Fox's Book of Martyrs: Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant; Deaths of the Primitive Protestant MartyrsFoxe, John
HistoryHistory
Fox's Book of Martyrs: Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant; Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs
Foxe, John
Church history; Martyrs; Persecution
"As soon as the child is born it is taken away, and carried we know not
whither; for we never hear a syllable mentioned about it afterward. I
have been in this house six years, was not fourteen when the officers
took me from my father's house, and have had one child. There are, at
this present time, fifty-two young ladies in the house; but we annually
lose six or eight, though we know not what becomes of them, or whither
they are sent. This, however, does not diminish our number, for new ones
are always brought in to supply the place of those who are removed from
hence; and I remember, at one time, to have seen seventy-three ladies
here together. Our continual torment is to reflect that when they are
tired of any of the ladies, they certainly put to death those they
pretend to send away; for it is natural to think, that they have too
much policy to suffer their atrocious and infernal villanies to be
discovered, by enlarging them. Hence our situation is miserable indeed,
and we have only to pray that the Almighty will pardon those crimes
which we are compelled to commit. Therefore, my dear sister, arm
yourself with patience, for that is the only palliative to give you
comfort, and put a firm confidence in the providence of Almighty God."
This discourse of Leonora greatly affected me; but I found everything to
be as she told me, in the course of time, and I took care to appear as
cheerful as possible before Mary. In this manner I continued eighteen
months, during which time eleven ladies were taken from the house; but
in lieu of them we got nineteen new ones, which made our number just
sixty, at the time we were so happily relieved by the French officers,
and providentially restored to the joys of society, and to the arms of
our parents and friends. On that happy day, the door of my dungeon was
opened by the gentleman who is now my husband, and who with the utmost
expedition, sent both Leonora and me to his father's; and (soon after
the campaign was over) when he returned home, he thought proper to make
me his wife, in which situation I enjoy a recompense for all the
miseries I before suffered.
From the foregoing narrative it is evident, that the inquisitors are a
set of libidinous villains, lost to every just idea of religion, and
totally destitute of humanity. Those who possess wealth, beauty, or
liberal sentiments, are sure to find enemies in them. Avarice, lust, and
prejudice, are their ruling passions; and they sacrifice every law,
human and divine, to gratify their predominant desire. Their supposed
piety is affectation; their pretended compassion hypocrisy; their
justice depends on their will: and their equitable punishments are
founded on their prejudices. None are secure from them, all ranks fall
equally victims to their pride, their power, their avarice, or their
aversion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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