Nor do we feel, from the narratives of captives and of travellers, that the condition of the white slave was rigorous beyond the ordinary lot of slavery. "The Captive's Story" in Don Quixote fails to impress the reader with any peculiar horror of the life from which he escaped. It is often said that the sufferings of Cervantes were among the most severe which even Algiers could inflict.[157] But they did not repress the gayety of his temper; and we learn that in the building where he was confined there was a chapel or oratory in which mass was celebrated, the sacrament administered, and sermons regularly preached by captive priests. Nor was this all. The pleasures of the theatre were enjoyed by these slaves; and the farces of Lope de Rueda, a favorite Spanish dramatist of the time, served, in actual representation, to cheer this house of bondage.[158] [157] "_De los peores que en Argel auia._"--Haedo, Historia de Argel, p. 85. Navarrete, Vida de Cervantes, p. 361. [158] Roscoe, Life of Cervantes, pp. 303, 304. Cervantes, Baños de Argel. The experience of the devoted Portuguese ecclesiastic, Father Thomas, illustrates this lot. A slave in Morocco, he was able to minister to his fellow-slaves, and to compose a work on the Passion of Jesus Christ, much admired for its unction, and translated into various tongues. Liberated at last through the intervention of the Portuguese government, he chose to remain behind, notwithstanding the solicitations of relatives at home, that he might continue to instruct and console the unhappy men, his late companions in bonds.[159] [159] Biographie Universelle (Michaud): Art. _Thomas de Jesus_. Digby's Broad Stone of Honor, _Tancredus_, § 9, p. 181.