The Inquisitors then asked him how this declaration could be true, seeing he had several times declared that he had attended the Jewish assemblies, believed in their doctrines, and persevered in the belief for the space of one year, until he was undeceived by a priest. "I spoke falsely," replied Melchior, "when I made a declaration against myself." "But how is it," rejoined the Inquisitors, "that what you have confessed of yourself, and many other things which you now deny, are the result of the depositions of a great many witnesses?" "I do not know if that is true or false," answered Melchior, "for I have not seen the writings of the trial; but if the witnesses have said that which is imputed to them, it is because they were placed in the same situation as I am. They do not love me better than I love myself; and I have certainly declared against myself both truth and falsehood." "What motive had you for declaring things injurious to yourself, if they were false?" said the Inquisitors. "I did not think it would be injurious to me," replied Melchior; "on the contrary, I expected to derive great advantages from it; because I saw that if I did not confess any thing, I should be considered as impenitent, and the truth would lead me to the scaffold. I thought that falsehood would be most useful to me, as I found it to be so in two autos-da-fé." Before his execution, Melchior made the following declaration:—"That at the point of appearing before the tribunal of the Almighty, and without any hope of escaping from death by new delays, he thought himself bound to declare that he had never conversed on the Mosaic Law; that all he had said on the subject was founded on the wish to preserve life, and the belief that his confessions were pleasing to the Inquisitors; that he asked pardon of the persons implicated, that God might pardon him, and that no injury might be done to their honour and reputation." After making this declaration, Melchior was burnt, and all his property seized. Throughout the whole of the proceedings in this case we discover nothing but injustice, avarice, and cruelty; while, on the other hand, the effect of all the punishments inflicted on this unhappy victim of Inquisitorial vengeance, tended only to force him for some time to be guilty of hypocrisy.