dispose of them to the peasants with profit to
himself.  I confess I was inclined at first to accept his offer, but at
length declined it, as I did not wish to expose a poor man to the risk of
losing money, goods, and perhaps liberty and life.  I was likewise averse
to the books being offered to the peasantry at an advanced price, being
aware that they could not afford it, and the books, by such an attempt,
would lose a considerable part of that influence which they then enjoyed;
for their cheapness struck the minds of the people, and they considered
it almost as much in the light of a miracle as the Jews the manna which
dropped from heaven at the time they were famishing, or the spring which
suddenly gushed from the flinty rock to assuage their thirst in the
wilderness.

At this time a peasant was continually passing and repassing between
Villa Seca and Madrid, bringing us cargoes of Testaments on a _borrico_.
We continued our labours until the greater part of the villages of the
Sagra were well supplied with books, more especially those of Vargas,
Coveja, Mocejon, Villaluenga, Villa Seca, and Yuncler. {201}  Hearing at
last that our proceedings were known at Toledo, and were causing
considerable alarm, we returned to Madrid.




CHAPTER XLIV.


Aranjuez—A Warning—A Night Adventure—A Fresh
Expedition—Segovia—Abades—Factious Curas—Lopez in Prison—Rescue of Lopez.

The success which had attended our efforts in the Sagra of Toledo
speedily urged me on to a new enterprise.  I now determined to direct my
course to La Mancha, and to distribute the Word amongst the villages of
that province.  Lopez, who had already performed such important services
in the Sagra, had accompanied us to Madrid, and was eager to take part in
this new expedition.  We determined in the first place to proceed to
Aranjuez, where we hoped to obtain some information which might prove of
utility in the further regulation of our movements; Aranjuez being but a
slight distance from the frontier of La Mancha, and the high-road into
t