ea-forces, co-operating with those of the Queen to
terminate the rebellion, to desist from further operations.

I was about to obtain all I wished, when at the critical moment the news
of the scenes at Malaga arrived at Madrid, and Sir George had little more
to say than that Satan seemed to mingle in this game. Nevertheless I
left prison, with the understanding that the Government would connive at
the circulation of the Scriptures in a quiet manner, not calculated to
produce disturbances nor to give scandal to the clergy.

But speedily followed the affair of the sectarian tracts of Carthagena,
which tracts were sworn to as having been left there by agents of the
Bible Society; and I instantly knew that I had nothing more to expect
from the Government. But some time previous I had formed an unalterable
resolution that, come what might, I would no longer bear the odium of
actions, which in whatever motive they originated had already subjected
me to unheard-of persecution, loathsome imprisonment, loss of friends,
and to the grief of seeing prudent and long-brooded plans baffled and
brought to nought, and the Society to which I belonged subjected to
opprobrium as I believed undeserved; and I therefore published in the
journals of Madrid an advertisement, in which I disowned, in my own name
and that of the Society, any sympathy with the actor or actors in those
transactions, which had given so much cause of offence to the
authorities, civil and ecclesiastic, of Spain.

My principal reason for taking this step originated from my having become
personally acquainted with the ex-priest Pascual Marin, who arrived at
Madrid the very day in which I was committed to prison. His narrative
served to confirm all the rumours which I had previously heard. The
Committee are fully aware with what unwillingness I formed the
acquaintance of that man, who was sent up to me in order that I might
provide for him, without my consent being obtained or even demanded; but
I now rejoice in the circumstance, without which I might still have been
playing the odious, disgraceful, and heart-breaking part which I had
supported so long. But by the decided step which I now took, the burden
of obloquy fell at once from my shoulders, as the bundle of sin from the
back of Christian, and rolling into a deep pit was seen no more.

That advertisement gave infinite satisfaction to the liberal clergy. I
was complimented for it by the Primate of Spain, who