spirits, occasioned by the fatigues of the day, made her desist from her obstinacy when it was too late. She was converted, to the satisfaction of the monks who were present; but the punishment could not even be deferred. She alone obtained as a favour to be burnt after death; and was _strangled_ in the evening, amidst the tears of all devout souls, who admired the pious artifice by which this opportunity was taken of sending her to heaven, to prevent her falling again into heresy.” “You will have no difficulty,” says the writer, “in persuading yourself, that this happened only _thirty years_ ago. But remember, that the same laws now exist in all their force, and that it is scarce a year since the famous _Quemadero_, [the pile on which criminals are burnt,] where this scene was represented, was destroyed at Seville, because it stood in the way of the fortifications which were erecting against the French. A _Quemadero_, on which many thousands have perished, and which, doubtless owing to the frequent call for it, was constructed of solid materials, unlike other scaffolds, which are erected merely as occasion requires. Imagine to yourself that the greater part of the people are still disposed to look quietly on the repetition of such scenes; and tell me then, whether the Inquisition can be viewed in the light in which you place it? “The time has gone by, it is true, when these scenes were exhibited daily; when the victims groaned in subterraneous dungeons, and made the hall of the tribunal resound at night with the cries which torture wrung from them; the time has passed, though not long since. It has passed, though it depends on the will of three men to restore it. It has passed:--then why all this declamation? Leave this question to those, who, forced by the circumstances of the times to conceal their inclinations and their opinions, clothe themselves in sheep-skins, anxiously awaiting the day when they may wreak their vengeance on those who have constrained them to show a mildness and forbearance. You strangers, who have lately visited Spain, have no means of forming a correct idea of the slow and endless oppression which this tribunal occasions, even in its actual state of slumber.”