No, Galileo never suffered bodily torture, nor was he even terrified by being taken into the torture chamber and shown the instruments; he was only mentally stretched upon the rack, by the verbal threat of it in the ordinary judgment hall, while the whole painful procedure, and finally the humiliating public recantation, was but a prolonged torture for the old man in his deep distress. Libri, Brewster, and other rhetorical authors have desired to stamp Galileo as a “martyr of science” in the full sense of the words. But this will not do for two reasons, as Henri Martin[463] justly points out. In the first place, Galileo did not suffer torture; and in the second, a true martyr, that is, a witness unto blood, never under any circumstances, not even on burning coals, abjures his opinions, or he does not deserve the name. For the sake of Galileo’s moral greatness, his submission may be regretted, but at all events greater benefit has accrued from it to science, than if, in consequence of a noble steadfastness which we should have greeted with enthusiasm, he had perished prematurely at the stake or had languished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. It was after the famous trial that he presented the world with his immortal “Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze.” PART III. _GALILEO’S LAST YEARS._ CHAPTER I. _GALILEO AT SIENA AND ARCETRI._ Arrival at Siena.—Request to the Grand Duke of Tuscany to ask for his release.—Postponed on the advice of Niccolini.—Endeavours at Rome to stifle the Copernican System.—Sentence and Recantation sent to all the Inquisitors of Italy.—Letter to the Inquisitor of Venice.—Mandate against the Publication of any New Work of Galileo’s or New Edition.—Curious Arguments in favour of the Old System.—Niccolini asks for Galileo’s release.—Refusal, but permission given to go to Arcetri.—Anonymous accusations.—Death of his Daughter.—Request for permission to go to Florence.—Harsh refusal and threat.—Letter to Diodati.—Again at work.—Intervention of the Count de Noailles on his behalf.—Prediction that he will be compared to Socrates.—Letter to Peiresc.—Publication of Galileo’s Works in Holland.—Continued efforts of Noailles.—Urban’s fair speeches.