knight-errant, and no greater rogue. _Little Lazarus_ and his kin, _Paul the Sharper_, _Justina_, _Rinconete_, and _Cortadillo_, spoke at least the language of the people. It was a return to nature--the triumph of the real over the romantic--a veritable revolution, which doubtless led the way to a healthier taste and a higher art. The revolt against the old style was headed by the book which still stands at the head of _picaresque_ literature, _Lazarillo de Tormes_--the work, according to the best tradition and authority, of the famous Castilian statesman, diplomatist, and writer, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. I write this with full cognizance of the attempt recently made by M. Morel-Fatio, in the _Revue de Deux Mondes_, to deprive Mendoza of that honour. It is contended by M. Morel-Fatio that there is no direct evidence of Mendoza's being the author of _Lazarillo_; that he never claimed it as his writing; that it was only attributed to him fifty years after his death; and that an equal if not superior claim is that of Father Juan de Ortega, general of the order of Hieronymite monks, to whom the book is ascribed by a monk of his fraternity, in a work published in 1605. The arguments by which M. Morel-Fatio maintains his theory seem to me to be wholly insufficient against Mendoza's claim, and extravagantly wild and weak in favour of Ortega's. It is true that Mendoza never declared himself to be the author of _Lazarillo de Tormes_. There was ample reason why he should not. The book was first published in 1554; and immediately on its appearance was suppressed by order of the Inquisition, and put in the _Index Expurgatorius_. But in 1554 Mendoza was at the very climax of his public reputation, having just returned from Italy with great credit as Charles V.'s ambassador to the Pope. It was scarcely a time which he would choose to put his name to a book which had been declared offensive to faith and morals, in which the abuses of the Church were boldly attacked, and even its ceremonies ridiculed. The next year Philip II. came to the throne, when Mendoza found himself in disgrace, and had to retire to his estates. It was a period still less favourable for his appearing as the author of a loose and ribald book called _Lazarillo de Tormes_.