prudent conduct of Seville authorities.

"Hope he will therefore be completely satisfied, especially after the want of exactitude on Borrow's part.

From EVARISTO PEREZ DE CASTRO." To Mr Aston. {319a}

And so the matter ended. The Spanish authorities knew that they no longer had a Sir George Villiers to deal with, and had recourse to that trump card of weak and vacillating diplomatists--delay. Whatever Borrow's offence, the method of his arrest and imprisonment was in itself unlawful.

It was Borrow's intention on his return to England to endeavour to obtain an interview with some members of the House of Lords, in order to acquaint them with the manner in which Protestants were persecuted in Spain. They were debarred from the exercise of their religion from being married by Protestant rites, and the common privileges of burial were denied them. He was anxious for Protestant England, lest it should fall a victim to Popery. This fear of Rome was a very real one to Borrow. He marvelled at people's blindness to the danger that was threatening them, and he even went so far as to entreat his friends at Earl Street "to drop all petty dissensions and to comport themselves like brothers" against their common enemy the Pope.

Unfortunately Borrow had shown to a number of friends one of his letters to Mr Brandram dealing with the Seville imprisonment, and had even allowed several copies of it to be taken "in order that an incorrect account of the affair might not get abroad." The result was an article in a London newspaper containing remarks to the disparagement of other workers for the Gospel in Spain. Borrow disavowed all knowledge of these observations.

"I am not ashamed of the Methodists of Cadiz," he assures Mr Brandram, "their conduct in many respects does them honor, nor do I accuse any one of fanaticism amongst our dear and worthy friends; but I cannot answer for the tittle-tattle of Madrid. Far be it from me to reflect upon any one, I am but too well aware of my own multitudinous imperfections and follies."

There is nothing more mysterious in Borrow's life than his years of friendship with Mrs Clarke. He was never a woman's man, but Mary Clarke seems to have awakened in him a very sincere regard. The menage at Seville was a curious one, and both Borrow and Mrs Clarke should have seen that it was calculated to make people talk. There may have been a tacit understanding between them. Everything connected with their relations and courtship is very mysterious. Dr Knapp is scarcely just to Borrow or gracious to the woman he married, when he implies that it was merely a business arrangement on both sides. Mrs Clarke's affairs required a man's hand to administer them, and Borrow was prepared to give the man's hand in exchange for an income. The engagement could scarcely have taken place in the middle of November 1839, as Dr Knapp states, for on the day of his arrest at Seville (24th Nov.) Borrow wrote:-

MY DEAR MRS CLARKE,--Do not be alarmed, but I am at present in the prison, to which place the Alcalde del Barrio conducted me when I asked him to sign the Passport. If Phelipe is not already gone to the Consul, let Henrietta go now and show him this letter. When I asked the fellow his motives for not signing the Passport, he said if I did not go away he would carry me to prison. I dared him to do so, as I had done nothing; whereupon he led me here.--Yours truly,

GEORGE BORROW.

This is obviously not the letter of a man recently engaged to the woman who is to become his wife. On the other hand, Borrow may have been writing merely for the Consul's eye.

On hearing the news of the engagement old Mrs Borrow wrote:-

"I am not surprised, my dear Mrs Clarke, at what you tell me, though I knew nothing of it. It put me in mind of the Revd. Flethers; you know they took time to consider. So far all is well. I shall now resign him to your care, and may you love and cherish him as much as I have done. I hope and trust that each will try to make the other happy. You will always have my prayers and best wishes. Give my kind love to dear George and tell him he is never out of my thoughts. I have much to say, but I cannot write. I shall be glad to see you all safe and well. Give my love to Henrietta; tell her _I_ can sing 'Gaily the Troubadour'; I only want the 'guitar.' {332a} God bless you all."

There is no doubt that a very strong friendship had existed between Mrs Clarke and Borrow during the whole time that he had been associated with the Bible Society. She it was who had been indirectly responsible for his introduction to Earl Street. It is idle to speculate what it was that led Mrs Clarke to select Seville as the place to which to fly from her enemies. There is, however, a marked significance in old Mrs Borrow's words, "I am not surprised, my dear Mrs Clarke, at what you tell me." Whatever his mother may have seen, there appears to have been no thought of marriage in Borrow's mind when, on 29th September 1839, he wrote to Mr Brandram telling him of his wish to visit "China or particular parts of Africa."

Borrow paid many tributes to his wife, not only in his letters, but in print, every one of which she seems thoroughly to have merited. "Of my wife," he writes, {322a} "I will merely say that she is a perfect paragon of wives--can make puddings and sweets and treacle posset, and is the best woman of business in East Anglia." On another occasion he praises her for more general qualities, when he compares her to the good wife of the Triad, the perfect woman endowed with all the feminine virtues. His wife and "old Hen." (Henrietta) were his "two loved ones," and he subsequently shows in a score of ways how much they had become part of his life.

After his return to Seville, early in January, Borrow proceeded to get his "papers into some order." There seems no doubt that this meant preparing The Zincali for publication. In the excitement and enthusiasm of authorship, and the pleasant company of Mrs and Miss Clarke, he seems to have been divinely unconscious that he was under orders to proceed home. Week after week passed without news of their Agent in Spain reaching Earl Street, and the Officials and Committee of the Bible Society became troubled to account for his non- appearance. The last letter from him had been received on 13th January. Early in March Mr Jackson wrote to Mr Brackenbury asking for news of him. A letter to Mr Williams at Seville was enclosed, which Mr Brackenbury had discretionary powers to withhold if he were able to supply the information himself. Two letters that Borrow had addressed to the Society it appears had gone astray, and as "one steamer . . . arrived after another and yet no news from Mr Borrow," some apprehension began to manifest itself lest misfortune had befallen him. On the other hand, Borrow had heard nothing from the Society for five months, the long silence making him "very, very unhappy."

In reply to Mr Brandram's letter Borrow wrote:-

"I did not return to England immediately after my departure from Madrid for several reasons. First, there was my affair with the Alcalde still pending; second, I wished to get my papers into some order; third, I wished to effect a little more in the cause, though not in the way of distribution, as I have no books: moreover the house in which I resided was paid for and I was unwilling altogether to lose the money; I likewise dreaded an English winter, for I have lately been subjected to attacks, whether of gout or rheumatism I know not, which I believe were brought on by sitting, standing and sleeping in damp places during my wanderings in Spain. The Alcalde has lately been turned out of his situation, but I believe more on account of his being a Carlist than for his behaviour to me; that, however, is of little consequence, as I have long forgotten the affair." {323a}

There was no longer any reason for delay; the English winter was over, he had one book nearly ready for publication and two others in a state of forwardness.

"I embark on the third of next month [April]," he continued, "and you will probably see me by the 16th. I wish very much to spend the remaining years of my life in the northern parts of China, as I think I have a call for those regions, and shall endeavour by every honourable means to effect my purpose." {323b}

These words would seem to imply that his marriage with Mrs Clarke was by no means decided upon at the date he wrote, although during the previous month he had been in correspondence with Mr Brackenbury regarding Protestants in Spain being debarred from marrying. It is inconceivable that Mrs Clarke and her daughter contemplated living in the North of China; and equally unlikely that Mrs Clarke would marry a potential "absentee landlord," or one who frankly confessed "I hope yet to die in the cause of my Redeemer."

Sidi Habismilk had at first presented a grave problem; but Mr Brackenbury, who secured the passages on the steamer, arranged also for the Arab to be slung aboard the Steam-Packet. On 3rd April the whole party, including Hayim Ben Attar and Sidi Habismilk, boarded the Royal Adelaide bound for London.

Borrow never forgave Spain for its treatment of him, although some of the happiest years of his life had been spent there. "The Spaniards are a stupid, ungrateful set of ruffians," he afterwards wrote, "and are utterly incapable of appreciating generosity or forbearance." He piled up invective upon the unfortunate country. It was "the chosen land of the two fiends--assassination and murder," where avarice and envy were the prevailing passions. It was the "country of error"; yet at the same time "the land of extraordinary characters." As he saw its shores sinking beneath the horizon, he was mercifully denied the knowledge that never again was he to be so happily occupied as during the five years he had spent upon its soil distributing the Scriptures, and using a British Minister as a two-edged sword.

The party arrived in London on 16th April and put up at the Spread Eagle in Gracechurch Street. On 23rd April, at St Peter's Church in Cornhill, the wedding took place. There were present as witnesses only Henrietta Clarke and John Pilgrim, the Norwich solicitor. In the Register the names appear as:-