sire to see them, and everyone gave
an opinion on the matter.

The guests were Abbe Bigliardi, 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, Campomanes approved them, saying that they were not abusive, and
were wonderfully adapted to my purpose, namely, to force the reader to do
me prompt justice, were the reader to be the king himself. Olavides and
Bigliardi echoed this sentiment. Mengs sided with the ambassador, and
begged me to come and live with him, so as not to be liable to any more
inconveniences from spying servants. I did not accept this invitation
till I had been pressed for some time, and I noted the remark of the
ambassador, who said I owed Mengs 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 stamp very rare in Spain. They were not exactly men
of learning, 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 Campomanes who had furnished Aranda with all
the damaging matter against 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 them in the same light as the other
religious orders, whom he considered a parasitical and noxious race, and
would gladly 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 intimate friend of the
ambassador's, M. Mocenigo had furnished him with an account of the
proceedings of the Venetian Republic against the monks. He might have
dispensed with this source of information if he had read the writings of
Father Paul Sarpi on the same subject. Quick-sighted, firm, with the
courage of his opinions, Campomanes was the fiscal of the Supreme Council
of Castille, of which Aranda was president. Everyone knew him to be a
thoroughly honest man, who acted solely for the good of the State. Thus
statesmen and officials had warm feelings of respect for him, while the
monks and bigots hated the sound of his name, and the Inquisition had
sworn to be his