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 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 my visit to Spain he was incarcerated in the dungeons of the Inquisition, but he obtained his release after three years’ confinement by doing 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 victim if he had not had the good sense to ask the king to send him to France as his ambassador.  The king was very glad 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 mule, as weak as a woman, as gross as a Dutchman, and a thorough-paced bigot.  It was no wonder that he became the tool of his confessor.

At the time of which I am speaking the cabinet of Madrid was occupied in a curious scheme.  A thousand Catholic families had been enticed from Switzerland to form a colony in the beautiful but deserted region called the Sierra Morena, well known all over Europe by its mention in Don Quixote.  Nature seemed there to have lavished all her gifts; the climate was perfect, the soil fertile, and streams of all kinds watered the land, but in spite of all it was almost depopulated.

Desiring to change this state of things, his Catholic majesty had decided to make a present of all the agricultural 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 government did its best to provide them with lodging and spiritual and temporal superintendence.  Olavides was the soul of this scheme.  He conferred with the ministers to provide the new population with magistrates, 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 Swiss were concerned.