What hopes and views he nourished in his own heart on visiting Rome we cannot tell. He was now in his twenty-third year. His temperament was ardent and aspiring, his tastes decidedly literary; but with no bent towards the clerical profession. That he had hopes we cannot doubt; and little doubt is there that these hopes proved, as he says; "light as the winds and shifting as the sands;" for he had not been a year at Rome when he changed the whole course of his life, and volunteered as a soldier. "The war against the Turks," his biographer, Los Rios, observes, "which was declared in 1570, gave him an opportunity of adopting a more noble profession, and one more consonant to his birth and valour;" and we may remark, that whatever hardships he suffered in his military career, Cervantes prided himself upon it to the end of his life. He always calls himself a soldier; and his heart is in the argument, when Don Quixote, comparing the student's and the soldier's life, gives preference to the latter as the more noble. [Sidenote: 1570. Ætat. 23.] To return to the Turkish war, during which he served. The sultan Selim, being desirous of possessing himself of the island of Cyprus, broke the peace which he had made with the Venetian republic, and sent an armament for the conquest of this island. The Venetians implored the aid of the Christian sovereigns. Pope Pius V., in consequence, sent a force, commanded by Marco Antonio Colonna, duke of Paliano. Cervantes enlisted under this general, and served during the campaign, which began late in the year, the object of which was to succour Cyprus, and raise the siege of Nicosia. The dissentions among the commanders sent by the various Christian princes prevented, however, the good they were sent to do. The Turks took Nicosia by assault, and proceeded to other conquests. [Sidenote: 1571. Ætat. 24.] During the following year greater efforts were made by the Christians. The combined fleet of Venice, Spain, and of the pope, assembled at Messina. Marco Antonio Colonna continued to command the papal galleys, Doria the Venetians; while the combined forces of all parties were placed under the command of don John of Austria, a gallant prince, the natural son of the emperor Charles V. Cervantes served in the company of the brave captain Diego de Urbino, a detachment of the tercio (regiment) of Miguel de Moncada.