I Had Scarcely Been At Leon Three Days When I Was Seized With A
Fever, Against Which I Thought The
Strength even of my constitution
would have yielded, for it wore me almost to a skeleton, and when
it departed,
At the end of about a week, left me in such a
deplorable state of weakness that I was scarcely able to make the
slightest exertion. I had, however, previously persuaded a
bookseller to undertake the charge of vending the Testaments, and
had published my advertisements as usual, though without very
sanguine hope of success, as Leon is a place where the inhabitants,
with very few exceptions, are furious Carlists, and ignorant and
blinded followers of the old papal church. It is, moreover, a
bishop's see, which was once enjoyed by the prime counsellor of Don
Carlos, whose fierce and bigoted spirit still seems to pervade the
place. Scarcely had the advertisements appeared, when the clergy
were in motion. They went from house to house, banning and
cursing, and denouncing misery to whomsoever should either purchase
or read "the accursed books," which had been sent into the country
by heretics for the purpose of perverting the innocent minds of the
population. They did more; they commenced a process against the
bookseller in the ecclesiastical court. Fortunately this court is
not at present in the possession of much authority; and the
bookseller, a bold and determined man, set them at defiance, and
went so far as to affix an advertisement to the gate of the very
cathedral.
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