In these examinations the inquisitors use the greatest artifice, to draw from the prisoners confessions of those crimes of which they are accused; promising them favour, if they will confess the truth. And by these flattering assurances they sometimes overcome the minds of more unwary persons; and when they have obtained the designed end, immediately forget them all. Of this Gonsalvius[260] gives us a remarkable instance. “In the first fire that was blown up at Seville, anno 1558, or 1559, amongst many others who were taken up, there was a certain pious matron with her two virgin daughters, and her niece by her sister, who was married. As they endured those tortures of all kinds, with a truly manlike constancy, by which they endeavoured to make them perfidiously betray their brethren in Christ, and especially to accuse one another, the inquisitor at length commanded one of the daughters to be sent for to audience. There he discoursed with her alone for a considerable time, in order to comfort her, as indeed she needed it. When the discourse was ended, the girl was remanded to her prison. Some days after he acted the same part again, causing her to be brought before him several days towards the evening, detaining her for a considerable while; sometimes telling her how much he was grieved for her afflictions, and then intermixing familiarly enough other pleasant and agreeable things. All this, as the event shewed, had only this tendency, that after he had persuaded the poor simple girl, that he was really, and with a fatherly affection concerned for her calamity, and would consult as a father what might be for her benefit and salvation, and that of her mother and sisters, she might wholly throw herself into his protection. After some days spent in such familiar discourses, during which he pretended to mourn with her over her calamity, and to shew himself affected with her miseries, and to give her all the proof of his good will, in order, as far as he could, to remove them; when he knew he had deceived the girl, he begins to persuade her to discover what she knew of herself, her mother, sisters, and aunts who were not yet apprehended, promising upon oath, that if she would faithfully discover to him all that she knew of that affair, he would find out a method to relieve her from all her misfortunes, and to send them all back again to their houses. The girl, who had no very great penetration, being thus allured by the promises and persuasions of the father of the faith, begins to tell him some things relating to the holy doctrine she had been taught, and about which they used to confer with one another. When the inquisitor had now got hold of the thread, he dextrously endeavoured to find his way throughout the whole labyrinth; oftentimes calling the girl to audience, that what she had deposed might be taken down in a legal manner; always persuading her, this would be the only just means to put an end to all her evils. In the last audience he