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interests, in the name of whom they assume the shocking right of tyrannizing over the conscience, become the scourge of humanity, ́and the horror and opprobrium of human nature.

Just heavens, what impiety! exclaimed the inquisitor abominable creature, the devil alone could have inspired thee with such blasphemies against the attributes of divinity, so well ascertained in the Holy Scriptures, and against its divine worship, so positively enjoined by the church. Executioners, to your duty; let the keenest torments force from her a confession of her connexion with Satan, her master, of her other crimes, and of the names of her accompli

ces.

The inquisitor had hardly ended these words, when two of the four spectres who had conducted the unfortunate creature, stripped her of the rags that covered her, and the two others prepared the rest of the necessaries for the execu tion of the friar's orders.

The profound silence which reigned in that mournful place during the dreadful preparations, the glimmering light in the dungeon, the fatal instruments, the grief and discouragement of the victim, the glances of the enraged judges, the ferocious looks of the executioners, suspended the operation of my senses, and overwhelmed, me with fear and anguish.

The poor girl having no garment left but a cloth round her waist, was seized by the execu tioners, who tied her hands behind her back, and, by means of a rope fastened round her wrists, and passed through a block made fast to

the ceiling, raised her suddenly as high as they could; having held her suspended for a while, they let go the rope, and she came down with full force within a foot from the floor: this terrible shock dislocated all her joints; the rope which was tied round her arms, entered the flesh, and the torture she experienced drew from her a piercing shriek. In a little while the operation was repeated; her groans and cries increased; but they could not force her to confess that she was a witch, since she was not, neither could they learn her father's place of abode, nor the retreat of his adherents, because she did not know it, and that she would rather have suffered death, than expose another to undergo the torments she now endured.

They had tortured her for about an hour in the most excruciating manner, when her strength forsaking her, she at once appeared lifeless; one of the inquisitors having drawn near, applied his lecherous hand to the livid and bruised breast of the unfortunate girl, and said with a determined tone-it is needless to call a doctor, it will be sufficient at present that the bottle of hartshorn be applied to her nostrils to restore her.

The essence had the desired effect; but she remained extended on the ground, unable to move a limb. Then the inquisitors having apapproached her, one of them upbraided her in the strongest terms, reproaching her with the unheard of blasphemies she had thrown out against God and his worship; he added after. wards that she ought not to despair of his inf

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nite mercy; extolled the charity of the St. Of fice, which did not wish for the death of the sinner, but the salvation of his soul. The speech, or promises and threatenings which followed, did not shake her resolution; she did not comply with the confession demanded of her, but when the inquisitor had done talking, she said in a voice capable of moving the most flinty heart, Alas! fathers, have you renounced heart,-Alas! all humanity; do you see with indifference the spent victim without motion. Ah! consider my dislocated members, that tender body bruised and lacerated; and have mercy on a poor wretch lying at your feet, and overwhelmed with horror and despair. Have pity on my sex, my youth and my misfortunes! No, barbarians! cried she soon after, your hearts are strangers to sensibility; I see in your eyes the fero city of the lion and the angry tiger. Abominable monsters, here I am, seize on my limbs, enjoy the cruel pleasure of tearing them ; quench your thirst with my blood, and satiate your execrable rage. I yet live. And you! O deplo rable victims! who groan in the horrid dungeons dug on this spot, may my torments alleviate your miserable fate,and guard you against the bitter cup prepared for your palates. May my death be the last crime of my persecutors. She would have continued, but she was again seized, and they poured down her throat sever al quarts of very cold water; she was then laid in a trough, where she was squeezed so severely that she fell into another swoon.

When she recovered her senses she was assailed with the same words in vain; she was next ordered near a large fire, and her feet having been rubbed with oil, or other penetrating matter, they were warmed so cruelly as to raise blisters, and I discovered in a little while the sinews and bones, These horrid pains could

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not draw even a complaint from her. Her courage and resignation braved the cruelty of the inquisitors, and fatigued, the ministers of their rage. Her strength having for a third time forsaken her, she was at length carried away and I have since learnt, that three days after she was dragged in a dung cart to a public place, where loaded with the imprecations of the judg es, and the execration of an immense concourse of people, she was burnt to death, in order to teach the universe, that if all the moral virtues are sufficient to obtain us the toleration, esteem and honor of the most barbarous nations, they are looked upon as crimes by a nation who glories in the profession of a religion established by a Man-god, who preached nothing but meekness and charity, and who died on a cross, having in his power, with one single breath, to destroy his enemies..

I was no sooner alone than I exclaimed, Oh! the abominable inquisitors, what I had heard of their cruelties was but a faint picture of what I have seen. I always thought before, that with prudence a man could live safe, in the middle of a society, however depraved, but experience shows the contrary. When I remember the horrid sacrifice of the two lovely infants offered

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to a filthy he-goat, I find it was only the effect of a misunderstood piety, and owing to the superstition of a people blinded by the grossest igno rance, but what I have just now seen, has no other motive but the most diabolical madness, no object but the glutting of an execrable and bloody vengeance. How can the ministers of the God of truth, not satisfied with leading the ignorant into error, not contented with the ill effects of their private quarrels, and with that hatred which they vow against the man who presumes to think differently from themselves, erect tribunals, where without reason, humani. ty or mercy, they boldly judge all those whose downfall they have sworn: and how can they be audacious enough, when descending from such a tribunal, to ascend the threshold of the altar, and lift up to heaven their bloody hands? Great God, if thou hast unforeseen designs in permitting so much guilt, screen me, I humbly beseech thee, from falling a sacrifice to it..

These reflections over, I climbed up the chimney again. The darkness of the night was favorable to my intentions: I sallied from one of the windows of the granary, and wandered over the roofs of several houses, not daring to venture into any, and fearing, if discovered to be betrayed;-for the inquisition is so cruel, that was a Spaniard suspected of having favored the escape of a single prisoner, his charity would cost him his life. I ventured notwithstanding through a house, resolved to knock down with my fluke whoever should dare to oppose me. Before I had gone down a pair of stairs, a ser

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