They therefore determined to afford him an opportunity of informing his friends of his situation,and accordingly sent him a pen and inkhorn,concealed in a loaf of bread,and a piece of writing-paper,pretending that the latter was intended for cigars.So Vitoriano wrote the letter;but now ensued the difficulty of sending it to its destination,as no person in the village dare have carried it for any reward.The good people,however,persuaded a disbanded soldier from another village,who chanced to be at Fuente La Higuera in quest of work,to charge himself with it,promising that I would pay him well for his trouble.The man,watching his opportunity,received the letter from Vitoriano at the window;and it was he who,after travelling on foot all night,delivered it to me in safety at Madrid.
I was now relieved from my anxiety,and had no fears for the result.I instantly went to a friend who is in possession of large estates about Guadalajara,in which province Fuente La Higuera is situated,who furnished me with letters to the Civil Governor of Guadalajara and all the principal authorities,and at Antonio's request,I despatched him upon the errand of the prisoner's liberation.He first directed his course to Fuente La Higuera,where entering the ALCALDE'S house he boldly told him what he had come about.The ALCALDE,expecting that I was at hand with an army of Englishmen for the purpose of rescuing the prisoner,became greatly alarmed,and instantly despatched his wife to summon his twelve men.However,on Antonio's assuring him that there was no intention of having recourse to violence,he became more tranquil.
In a little time Antonio was summoned before the conclave and its blind sacerdotal president.They at first attempted to frighten him,by assuming a loud bullying tone and talking of the necessity of killing all strangers,and especially the detested Don Jorge and his dependents.Antonio,however,who is not a person apt to allow himself to be easily terrified,scoffed at their threats,and showing them his letters to the authorities of Guadalajara said that he should proceed there on the morrow and denounce their lawless conduct;adding that he was a Turkish subject,and that should they dare to offer him the slightest incivility he would write to the Sublime Porte,in comparison with whom the best kings in the world were but worms,and who would not fail to avenge the wrongs of any of his children,however distant,in a manner too terrible to be mentioned.He then returned to his POSADA.The conclave now proceeded to deliberate among themselves,and at last determined to despatch their prisoner on the morrow to Guadalajara,and deliver him into the hands of the Civil Governor.
Nevertheless,in order to keep up a semblance of authority,they that night placed two men armed at the door of the POSADA where Antonio was lodged,as if he himself were a prisoner;these men as often as the clock struck the hours,shouted,'AVE MARIA!Death to the heretics!'Early in the morning the ALCALDE presented himself at the POSADA,but before entering he made an oration at the door to the people in the street saying amongst other things:
'Brethren,these are the fellows who have come to rob us of our religion.'He then went into Antonio's apartment,and after saluting him with great politeness said that as a royal or high mass was about to be celebrated that morning,he had come to invite him to go to church with him;whereupon Antonio,though by no means a mass-goer,rose and accompanied him,and remained two hours,as he told me,on his knees on the cold stones to his great discomfort,the eyes of the whole congregation being fixed upon him during the time.
After mass and breakfast,he departed for Guadalajara,Vitoriano having been already despatched there under a guard.On his arrival he presented his letters to the individuals for whom they were intended.The Civil Governor was convulsed with merriment on hearing Antonio's account of the adventure.Vitoriano was set at liberty and the books were placed in embargo at Guadalajara:the Governor stating,however,that though it was his duty to detain them at present,they should be sent to me whenever I chose to claim them.He moreover said that he would do his best to cause the authorities of Fuente La Higuera to be severely punished,as in the whole affair they had acted in a most cruel,tyrannical manner,for which they had no authority.Thus terminated this affair,one of those little accidents which chequer missionary life in Spain.
Vitoriano is now with me at Naval Carnero,as he begged me almost on his knees to be permitted to attend me and to be employed as before.At his imprisonment he smiles.Antonio and myself have lately been very successful at Madrid,having sold considerably upwards of a hundred Testaments and several Bibles.It is with deep gratitude I state that the poor of Madrid receive the Scripture with gladness:to the rich I offer it not,their hearts are hard.I am writing a journal of the present expedition.
GEORGE BORROW.
