Should the prisoner, as already stated make confession while enduring the torture, that confession is immediately taken down by the notary; after which he is carried to another place, where his confession is read over to him, and he is required to subscribe it. But here Gonsalvius observes, "that when the prisoner is carried to audience, they make him pass by the door of the room where the torture was inflicted, where the executioner shows himself, in that shape of a devil described before, that, as he passes by, he may, by seeing him, be forced to feel, as it were, over again, his past torments." If there be very strong evidence against the accused—if new proofs of his guilt be brought forward—or, if it be considered that he was not sufficiently tortured formerly, he may be subjected to this cruel ordeal again, "when his body and mind are able to endure it." Ever ready to inflict punishment, the Inquisitors not unfrequently condemn the innocent to endure the most excruciating tortures; and, after subjecting them to agony or death, in solemn mockery pronounce them to be innocent. The following example, illustrative of such unheard of barbarity, occurred at Seville, in 1559. Maria de Bohorques, the natural daughter of a Spanish grandee of the first class, avowed her faith before the Inquisitors, defended it as the ancient truth of God, and was tortured to induce her to implicate her friends. First, two Jesuits, and then two Dominicans, were sent to debate with or ensnare her; but she continued steadfast—her convictions acquired strength, and her views grew clearer during the discussions; and nothing remained for Maria, but to form her part in the bloody pageant of an auto-da-fé. She there tried to comfort her companions in tribulation, but was gagged. Her sentence was read, the gag removed, and she was asked to recant. "I neither can nor will," was the resolute reply; and she proceeded to the place of execution. After she was bound to the stake, the lighting of the pile was delayed for a little, that another attempt might be made to reclaim her. She was, by the grace of God, immovable still—was strangled, and burned, one of her last employments being to comment on the creed in the Protestant sense. In 1560, no fewer than eight females, of irreproachable character, and some of them distinguished by rank and learning, perished in a similar manner in another Auto at Seville. Maria Gomez, her three sisters, and her daughter, were of the number. After being sentenced to the flames, the young woman thanked one of her aunts, who had taught her the truth; and then, amid many affectionate expressions, accompanied with confidence in Him for whose truth they were dying, they prepared for their fiery doom. After describing the touching scene, Dr. M'Crie informs us, that "so completely had superstition and habit subdued the strongest emotions of the human breast, that not a single expression