BEFORE setting out from Seville we had had our Foreign Officepassports duly VISED. Our profession was given as that oftravelling artists, and the VISE included the permission tocarry arms. More than once the sight of our pistols causedus to be stopped by the CARABINEROS. On one occasion theseroad-guards disputed the wording of the VISE. They protestedthat 'armas' meant 'escopetas,' not pistols, which wereforbidden. Cayley indignantly retorted, 'Nothing isforbidden to Englishmen. Besides, it is specified in ourpassports that we are 'personas de toda confianza,' whichcheckmated them.

　　We both sketched, and passed ourselves off as 'retratistas'

　　(portrait painters), and did a small business in this way -rather in the shape of caricatures, I fear, but which gavemuch satisfaction. We charged one peseta (seven-pence), ortwo, a head, according to the means of the sitter. Thefiction that we were earning our bread wholesomely tended tomoderate the charge for it.

　　Passing through the land of Don Quixote's exploits, wereverentially visited any known spot which these had renderedfamous. Amongst such was the VENTA of Quesada, from which,or from Quixada, as some conjecture, the knight derived hissurname. It was here, attracted by its castellated style,and by two 'ladies of pleasure' at its door - whose virginityhe at once offered to defend, that he spent the night of hisfirst sally. It was here that, in his shirt, he kept guardtill morning over the armour he had laid by the well. It washere that, with his spear, he broke the head of the carrierwhom he took for another knight bent on the rape of thevirgin princesses committed to his charge. Here, too, it wasthat the host of the VENTA dubbed him with the covetedknighthood which qualified him for his noble deeds.

　　To Quesada we wended our way. We asked the Senor Huespedwhether he knew anything of the history of his VENTA. Was itnot very ancient?

　　'Oh no, it was quite modern. But on the site of it had stooda fine VENTA which was burnt down at the time of the war.'

　　'An old building?'

　　'Yes, indeed! A COSA DE SIEMPRE - thing of always. Nothing,was left of it now but that well, and the stone trough.'

　　These bore marks of antiquity, and were doubtless as thegallant knight had left them. Curiously, too, there wereremains of an outhouse with a crenellated parapet, suggestiveenough of a castle.

　　From Quesada we rode to Argamasilla del Alba, where Cervanteswas imprisoned, and where the First Part of Don Quixote waswritten.

　　In his Life of Cervantes, Don Gregorio Mayano throws somedoubt upon this. Speaking of the attacks of hiscontemporary, the 'Aragonian,' Don Gregorio writes (I giveOzell's translation): 'As for this scandalous fellow'ssaying that Cervantes wrote his First Part of "Don Quixote"in a prison, and that that might make it so dull andincorrect, Cervantes did not think fit to give any answerconcerning his being imprisoned, perhaps to avoid givingoffence to the ministers of justice; for certainly hisimprisonment must not have been ignominious, since Cervanteshimself voluntarily mentions it in his Preface to the FirstPart of "Don Quixote."'

　　This reasoning, however, does not seem conclusive; for theonly reference to the subject in the preface is as follows:

　　'What could my sterile and uncultivated genius produce butthe history of a child, meagre, adust, and whimsical, full ofvarious wild imaginations never thought of before; like oneyou may suppose born in a prison, where every inconveniencekeeps its residence, and every dismal sound its habitation?'

　　We took up our quarters in the little town at the 'Posada dela Mina.' While our OLLA was being prepared; we asked thehostess whether she had ever heard of the celebrated DonMiguel de Cervantes, who had been imprisoned there? (I willquote Cayley).

　　'No, Senores; I think I have heard of one Cervantes, but hedoes not live here at present.'

　　'Do you know anything of Don Quixote?'

　　'Oh, yes. He was a great CABALLERO, who lived here someyears ago. His house is over the way, on the other side ofthe PLAZA, with the arms over the door. The father of theAlcalde is the oldest man in the PUEBLO; perhaps he mayremember him.'

　　We were amused at his hero's fame outliving that of theauthor. But is it not so with others - the writers of theBook of Job, of the Pentateuch, and perhaps, too, of the'Iliad,' if not of the 'Odyssey'?

　　But, to let Cayley speak:

　　'While we were undressing to go to bed, three gentlemen wereannounced and shown in. We begged them to be seated. . . .

　　We sat opposite on the ends of our respective beds to hearwhat they might have to communicate. A venerable old manopened the conference.

　　'"We have understood, gentlemen, that you have come hitherseeking for information respecting the famous Don Quixote,and we have come to give you such information as we may; but,perhaps you will understand me better if I speak in Latin."'"We have learnt the Latin at our schools, but are moreaccustomed to converse in Castilian; pray proceed."'"I am the Medico of the place, an old man, as you see; andwhat little I know has reached me by tradition. It isreported that Cervantes was paying his addresses to a younglady, whose name was Quijana or Quijada. The Alcalde,disapproving of the suit, put him into a dungeon under hishouse, and kept him there a year. Once he escaped and fled,but he was taken in Toboso, and brought back. Cervanteswrote 'Don Quixote' as a satire on the Alcalde, who was avery proud man, full of chivalresque ideas. You can see thedungeon to-morrow; but you should see the BATANES (water-mills) of the Guadiana, whose 'golpear' so terrified SanchoPanza. They are at about three leagues distance."'

　　The old gentleman added that he was proud to receivestrangers who came to do honour to the memory of hisillustrious townsman; and hoped we would visit him next day,on our return from the fulling-mills, when he would have thepleasure of conducting us to the house of the Quijanas, inthe cellars of which Cervantes was confined.

　　To the BATANES we went next morning. Their historicalimportance entitles them to an accurate description. Nonecould be more lucid than that of my companion. 'Theseclumsy, ancient machines are composed of a couple of hugewooden mallets, slung in a timber framework, which, beingpushed out of the perpendicular by knobs on a water-wheel,clash back again alternately in two troughs, poundingseverely whatever may be put in between the face of themallet and the end of the trough into which the water runs.'

　　It will be remembered that, after a copious meal, Sanchohaving neglected to replenish the gourd, both he and hismaster suffered greatly from thirst. It was now 'so dark,'

　　says the history, 'that they could see nothing; but they hadnot gone two hundred paces when a great noise of waterreached their ears. . . . The sound rejoiced themexceedingly; and, stopping to listen from whence it came,they heard on a sudden another dreadful noise, which abatedtheir pleasure occasioned by that of the water, especiallySancho's. . . . They heard a dreadful din of irons and chainsrattling across one another, and giving mighty strokes intime and measure which, together with the furious noise ofthe water, would have struck terror into any other heart thanthat of Don Quixote.' For him it was but an opportunity forsome valorous achievement. So, having braced on his bucklerand mounted Rosinante, he brandished his spear, and explainedto his trembling squire that by the will of Heaven he wasreserved for deeds which would obliterate the memory of thePlatirs, Tablantes, the Olivantes, and Belianesas, with thewhole tribe of the famous knights-errant of times past.

　　'Wherefore, straighten Rosinante's girths a little,' said he,'and God be with you. Stay for me here three days, and nomore; if I do not return in that time you may go to Toboso,where you shall say to my incomparable Lady Dulcinea that herenthralled knight died in attempting things that might havemade him worthy to be styled "hers."'

　　Sancho, more terrified than ever at the thoughts of beingleft alone, reminded his master that it was unwise to temptGod by undertaking exploits from which there was no escapingbut by a mi............