ur days. I
should have started before now, had an opportunity presented itself. I
have been much occupied since coming here in writing to my friends in
Spain apprising them of my arrival, amongst others to Sir George
Villiers. I have of course visited the Sevillian bookseller, my
correspondent here. He informed me that seventy-six copies of the
hundred Testaments entrusted to his care were placed in embargo by the
Government last summer. They are at present in the possession of the
Ecclesiastical Governor. I visited him also the other day, to make
enquiries concerning our property. He lives in a large house in the
_Pajaria_, or straw-market. He is a very old man, between seventy and
eighty, and like almost all those who wear the sacerdotal habit in this
city is a fierce persecuting Papist. I believe he scarcely believed his
ears when his two grand-nephews, beautiful black-haired boys, who were
playing in the courtyard, ran to inform him that an Englishman was
waiting to speak with him, as it is probable that I was the first heretic
who ever ventured into his habitation. I found him in a vaulted room
seated on a lofty chair, with two sinister-looking secretaries, also in
sacerdotal habits, employed in writing at a table before him. He brought
powerfully to my recollection the grim old inquisitor who persuaded
Philip the Second to slay his own son as an enemy to the Church. He
arose as I entered, and gazed upon me with a countenance dark with
suspicion and dissatisfaction. He at last condescended to point me to a
sofa, and I proceeded to state to him my business. He became much
agitated when I mentioned the Testaments to him; but I no sooner spoke of
the Bible Society and told him who I was, than he could contain himself
no longer, and with a stammering tongue and with eyes flashing fire like
hot coals, he proceeded to rail against the Society and myself, saying
that the aims of the first were atrocious and that as to myself, he was
surprised that being once lodged in the prison of Madrid I had ever been
permitted to quit it; adding that it was disgraceful in the Government to
allow a person of my character to roam about an innocent and peaceful
country, corrupting the minds of the ignorant and unsuspicious. Far from
allowing myself to be disconcerted by his rude behaviour, I replied to
him with all possible politeness, and assured him that in this instance
he had no reason to alarm himself, as that my sole m