A conference was now going on at Ratisbon between the Romanists and the evangelical party, who, at the emperor's request, were endeavoring to come to an agreement. Charles's moderation might well be the result of his desire to do nothing which might interfere with an arrangement. But no desire was manifested to render justice to the Reformation. On the contrary, Luther wrote to the Elector of Saxony: 'All this is only pure popish deceit. It is impossible to bring Christ and the Serpent to an agreement.'[100] Fanatical Catholics, both Germans and Spaniards, were already indulging in acts of cruelty towards the evangelical Christians. At this spectacle San Romano felt his hopes vanish. He did not, however, lose heart; but appealed a second and a third time with great boldness to the emperor, receiving none but gracious replies from him. [Sidenote: SECOND ARREST OF SAN ROMANO.] The Spaniards in Charles's suite were less politic than himself, and they displayed much irritation at the language of their countryman. When, therefore, the young Christian of Burgos desired to speak a fourth time with the monarch, they had him carried off and put into prison. Their fury rose to the highest pitch, and weary of the consideration shown to him, they were about to seize the audacious young man and throw him without further ceremony into the Danube.[101] The emperor prevented this, and ordered him to be tried according to the laws of the empire. He was then thrown into a deep dungeon, where he was kept in chains. According to some accounts, he was bound to the wheels of a chariot, dragged in the train of the emperor, and even transported to Africa,[102] whither Charles at this time betook himself on a famous expedition. This story appears to us very improbable. However that may be, on the day when he was released from prison he was cruelly bound and chained together with real criminals, without the least regard to his social position or the cause for which he had been arrested, and thus conducted on a miserable cart either into Africa or into Spain. One of the Spaniards who had accompanied him on the way from Louvain to Ratisbon approached the cart, and, surprised at the barbarous manner in which his friend was treated, asked him, 'What is the meaning of this? Why are you here in company with criminals and treated with such ignominy?' Poor San Romano, constant in his faith and hope, raised his arms as high as he could, saying, 'Do you see these iron chains? They will procure me in the presence of God greater honors than all the pomp and magnificence of the emperor's court. O glorious bonds! you will soon shine like a crown of precious stones. You see, my brother, how my arms and legs are bound and how my whole body, weighed down by these irons, is fastened to the cart, without being able to stir. But all these bonds can not prevent my spirit, over which the emperor has no authority, from being perfectly