Page:Don Quixote (Cervantes, Ormsby) Volume 1.djvu/48

 xxxviii Quevedo. But each time there is something in his words that suggests a close personal intimacy. Thus, in the "Viaje del Parnaso," when Mercury proposes to wait for Quevedo, Cervantes says he "takes such short steps that he will be a whole age coming," a remark which has puzzled a good many readers. The fact is that Quevedo had clubbed feet, but, so far from being sensitive about the deformity, made it a matter of joke. Cervantes, however, could not feel sure that he would relish a joke on the subject from another, had he not been intimate with him, and we know he held with the proverb, "Jests that give pain are no jests."

Quevedo seems to have been the only one among the younger men, except perhaps Juan de Jauregui, with whom Cervantes had any friendship, and even among the men of his own generation his personal friendships appear to have been but few. And yet, so far as the few glimpses we get allow us to judge, Cervantes must have been one of the most lovable men this world has ever seen. The depositions of the witnesses at Algiers, given by Navarrete, show his power of winning the love of his fellow-men. He was a stanch and loyal friend himself, one that could see no fault in a friend, and never missed a chance of saying a kindly word when he thought he could give pleasure to a friend. He bore his hard lot with sweet serenity and noble patience, facing adversity as he had faced death with high courage and dauntless spirit; and surely those two fancy portraits Hartzenbusch has prefixed to his editions are libellous representations. The features of Cervantes never wore that expression of agonized despair. We may rely upon it that it was with the "smooth untroubled forehead and bright cheerful eyes" of his own half-playful description that he met adverse fortune.

In 1601 Valladolid was made the seat of the Court, and at the beginning of 1603 Cervantes had been summoned thither in connection with the balance due by him to the Treasury, which was still outstanding. In what way the matter was settled we know not, but we hear no more of it. He remained at Valladolid, apparently supporting himself by agencies and scrivener's work of some sort; probably draughting petitions and drawing up statements of claims to be presented to the Council, and the like. So, at least, we gather from the depositions taken on the occasion of the death of a gentleman, the victim of a street brawl, who had been carried into the house