I was likewise averse to the books being offered
to the peasantry at an advanced price, being aware that they could
not afford it, and the books, by such an attempt, would lose a
considerable part of that influence which they then enjoyed; for
their cheapness struck the minds of the people, and they considered
it almost as much in the light of a miracle as the Jews the manna
which dropped from heaven at the time they were famishing, or the
spring which suddenly gushed from the flinty rocks to assuage their
thirst in the wilderness.
At this time a peasant was continually passing and repassing
between Villa Seca and Madrid, bringing us cargoes of Testaments on
a burrico. We continued our labours until the greater part of the
villages of the Sagra were well supplied with books, more
especially those of Vargas, Coveja, Mocejon, Villaluenga, Villa
Seca, and Yungler. Hearing at last that our proceedings were known
at Toledo, and were causing considerable alarm, we returned to
Madrid.
CHAPTER XLIV
Aranjuez - A Warning - A Night Adventure - A Fresh Expedition -
Segovia - Abades - Factions Curas - Lopez in Prison - Rescue of Lopez.
The success which had attended our efforts in the Sagra of Toledo
speedily urged me on to a new enterprise. I now determined to
direct my course to La Mancha, and to distribute the word amongst
the villages of that province. Lopez, who had already performed
such important services in the Sagra, had accompanied us to Madrid,
and was eager to take part in this new expedition. We determined
in the first place to proceed to Aranjuez, where we hoped to obtain
some information which might prove of utility in the further
regulation of our movements; Aranjuez being but a slight distance
from the frontier of La Mancha and the high road into that province
passing directly through it. We accordingly sallied forth from
Madrid, selling from twenty to forty Testaments in every village
which lay in our way, until we arrived at Aranjuez, to which place
we had forwarded a large supply of books.
A lovely spot is Aranjuez, though in desolation: here the Tagus
flows through a delicious valley, perhaps the most fertile in
Spain; and here upsprang, in Spain's better days, a little city,
with a small but beautiful palace shaded by enormous trees, where
royalty delighted to forget its cares. Here Ferdinand the Seventh
spent his latter days, surrounded by lovely senoras and Andalusian
bull-fighters: but as the German Schiller has it in one of his
tragedies:
"The happy days in fair Aranjuez,
Are past and gone."
When the sensual king went to his dread account, royalty deserted
it, and it soon fell into decay.
