wing morning, however, the
Archbishop proceeded in state to the cathedral, and declared all those
excommunicated who had taken, and were retaining, any object belonging
to the Inquisition. By this means a certain proportion of the objects
were recovered.

Nevertheless, during its latter days--doubtless from a presentiment of
the nearness of its end--the methods of the Inquisition had become
comparatively softened. Thus, when at the beginning of the nineteenth
century an old fortune-teller, accused of witchcraft, was made to stand
penitent in the chapel of the tribunal, and one of the secretaries read
out a list of the wretch's misdeeds, the result was very unusual for
anything connected with so justly dreaded an organization. For the old
fortune-teller, doubtless tickled by a recital of his feats, burst into
loud laughter, in which he was joined by the majority of the spectators.
It is said that the Viceroy Castelfuerte, when summoned before the
Inquisition, obeyed the mandate; but he brought with him his bodyguard,
and stationed two pieces of artillery outside the building of the
tribunal. After this he entered, and, placing his watch on the table,
told the Inquisitor that, unless they finished their business with him
in an hour, the place would be battered to pieces. In the face of this
information the interview terminated almost immediately.

It has been frequently brought against the inhabitants of Lima that,
while in almost every other part of the Continent the Americans had
already freed themselves, or were fighting with that object, they had
remained in a more or less passive state. Yet this condition of affairs
was practically inevitable when it is considered that Lima was the great
stronghold of Spain, filled to overflowing with Spanish officials and
military officers. It is certain enough that, had Lima been captured in
the first place by the insurgents, the Royalist resistance in all the
other colonies would inevitably have collapsed immediately; but it did
not in the least follow that because Buenos Aires, Santiago, and other
towns had become the seats of Republican Governments, that the movement
should influence the mainspring of Spanish authority at Lima.

The Spaniards of Lima were reputed, for that reason, the haughtiest of
any in the Continent, and their manner towards the Criollos continued as
overbearing as ever during the first stages of the revolution. It is
said that when the reinforcements came