Volume VI Part 17 (1/2)

The letter made the ambassador sorry that he had not interposed on my behalf, but he hoped people would believe that the count would not have acted as he did if it had not been for his interposition His favourite, Count Manucci, had cos, which obtained an invitation for the painter, and flattered his vanity excessively He fancied that the invitation proceeded froratitude, and it certainly s me arrested in his house He immediately wrote to the effect that he would call upon e

I called on the Count of Aranda, who keptfor a quarter of an hour, and then came in with some papers in his hand He smiled when he saw me, and said,--

”Your business is done Stay, here are four letters; take theain? This is the docuave the alcalde”

”I know that Read, and confess that you should not have written so violently, in spite of the wrongs that vexed you”

”I crave your pardon, my lord, but a man who meditates suicide does not pick terms I believed that your excellency was at the bottom of it all”

”Then you don't know me Go and thank Don Elad if you will call once on the alcalde, not to y, for you owe him none, but as an act of politeness to salve over the hard things you said of him If you write the history of Princess Lubomirska, I hope you will tell her that I did my best for you”

I then called on Colonel Royas, who toldthat I was satisfied

”What could I clai Dismissal of the alcalde and compensation to the tune of fifty thousand duros Spain is a country where a man may speak out save in the matters which the Holy Inquisition looks after”

This colonel, now a general, is one of the pleasantest Spaniards I have ever s called for racious reception, and overwhel endeavoured to shelter s at Buen Retiro, and the conversation I had just had with the Count of Aranda, who had returned me my letters The coave an opinion on the liardi, the French consul, Don Rodrigues de Campomanes, and the famous Don Pablo d'Olavides Everyone spoke his mind, and the ambassador condemned the letters as too ferocious On the other hand, Ca that they were not abusive, and onderfully adapted to my purpose, namely, to force the reader to dohiliardi echoed this sentied me to come and live with him, so as not to be liable to anyservants I did not accept this invitation till I had been pressed for some time, and I noted the res this reparation for the indirect affront he had received

I was delighted to make the acquaintance of Campomanes and Olavides, men of intellect and of a sta, but they were above religious prejudices, and were not only fearless in throwing public scorn upon them but even laboured openly for their destruction It was Ca ainst the Jesuits By a curious coincidence, Campomanes, the Count of Aranda, and the General of the Jesuits, were all squint-eyed I asked Campomanes why he hated the Jesuits so bitterly, and he replied that he looked upon theious orders, wholadly banish them all, not only from the peninsula but from the face of the earth

He was the author of all the pamphlets that had been written on the subject of mortmain; and as he was an intio had furnished his of the Venetian Republic against the ht have dispensed with this source of infors of Father Paul Sarpi on the sae of his opinions, Campomanes was the fiscal of the Supreme Council of Castille, of which Aranda was president Everyone knew hiood of the State

Thus statess of respect for hiots hated the sound of his name, and the Inquisition had sworn to be his ruin It was said openly that he would either become a bishop or perish in the cells of the holy brotherhood The prophecy was only partly fulfilled Four years after eons of the Inquisition, but he obtained his release after three years' confine public penance The leprosy which eats out the heart of Spain is not yet cured Olavides was still more harshly treated, and even Aranda would have fallen a victi to send hilad to do so, as otherwise he would have been forced to deliver him up to the infuriated monks

Charles III (who died a madman) was a remarkable character He was as obstinate as a ross as a Dutchot It was no wonder that he became the tool of his confessor

At the ti the cabinet of Madrid was occupied in a curious scheme A thousand Catholic families had been enticed from Switzerland to forion called the Sierra Morena, well known all over Europe by its mention in Don Quixote Nature seeifts; the climate was perfect, the soil fertile, and streams of all kinds watered the land, but in spite of all it was als, his Catholic ricultural products for a certain number of years to industrious colonists He had consequently invited the Swiss Catholics, and had paid their expenses for the journey The Swiss arrived, and the Spanish govern and spiritual and temporal superintendence Olavides was the soul of this scheme He conferred with the istrates, priests, a governor, craftsmen of all kinds to build churches and houses, and especially a bull-ring, a necessity for the Spaniards, but a perfectly useless provision as far as the simple Sere concerned

In the documents which Don Pablo Olavides had composed on the subject he deious orders in the new colony, but if he could have proved his opinion to be correct with foot and rule he would none the less have drawn on his head the implacable hatred of the monks, and of the bishop in whose diocese the new colony was situated The secular clergy supported Olavides, but the ainst his impiety, and as the Inquisition was eun, and this was one of the subjects of conversation at the dinner at which I was present

I listened to the arguments, sensible and otherwise, which were advanced, and I finally gave my opinion, as modestly as I could, that in a few years the colony would banish like smoke; and this for several reasons

”The Swiss,” I said, ”are a very peculiar people; if you transplant theuish and die; they becoins in a Switzer, the only thing is to take him home to the mountain, the lake, or the valley, where he was born, or else he will infallibly die”

”It would be wise, I think,” I continued, ”to endeavour to combine a Spanish colony with the Swiss colony, so as to effect aof races At first, at all events, their rules, both spiritual and temporal, should be Swiss, and, above all, you would have to insure them complete immunity from the Inquisition The Sho has been bred in the country has peculiar custoht not exactly approve; but the least attempt to restrain their liberty in this respect would ieneral ho, but he soon found out that ed ive his fixed a day for him to come and dine with oods to Mengs's house, and began ical treatise on the colony

I called on Don Emmanuel de Roda, as a man of letters, a 'rara aves' in Spain He liked Latin poetry, had read soave the paled ain, and told me how sorry he had been at ratulated me on the way in which the Venetian aedsoive me his support in the matter