I Therefore Considered That
If I Could By Any Means Induce Him To Favour My Views, I Should
Have No Reason To Fear Interruption From Other Quarters, And I
Determined Upon Applying To Him.
Before talking this step, however, I deemed it advisable to wait
upon Mr. Villiers, the British ambassador at Madrid; and with the
freedom permitted to a British subject, to ask his advice in this
affair.
I was received with great kindness, and enjoyed a
conversation with him on various subjects before I introduced the
matter which I had most at heart. He said that if I wished for an
interview with Mendizabal, he would endeavour to procure me one,
but, at the same time, told me frankly that he could not hope that
any good would arise from it, as he knew him to be violently
prejudiced against the British and Foreign Bible Society, and was
far more likely to discountenance than encourage any efforts which
they might be disposed to make for introducing the Gospel into
Spain. I, however, remained resolute in my desire to make the
trial, and before I left him, obtained a letter of introduction to
Mendizabal.
Early one morning I repaired to the palace, in a wing of which was
the office of the Prime Minister; it was bitterly cold, and the
Guadarama, of which there is a noble view from the palace-plain,
was covered with snow. For at least three hours I remained
shivering with cold in an ante-room, with several other aspirants
for an interview with the man of power.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 174 of 809
Words from 48723 to 48985
of 222596
