irls and kindly kitchen-wenches of questionable morals--all
these are presented with the genial fidelity which comes of sympathetic
insight. The immediate vogue of _Don Quixote_ was due chiefly to its
variety of incident, to its wealth of comedy bordering on farce, and
perhaps also to its keen thrusts at eminent contemporaries; its reticent
pathos, its large humanity, and its penetrating criticism of life were
less speedily appreciated.

Meanwhile, on the 12th of April 1605, Cervantes authorized his publisher
to proceed against the Lisbon booksellers who threatened to introduce
their piratical reprints into Castile. By June the citizens of
Valladolid already regarded Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as proverbial
types. Less gratifying experiences awaited the popular author. On the
27th of June 1605 Gaspar de Ezpeleta, a Navarrese gentleman of dissolute
life, was wounded outside the lodging-house in which Cervantes and his
family lived; he was taken indoors, was nursed by Cervantes' sister
Magdalena, and died on the 29th of June. That same day Cervantes, his
natural daughter (Isabel de Saavedra), his sister Andrea and her
daughter were lodged in jail on suspicion of being indirectly concerned
in Ezpeleta's death; one of the witnesses made damaging charges against
Cervantes' daughter, but no substantial evidence was produced, and the
prisoners were released. Little is known of Cervantes' life between 1605
and 1608. A _Relacion_ of the festivities held to celebrate the birth of
Philip IV., and a certain _Carta a don Diego Astudillo Carrillo_ have
been erroneously ascribed to him; during these three years he apparently
wrote nothing beyond three sonnets, and one of these is of doubtful
authenticity. The depositions of the Valladolid enquiry show that he was
living in poverty five months after the appearance of _Don Quixote_, and
the fact that he borrowed 450 _reales_ from his publisher before
November 1607 would convey the idea that his position improved slowly,
if at all. But it is difficult to reconcile this view of his
circumstances with the details concerning his illegitimate daughter
revealed in documents recently discovered. Isabel de Saavedra was stated
to be a spinster when arrested at Valladolid in June 1605; the
settlement of her marriage with Luis de Molina in 1608 describes her as
the widow of Diego Sanz, as the mother of a daughter eight months old,
and as owning house-property of some value. These particulars are