Cervantes had entered Tunis with the marquis of Santa Cruz, and returned to Palermo with the fleet. He made one of the force which, under the duke of Sesa, vainly attempted to succour Goletta: he afterwards wintered in Sardinia, and was brought back to Naples in the galleys of Marcel Doria. In the month of June, 1575, he obtained leave from don John of Austria to return to Spain, after an absence of seven years. Viardôt assures us, that in the intervals of military service, or during the various expeditions, Cervantes visited Rome, Florence, Venice, Bologna, Naples, and Palermo. He became accomplished in the Italian language: the anti-Petrarchists of his time detected the influence of Italian literature, and accused him, as Boscan and Garcilaso had been accused, of corrupting his native Castilian. [Sidenote: 1575. Ætat. 28.] Cervantes, now twenty-eight years of age, having served in many campaigns, maimed and enfeebled, no doubt pined to revisit his native country. He had left it to seek his fortune; he was to return a simple soldier; yet the military profession continued dear to him; and when he speaks of the many misfortunes a soldier encounters,--his poverty so great that he is poor among the poor; ever expecting his slender pay, which he seldom receives, or is obliged to seize on, at the hazard of his life, and to the injury of his conscience; the hardships he encounters, the dangers he risks, and the small reward he gains,--yet he looks on all these circumstances as redounding to his glory, and rendering him deserving of honour and esteem from all men. We may believe also that Cervantes quitted Italy with well-founded hopes of preferment in his native country: he had distinguished himself in a manner that deserved reward. Don John appreciated his worth, and gave him letters to the king his brother, in which he gave due praise for his conduct at the battle of Lepanto, and begged Philip to confide to him the command of one of the regiments which were then being raised in Spain to serve in Italy or Flanders. The viceroy of Sicily, don Carlos of Aragon, and the duke of Sesa, also recommended him to the benevolence of the king and his ministers as a soldier whose valour and worth deserved recompence.[58] Such recommendations promised fair. Cervantes embarked on board the Spanish galley el Sol (the Sun) with his elder brother Rodrigo, also a soldier, and with various officers of distinction; but disaster was near at hand to dash all his hopes, and devote him to years of adversity. On the 26th of September the galley was surrounded by an Algerine squadron, under the command of the Arnaout Mami, who was captain of the sea. The Turkish vessels attacked and boarded el Sol. The combat was obstinate, but numbers overpowered. The galley was taken and carried into Algiers. In the subsequent division of prisoners, Cervantes fell to the share of the Arnaout captain himself.