grasp of their parents; infants torn from their mothers’ breasts, to undergo what they regarded as worse then death. Many, in the distraction of their agony, flung their children into the wells and rivers, or slew themselves with their own hands.[162] One miserable mother threw herself at the feet of the king, as he was riding to church—to _church_! Great God of Mercy, that men should dare to bring such deeds into Thy very house, for Thine approval! She cried out that six of her seven children had already been taken from her—would he not spare her youngest to her? The courtiers mocked at her misery. The king bade his attendants remove her from his path—‘the poor bitch,’ as he expressed it, ‘robbed of her whelps!’—whether with her petition granted or not, we are not told. But the people were not so deaf to the common instincts of humanity as their monarch. They assisted the Jews to conceal their children, and the inhuman command was only partially carried out. Nevertheless, this last deadly blow had gone further to break the hearts of the Jews than all their previous sufferings. On condition of receiving back their children, and that the Inquisition should not be introduced into Portugal for twenty years to come,[163] many of those who had hitherto resisted all attempts to proselytize them consented to receive baptism. The more steadfast spirits, whom no amount of suffering could subdue, were either shipped off to foreign lands or remained behind after the appointed day, and became the slaves of Emmanuel.