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.  I have just returned from an expedition,” said he; “my brother nationals and myself have, for the last three days, been occupied in hunting down the factious and thieves of the neighbourhood; we have killed three and brought in several prisoners.  Who cares for the cowardly priests?  I am a liberal, Don Jorge, and a friend of your countryman, Flinter.  Many is the Carlist guerilla-curate and robber-friar whom I have assisted him to catch.  I am rejoiced to hear that he has just been appointed captain-general of Toledo; there will be fine doings here when he arrives, Don Jorge.  We will make the clergy shake between us, I assure you.”

Toledo was formerly the capital of Spain.  Its population at present is barely fifteen thousand souls, though, in the time of the Romans, and also during the Middle Ages, it is said to have amounted to between two and three hundred thousand.  It is situated about twelve leagues (forty miles) westward of Madrid, and is built upon a steep rocky hill, round which flows the Tagus, on all sides but the north.  It still possesses a great many remarkable edifices, notwithstanding that it has long since fallen into decay.  Its cathedral is the most magnificent of Spain, and is the see of the primate.  In the tower of this cathedral is the famous bell of Toledo, the largest in the world with the exception of the monster bell of Moscow, which I have also seen.  It weighs 1,543 arrobes, or 37,032 pounds.  It has, however, a disagreeable sound, owing to a cleft in its side.  Toledo could once boast the finest pictures in Spain, but many were stolen or destroyed by the French during the Peninsular war, and still more have lately been removed by order of