However, I Heard Nothing Of Him For A
Fortnight, At The End Of Which Period A Letter Was Brought To Me By
A Peasant, Dated From The Prison Of Fuente La Higuera, A Village
Eight Leagues From Madrid, In The Campina Of Alcala:
This letter,
written, by Victoriano, gave me to understand that he had been
already eight days imprisoned, and that
Unless I could find some
means to extricate him, there was every probability of his
remaining in durance until he should perish with hunger, which he
had no doubt would occur as soon as his money was exhausted. From
what I afterwards learned, it appeared that, after passing the town
of Alcala, he had commenced distributing, and with considerable
success. His entire stock consisted of sixty-one Testaments,
twenty-five of which he sold without the slightest difficulty or
interruption in the single village of Arganza; the poor labourers
showering blessings on his head for providing them with such good
books at an easy price.
Not more than eighteen of his books remained, when he turned off
the high road towards Fuente la Higuera. This place was already
tolerably well known to him, he having visited it of old, when he
travelled the country in the capacity of a vendor of cacharras or
earthen pans. He subsequently stated that he felt some misgiving
whilst on the way, as the village had invariably borne a bad
reputation. On his arrival, after having put up his cavallejo or
little pony at a posada, he proceeded to the alcalde for the
purpose of asking permission to sell the books, which that
dignitary immediately granted. He now entered a house and sold a
copy, and likewise a second. Emboldened by success, he entered a
third, which, it appeared, belonged to the barber-surgeon of the
village. This personage having just completed his dinner, was
seated in an arm chair within his doorway, when Victoriano made his
appearance. He was a man about thirty-five, of a savage truculent
countenance. On Victoriano's offering him a Testament, he took it
in his hand to examine it, but no sooner did his eyes glance over
the title-page than he burst out into a loud laugh, exclaiming:-
"Ha, ha, Don Jorge Borrow, the English heretic, we have encountered
you at last. Glory to the Virgin and the Saints! We have long
been expecting you here, and at length you are arrived." He then
inquired the price of the book, and on being told three reals, he
flung down two, and rushed out of the house with the Testament in
his hand.
Victoriano now became alarmed, and determined upon leaving the
place as soon as possible. He therefore hurried back to the
posada, and having paid for the barley which his pony had consumed,
went into the stable, and placing the packsaddle on the animal's
back, was about to lead it forth, when the alcalde of the village,
the surgeon, and twelve other men, some of whom were armed with
muskets, suddenly presented themselves.
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