he would accept if absolutely necessary; but he preferred that if martyrs there must be they should be selected from the ranks of the enemy, whilst he, George Borrow, represented the strong arm of the Lord.

After the Vilallos affair, Borrow returned to Madrid, crossing the Guadarramas alone and with two horses. "I nearly perished there," he wrote to Mr Brandram (1st Sept.), "having lost my way in the darkness and tumbled down a precipice." The perilous journey north had resulted in the sale of 900 Testaments, all within the space of three weeks and amidst scenes of battle and bloodshed.

On his return to Madrid, Borrow found awaiting him the Resolution of the General Committee (6th Aug.), recalling him "without further delay."

"I will set out for England as soon as possible," he wrote in reply; {278a} "but I must be allowed time. I am almost dead with fatigue, suffering and anxiety; and it is necessary that I should place the Society's property in safe and sure custody."

On 1st September he wrote to Mr Brandram that he should "probably be in England within three weeks." Shortly after this he was attacked with fever, and confined to his bed for ten days, during which he was frequently delirious. When the fever departed, he was left very weak and subject to a profound melancholy.

"I bore up against my illness as long as I could," he wrote, {279a} "but it became too powerful for me. By good fortune I obtained a decent physician, a Dr Hacayo, who had studied medicine in England, and aided by him and the strength of my constitution I got the better of my attack, which, however, was a dreadfully severe one. I hope my next letter will be from Bordeaux. I cannot write more at present, for I am very feeble."

The actual date that Borrow left Madrid is not known. He himself gave it as 31st August, {279b} which is obviously inaccurate, as on 19th September he wrote to Mr Brandram: "I am now better, and hope in a few days to be able to proceed to Saragossa, which is the only road open." He travelled leisurely by way of the Pyrenees, through France to Paris, where he spent a fortnight. Of Paris he was very fond; "for, leaving all prejudices aside, it is a magnificent city, well supplied with sumptuous buildings and public squares, unequalled by any town in Europe." {279c} Having bought a few rare books he proceeded to Boulogne, "and thence by steamboat to London," {279d} where in all probability he arrived towards the end of October.

He had "long talks on Spanish affairs" with his friends at Earl Street, where personal interviews seem to have brought about a much better feeling. The General Committee requested Borrow to put into writing his views as to the best means to be adopted for the future distribution of the Scriptures in Spain. He accordingly wrote a statement, {280a} a fine, vigorous piece of narrative, putting his case so clearly and convincingly as to leave little to be said for the unfortunate Graydon. He expressed himself as "eager to be carefully and categorically questioned." This Report appears subsequently to have been withdrawn, probably on the advice of Borrow's friends, who saw that its uncompromising bluntness of expression would make it unacceptable to the General Committee. It was certainly presented to and considered by the Sub-Committee. Another document was drawn up entitled, "Report of Mr Geo. Borrow on Past and Future Operations in Spain." This reached Earl Street on 28th November. In it Borrow states that as the inhabitants of the cities had not shown themselves well-disposed towards the Scriptures, it would be better to labour in future among the peasantry. It was his firm conviction, he wrote,

"that every village in Spain will purchase New Testaments, from twenty to sixty, according to its circumstances. During the last two months of his sojourn in Spain he visited about forty villages, and in only two instances was his sale less than thirty copies in each . . . If it be objected to the plan which he has presumed to suggest that it is impossible to convey to the rural districts of Spain the book of life without much difficulty and danger, he begs leave to observe that it does not become a real Christian to be daunted by either when it pleases his Maker to select him as an instrument; and that, moreover, if it be not written that a man is to perish by wild beasts or reptiles he is safe in the den even of the Cockatrice as in the most retired chamber of the King's Palace; and that if, on the contrary, he be doomed to perish by them, his destiny will overtake him notwithstanding all the precautions which he, like a blind worm, may essay for his security."

In conclusion Borrow calls attention, without suggesting intimate alliance and co-operation, to the society of the liberal-minded Spanish ecclesiastics, which has been formed for the purpose of printing and circulating the Scriptures in Spanish WITHOUT COMMENTARY OR NOTES. This had reference to a movement that was on foot in Madrid, supported by the Primate and the Bishops of Vigo and Joen, to challenge the Government in regard to its attempt to prevent the free circulation of the Scriptures. It was held that nowhere among the laws of Spain is it forbidden to circulate the Scriptures either with or without annotations. The only prohibition being in the various Papal Bulls. Charles Wood was chosen as "the ostensible manager of the concern"; but had it not been for the trouble in the South, Borrow would have been the person selected.

It would have been in every way deplorable had Borrow severed his connection with the Bible Society as a result of the Graydon episode. Borrow had been impulsive and indignant in his letters to Earl Street, Mr Brandram, on the other hand, had been "a little partial," and on one or two occasions must have written hastily in response to Borrow's letters. There is no object in administering blame or directing reproaches when the principals in a quarrel have made up their differences; but there can be no question that the failure of the Officials and Committee of the Bible Society to appreciate the situation in Spain retarded their work in that country very considerably. This fact is now generally recognised. Mr Canton has admirably summed up the situation when he says:

"Borrow had his faults, but insincerity and lack of zeal in the cause he had espoused were not among them. Both Sir George Villiers and his successor [during Sir George's visit to England], Lord William Hervey, were satisfied with the propriety of his conduct. Count Ofalia himself recognised his good faith--'cuia buena fe me es conocida.' To see his plans thwarted, his work arrested, the objects of the Society jeopardised, and his own person endangered by the indiscretion of others, formed, if not a justification, at least a sufficient excuse for the expression of strong feeling. On the other hand, it was difficult for those at home to ascertain the actual facts of the case, to understand the nicety of the situation, and to arrive at an impartial judgment. Mr Brandram, who in any case would have been displeased with Borrow's unrestrained speech, appears to have suspected that his statements were not free from exaggeration, and that his discretion was not wholly beyond reproach. Happily the tension caused by this painful episode was relieved by Lieut. Graydon's withdrawal to France in June." {282a}

CHAPTER XVIII: DECEMBER 1838-MAY 1839

On 14th December 1838 it was resolved by the General Committee of the Bible Society that Borrow should proceed once more to Spain to dispose of such copies of the Scriptures as remained on hand at Madrid and other depots established by him in various parts of the country. He left London on the 21st, and sailed from Falmouth two days later, reaching Cadiz on the 31st, after a stormy passage, and on 2nd January he arrived at Seville, "rather indisposed with an old complaint," probably "the Horrors."

In such stirring times to be absent from the country, even for so short a period as two months, meant that on his return the traveller found a new Spain. Borrow learned that the Duke of Frias had succeeded Count Ofalia in September. The Duke had advised the British Ambassador in November that the Spanish authorities were possessed of a quantity of Borrow's Bibles (?New Testaments) that had been seized and taken to Toledo, and that if arrangements were not made for them to be taken out of Spain they would be destroyed. Sir George Villiers had replied that Mr Borrow, who was then out of the country, had been advised of the Duke's notification, and as soon as word was received from him, the Duke should be communicated with. Then the Duke of Frias in turn passed out of office and was succeeded by another, and so, politically, change followed change.

The Government, however, had no intention of putting itself in the wrong a second time. Great Britain's friendship was of far too great importance to the country to be jeopardised for the mere gratification of imprisoning George Borrow. An order had been sent out to all the authorities that an embargo was to be placed upon the books themselves; but those distributing them were not to be arrested or in any way harmed.

At Seville he found evidences of the activity of the Government in the news that of the hundred New Testaments that he had left with his correspondent there, seventy-six had been seized during the previous summer. Hearing that the books were in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Governor, Borrow astonished that "fierce, persecuting Papist by calling to make enquiries concerning them." The old man treated his visitor to a stream of impassioned invective against the Bible Society and its agent, expressing his surprise that he had ever been permitted to leave the prison in Madrid. Seeing that nothing was to be gained, although he had an absolute right to the books, provided he sent them out of the country, Borrow decided not to press the matter.

On the night of 12th Jan. 1839, he left Seville with the Mail Courier and his escort bound for Madrid, where he arrived on the 16th without accident or incident, although the next Courier traversing the route was stopped by banditti. It was during this journey, whilst resting for four hours at Manzanares, a large village in La Mancha, that he encountered the blind girl who had been taught Latin by a Jesuit priest, and whom he named "the Manchegan Prophetess." {284a} In telling Mr Brandram of the incident, Borrow tactlessly remarked, "what wonderful people are the Jesuits; when shall we hear of an English rector instructing a beggar girl in the language of Cicero?" Mr Brandram clearly showed that he liked neither the remark, which he took as personal, nor the use of the term "prophetess."

On reaching Madrid a singular incident befell Borrow. On entering the arch of the posada called La Reyna, he found himself encircled by