Annals of industry and genius . s as a mercantile agent. It is interestinoand instructive to find the genius of the man turn-ing to fruitful account even this plodding intervalof his existence, spent amid the turmoils of the busycity. He found in the active life and varied pur-suits of its inhabitants, an .ample field for the studyof human nature, and the materials for many of histales were furnished him by incidents that actuallyoccurred at Seville. Strange and melancholy it is to learn that amongthe various annoyances inflicted upon this great man,was the accusation of fraud in the execution
Annals of industry and genius . s as a mercantile agent. It is interestinoand instructive to find the genius of the man turn-ing to fruitful account even this plodding intervalof his existence, spent amid the turmoils of the busycity. He found in the active life and varied pur-suits of its inhabitants, an .ample field for the studyof human nature, and the materials for many of histales were furnished him by incidents that actuallyoccurred at Seville. Strange and melancholy it is to learn that amongthe various annoyances inflicted upon this great man,was the accusation of fraud in the execution of Listrust. Certain monies which passed through hiahands were abstracted by a merchant with whom business. The guilty party fled, andCervantes was arrested and kept in prison till hegave security for the repayment of the lost sum. About this period of his life all trace of his proceed-ings has been lost. It appears that he quitted Sevillein 1598, and some four years after he was at Valla- G2 A DOUBTFUL ?EIIVANTES COMPOSING DON QITIXOTE. dolid; but ill what manner the intervening time waspassed has not been ascertained. Having recourseto conjecture, his biographers suppose him to have APPEARANCE OF DON QUIXOTE. 63 found employment in the province of La Mancba;and there is an old tradition that lie was imprisonedby the alcalde of a village in that district, and thathe wrote the first part of his Don Quixote whilein confinement. The accuracy with which he hasdescribed the countrj^ of La Mancha and the man-ners and customs of its inhabitants leaves little roomfor doubt that he must, at some period, have residedthere. Certain it is that the first part of his re-nowned work was published in 1604, when theauthor had attained his fifty-seventh year. For ashort time only it was unnoticed. The writer wasunknown to fame—an obscure man, and poor. Thevery title of the book was censured and misunder-stood; but it only needed to be known, and its suc-cess was imme
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