All this while the evangelical christians, and especially those who had set fire to the mine, alarmed at the terrible explosion it had made, remained hidden and silent in their houses. They knew Morin's skill in discovering his victims and inventing tortures; a dark future saddened their countenances. Then were heard among them groans, and regrets, and mournful deliberations. 'What shall we do?' they said. Take flight!—What! leave home, and family, and country without knowing where to go?... How gloomy the future! But is it not better to lose all these than to lose your life?... Such were the heart-rending conversations held almost everywhere.[220] Fathers and wives and children conjured with tears those whom they loved to get out of the way of the king's anger. Some of them, indeed, did leave their homes by night and flee.[221] Many of those who had not posted the placards, but who were known by the frank confession of their faith, thought that the danger could not concern them.... The unhappy people hesitated and delayed, and many of them paid dearly for their imprudent security.[222] [Sidenote: THE BRETHREN BETRAYED.] The lieutenant-criminal, a great opponent of the religious movement, and a man of very dissolute life, of rare audacity in catching criminals, and remarkable subtlety in entrapping them by their answers,[223] was meditating the plan of his campaign. His vanity, his greed, his hatred—all his passions were engaged in the business. He desired to catch all the heretics together by one cast of his net. But how? A bright idea struck him: by seizing one man, he hoped to take all the rest. 'You know that shop where they sell sheaths and other such articles, in the Rue de la Vannerie leading to the Grève,' he said to one of his officers. 'Go and arrest the sheath-maker and bring him to me.'—'Sheath-maker,' he said, 'you are one of the heretics, and what is worse, you are their _convener_, I know full well. It is you, do not deny it, who inform them of the places where their secret meetings are to be held. I have a wish to assemble them; you will lead me to their houses.' The poor man, understanding what he meant, tremblingly refused to commit such treason. The lieutenant-criminal ordered a scaffold to be got ready. As soon as the officials had left the room, Morin turned to the sheath-maker: 'It is you that conduct the people to church, and it is quite fair that you should begin the dance.' The wretched man trembled. What a frightful alternative! How could he go to those whom he was wont to summon to the temple of God, in order to deliver them to the flames? There was a terrible struggle in his soul, but the fear of God was overcome, the light of reason extinct, all regard for honour put aside. 'Satan entered into Judas,' and he sought how he could betray his brethren. Believing himself 'on the point of being burnt,' says Beza, he promised all he was asked.[224]