His behaviour was
frequently in the highest degree extraordinary, but he served me
courageously and faithfully: such a valet, take him for all in
all,
"His like I ne'er expect to see again."
Kosko bakh Anton.
CHAPTER XX
Illness - Nocturnal Visit - A Master Mind - The Whisper - Salamanca -
Irish Hospitality - Spanish Soldiers - The Scriptures advertised.
But I am anxious to enter upon the narrative of my journey, and
shall therefore abstain from relating to my readers a great many
circumstances which occurred previously to my leaving Madrid on
this expedition. About the middle of May I had got everything in
readiness, and I bade farewell to my friends. Salamanca was the
first place which I intended to visit.
Some days previous to my departure I was very much indisposed,
owing to the state of the weather, for violent and biting winds had
long prevailed. I had been attacked with a severe cold, which
terminated in a disagreeable cough, which the many remedies I
successively tried seemed unable to subdue. I had made
preparations for departing on a particular day, but, owing to the
state of my health, I was apprehensive that I should be compelled
to defer my journey for a time. The last day of my stay in Madrid,
finding myself scarcely able to stand, I was fain to submit to a
somewhat desperate experiment, and by the advice of the barber-
surgeon who visited me, I determined to be bled. Late on the night
of that same day he took from me sixteen ounces of blood, and
having received his fee left me, wishing me a pleasant journey, and
assuring me, upon his reputation, that by noon the next day I
should be perfectly recovered.
A few minutes after his departure, whilst I was sitting alone,
meditating on the journey which I was about to undertake, and on
the ricketty state of my health, I heard a loud knock at the street
door of the house, on the third floor of which I was lodged. In
another minute Mr. S- of the British Embassy entered my apartment.
After a little conversation, he informed me that Mr. Villiers had
desired him to wait upon me to communicate a resolution which he
had come to. Being apprehensive that, alone and unassisted, I
should experience great difficulty in propagating the gospel of God
to any considerable extent in Spain, he was bent upon exerting to
the utmost his own credit and influence to further my views, which
he himself considered, if carried into proper effect, extremely
well calculated to operate beneficially on the political and moral
state of the country. To this end it was his intention to purchase
a very considerable number of copies of the New Testament, and to
dispatch them forthwith to the various British consuls established
in different parts of Spain, with strict and positive orders to
employ all the means which their official situation should afford
them to circulate the books in question and to assure their being
noticed.
