avarice of the masters sometimes alleviated the lot of the
Christian slaves; but, unfortunately for Cervantes, he was treated
with extreme severity in order to compel him to obtain ransom from his
friends, while he, the very soul of independence, tried to escape in
order to avoid trespassing on their resources. The interest of the
Moors was to pretend to believe that their captives were of exalted
rank and position, in order to obtain a bigger ransom.

Cervantes, in one of his novels, makes Ricardo give an account of this
notable custom in the story of his adventures. His master, Fetale, is
always complimenting him upon his exalted rank, and telling him that,
from a sense of honor, he should pay a high ransom. He tells him that
it is not becoming his rank to remain an idle and inglorious captive,
and laughs at the repeated disclaimers of his prisoner. Unfortunately,
when Cervantes was captured he had in his possession letters of
introduction from public personages of the day, which caused him to be
highly valued. This led to cruel sufferings, inflicted in the
expectation of obtaining a heavy ransom. He was sentenced to be
imprisoned in a place called the Baths. The Moorish dungeons had three
depths of caverns, like underground granaries. In mockery of the light
of heaven, there was one small window, and that was crossed with iron
bars. The sun and air never entered this awful place. The only sights
were harrowing; the only company was that of convicts, thieves,
murderers, and the lowest Moorish rabble; and the sounds and voices,
mixed with blasphemies and oaths, were re-echoed as if from the vaults
of the dead. Every sense was outraged by the accumulation of horrors
that combined to disgust and horrify. Hunger, nakedness, thirst, heat,
damp, and cold, all combined to swell the catalogue of their miseries
and their woes. We can easily picture the sufferings of Cervantes,
whose captivity was as severe as it was possible even for his Algerian
master to make it. No wonder that a man so full of energy as Cervantes
should try again and again to escape from his infernal captivity. On
four occasions he was on the point of being impaled, hanged, or burned
alive for his daring attempts to liberate himself and his unfortunate
comrades. But, of all the enterprises which entered the imagination of
this fearless soldier, the most generous, noble, and remarkable, as
regarded its consequences, made too at a period when Europe trembled