Some days after the inquisitor-general caused the tribunal to be visited; the visitor declared that the judges had acted contrary to the laws in conducting Francis to the _auto-da-fé_ in the habit of a relaxed person, when they had decided on his reconciliation. The inquisitors endeavoured to justify themselves by saying that they thought it would frighten the accused into making new declarations. The visitor commanded that Francis should be reconciled and taken to the prison of the _Penitents_, likewise called that of _Mercy_. Francis, who was probably a little deranged, declared several times that he had deceived the inquisitors by accusing some persons as heretics who were innocent, because he hoped that he should escape death by this proceeding. These words were reported to the inquisitors, and Francis was taken to the secret prisons. There was an act of accusation against him; he acknowledged all the articles of the fiscal, and affirmed upon oath that all his declarations were true; he ratified them, and begged that he might be pardoned. On the 19th of January, 1564, he was condemned to appear in the _auto-da-fé_ with the gag, to receive two hundred stripes, and to pass three years in the house of _Penitence_. Francis suffered the stripes, but they did not render him more prudent, for he declared, even in the prison, that he was unjustly treated, for all that he had said was false, and dictated by fear. In 1565, the Inquisition of Murcia received the visit of a new commissary, who obliged Francis to appear before him as a witness, to ratify a declaration which he had made against Catherine Perez, his wife, for Judaism. The following dialogue took place between the visitor and the witness:-- Do you remember making a declaration against Catherine Perez, your wife?--Yes. What was that declaration?--It will be found in the writings of the trial. (The declaration was here read to Francis.) Is what you have just heard true?--No. Why then did you affirm that it was so?--Because I heard an inquisitor say it. Are the declarations against other persons true?--No. Why did you make them?--Because I perceived in the _auto-da-fé_ at which I assisted, that the contents were read in the publication of the depositions, and I thought that if I declared it to be true, I should avoid death as being a good penitent. Why did you make your ratification after the _auto-da-fé_, when the fiscal presented you as a witness against your wife, and other persons?--For the same reason. After this conversation, Francis was sent back to the prison, where he wrote a kind of memorial, in which he said that none of the witnesses were admissible against him, because they differed and contradicted each other in their declarations.