Look to thyself, Batuschca."
And I remained for two hours, leaning against the wall, staring at
the shop.
A short time after the establishment of the despacho at Madrid, I
once more mounted the saddle, and, attended by Antonio, rode over
to Toledo, for the purpose of circulating the Scriptures, sending
beforehand by a muleteer a cargo of one hundred Testaments. I
instantly addressed myself to the principal bookseller of the
place, whom from the circumstance of his living in a town so
abounding with canons, priests, and ex-friars as Toledo, I expected
to find a Carlist, or a servile at least. I was never more
mistaken in my life; on entering the shop, which was very large and
commodious, I beheld a stout athletic man, dressed in a kind of
cavalry uniform, with a helmet on his head, and an immense sabre in
his hand: this was the bookseller himself, who I soon found was an
officer in the national cavalry. Upon learning who I was, he shook
me heartily by the hand, and said that nothing would give him
greater pleasure than taking charge of the books, which he would
endeavour to circulate to the utmost of his ability.
"Will not your doing so bring you into odium with the clergy?"
"Ca!" said he; "who cares? I am rich, and so was my father before
me. I do not depend on them, they cannot hate me more than they do
already, for I make no secret of my opinions.
