The direction of the literature of the country, however, was the same it had taken from the beginning of the century. Slight, but unsatisfactory, attempts continued to be made to adhere to the forms of the elder time;--such attempts as are to be seen in a long narrative poem by the Count Saldueña on the subject of Pelayo, and two very poor imitations of the “Para Todos” of Montalvan, one of which was by Moraleja, and the other by Ortiz. But the amount of what was undertaken in this way was very small, and the impulse was constantly diminishing; for the French school enjoyed now all the favor that was given to any form of elegant literature.[315] [315] “El Pelayo, Poema de D. Alonso de Solís Folch de Cardona Rodriguez de las Varillas, Conde de Saldueña,” etc., (Madrid, 1754, 4to,) twelve cantos in octave stanzas, written in the most affected style.--Joseph Moraleja, “El Entretenido, Segunda Parte” (Madrid, 1741, 4to); a continuation of the Entretenido of Sanchez Tortoles, containing the amusements of a society of friends for four days; _entremeses_, stories, odds and ends of poetry, astronomical calculations, etc., a strange and absurd mixture. Baena (Hijos de Madrid, Tom. III. p. 81) has a life of the author. The “Noches Alegres” of Isidro Fr. Ortiz Gallardo de Villaroel, (Salamanca, 1758, 4to,) is a shorter book, and nearly all in verse. Both are worthless. In this respect, a fashionable society, called The Academy of Good Taste, and connected with the court of Madrid, exercised some influence. It dates from 1749, and was intended, perhaps, to resemble those French _coteries_, which began in the reign of Louis the Thirteenth, at the Hotel de Rambouillet, and were long so important both in the literary and political history of France. The Countess of Lemos, at whose house it met, was its founder, and it gradually ranked among its members several of the more cultivated nobility and most of the leading men of letters, such as Luzan, Montiano, Blas Nasarre, and Velazquez, each of whom was known, either at that time or soon afterwards, by his published works.[316] [316] Luzan, Arte Poética, ed. 1789, Tom. I. pp. xix., etc. Except Luzan, of whom we have already spoken, Velazquez was the most distinguished of their number. He was descended from an old and noble family, in the South of Spain, and was born in 1722; but, from his position in society, he passed most of his life at court. There he became involved in the political troubles of the reign of Charles the Third, in consequence of which he suffered a long imprisonment from 1766 to 1772, and died of apoplexy the same year he was released.