Such as had been thus accused were instantly arrested, and so long and grievously tormented that they were forced to confess just whatever their judges pleased, when those of the lower ranks were inhumanly burnt. Some of the richer and more powerful ransomed themselves from this disgrace by dint of money,--while others of the higher orders were remonstrated with and seduced by their examiners into confessions, under a promise that, if they would confess, they should not suffer in person or fortune. Others again suffered the severest torments with the utmost fortitude and patience. The judges received very large sums of money from such as were enabled to pay them: others fled the country, or completely proved their innocence of the charges made against them, and remained unmolested. It must not be concealed, that many persons of worth knew well that these charges had been raked up, by a set of wicked persons, to harrass and disgrace some of the principal inhabitants of Arras, whom they hated with the bitterest rancour, and, from avarice, were eager to possess themselves of their fortunes. They had first maliciously arrested some persons deserving punishment for their crimes, whom they had so severely tormented, holding out promises of pardon, that they forced them to accuse whomsoever they were pleased to name, and them they arrested and tormented as mentioned above. This matter was considered, by all men of sense and virtue, as most abominable; and it was thought that those who had thus destroyed and disgraced so many persons of worth would put their souls in imminent danger at the last day. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 8: Vilvorden,--a town in Brabant, between Brussels and Mechlin.] [Footnote 9: 'While king James was observing the effects of his artillery, (at the siege of Roxburgh-castle) one of the rudely-contrived cannons of that age, consisting of bars of iron, girded with circles of metal, suddenly burst: a fragment struck his thigh,--and the great effusion of blood produced a death almost instantaneous. The earl of Angus, who stood next to James, was wounded. 'It is impossible to express the grief of the camp, or of the kingdom, at the premature loss of a beloved sovereign, in the flower of his age, aggravated by the circumstances and the strange fatality of the case. The young regretted a youthful prince, and an ardent leader: the old sighed at the prospect of another minority. 'Could any consolation have arisen, it must have proceeded from the spirit of the queen, Mary of Gueldres, who, immediately upon the tidings, arrived in the camp with the infant heir of the monarchy, and showing him to the soldiers, while tears gushed from her eyes, she conjured them by every domestic tie, by the memory of their sovereign, by the fame of Scottish valour, not to depart from their design, but to destroy this calamitous fortress. The castle was taken and levelled with the ground.' _Pinkerton's Hist. of Scotland_, v. ii. p. 244.]