"A long and severe illness, which made him a cripple for life, withdrew the good vicar of Esco, from these active pursuits, and limited his employment to the perusal of the few books which his little library afforded. Providentially the Bible was one of them. Solano read the records of revelation, with a sincere desire to embrace religious truth as he found it there, and having gradually cleared and arranged his views, drew up a little system of divinity, which agreed in the main points with the fundamental tenets of the Protestant churches. His conviction of the Roman Catholic errors became so strong, that he determined to lay his book before the bishop of the diocess, asking his pastoral help and advice upon that most important subject. An answer to his arguments was promised; but despairing, after a lapse of time, to obtain it, Solano applied to the faculty of divinity of the University of Saragossa. The reverend doctors sent the book to the Inquisition, and the infirm vicar of Esco was lodged in the prisons of the holy tribunal of Saragossa in 1802. It seems that some humane persons contrived his escape soon after, and conveyed him to Oleron, the nearest French town. But Solano, having taken time to consider his case, came to the heroic resolution of asserting the truth in the very face of death; and returned of his own accord to the Inquisitorial prisons." The Inquisitor-general at that time was Arce, archbishop of Santiago, an intimate friend of the Prince of Peace, and one strongly suspected of secret infidelity. When the sentence of the Arragonese tribunal, condemning Solano to die by fire, was presented to the supreme court for confirmation, Arce, shocked at the idea of an auto-da-fé, contrived every method to delay the execution. A fresh examination of witnesses was ordered, during which time the Inquisitors entreated Solano to avert his now imminent danger. Nothing, however, could move him. He said, he well knew the death that awaited him, but no human fear would ever make him swerve from the truth. The first sentence being confirmed, nothing remained but the _exequatur_ of the supreme council. Arce, however, suspended it, and ordered an inquiry into the mental sanity of the prisoner. As nothing appeared to support this plea, Solano would have died at the stake, had not Providence snatched him from the hands of the papal defenders of the faith. A dangerous illness seized him in the prison, where he had lingered three years. The efforts to convert him were on this occasion renewed with increased ardour.