In the Days of DrakeFletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
General
In the Days of Drake
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
Drake, Francis, approximately 1540-1596 -- Fiction
About the beginning of Holy Week the Inquisitors caused to be erected a
great scaffold against the large church in the main square, and from it
they proclaimed, with much beating of drums and blaring of trumpets,
that whoever should come there upon Good Friday should have made known
to them the most just judgments of the Holy Inquisition upon the English
heretics, Lutherans, and should, moreover, see the same put into
immediate execution. And so now we were face to face with whatever final
cruelty these devils in human shape might devise upon us, who were
helpless and defenseless in their hands.
There was little rest for any of us on the night preceding the
judgments, for there came to each of us officers and Familiars of the
Inquisition, tormenting us with gibes and sneers, and bringing us the
San-benitos in which we were to appear in the great square next morning.
It was already turning gray in the east when two of these men entered my
dungeon, where I lay still stiff and bruised because of the racking
which I had undergone a few days before. They woke me rudely and without
consideration, caring naught for the woes I had already suffered or the
sorrow I was that day to undergo.
"Wake, English dog, Lutheran, enemy of God!" cried one. "Wake and robe
thyself to meet thy master the devil. Truly the saints will rejoice to
see the sight provided for them this day."
Then they hustled me from my straw pallet and bade me dress in the
San-benito, which was a garment of yellow cotton having divers devices
painted upon it. And this done they took me out into the courtyard of
the prison, and there for the first time for some weeks I met Pharaoh
Nanjulian. It was easy to see, even in the uncertain light of the early
morning, that he had undergone the same torments which they had applied
to me. His face was pinched and thin with suffering, and his great frame
seemed to have been crushed and bruised until it had shrunk in height
and girth. Yet he bore himself with composure and bravery, and I felt at
once that, however the rest of us behaved, he at least would not
disgrace the name of England.
"Heart up, master!" quoth he, as soon as we came within speaking
distance of each other. "Heart up! Let us show ourselves brave men this
day. I do not think they can torment us more than they have already
done. And what if they kill us? We must all die."
"Did they torture you badly, Pharaoh?" I asked, admiring his fortitude.
He shook his head and smiled grimly.
"So badly, master, that it seemed as if every bone in my body was
broken and every sinew cracked. But a man may undergo a deal of
suffering and yet live. So let us quit us like men and be strong. For
truly, though we be in the hands of these devils at present, God is near
us, and will maybe be nearer ere the day is done."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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