These had been well received by his friends, and they had instantly understood from what malady he was suffering.[93] Far from thinking of their own salvation as he implored them, they only thought how to ruin him, and set all their ingenuity to work to entrap him. 'Ah!' they wrote in terms of endearment, 'if only you return to Antwerp, the great things of which you speak will, without the least doubt, be accomplished.' At the same time they came to an understanding with the Dominican monks, some of whom they appointed to watch for the moment at which he should enter the city. 'You are to seize on him,' said they, 'you are to question him about his father, and if he differs from you in the least on this subject you are to put him to death, or throw him into some pit in which he will be buried as a living corpse.'[94] [Sidenote: ARREST OF SAN ROMANO.] The poor man, whom the answer of his friends had filled with hope and joy, mounted on horseback, saying to himself that he should be able without great difficulty to convert all the Spaniards to the true religion. He arrived, passed the gates, and entered the town; but all at once the monks in ambush surrounded him, dragged him from his horse, and led him off as a prisoner to the house of a tradesman who was devoted to their cause.[95] There they bound him hand and foot and began searching his baggage. They found in it a good many books in German, French, and Latin; some were by Luther, others by Melanchthon, and the rest by Œcolampadius and other equally suspected authors. They even discovered, to their great horror, insulting pictures of the pope. They turned angrily to him, saying, 'Thou art a perfect Lutheran.' San Romano, having fallen so unexpectedly into an ambush, was confused, excited, and inflamed with wrath. He was a true Spaniard, calm while nothing disturbed him, but when hurt in any way, giving vent to the passions of a soul on fire. He had known the Gospel too short a time to have become wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. He was no longer master of himself. 'You are rascals,'[96] he exclaimed. 'I am not a Lutheran, but I profess the eternal wisdom of the Son of God, whom ye hate. And as to your dreams, your impostures, your corrupt doctrines, I abhor them with all my heart.' 'What, then, is thy religion?' asked the monks. 'I believe in God the Father, Creator of all,' replied San Romano, 'and I believe in God the Son, Jesus Christ, who redeemed mankind by his blood, and who by delivering them from the bondage of the devil, of sin, and of death, established them in the liberty of the Gospel.' 'Dost thou believe,' asked the monks, 'that the pope of Rome is the vicar of Christ, that all the treasures of the church are in his hands, and that he has power to make new articles of faith and to abolish the others?' 'I believe nothing of the sort,' exclaimed San Romano, horrified. 'I believe that the pope, like a wolf,