The Life of George Borrow [118]
"Sir George Villiers has returned to England for a short period; you have therefore the opportunity of consulting him. I WILL NOT leave Spain until the whole affair has been thoroughly sifted. I shall then perhaps appear and bid you an eternal farewell. {273a} Four hundred Testaments have been disposed of in the Sagra of Toledo.
"P.S.--I am just returned from the Embassy, where I have had a long interview with that admirable person Lord Wm. Hervey [Charge d'Affaires during Sir George Villiers' absence]. He has requested me to write him a letter on the point in question, which with the official documents he intends to send to the Secretary of State in order to be laid before the Bible Society. He has put into my hands the last communication from Ofalia {273b} it relates to the seizure of MY depots at Malaga, Pontevedra, etc. I have not opened it, but send it for your approval."
It is pleasant to record that the Sub-Committee expressed itself as unable to see in Mr Brandram's letter what Borrow saw. There was no intention to convey the impression that he had made false statements, and regret was expressed that he had thought it necessary to apply to the Embassy for confirmation of what he had written. All this Mr Brandram conveyed in a letter dated 6th August. He continues: "I am now in full possession of all that Mr Graydon has done, and find it utterly impossible to account for that very strong feeling that you have imbibed against him."
On 20th July Mr Brandram had written that, after consulting with two or three members of the Committee, they all confirmed a wish already expressed that their Agent should not continue to expose himself to such dangers. If, however, he still saw the way open before him,
"as so pleasantly represented in your letter . . . you need not think of returning . . . Do allow me to suggest to you," he continues, "to drop allusion to Mr Graydon in your letters. His conduct is not regarded here as you regard it. I could fancy, but perhaps it is all fancy, that you have him in your eye when you tell us that you have eschewed handbills and advertisements. Time has been when you have used them plentifully . . . Sir George Villiers is in England--but I do not know that we shall seek an interview with him--We are afraid of being hampered with the trammels of office."
The Committee, however, did not endorse Mr Brandram's view as to Borrow continuing in Spain, and further, they did "not see it right," the secretary wrote (6th August), "after the confidential communication in which you have been in with the Government, that you should be acting now in such open defiance of it, and putting yourself in such extreme jeopardy." Later Borrow made reference to the remark about the handbills.
"It would have been as well," he wrote, "if my respected and revered friend, the writer, had made himself acquainted with the character of my advertisements before he made that observation. There is no harm in an advertisement, if truth, decency and the fear of God are observed, and I believe my own will be scarcely found deficient in any of these three requisites. It is not the use of a serviceable instrument, but its abuse that merits reproof, and I cannot conceive that advertising was abused by me when I informed the people of Madrid that the New Testament was to be purchased at a cheap price in the Calle del Principe." {275a}
Elsewhere he referred to these same advertisements as "mild yet expressive."
In spite of the strained state of his relations with the Bible Society, Borrow had no intention of remaining in Madrid brooding over his wrongs. Encouraged by the success that had attended his efforts in the Sagra of Toledo, and indifferent to the fact that his renewed activity was known at Toledo, where it was causing some alarm, he determined to proceed to Aranjuez, and, on his arrival there, to be guided by events as to his future movements. Accordingly about 28th July he set out attended by Antonio and Lopez, who had accompanied him from Villa Seca to Madrid, proceeding