Then the sentences are read from the alternate pulpits, the alguazil mayor producing each culprit to hear his sentence. In this there must be no interruption, as all the sentences must be read, if it lasts till nightfall, for which torches and torch-bearers must be in readiness.[638] Although the sentences of the relaxed are left to the last, yet, if the auto is prolonged into the night they are introduced earlier, as it is essential that the burning should be executed in broad day-light. As these sentences are read, the effigies and chests of bones are ranged on one side of the stage, and the living convicts on the other. They are then delivered to the secular arm, and the judge who utters the sentences does so, either on the stage, or at the table of the secretaries or outside of the staging. If there is a _compañia de la Zarza_, it marches in squadron into the plaza, when the sentences are read, and the men discharge their arquebuses. They surround the condemned and march with them to the brasero, to protect them from the populace which, in some places, is accustomed to maltreat and even to kill them, against which the inquisitors give special instructions. The magistrates provide the asses on which they ride and the wood to burn them. The frailes in charge attend them to the last breath and exhaust all effort to bring about their repentance and conversion. The public solemnities conclude with the ceremonies of abjuration and reconciliation, after which the alguazil mayor and familiars conduct the penitents back to the Inquisition, where they have supper and are locked up, three or four in a cell. The priests of the parish church remove the black veil from their cross and take it back, while the Dominicans bear the green cross to the Inquisition, singing psalms and escorted by the municipal officials. The next morning the reconciled have the terms of their sentences read over to them; they and the other penitents take the oath of secrecy, and they are conveyed by the alcaide to the penitential prison. At ten o'clock the alguazil mayor, with a secretary and familiars, all mounted, with the public executioner and town-crier, take out those sentenced to scourging and vergüenza, and the punishment is duly administered through the customary streets. On their return, those whose sentences include the galleys are furnished a certificate of their length of service and are transferred to the royal prison, and with this concludes the stately ceremony by which the Holy Office, at the height of its power, impressed its terror on the population.