CHAPTER 36 State of Affairs at Madrid - The New Ministry - Pope of Rome - The Bookseller of Toledo - Sword Blades - Houses of Toledo - The Forlorn Gypsy - Proceedings at Madrid - Another Servant.

36.1 Toledo in the mid 19th century During my journey in the northern provinces of Spain, which occupied a considerable portion of the year 18371, I had accomplished but a slight portion of what I proposed to myself to effect in the outset. Insignificant are the results of man's labours compared with the swelling ideas of his presumption; something, however, had been effected by the journey, which I had just concluded. The New Testament of Christ was now enjoying a quiet sale in the principal towns of the north, and I had secured the friendly interest and co-operation of the booksellers of those parts, particularly of him the most considerable of them all, old Rey of Compostella. I had, moreover, disposed of a considerable number of Testaments with my own hands, to private individuals, entirely of the lower class, namely, muleteers, carmen, contrabandistas, etc., so that upon the whole I had abundant cause for gratitude and thanksgiving.2

1 From mid May to 31 October 1837. [See footnote 4 to chapter 20, and Missler, GBB 40, 66, for the date of departure; for the date of arrival see Darlow, 256.] 2 According to his expense account of 20 November 1837, Borrow personally sold 118 copies to private customers during his northern journey [Missler, Daring Game, 27 & 168]. More importantly, he left stocks of books in franchise with booksellers in a number of prominent towns, such as Salamanca, Valladolid, Lugo, Santiago and Oviedo, to the tune of some 1,000 copies. Roughly half of these were sold over the next year, the other half being confiscated after the prohibition of the Scio New Testament in May 1837, and returned to the Bible salesman over the following summer [Missler, Daring Game, 36-56, 117ff & 122ff].

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

[From: ‘Account of Proceedings in the Peninsula’ of October 1838, in: Darlow: 363] ‘I did not confine myself to the towns, but visited the small and large villages, and by this means became acquainted with both citizens and rustics; amongst the former I found little desire for sober serious reading, but on the contrary a rage for stimulant narratives, and amongst too many a lust for the deistical writings of the French, especially for those of Talleyrand, which have been translated into Spanish and published by the press of Barcelona, and for which I was frequently pestered.’

[Chapter 36 continued] I did not find our affairs in a very prosperous state at Madrid, few copies having been sold in the booksellers' shops3, yet what could be rationally expected during these latter times? Don Carlos, with a large army, had been at the gates; plunder and massacre had been expected; so that people were too much occupied in forming plans to secure their lives and property, to give much attention to reading of any description.4 The enemy, however, had now retired to his strongholds in Alava and Guipuscoa. I hoped that brighter days were dawning, and that the work, under my own superintendence, would, with God's blessing, prosper in the capital of Spain. How far the result corresponded with my expectations will be seen in the sequel. During my absence in the north, a total change of ministers had occurred. The liberal party had been ousted from the cabinet, and in their place had entered individuals attached to the moderado or court party: unfortunately, however, for my prospects, they consisted of persons with whom I had no acquaintance whatever, and with whom my former friends, Galiano and Isturitz, had little or no influence. These gentlemen were now regularly laid on the shelf, and their political career appeared to be terminated for ever.5 3 In Borrow’s absence, the sale of the New Testament in the capital was coordinated by Luis Usoz y Rio. Despite his great efforts, only 52 copies were sold by the Madrid booksellers in these six months [Missler, Daring Game, 41f & 172]. Usoz clearly felt embarrassed. In his letter to Brandram of 1 November 1837, Borrow wrote: ‘I have had an interview with Dr. Usoz, and have just received a most interesting letter from him, replete with patriotism and piety; amongst other things he says, “only circumstances and the public poverty are the cause of the works not having met with sale at Madrid”’ [Darlow, 260]. 4 The great Royal Expedition, headed by the Pretender himself and gathering together all the available Carlist forces from the Basque Countries and Catalonia, had come down to the gates of Madrid in September 1837. There, inexplicably, it stopped, hesitated, and… turned around. It was all at once Carlism’s greatest effort, greatest opportunity, and greatest failure ever. 5 The Isturitz cabinet in fact came down on 14 August 1836, after the Revolution of La Granja (see chapter 14 above). It was succeeded by the government of José Maria Calatrava, which held out a stunning 12 months. After a couple of short-lived intermediate governments, the new Moderado cabinet which Borrow here describes came to power in late 1837. It was led by Narciso de Heredia y Begines de los Rios, Conde de Ofalia (1775-1847). An all-time loyalist and splendid turncoat, who served as easily under Joseph Napoleon, Ferdinand VII and Queen Regent Maria Cristina, Ofalia was a diplomat of long standing and served as minister on several occasions throughout the 1820s and 1830s. His rule – from 16 December 1837 to 6 September 1838 - was brief and catastrophic; but it did manage to become the Borrow’s Nemesis.

Chapter 36

From the present ministry I could expect but little; they consisted of men, the greater part of whom had been either courtiers or employes of the deceased King Ferdinand, who were friends to absolutism, and by no means inclined to do or to favour anything calculated to give offence to the court of Rome, which they were anxious to conciliate, hoping that eventually it might be induced to recognize the young queen, not as the constitutional but as the absolute Queen Isabella the Second. Such was the party which continued in power throughout the remainder of my sojourn in Spain, and which persecuted me less from rancour and malice than from policy. It was not until the conclusion of the war of the succession that it lost the ascendancy, when it sank to the ground with its patroness the queen-mother, before the dictatorship of Espartero.6

36.2 The site of Borrow’s Despacho The first step which I took after my return to Madrid, towards circulating the Scriptures, was a very bold one. It was neither more nor less than the establishment of a shop for the sale of Testaments. This shop was situated in the Calle del Principe, a respectable and well-frequented street in the neighbourhood of the Square of Cervantes. I furnished it handsomely with glass cases and chandeliers, and procured an acute Gallegan of the name of Pepe Calzado, to superintend the business, who gave me weekly a faithful account of the copies sold. 7

6 The Carlist Civil War ended formally in late August 1839 with the Treaty of Vergara, an understanding between the two Commanders-in-Chief, Rafael Maroto for the Carlists and Baldomero Espartero for the Liberals, against the wishes of the civil politicians of both sides, who foolishly insisted the war be continued. Espartero, after mopping up the last die-hard Carlist guerrilleros such as Cabrera, took over the reigns of government in Madrid, chased out the Queen Mother Maria Cristina, and established himself as radical dictator of Spain. He was brought down three stormy years later by a Moderado coup d’état led by Ramón Narvaez. 7 The main reason for opening a shop of his own, was that distribution would otherwise be near impossible. In his October 1838 Account of the Proceedings, Borrow writes: ‘Upon finding the booksellers of Madrid, with the exception of Razola, a man of no importance, averse to undertake the sale of the New Testament I determined upon establishing a shop of my own, a step to which I was advised by many sincere friends of the Cause and of myself’ [Darlow 365, also 263]. The Despacho was subsequently opened on Monday 27 November 1837, at nº 25 of the Calle del Principe, a narrow but important thoroughfare in central Madrid. What house precisely harboured the shop still remains to be determined: according to the thorough investigations of Antonio Giménez Cruz, it was smack on, or right next to, the corner of Calle del Principe with the Calle de la Visitación (today’s Calle Manuel Fernández González). In any case the building itself has since disappeared. [Missler, Daring Game, 65f.].

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

"How strangely times alter," said I, the second day subsequent to the opening of my establishment, as I stood on the opposite side of the street, leaning against the wall with folded arms, surveying my shop, on the windows of which were painted in large yellow characters, DESPACHO DE LA SOCIEDAD BIBLICA Y ESTRANGERA; "how strangely times alter; here have I been during the last eight months running about old Popish Spain, distributing Testaments, as agent of what the Papists call an heretical society, and have neither been stoned nor burnt; and here am I now in the capital, doing that which one would think were enough to cause all the dead inquisitors and officials buried within the circuit of the walls to rise from their graves and cry abomination; and yet no one interferes with me. Pope of Rome! Pope of Rome! look to thyself. That shop may be closed; but oh! what a sign of the times, that it has been permitted to exist for one day. It appears to me, my Father, that the days of your sway are numbered in Spain8; that you will not be permitted much longer to plunder her, to scoff at her, and to scourge her with scorpions, as in bygone periods. See I not the hand on the wall? See I not in yonder letters a ‘Mene, mene, Tekel, Upharsin’?9 Look to thyself, Batuschca." And I remained for two hours, leaning against the wall, staring at the shop.

36.3 The corner where Borrow’s Despacho used to be today (courtesy of Antonio Giménez Cruz)

8 For this optimistic view of things, see footnote 11 to Borrow’s own ‘Author’s Preface’ above. 9 Book of Daniel, 5 : 25-28. Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon, called upon the prophet Daniel to read and explain an enigmatic writing which a ghostly hand scribbled upon the wall of his dining room during a banquet at which he wallowed in the gold and silver robbed from the Temple of Jerusalem. Daniel elucidated: ‘This is the writing that was inscribed: mina, mina, shekel, half-mina. This is the interpretation of the matter: mina, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; shekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; half-mina, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.’ In other words: a sign of imminent doom for a splendid old empire…

Chapter 36

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.10 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 Servile11 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?"

36.4 The Belltower of Toledo Cathedral "Ca!"12 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

10 According to his letter to Brandram of 28 November 1837 [Darlow, 272], Borrow left Madrid on the 29th, only two days after opening the Despacho. The reason for this hurry is unknown. 11 ‘Servile’ – a somewhat anachronistic term by the late 1830s – denoted a supporter of King Ferdinand VII’s anaemic absolutism during the 1810s. Not all serviles turned Carlist. Some of them, heeding Ferdinand’s decision that his daughter was his legitimate heir, grudgingly accepted the new regime, much as they would have preferred the girl to rule as Absolute Queen. [Barreiro Fernandez, Carlismo, 15 & 18.] 12 Burke [Glossary]: ‘The briefest of all abbreviations (…) of the objectionable Carajo.’

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

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." 13 Toledo was formerly the capital of Spain.14 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) westward15 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.16 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 the government. Perhaps the most remarkable one still remains; I allude to that which represents the burial of the Count of Orgaz, the masterpiece of Domenico, the Greek17, a most extraordinary genius, some of whose productions possess merit of a very high order. The picture in question is in the little parish church of San Tome, at the bottom of the aisle, on the left side of the altar. Could it be purchased, I should say it would be cheap at five thousand pounds.

13 Shortly after his escape from prison (see chapter 34 above) Flinter was placed in command of Toledo. He did indeed perform some ‘fine doings’, inflicting major damage on a strong Carlist force in February and dislodging the Carlists from Valdepeñas in March. However, he also ran into considerable trouble with the hostile Church hierarchy of Toledo which, among other things, accused him of corruption and theft. 14 Toledo was the Visigoth capital from the 5th to the early 8th century; and from the late 10th to the 12th century was the main city of Christian Spain. Thereafter its importance began to wain, and by the 16th century was overtaken by Madrid when Philips II decided to build the Escorial Monastery-Palace, from where he ruled the Spanish Empire. 15 A mistake which oddly was never corrected. Toledo is to the south of Madrid, only slightly to the west. The distance – 70 km – is correct. 16 As this calculation shows, the arroba castellana was 24 libras castellanas, of some 460 grams each; hence the arroba weighed slightly more than 11 kilograms; and the bell in question some 17,000 kg. As a priest of the cathedral told David Fernández in 2005, the giant bell still hangs in the bell tower today. It got cast in 1600 ‘with the intention that it could be heard in Madrid (…) but at the first attempt it cracked’. [Fernández de Castro, 189.] 17 El Greco (Domeniko Theotokopoulos, 1541–1614), a Greek who settled in Toledo in 1577 and worked there the rest of his life. Borrow was far ahead of his time with his appreciation of ‘The Burial of Count Orgaz’, which contemporary art-experts deemed a stiff, sloppy and sub-standard piece of work. It is today recognized as one of the great masterpieces of all time.

Chapter 36

Amongst the many remarkable things which meet the eye of the curious observer at Toledo, is the manufactory of arms, where are wrought the swords, spears, and other weapons intended for the army, with the exception of fire-arms, which mostly come from abroad. In old times, as is well known, the sword-blades of Toledo were held in great estimation, and were transmitted as merchandise throughout Christendom. The present manufactory, or fabrica, as it is called, is a handsome modern edifice, situated without the wall of the city, on a plain contiguous to the river, with which it communicates by a small canal. It is said that the water and the sand of the Tagus are essential for the proper tempering of the swords. I asked some of the principal workmen whether, at the present day, they could manufacture weapons of equal value to those of former days, and whether the secret had been lost.

36.5 The arms factory of Toledo "Ca!" said they, "the swords of Toledo were never so good as those which we are daily making. It is ridiculous enough to see strangers coming here to purchase old swords, the greater part of which are mere rubbish, and never made at Toledo, yet for such they will give a large price, whilst they would grudge two dollars for this jewel, which was made but yesterday"; thereupon putting into my hand a middle-sized rapier. "Your worship," said they, "seems to have a strong arm, prove its temper against the stone wall; - thrust boldly and fear not." I HAVE a strong arm and dashed the point with my utmost force against the solid granite: my arm was numbed to the shoulder from the violence of the concussion, and continued so for nearly a week, but the sword appeared not to be at all blunted, or to have suffered in any respect.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

"A better sword than that," said an ancient workman, a native of Old Castile, "never transfixed Moor out yonder on the sagra."18

36.6 A Toledo posada During my stay at Toledo, I lodged at the Posada de los Caballeros, which signifies the inn of the gentlemen, which name, in some respects, is certainly well deserved, for there are many palaces far less magnificent than this inn of Toledo.19 By magnificence it must not be supposed, however, that I allude to costliness of furniture, or any kind of luxury which pervaded the culinary department. The rooms were as empty as those of Spanish inns generally are, and the fare, though good in its kind, was plain and homely; but I have seldom seen a more imposing edifice. It was of immense size, consisting of several stories, and was built something in the Moorish taste, with a quadrangular court in the centre, beneath which was an immense algibe or tank, serving as a reservoir for rain-water. All the houses in Toledo are supplied with tanks of this description, into which the waters in the rainy season flow from the roofs through pipes. No other water is used for drinking; that of the Tagus, not being considered salubrious, is only used for purposes of cleanliness, being conveyed up the steep narrow streets on donkeys in large stone jars. The city, standing on a rocky mountain, has no wells. As for the rain-water, it deposits a sediment in the tank, and becomes very sweet and potable: these tanks are cleaned out: twice every year. During the summer, at which time the heat in this part of Spain is intense, the families spend the greater part of the day in the courts, which are overhung with a linen awning, the heat of the atmosphere being tempered by the coolness arising from the tank below, which answers the same purpose as the fountain in the southern provinces of Spain.

18 Gauthier [Voyage, chapter 10] also visited this armoury, and observes that old horse shoes went into the composition of metal for the famous Toledo blades. Gauthier was equally impressed with the workmanship, and agreed with Borrow that the secret of their manufacture was not yet lost. 19 Ford [HB 1235] calls it a ‘large clean house’. Gauthiers (chapter 10) who stayed there in 1840, thought it ‘un des plus comfortables endroits de la ville’, and gives a detailed description.

Chapter 36

I spent about a week at Toledo, during which time several copies of the Testament were disposed of in the shop of my friend the bookseller20. Several priests took it up from the mostrador on which it lay, examined it, but made no remarks; none of them purchased it.21 My friend showed me through his house, almost every apartment of which was lined from roof to floor with books, many of which were highly valuable. He told me that he possessed the best collection in Spain of the ancient literature of the country. He was, however, less proud of his library than his stud; finding that I had some acquaintance with horses, his liking for me and also his respect considerably increased. "All I have," said he, "is at your service; I see you are a man after my own heart. When you are disposed to ride out upon the sagra, you have only to apply to my groom, who will forthwith saddle you my famed Cordovese entero; I purchased him from the stables at Aranjuez, when the royal stud was broken up. There is but one other man to whom I would lend him, and that man is Flinter." At Toledo I met with a forlorn Gypsy woman and her son, a lad of about fourteen years of age; she was not a native of the place, but had come from La Mancha, her husband having been cast into the prison of Toledo on a charge of mule-stealing: the crime had been proved against him, and in a few days he was to depart for Malaga, with the chain of galley slaves. He was quite destitute of money, and his wife was now in Toledo, earning a few cuartos by telling fortunes about the streets, to support him in prison. She told me that it was her intention to follow him to Malaga, where she hoped to be able to effect his escape. What an instance of conjugal affection; and yet the affection here was all on one side, as is too frequently the case. Her husband was a worthless scoundrel, who had previously abandoned her and betaken himself to Madrid, where he had long lived in concubinage with the notorious she-thug Aurora22, at whose instigation he had committed the robbery for which he was now held in durance. "Should your husband escape from Malaga, in what direction will he fly?" I demanded.

"To the chim of the Corahai, my son; to the land of the Moors, to be a soldier of the Moorish king."

"And what will become of yourself?" I inquired; "think you that he will take you with him?"

"He will leave me on the shore, my son, and as soon as he has crossed the black pawnee23, he will forget me and never think of me more."

"And knowing his ingratitude, why should you give yourself so much trouble about him?"

20 In fact the whole trip lasted ten days and was a financial disaster. The cost of living for Borrow himself and Antonio came to 590 reales, apart from the 56 reales customs duties he had to disburse to bring the stock of 100 books into the city. Of those, only 13 copies were sold (at 10 reales a copy, which was 2/3 of the production price). Tellingly, Borrow left no stock in franchise with the Toledo bookseller. [Missler, Daring Game, 56, 64 & 170.] 21 Note that for all their hostility and the bookseller’s radical boasting, the priests of the city apparently felt no qualms about coming into the shop to buy books. Not all Borrow’s characterisations may be trusted… 22 See the text from The Zincali, part 2, chapter 6, quoted in chapter 40 below. 23 The ‘black water’, i.e. the sea or ocean.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

"Am I not his romi, my son, and am I not bound by the law of the Cales to assist him to the last? Should he return from the land of the Corahai at the end of a hundred years, and should find me alive, and should say, I am hungry, little wife, go forth and steal or tell bahi, I must do it, for he is the rom and I the romi."

36.7 An advertisement for the Scio New Testament On my return to Madrid, I found the despacho still open: various Testaments had been sold, though the number was by no means considerable: the work had to labour under great disadvantage, from the ignorance of the people at large with respect to its tenor and contents. It was no wonder, then, that little interest was felt respecting it. To call, however, public attention to the despacho, I printed three thousand advertisements on paper, yellow, blue, and crimson, with which I almost covered the sides of the streets, and besides this, inserted an account of it in all the journals and periodicals24; the consequence was, that in a short time almost every person in Madrid was aware of its existence. Such exertions in London or Paris would probably have ensured the sale of the entire edition of the New Testament within a few days. In Madrid, however, the result was not quite so flattering; for after the establishment had been open an entire month, the copies disposed of barely amounted to one hundred.25 24 See Gimenez, Spanish Press, 27f. Besides posters and advertisement, Borrow also employed ‘a man after the London fashion to parade the streets with a placard, to the astonishment of the populace’ [Darlow, 274]. This was in fact the first appearance of a ‘sandwich man’ in Spain. 25 In fact even fewer than that. According to an expense account drawn up on 11 December 1837 (the day after his return from Toledo) only 26 copies were sold between 27 November and 10 December through the Despacho [Missler, Daring Game, 170]. By Christmas, these 26 had grown to ‘between 70 and 80’ copies [Darlow, 274]. At a later date, Borrow calculated that in the period between 12 December 1837 and 26 April 1838, a total of 305 copies had been sold ‘partly at the [shop], partly by private sale’ [Missler, Daring Game, 172]. Even if each of those copies had passed through the shop, that would still only make some two copies a day.

Chapter 36

[From: Letter to Brandram of 25 December 1837 from Madrid, in: Darlow 273]: You are doubtless anxious to receive information as to [the Despacho’s] success. It succeeds well, nay, I may say very well, when all circumstances are taken into consideration; for it ought to be known that I have ventured upon this step in the very place which of all in Spain, affords the least chance of a successful issue, yet at the same time in the place where such a step was most needed, provided it be the imperative duty of Christians to make the Word of their Master known in the dark portions of the earth. It was a step fraught with difficulties of every kind. Madrid, it is true, is the capital of Spain; yet let no one for a moment suppose that being so it is consequently the largest, richest and most enlightened town in the Peninsula. In the first place, it is inferior in population to Valencia and Barcelona; in the second, misery and distress reign here to an extent unknown elsewhere; and so far from its being peculiarly enlightened, I believe that of all places in the Peninsula it is the least so. It is the centre of old, gloomy, bigoted Spain, and if there be one inveterate disgusting prejudice more prevalent and more cherished in one spot than another, it is here, in this heart of old, popish, anti-christian Spain, always difficult of access, but now peculiarly so, as it is scarcely possible to travel a league from its gates without being stript naked and murdered. Yet in this singular capital, in the midst of furious priests and Carlists, I have ventured upon establishing a shop which bears on its front in large letters: 'Despatch of the British and Foreign Bible Society.'

[Chapter 36 continued] These proceedings of mine did not fail to cause a great sensation: the priests and their partisans were teeming with malice and fury, which, for some time, however, they thought proper to exhibit only in words26; it being their opinion that I was favoured by the ambassador and by the British government; but there was no attempt, however atrocious, that might not be expected from their malignity; and were it right and seemly for me, the most insignificant of worms, to make such a comparison, I might say, like Paul at Ephesus, I was fighting with wild beasts.27 On the last day of the year 1837, my servant Antonio thus addressed me: "Mon maitre, it is necessary that I leave you for a time. Ever since we have returned from our journeys, I have become unsettled and dissatisfied with the house, the furniture, and with Donna Marequita. I have therefore engaged myself as cook in the house of the Count of -, where I am to receive four dollars per month less than what your worship gives me. I am fond of change, though it be for the worse. Adieu, mon maitre, may you be as well served as you deserve; should you chance, however, to have any pressing need de mes soins, send for me without hesitation, and I will at once give my new master warning, if I am still with him, and come to you."

26 For the tug-of-war that now developed between Borrow and the Catholic hierarchy, see the Editor’s Introduction and Apology. 27 I Corinthians 15 : 32.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

Thus was I deprived for a time of the services of Antonio. I continued for a few days without a domestic, at the end of which time I hired a certain Cantabrian or Basque, a native of the village of Hernani, in Guipuscoa, who was strongly recommended to me.28

[From: The Zincali, part 2, chapter 2]29 In Madrid the Gitanos chiefly reside in the neighbourhood of the 'mercado,' or the place where horses and other animals are sold, - in two narrow and dirty lanes, called the Calle de la Comadre and the Callejon de Lavapies. It is said that at the beginning of last century Madrid abounded with these people, who, by their lawless behaviour and dissolute lives, gave occasion to great scandal; if such were the case, their numbers must have considerably diminished since that period, as it would be difficult at any time to collect fifty throughout Madrid. These Gitanos seem, for the most part, to be either Valencians or of Valencian origin, as they in general either speak or understand the dialect of Valencia; and whilst speaking their own peculiar jargon, the Rommany, are in the habit of making use of many Valencian words and terms. The manner of life of the Gitanos of Madrid differs in no material respect from that of their brethren in other places. The men, every market-day, are to be seen on the skirts of the mercado, generally with some miserable animal - for example, a foundered mule or galled borrico, by means of which they seldom fail to gain a dollar or two, either by sale or exchange. It must not, however, be supposed that they content themselves with such paltry earnings. Provided they have any valuable animal, which is not unfrequently the case, they invariably keep such at home snug in the stall, conducting thither the chapman, should they find any, and concluding the bargain with the greatest secrecy. Their general reason for this conduct is an unwillingness to exhibit anything calculated to excite the jealousy of the chalans, or jockeys of Spanish blood, who on the slightest umbrage are in the habit of ejecting them from the fair by force of palos or cudgels, in which violence the chalans are to a certain extent countenanced by law; for though by the edict of Carlos the Third the Gitanos were in other respects placed upon an equality with the rest of the Spaniards, they were still forbidden to obtain their livelihood by the traffic of markets and fairs.

28 Francisco, whose fateful story will be told below, in the episode from The Zincali, part 2, chapter 4 quoted in chapter 42 below. 29 Borrow cultivated the company of the Madrid Gypsies ever since he first set foot in Madrid in February 1836. Over the following two years they helped him to improve and finish the translation of the Gospel of Luke into Caló which he had started with the Badajoz Gypsies in January 1836 (see chapter 9 above, especially footnote 6). Since the translation and the publication of that remarkable book will be treated in the in chapter 37 below, the present spot seems to be the best place to include the fragments from The Zincali which describe the general life-style of the Madrid Gypsies.

Chapter 36

They have occasionally however another excellent reason for not exposing the animal in the public mercado - having obtained him by dishonest means. The stealing, concealing, and receiving animals when stolen, are inveterate Gypsy habits, and are perhaps the last from which the Gitano will be reclaimed, or will only cease when the race has become extinct. In the prisons of Madrid, either in that of the Saladero or De la Corte,30 there are never less than a dozen Gitanos immured for stolen horses or mules being found in their possession, which themselves or their connections have spirited away from the neighbouring villages, or sometimes from a considerable distance. I say spirited away, for so well do the thieves take their measures, and watch their opportunity, that they are seldom or never taken in the fact. The Madrilenian Gypsy women are indefatigable in the pursuit of prey, prowling about the town and the suburbs from morning till night, entering houses of all descriptions, from the highest to the lowest; telling fortunes, or attempting to play off various kinds of Gypsy tricks, from which they derive much greater profit (…).

[From: The Zincali, part 2, chapter 6] The Gitanas, in the exercise [of fortune-telling], find dupes almost as readily amongst the superior classes, as the veriest dregs of the population. It is their boast, that the best houses are open to them; and perhaps in the space of one hour, they will spae the bahi to a duchess, or countess, in one of the hundred palaces of Madrid, and to half a dozen of the lavanderas engaged in purifying the linen of the capital, beneath the willows which droop on the banks of the murmuring Manzanares. One great advantage which the Gypsies possess over all other people is an utter absence of mauvaise honte; their speech is as fluent, and their eyes as unabashed, in the presence of royalty, as before those from whom they have nothing to hope or fear; the result being, that most minds quail before them. There were two Gitanas at Madrid, one Pepita by name, and the other La Chicharona; the first was a spare, shrewd, witch-like female, about fifty, and was the mother-in-law of La Chicharona, who was remarkable for her stoutness. These women subsisted entirely by fortune-telling and swindling. It chanced that the son of Pepita, and husband of Chicharona, having spirited away a horse, was sent to the presidio of Malaga for ten years of hard labour. This misfortune caused inexpressible affliction to his wife and mother, who determined to make every effort to procure his liberation. The readiest way which occurred to them was to procure an interview with the Queen Regent Christina, who they doubted not would forthwith pardon the culprit, provided they had an opportunity of assailing her with their Gypsy discourse (…). I at that time lived close by the palace, in the street of Santiago, and daily, for the space of a month, saw them bending their steps in that direction.

30 The Saladero was a former slaughterhouse and almacen de tocinos (a meat salting plant) next to the Santa Barbara gates to the north of Madrid, which had been turned into a jail to relief the prison population when a typhus epidemic broke out in the Carcel de la Villa (the municipal jail) and the Presidio Correccional in 1831. The Carcel de Corte (‘Court Jail’), Madrid’s main prison, was where Borrow was locked up in May 1838. See chapters 39 and 40 below.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

One day they came to me in a great hurry, with a strange expression on both their countenances. 'We have seen Christina, hijo' (my son), said Pepita to me.

'Within the palace?' I inquired. 'Within the palace, O child of my garlochin,'31 answered the sibyl:

'Christina at last saw and sent for us, as I knew she would; I told her "bahi," and Chicharona danced the Romalis (Gypsy dance) before her.'

'What did you tell her?' 'I told her many things,' said the hag, 'many things which I need not tell

you: know, however, that amongst other things, I told her that the chabori (little queen) would die, and then she would be Queen of Spain32. I told her, moreover, that within three years she would marry the son of the King of France33, and it was her bahi to die Queen of France and Spain, and to be loved much, and hated much.'

'And did you not dread her anger, when you told her these things?' 'Dread her, the Busnee?' screamed Pepita: 'No, my child, she dreaded me

far more; I looked at her so - and raised my finger so - and Chicharona clapped her hands, and the Busnee believed all I said, and was afraid of me; and then I asked for the pardon of my son, and she pledged her word to see into the matter, and when we came away, she gave me this baria of gold, and to Chicharona this other, so at all events we have hokkanoed the queen. May an evil end overtake her body, the Busnee!'34 [From: The Zincali, part 2, chapter 8] WHILST in Spain I devoted as much time as I could spare from my grand object, which was to circulate the Gospel through that benighted country, to attempt to enlighten the minds of the Gitanos on the subject of religion. I cannot say that I experienced much success in my endeavours; indeed, I never expected much, being fully acquainted with the stony nature of the ground on which I was

31 Burke [Glossary]: heart. 32 A pretty nonsensical promise. Had young Queen Isabel II died, she would have been succeeded by her even younger sister, the Princess Maria Luisa Fernanda. Had that child also died, there would have been no alternative than to bestow the crown on the Pretender Don Carlos. Under no circumstance would Queen Mother Maria Cristina, who was merely the consort of the late king Ferdinand VII, have become queen of Spain in her own right. 33 Another interesting prediction which Maria Cristina may well have laughed at, since years ago, on 28 December 1833, she had secretly married her paramour Sergeant Muñoz, from pure love, and by this time had borne him at least three children. (See also chapter 14 above.) 34 Although this episode sounds like a bold, dramatic invention, Borrow persisted in it. Decades later he would write again in his Romano Lavo-Lil (‘Word-book of the Gypsy Language’): ‘The writer's old friend, Pepita, the Gitana of Madrid, told the bahi of Christina, the Regentess of Spain, in which she assured her that she would marry the son of the King of France, and received from the fair Italian a golden ounce, the most magnificent of coins, a guerdon which she richly merited, for she nearly hit the mark, for though Christina did not marry the son of the King of France, her second daughter was married to a son of the King of France, the Duke of M[ontpensier], one of the three claimants of the crown of Spain, and the best of the lot.’

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employed; perhaps some of the seed that I scattered may eventually spring up and yield excellent fruit. Of one thing I am certain: if I did the Gitanos no good, I did them no harm. (…) I found the women much more disposed to listen to anything I had to say than the men, who were in general so taken up with their traffic that they could think and talk of nothing else; the women, too, had more curiosity and more intelligence; the conversational powers of some of them I found to be very great, and yet they were destitute of the slightest rudiments of education, and were thieves by profession. At Madrid I had regular conversaziones, or, as they are called in Spanish, tertulias, with these women, who generally visited me twice a week; they were perfectly unreserved towards me with respect to their actions and practices, though their behaviour, when present, was invariably strictly proper. I have already had cause to mention Pepa the sibyl, and her daughter-in-law, Chicharona; the manners of the first were sometimes almost elegant, though, next to Aurora, she was the most notorious she-thug in Madrid; Chicharona was good-humoured, like most fat personages. Pepa had likewise two daughters, one of whom, a very remarkable female, was called La Tuerta, from the circumstance of her having but one eye, and the other, who was a girl of about thirteen, La Casdami, or the scorpion, from the malice which she occasionally displayed. Pepa and Chicharona were invariably my most constant visitors. One day in winter they arrived as usual; the One-eyed and the Scorpion following behind. MYSELF. - 'I am glad to see you, Pepa: what have you been doing this morning?' PEPA. - 'I have been telling baji, and Chicharona has been stealing a pastesas;35 we have had but little success, and have come to warm ourselves at the brasero. As for the One-eyed, she is a very sluggard (holgazana), she will neither tell fortunes nor steal.' THE ONE-EYED. - 'Hold your peace, mother of the Bengues36; I will steal, when I see occasion, but it shall not be a pastesas, and I will hokkawar (deceive), but it shall not be by telling fortunes. If I deceive, it shall be by horses, by jockeying. If I steal, it shall be on the road - I'll rob. You know already what I am capable of, yet knowing that, you would have me tell fortunes like yourself, or steal like Chicharona. Me dinela conche (it fills me with fury) to be asked to tell fortunes, and the next Busnee that talks to me of bajis, I will knock all her teeth out.' THE SCORPION. - 'My sister is right; I, too, would sooner be a salteadora (highwaywoman), or a chalana (she-jockey), than steal with the hands, or tell bajis.'

35 Burke [Glossary]: ‘Stealing by slight of hand.’ Probably pickpocketing. 36 Burke [Glossary]: demons, devils.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

MYSELF. - 'You do not mean to say, O Tuerta, that you are a jockey, and that you rob on the highway.' THE ONE-EYED. - 'I am a chalana, brother, and many a time I have robbed upon the road, as all our people know. I dress myself as a man, and go forth with some of them. I have robbed alone, in the pass of the Guadarama, with my horse and escopeta. I alone once robbed a cuadrilla of twenty Gallegos, who were returning to their own country, after cutting the harvests of Castile; I stripped them of their earnings, and could have stripped them of their very clothes had I wished, for they were down on their knees like cowards. I love a brave man, be he Busne or Gypsy. When I was not much older than the Scorpion, I went with several others to rob the cortijo37 of an old man; it was more than twenty leagues from here. We broke in at midnight, and bound the old man: we knew he had money; but he said no, and would not tell us where it was; so we tortured him, pricking him with our knives and burning his hands over the lamp; all, however, would not do. At last I said, "Let us try the PIMIENTOS"; so we took the green pepper husks, pulled open his eyelids, and rubbed the pupils with the green pepper fruit. That was the worst pinch of all. Would you believe it? the old man bore it. Then our people said, "Let us kill him," but I said, no, it were a pity: so we spared him, though we got nothing. I have loved that old man ever since for his firm heart, and should have wished him for a husband.' THE SCORPION. - 'Ojala, that I had been in that cortijo, to see such sport!' MYSELF. - 'Do you fear God, O Tuerta?' THE ONE-EYED. - 'Brother, I fear nothing.' MYSELF. - 'Do you believe in God, O Tuerta?' THE ONE-EYED. - 'Brother, I do not; I hate all connected with that name; the whole is folly; me dinela conche. If I go to church, it is but to spit at the images. I spat at the bulto38 of Maria this morning; and I love the Corojai, and the Londone,39 because they are not baptized.' MYSELF. - 'You, of course, never say a prayer.' THE ONE-EYED. - 'No, no; there are three or four old words, taught me by some old people, which I sometimes say to myself; I believe they have both force and virtue.'

37 Burke [Glossary]: a farmhouse in Spanish. 38 Spanish ‘bulto’ has many meanings, such as package, lump, bulge, swelling, shape etc. Which one is meant here is difficult to say. However, since Borrow expressly fails to give any indication to its significance, something particularly ghastly may have been meant, such as Maria’s pregnant womb. 39 [Author’s note] The English

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MYSELF. - 'I would fain hear; pray tell me them.' THE ONE-EYED. - 'Brother, they are words not to be repeated.' MYSELF. - 'Why not?' THE ONE-EYED. - 'They are holy words, brother.' MYSELF. - 'Holy! You say there is no God; if there be none, there can be nothing holy; pray tell me the words, O Tuerta.' THE ONE-EYED. - 'Brother, I dare not.' MYSELF. - 'Then you do fear something.' THE ONE-EYED.- 'Not I - 'SABOCA ENRECAR MARIA ERERIA40, and now I wish I had not said them.' MYSELF. - 'You are distracted, O Tuerta: the words say simply, 'Dwell within us, blessed Maria.' You have spitten on her bulto this morning in the church, and now you are afraid to repeat four words, amongst which is her name.' THE ONE-EYED. - 'I did not understand them; but I wish I had not said them.' I repeat that there is no individual, however hardened, who is utterly GODLESS. (…) I have counted seventeen Gitanas assembled at one time in my apartment in the Calle de Santiago in Madrid; for the first quarter of an hour we generally discoursed upon indifferent matters, I then by degrees drew their attention to religion and the state of souls. I finally became so bold that I ventured to speak against their inveterate practices, thieving and lying, telling fortunes, and stealing a pastesas; this was touching upon delicate ground, and I experienced much opposition and much feminine clamour. I persevered, however, and they finally assented to all I said, not that I believe that my words made much impression upon their hearts. In a few months matters were so far advanced that they would sing a hymn; I wrote one expressly for them in Rommany, in which their own wild couplets were, to a certain extent, imitated. The people of the street in which I lived, seeing such numbers of these strange females continually passing in and out, were struck with astonishment, and demanded the reason. The answers which they obtained by no means satisfied them. 'Zeal for the conversion of souls, - the souls too of Gitanas, - disparate! the fellow is a scoundrel. Besides he is an Englishman, and is not baptized; what cares he for souls? They visit him for other purposes. He makes base ounces,

40 [Author’s note] These words are very ancient, and were, perhaps, used by the earliest Spanish Gypsies; they differ much from the language of the present day, and are quite unintelligible to the modern Gitanos.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

which they carry away and circulate. Madrid is already stocked with false money.' Others were of opinion that we met for the purposes of sorcery and abomination. The Spaniard has no conception that other springs of action exist than interest or villainy. My little congregation, if such I may call it, consisted entirely of women; the men seldom or never visited me, save they stood in need of something which they hoped to obtain from me. This circumstance I little regretted, their manners and conversation being the reverse of interesting. It must not, however, be supposed that, even with the women, matters went on invariably in a smooth and satisfactory manner. The following little anecdote will show what slight dependence can be placed upon them, and how disposed they are at all times to take part in what is grotesque and malicious. One day they arrived, attended by a Gypsy jockey whom I had never previously seen. We had scarcely been seated a minute, when this fellow, rising, took me to the window, and without any preamble or circumlocution, said - 'Don Jorge, you shall lend me two barias' (ounces of gold). 'Not to your whole race, my excellent friend,' said I; 'are you frantic? Sit down and be discreet.' He obeyed me literally, sat down, and when the rest departed, followed with them. We did not invariably meet at my own house, but occasionally at one in a street inhabited by Gypsies. On the appointed day I went to this house, where I found the women assembled; the jockey was also present. On seeing me he advanced, again took me aside, and again said - 'Don Jorge, you shall lend me two barias.' I made him no answer, but at once entered on the subject which brought me thither. I spoke for some time in Spanish; I chose for the theme of my discourse the situation of the Hebrews in Egypt, and pointed out its similarity to that of the Gitanos in Spain. I spoke of the power of God, manifested in preserving both as separate and distinct people amongst the nations until the present day. I warmed with my subject. I subsequently produced a manuscript book, from which I read a portion of Scripture, and the Lord's Prayer and Apostles' Creed, in Rommany. When I had concluded I looked around me. The features of the assembly were twisted, and the eyes of all turned upon me with a frightful squint; not an individual present but squinted, - the genteel Pepa, the good-humoured Chicharona, the Casdami, etc. etc. The Gypsy fellow, the contriver of the jest, squinted worst of all. Such are Gypsies.41

41 This squinting received an echo in chapter 32 of George Elliot’s Middlemarch, where she writes: ‘When Mary Garth entered the kitchen and Mr. Jonah Featherstone began to follow her with his cold detective eyes, young Cranch turning his head in the same direction seemed to insist on it that she should remark how he was squinting, as if he did it with design, like the gypsies when Borrow read the New Testament to them.’