the bores, will not abstain from abusing it, out of respect for anyone.
I only beg your Excellency to observe that I present to you, without
more words, thirteen tales,[1] which, had they not been wrought in the
laboratory of my own brains, might presume to stand beside the best.
Such as they are, there they go, leaving me here rejoiced at the thought
of manifesting, in some degree, the desire I feel to serve your
Excellency as my true lord and benefactor. Our Lord preserve, &c.

Your Excellency's servant,

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA.

MADRID, _13th of July, 1613_.

[1] There are but twelve of them. Possibly when Cervantes wrote this
dedication he intended to include "El Curioso Impertinente," which
occurs in chapters xxxiii.-xxxv. of the first part of "Don Quixote."




AUTHOR'S PREFACE.


I wish it were possible, dear reader, to dispense with writing this
preface; for that which I put at the beginning of my "Don Quixote" did
not turn out so well for me as to give me any inclination to write
another. The fault lies with a friend of mine--one of the many I have
made in the course of my life with my heart rather than my head. This
friend might well have caused my portrait, which the famous Don Juan de