Had not that tongue called them murderers? It was hoped that he would now show himself more tractable, but they were mistaken. The steadfast christian could not speak, but he refused to make the least sign of recantation, and to bend his head before an image. The enemies of truth (as the chronicle styles them) seeing this, had recourse to a fresh aggravation of the sentence: they condemned him to be burnt alive, 'which was done as cruelly as they could devise.' This death produced a deep impression on the minds of the evangelical christians of Paris.[146] Calvin, yielding to the representations of his friends, resolved to substitute 'private admonitions' for preaching at the assemblies, and began by visiting the humble christians whom he had heard spoken of at La Forge's. [Sidenote: THE PARALYTIC.] In the street which lay between the two gates of the law courts, there was a shoemaker's shop. On entering it, no one was seen but a poor hunchback, crippled in all his limbs, except the tongue and the arms. This paralytic creature was the shoemaker's son, and by name Bartholomew. 'Alas!' said his father, Robert Milon, to those who expressed their compassion at the sight, 'he was not always so; he was quite another person in his youth, endowed with excellent gifts both of body and mind.'[147] In fact, Bartholomew was once the handsomest man of the parish, very clever, and full of liveliness and imagination. He had abused these gifts; he had followed his impassioned disposition, and had launched into life, indulging in all the lusts of youth, in foolish amours and other kinds of irregularities with which young folks willingly defile themselves. Continually carried away by his impetuous temper, he equally courted pleasures and quarrels, he rushed into the midst of the strife as soon as any discussion arose, and displayed unparalleled temerity in all his disputes. He got up balls and concerts, despised the things of God, turned the priests into ridicule, and laughed at pious men. Everybody in the quarter talked about Berthelot (as he was called) and of his exploits; some with admiration, others with fear. All the young men looked up to him as their leader. [Sidenote: MILON'S CONVERSION]