/The/ Auto de Fé was over. The reconciled had been reconducted to the Holy House, where upon the morrow measures would be taken for the enforcement of the penances to which they were sentenced. The condemned had been hurried away to the meadows by the river, beyond the walls. There at La Dehesa, beside the swirling Tagus, in view of the smiling countryside beyond the river, that lovely peaceful amphitheatre enclosed by hills, a great white cross had been reared as the symbol of mercy. About it were the stakes, the faggots piled, and there, _Christi nomine invocato_, the work of the Faith was brought to an end in smoke and ashes. The crowd had followed to attend the closing scene of that great show, and was again kept within bounds by a stout barricade guarded by men-at-arms. But the majority of those who had taken active part in the Auto had returned with the reconciled to the Holy House. The Cardinal-Archbishop was back in his palace, disrobing, his mind at peace at last so far as his nephew was concerned. The course which he had advocated to Frey Juan Arrenzuelo had in the end been adopted. Don Pedro had been sentenced upon the depositions of Frey Luis. He was condemned to pay a fine of a thousand ducats into the treasury of the Holy Office and to attend Mass barefoot, clad only in his shirt and with a rope about his neck, every day for a month in the Cathedral of Toledo, at the end of which his offence would be accounted purged, and absolution and reinstatement would follow. The case against the woman might now proceed strictly in accordance with inquisitorial duty and inquisitorial practice, and, whether as a witch or merely as a heretic, she would undoubtedly be burnt when they came to hold the next Auto de Fé. That, thought the Cardinal, was no longer a matter of sufficient importance to cause him any preoccupation. But in this conclusion he was proven hasty. Within half an hour of his return to the palace, Frey Juan Arrenzuelo came in agitation to seek him. He brought news that already Frey Luis Salcedo was protesting openly against the order observed, which he denounced for an illegality. The sentence upon Don Pedro, Frey Luis was asserting, had been based upon matters which must remain presumptuous until established by the condemnation of the woman as a witch. He desired to know--demanded to know--what course would be adopted if torture should fail to wring from the woman the necessary admission of her necromantic practices. Arrenzuelo had sought to pacify him with the reminder that he might well wait until the situation which he feared arose; at present all his protests were in the realm of speculation. ‘The realm of speculation!’ Frey Luis had laughed. ‘Was it not in the realm of speculation that sentence was passed upon Don Pedro, so as to enable him to escape the graver punishment which may yet be his due?’