This event was a fatal blow to the comparatively happy state of Sebastian and Kara Aziek: they were immediately remanded back to their dungeon by Sossa; for Lemos feared Philip too much to obey his departed father, and compromising with his conscience, by resigning the invidious task into another’s hand, pretended that an excess of filial grief, made him unfit to investigate so momentous a subject. This severe treatment was followed by a visit from the stern auditor: he came to demand a second time, the outraged King’s reply to his insulting questions. Again Sebastian declared, that were he to live a thousand years, and every hour of that long period to be employed in making the same demand, he could not return any other answer than that he would live and die professing his truth and his wrongs; that he appealed to a public trial in his own dominions; that he protested against the injustice of his kinsman’s proceedings, and would persist in doing so to his last breath. “Your sentence is then pronounced,” returned Sossa, as he departed, “your obstinacy condemns yourself: our illustrious and long-suffering monarch has condemned you for life to the galleys.” As the auditor disappeared, Sebastian fixed a fond but sad look on the agitated features of Aziek. “Faint not, my beloved?” he said, “our appointed trials must be bravely borne to the last--every species of oppression and insult are to swell the cup of your Sebastian’s destiny; but remember the bitterness of that mortal draught is short, in comparison with the eternal spring, of which, through God’s grace I hope we shall drink together in Heaven.” Kara Aziek smiled with a breaking heart, and filled with admiration of her husband’s magnanimity, earnestly prayed for strength to imitate so noble an example. On the day which removed Sebastian to this new scene of misery, he was led from his prison to be conveyed to the gallies. Lemos and Sossa believed that to shew this compassionated sufferer to the expecting crowd under degrading circumstances, would be a surer antidote to their respect, than if they beheld him brought to public execution: they had therefore decreed that he should be led through the streets of Naples to the port, mounted on the most ignoble of animals, and followed by his faithful Aziek, in the meanest attire. At the gate of the castle, he beheld multitudes of soldiers and spectators, and a herald holding the ass upon which he was to mount:[A] his countenance was unchanged: he placed himself on the lowly animal with a serene and majestic aspect that might have become a throne; it ennobled his sorry garments, and touched every beholder with respect and pity. [A] This incident is an historical fact. His eyes, (brightening as he moved) were fixed upon Heaven: it seemed as if in this triumph over human weakness and human passion, he felt the blessed earnest of eternal reward.