CERVANTES WAS STILL A SOLDIER AND OFFICIALLY ATTACHED TO
the regiment of Figueroa which his brother Rodrigo had already
joined. It was now in Portugal, where Philip was establishing his
claims to the throne. Thither he went, presumably after a holiday
with his parents and the other relatives who had pledged their
few worldly goods to win his freedom. In 1581 he took part in the
expedition against the Azores and in 1582 he was on board the San
Mateo which bore the brunt of the fighting in another of Spain's
history-making naval victories when a combined Anglo-French
fleet was overwhelmed at Terceira. This opened the way to the
complete conquest of the Azores in 1583, the year in which a
Portuguese lady ( Ana Franca de Rojas) bore Cervantes his only
child, Isabel.

Isabel does not seem to have influenced her father's literary de-
velopment but she was a true daughter, sharer of all his troubles
and object of his tender affection through life. She too, along with
her mother, was no doubt a factor in his interest in Portugal,
evidenced in frequent and sympathetic references to that country
in his writings. But the wandering soldier made no money and
Cervantes abandoned hope of the preferment he had expected to
get through the ill-fated letters from Don Juan and the Viceroy
of Sicily. After service in Portugal and a few months in African
outposts of empire, he returned to civilian life late in 1583.

Many in recent years felt as Cervantes did when aged thirty-six
he found himself on Madrid's sidewalks. The world is full of soldiers
who went off blithely in the flower of their youth to sponsor what
they believed a noble cause, only to find themselves soon cast off

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