is possible that had it not been for the intrusion of this impertinent interloper the second part of "Don Quixote" might never have been finished.
The whole book was written at a time when the poor unfortunate author was struggling sometimes actually for bread. But nowhere in it can be found any trace of malice or bitterness. The second part was finished as he was approaching the seventieth year of a life of toil, privation, and disappointment. But his unfailing cheerfulness and good-humor never left him. This is very remarkable, because so many authors who have written satire have been unable to resist spiteful digs at other people.
It is a great pity there is no proper portrait of Cervantes. Velasquez, the greatest Spanish painter, lived just a little too late, but his master and father-in-law, Pacheco, painted a picture representing the release of captives from Algiers, and a boatman in that picture is supposed to represent Cervantes. There is also a doubtful portrait by a painter called Jaurequi. But many portraits came out, one of which is reproduced here, which were made up from his own description of himself:
He whom you see here of aquiline features with chestnut
hair, a smooth, unruffled forehead, with sparkling
eyes and a nose arched though well proportioned—a beard
of silver which not twenty years since was of gold—great
mustaches, a small mouth, the teeth of no account, for
