"The time for a general auto drew near. During the months of November
and December, 1675, he heard every morning the cries of persons under
torture, and afterwards saw many of them, both men and women, lame and
distorted by the rack. On Sunday January 11th, 1676, he was surprised
by the jailer refusing to receive his linen to be washed--Sunday being
washing-day in the 'holy house.' While perplexing himself to think
what that could mean, the cathedral bells rang for vespers, and then,
contrary to custom, rang again for matins. He could only account for
that second novelty by supposing that an auto would be celebrated the
next day. They brought him supper, which he refused, and, contrary to
their wont at all other times, they did not insist on his taking it, but
carried it away. Assured that those were all portents of the horrible
catastrophe, and reflecting on often-repeated threats in the audience
chamber that he should be burnt, he gave himself up to death, and
overwhelmed with sorrow, fell asleep a little before midnight.
"Scarcely had he fallen asleep when the alcayde and guards entered the
cell, with great noise, bringing a lamp, for the first time since his
imprisonment that they had allowed a lamp to shine there. The alcayde,
laying down a suit of clothes, bade him put them on, and be ready to go
out when he came again. At two o'clock in the morning they returned, and
he issued from the cell, clad in a black vest and trowsers, striped with
white, and his feet bare. About two hundred prisoners, of whom he
was one, were made to sit on the floor, along the sides of a spacious
gallery, all in the same black livery, and just visible by the
gleaming of a few lamps. A large company of women were also ranged in a
neighboring gallery in like manner. But they were all motionless, and
no one knew his doom. Every eye was fixed, and each one seemed benumbed
with misery.
"A third company Dellon perceived in a room not far distant, but they
were walking about, and some appeared to have long habits. Those were
persons condemned to be delivered to the secular arm, and the long
habits distinguished confessors busily collecting confessions in order
to commute that penalty for some other scarcely less dreadful. At four
o'clock, servants of the house came, with guards, and gave bread and
figs to those who would accept the refreshment. One of the guards gave
Dellon some hope of life by advising him to take what was offered,
which he had refused to do. 'Take your bread,' said the man, 'and if you
cannot eat it now, put it in your pocket; you will be certainly hungry
before you return.' This gave hope, that he should not end the day at
the stake, but come back to undergo penance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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