo de
Cervantes made a declaration of his poverty before a court of law, and
set forth Miguel's services and claims. In March 1578, the old man's
prayer was enforced by the appearance of four witnesses who had known
him both in the Levant and in Algiers and could testify to the truth of
his father's statement, and a certificate of such facts as were within
his knowledge being willingly offered by the Duke of Sesa, the King,
Philip II., consented to furnish the necessary ransom.

But the ill-fortune which had attended Cervantes in these past years
seemed to stick to him now. Just when the negotiations were drawing to a
conclusion, his father suddenly died, and it appeared as if the
expedition of the Redemptorist Fathers would sail without him. However,
his mother was happily a woman of energy, and after managing somehow to
raise three hundred ducats on her own possessions, appealed to the King
for help. This he appears to have granted her at once, and he gave her
an order for 2,000 ducats on some Valencia merchandise; but with their
usual bad luck they only ultimately succeeded in obtaining about sixty,
which with her own three hundred were placed in the hands of the
Redemptorist Fathers.

It was time: the fact that the term of Azan's government of Algiers had
drawn to an end rendered him more than ever greedy for money, and he
demanded for Cervantes double the price that he himself had paid, and
threatened, if this was not forthcoming, to carry his captive on board
his own vessel, which was bound for Constantinople. Indeed, this threat
was actually put into effect, and Cervantes, bound and loaded with
chains, was placed in a ship of the little squadron that was destined
for