ed up upon it, the magistrates and other
officials taking their places on either side, the brotherhoods forming a
dark line below the platform. The priests seemed to be exhorting the
prisoners, but the distance was too great to allow what was being said
to be heard. The preacher, lifting a crucifix in the air, waved it
round, and addressed the multitude below. He was met rather by glances
of hatred and fear than by looks of sympathy. Still he continued, now
in a loud voice thundering anathemas on the heads of heretics, and
threatening the vengeance of Heaven on those who sheltered them, or
refused to give them up into the hands of the Inquisitors. Sometimes
the crowd appeared to be violently agitated, and here and there persons
were seen moving among them, as if to urge them forward in an attempt to
rescue those about to suffer; but the stern looks of the well-trained
Spanish troops kept them in awe. The sermon--if a fierce harangue
composed of invectives against simple Christianity could so be called--
was brought to a conclusion; and now, in a loud voice, the presiding
Inquisitor asked the accused for the last time whether they would recant
and make confession of their sins, promising them absolution and a sure
entrance into heaven, with a more easy death than the terrible one to
which they were condemned. The gag was removed from the mouth of the
chief prisoner that he might give his answer.

"No, no!" he exclaimed, "I accept not such mercy as you offer. I hold
fast to a simple faith in Christ's meritorious death, and that alone is
sufficient to secure my salvation. I look upon the sacrifice of the
Mass as an act dishonouring Him. I believe that no human person has
power to absolve me from sin; that all must enter the kingdom of heaven
here who are to belong to it hereafter, and thus that masses for the
dead are a deceit and fraud; that Christ hears our prayers more
willingly than any human mediator or being who has once dwelt on earth;
that His mother was honoured among women, but not above women; that her
heart was less tender than His; and that she can no more hear prayers or
intercede with Him than can any other person of the seed of Adam
requiring, like all others, to be cleansed by His blood."

"Off with him to the stake! to the stake!" shouted the priests as these
words were uttered.

A female--a graceful lady--was next asked whether she would recant.

"I hold to the opinion my dear husband has ut