We were continually pressed for Bibles, which of course we could not supply.  Testaments were held in comparatively little esteem.  I had by this time made the discovery of a fact which it would have been well had I been aware of three years before; but we live and learn.  I mean the inexpediency of printing Testaments, and Testaments alone, for Catholic countries.  The reason is plain:  the Catholic, unused to Scripture reading, finds a thousand things which he cannot possibly understand in the New Testament, the foundation of which is the Old.  “Search the Scriptures, for they bear witness of me,” may well be applied to this point.  It may be replied, that New Testaments separate are in great demand, and of infinite utility in England, but England, thanks be to the Lord, is not a papal country; and though an English labourer may read a Testament, and derive from it the most blessed fruit, it does not follow that a Spanish or Italian peasant will enjoy similar success, as he will find many dark things with which the other is well acquainted, and competent to understand, being versed in the Bible history from his childhood.  I confess, however, that in my summer campaign of the preceding year, I could not have accomplished with Bibles what Providence permitted me to effect with Testaments, the former being far too bulky for rural journeys.

CHAPTER XLIX

The Solitary House—­The Dehesa—­Johannes Chrysostom—­Manuel—­ Bookselling at Seville—­Dionysius and the Priests—­Athens and Rome--Proselytism—­Seizure of Testaments—­Departure from Seville.

I have already stated, that I had hired an empty house in Seville, wherein I proposed to reside for some months.  It stood in a solitary situation, occupying one side of a small square.  It was built quite in the beautiful taste of Andalusia, with a court paved with small slabs of white and blue marble.  In the middle of this court was a fountain well supplied with the crystal lymph, the murmur of which, as it fell from its slender pillar into an octangular basin, might be heard in every apartment.  The house itself was large and spacious, consisting of two stories, and containing room sufficient for at least ten times the number of inmates which now occupied it.  I generally kept during the day in the lower apartments, on account of the refreshing coolness which pervaded them.  In one of these was an immense stone water-trough, ever overflowing with water from the fountain, in which I immersed myself every morning.  Such were the premises to which, after having provided myself with a few indispensable articles of furniture, I now retreated with Antonio and my two horses.