“Believe you not, my lords, that it is important for the Portuguese to discover the truth of this man? think you that we are eager to place ourselves under the dominion of a low-born impostor? think you that the Duke of Braganza would resign his pretension to the succession, (in case of failure in the Spanish line) to any other than to the real Don Sebastian? no, my lords! we are actuated solely by respect for the memory of him whom we have so long lamented. Examine this person, try him before your senate in the face of Europe, or expect to have the whole world filled with outcries against your perfidy and injustice. You can no otherwise efface the shame of your present bold conduct than by proving the guilt of him you detain. You say he is an impostor; in the name of God then, hasten to make it appear; and tell your new friend Philip III. that even his stern predecessor dealt not thus with the pretended Sebastians of his less settled day.” “Your holy office protects you, father!” observed the Castillian ambassador, as Sampayo concluded, “or this licence of speech would surely draw down on you the resentment of the republic: let that sacred character remind you of your duty. Is it a priest of the Romish church who thus advocates the cause of an heretic? be he, or be he not the true Sebastian, he is an apostate, and an alien from the protection of heaven, and we dare not stir a step in so solemn a crisis, without the directing hand of our august oracle the Pope. “Beware how you draw the lightning of the consistory upon your heads--I speak to you both, Sampayo and Texere--for both of you tread on the precincts of spiritual rebellion.” “Our sins be on ourselves!” said Texere, with an undaunted air, “neither of us will shrink from an honest defence, when it is needful to make it: now, it is for your illustrious prisoner that we speak, not for our own principles. First admit his story to a fair hearing and investigation, after that pronounce on his character; punish him as an impostor, or as the King of Portugal, let our sacred superior exhort him to reconciliation with the church. “While the Portuguese are ready to receive their King, without insisting on his abjuration of certain private opinions, he is King of Portugal still.” “What abominable doctrine is this!” exclaimed the ambassador, “is it a son of the church, that dares proclaim the Vox Populi, Vox Dei? but I forget myself--the speaker is Francisco Joseph Texere, a fellow hanging between the heaven and hell of truth and error; one that has not yet decided whether he is to adhere to the rock of St. Peter, or to follow the standard of Martin Luther. I have heard of his residence in England, his attention to her new theories, and the heretical books which he has published, I am not surprized therefore, to see him abet the cause of an impostor, or at least an apostate!”