This Portuguese campaign is interesting, so far as Cervantes is concerned, as recording the only instance of a liason that is known in his career. Most of his biographers have either glossed over the fact, or declined to believe it, but it is a matter that calls for neither apology nor incredulity. We know that he entertained a very favourable opinion of the Portuguese, and was loud in his appreciation of the beauty and amiability of the Portuguese ladies. The identity of the fair, frail one who won his good will is wrapped in mystery; but the memory of this _affaire_ must have been with him when he wrote, nearly a quarter of a century later, “the passion of love is to be vanquished by flight alone, and that we must not pretend to grapple with so powerful an adversary since, though the force be human, Divine succours are necessary to subdue it.” The fruit of this amour was a daughter, called Doña Isabel de Saavedra, who became his life companion, and who, after his death, entered the convent of the barefooted Trinitarian nuns at Madrid. All sorts of conjectures as to the identity of the lady have been made; but, as Mr. Kelly, with his characteristic common-sense declares, “nothing whatever is known of her; nothing at this day is likely to be discovered about her; and the whole question might be passed over were it not for the _curiosos impertinentes_, the literary ghouls who manifest their interest in high literature by leaving _Don Quixote_ unread, and striving to discover the name of Cervantes’ mistress.” But Mr. Kelly, in this part, as in one or two other instances in his scholarly _Life of Cervantes_, is inclined to claim less for his hero than he is entitled to. He says here that, “so far as Cervantes himself is concerned in this matter, his biographer must be content to admit that his subject was no saint, but an impetuous man of genius, with quite as full a share of frailty as though he had been a peer.” Yet a study of the career of Cervantes discloses him, if not a saint, at least a man of less frailty than the majority of the world’s great ones; and to suppose him habitually frail because one indiscretion can be attributed to him, seems scarcely generous. Again, in dealing with that period of Cervantes’ life in Valladolid, after the publication of _Don Quixote_, Mr. Kelly says, “He probably had a little money at this time, and, though it would seem that he spent some of it in very undesirable ways, it may be hoped that [Illustration: STATUE OF CERVANTES AT MADRID.]