ugh my misfortunes are such as can never be repaired,
because I am utterly cut off from hope, which is the wretch's last
comfort, yet I may, by your means, be enabled to bear them with some
degree of fortitude and resignation.

Know then, my name is not Ali; neither am I of Persian extraction. I had
once the honour to own myself a Castilian, and was, under the appellation
of Don Diego de Zelos, respected as the head of one of the most ancient
families of that kingdom. Judge, then, how severe that distress must be,
which compels a Spaniard to renounce his country, his honours, and his
name. My youth was not spent in inglorious ease, neither did it waste
unheeded in the rolls of fame. Before I had attained the age of
nineteen, I was twice wounded in battle. I once fortunately recovered
the standard of the regiment to which I belonged, after it had been
seized by the enemy; and, at another occasion, made shift to save the
life of my colonel, when he lay at the mercy of an enraged barbarian.

He that thinks I recapitulate these particulars out of ostentation, does
wrong to the unhappy Don Diego de Zelos, who, in having performed these
little acts of gallantry, thinks he has done nothing, but simply approved
himself worthy of being called a Castilian. I mean only to do justice to
my own character, and to make you acquainted with one of the most
remarkable incidents of my life. It was my fate, during my third
campaign, to command a troop of horse in the regiment of Don Gonzales
Orgullo, between whom and my father a family feud had long been
maintained with great enmity; and that gentleman did not leave me without
reason to believe he rejoiced at the opportunity of exercising his
resentment upon his adversary's son; for he withheld from me that
countenance which my fellow-officers enjoyed, and found means to subject
me to divers mortifications, of which I was not at liberty to complain.
These I bore in silence for some time, as part of my probation in the
character of a soldier; resolved, nevertheless, to employ my interest at
court for a removal into another corps, and to take some future
opportunity of explaining my sentiments to Don Gonzales upon the
injustice of his behaviour.

While I animated myself with these sentiments against the discouragements
I underwent, and the hard duty to which I was daily exposed, it was our
fate to be concerned in the battle of Saragossa, where our regiment was
so severely handled by