A TREASURE.
Perhaps the proudest and happiest hour of Teresa's life was that in
which she saw the treasure, the family heirlooms, in the hands of
Alcala de Aguilera, as they were on the following day. Teresa clasped
the steel-clamped box as if it had been a living child. Would she not
burnish up the rusted metal till every hinge should shine as brightly
as Aguilera's honour! The duenna handled the contents of the case with
as much reverence as she might have shown to the hair of Santa
Veronica! Every article in that jewel-box had its history for Teresa.
That bracelet was a wedding-gift from a duchess to the mother of
Alcala and Inez; that ring had been worn by a cavalier who had slain
three Moors with his own right hand; that gold snuff-box was a gift
from the Empress Catherine to an Aguilera then ambassador at the
Russian Court; those medals were, every one of them, tokens of some
gallant deed performed by one of the ancestors of Alcala. Teresa
counted each pearl in the chaplet, and every link in the massive gold
chain.
Alcala and Inez watched with amusement the old duenna's delight.
"Nay, Teresa, lay not down that chain," said De Aguilera; "you have
well earned some little acknowledgment of your long and faithful
service. The very first use which we make of our newly-recovered
property is to show our gratitude to her who in weal or woe has never
forsaken our house."
"The chain--for me!" exclaimed the astonished duenna; "what could the
like of me do with so costly an ornament as this?"
"Turn it into dollars," said Alcala quietly; but the Spanish cavalier
could not help a flush rising to his cheek as he added, "as I am going
to turn the goblet of gold."
Teresa looked aghast at such an unexpected announcement. She could
scarcely believe that anything could induce Alcala to part with that
splendid relic of family grandeur, embossed with the Aguilera arms--a
goblet which had been touched by the lips of princes--a goblet which
had been the most costly ornament of a table at which a hundred guests
had sat down.
"Better part with anything than with that!" exclaimed the old servant,
making a passionate protest against what seemed to her little short of
sacrilege.
"I have talked the subject over with my sister," replied Aguilera;
"neither of us would touch our grandmother's property during her
lifetime, and the greater part of the gems are hers. Nor is this a
time for disposing of jewels; for that we must wait for more quiet
days. Gold always commands its value."
"But that goblet," expostulated Teresa--"that which was the pride of
your house!"
"Teresa, I must have nothing more to do with pride," said Alcala
gravely but kindly. "I have renounced the pride of life as one of
those things which are inconsistent with the character of a
Christian."
Inez saw that this was an argument incomprehensible to Teresa, and in
her own gentle way the Spanish maiden brought forward others which had
a far greater effect upon the old servant's mind. Donna Benita should
now have the little pleasures which she could yet enjoy, and the
comforts which she required; so many things had long been needed by
the family which could now be procured by the sacrifice of one costly
cup. Surely, suggested Inez, it was better to have food in an
earthenware dish, than to sit hungry at a board laden with empty
plate, albeit of gold.
Teresa drew a deep sigh; she could not gainsay her young lady's words,
but she looked at the doomed goblet with tearful eyes, as a parent
might look at a child from whom she was forced to part.
"Oh, senor," cried Teresa with emotion, "grant to me but one boon; it
is but a small one--it will cost you no effort or loss--it is the
first favour which your old servant ever has asked of her master."
"It will scarcely be denied," said Alcala.
"Before you sell that precious heirloom, bid to a banquet those two
English senors who have seen you in your--your difficulties; the brave
caballero who recovered your treasure, and the elder one
whose"--Teresa could not bring herself to say, "whose salary you have
stooped to earn," so she described Mr. Passmore as he whose head was
bald with age.
Alcala could not altogether disappoint the earnestly expressed wish of
his old retainer, or deny her the gratification of letting his late
employer see some proof of the wealth once enjoyed by the family of
his clerk. Teresa's "banquet" was, however, reduced to a simple
evening collation, to which not a single guest but the two Englishmen
was to be invited. Teresa would fain have had all the great and
wealthy inhabitants of Seville bidden to a grand entertainment, and
have had the goblet of gold pass down the length of a table thronged
with as many guests as had found place at the wedding-feast of Don
Pedro de Aguilera.
"Our poor Teresa thinks our newly-found treasure inexhaustible," said
Inez with a happy smile to her brother, when the duenna had hurried
off to make purchases of some of the innumerable articles which she
had now discovered to be indispensable. "Of what are you thinking, my
Alcala?" continued Inez, laying her hand caressingly on that of her
brother, and looking up lovingly into his face, which wore an
expression of deeper thought than usual.
"I was thinking, dearest, of another to us long-buried and
newly-recovered treasure, even the written Word of God," replied
Alcala. "This in itself is truly inexhaustible wealth. Our country,
our beautiful Spain, basely robbed of that treasure, has for ages been
poor indeed! But Heaven is restoring to us now that which is beyond
all price, even the knowledge of gospel truth. May we Spaniards be
given grace to hold fast to the end that doctrine for which so many
martyrs have perished in the flames,--the doctrine of justification by
faith!"
The attention of both Alcala and of his friend Lucius being now
earnestly directed to the subject of the evangelization of Spain, they
found, with both pleasure and surprise, how many faithful labourers
had been in the field before them. As in our own city, strangers might
pass through hundreds of streets, marvel at the traffic of London, and
wonder at its wealth, and yet be unaware all the time that,
underground and out of sight, trains are rapidly bearing its merchant
princes from place to place,--so those who had believed themselves
well acquainted with Spain had lived in almost total ignorance of a
great hidden work going on beneath the surface of society. Alcala and
Lucius now heard for the first time of the band of Spanish reformers
who had been receiving instruction from a Scotch minister[22] on the
rock of Gibraltar. They now first heard of the gifted convert from
Romanism, Jean Baptista Cabrera, gathering around him these his
brethren, the hope of the infant Church, and organizing them to form a
band of faithful confessors, who, in the name of the only Saviour,
should bear the banner of the truth into Spain. Alcala found that
arrangements for the revision of the Scriptures, the compilation of an
evangelical creed, and the division of Spain into districts, for the
better diffusion of religious knowledge, had actually been made under
the shadow of the tyranny which had so long darkened the land of his
birth. Cabrera's conference with other Spanish reformers had taken
place in the spring of the same year of which the autumn saw the
flight of Queen Isabella. I will quote from an account of this
conference given in the work[23] to which I have so often referred in
this little volume:--
"In this transaction we see the foundations laid of the Reformed
Church of Spain. That glorious event took place under the flag of
Great Britain. The day is well worthy of being noted; it was the 25th
of April 1868. This was the birthday of that Church, and this day will
long be a memorable one in the annals of Spain and in the annals of
Christianity."
"Yes, the Lord Bishop of Cadiz had some cause to sound his cry of
alarm!" exclaimed Lucius, after he and Alcala had been reading
together a copy of the soul-stirring address of Cabrera. "The grand
struggle between light and darkness has begun already, thank God! my
own dear old country has furnished weapons for the warfare;" and the
Englishman laid his hand on a complete Spanish Bible, which had been
Aguilera's first purchase with the treasure so lately restored.
But though the hopeful Briton looked forward to a speedy and glorious
termination to that warfare, Alcala revolved with some anxiety the
difficulties which were likely to obstruct the progress of the
evangelization of Spain. Isabella, that bigoted votary of Rome, no
longer, indeed, bore sway; a priest-ridden government had fallen, and
the Spanish people had shown little desire to uphold the Papal power;
but all the political horizon was overspread with a dense mist of
uncertainty regarding the future. Who would take the reins of
government that had dropped from the hands of the Queen? Who would
manage obstinate Juntas, control violent mobs, and guide the chariot
of the State into anything resembling an orderly course? The eyes of
Spain were turned towards her banished General Prim, that man who was,
though but for a brief period, to play so important a part in her
history. Prim would return to his country, would rise to be a ruler in
the land from whence he had once been driven. His coming triumph was
the perpetual theme of the exultant Diego, who now filled the place in
Alcala's household which had been occupied by Chico. Alcala, too,
foresaw that General Prim was likely to be the leader of the Spanish
people: but was his accession to power an event to be desired or
dreaded by those whose dearest object in life was the evangelization
of Spain? Would Prim come to sustain the power of the Romish
priesthood with the support of the secular arm? Would he, like his
predecessors, regard Protestantism as a punishable crime? Was the
circulation of the Scriptures to be prohibited, and a dungeon to be
deemed the fittest place for the bold evangelist who should proclaim
its life-giving truths? What was a subject of anxiety to De Aguilera
was also a subject for fervent prayer. Earnestly he besought the Ruler
of all the events of this changing scene to raise up a powerful
protector for the infant Reformed Church of Spain.
FOOTNOTES:
[22] The Rev. A. Sutherland. _Vide_ "Daybreak in Spain."
[23] "Daybreak in Spain."