Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One VolumeVoltaire
Philosophy
Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume
Voltaire
French fiction -- Translations into English
CONTINUATION OF THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN, THE YOUNG ENGLISHMAN; ALSO THOSE
OF HIS WORTHY FATHER, D.D., M.P., AND F.R.S.
You know the skillful conduct of the Earl of Peterborough after he took
Barcelona, how successfully he prevented pillage, restored order, and
rescued the Duchess of Popoli from the hands of some drunken Germans,
who robbed and abused her. Conceive the surprise, grief, rage, and
tears, of our friend Freind, on learning that John was confined in the
dungeons of the holy inquisition, and condemned to the stake. You know
that cold temperaments are frequently most energetic when great events
call them into action. You should have seen this distracted father, whom
you were accustomed to think imperturbable, fly to the dungeon of his
son more rapidly than the horses at Newmarket hasten to the goal. The
fifty soldiers who went with him were soon out of breath, and always a
hundred paces behind. At length he reached the cell and entered it. What
a scene! what tears! what joy! Twenty victims, devoted to the same
ceremony, are delivered. All the prisoners take arms and fight with our
soldiers. The buildings of the holy office are destroyed in ten minutes,
and they breakfasted beside the ruins, on the wine and ham of the
inquisitors.
[Illustration: Condemned by the Inquisition.--He was confined to a very
damp cellar, and sentenced to be burnt the following Sunday, in full
ceremony, clothed in a San-bénito, wearing a sugar-loaf cap, in honor of
our Savior and the Virgin Mary, his mother.]
In the midst of the roar of cannon, the sound of trumpets and drums,
announcing our victory to Catalonia, our friend Freind recovered his
accustomed tranquillity of manner. He was as calm as the sky after a day
of storm. He was raising to God a heart as serene as his countenance,
when he perceived a black spectral figure, clad in a surplice, issue
from a vault, and fall at his feet, crying for mercy.
"Who are you?" said our friend. "Do you come from Hades?"
"Almost," rejoined the other. "I am Don Jeronimo Bueno Caracucarador,
inquisitor. I solicit most humbly your forgiveness for wishing to roast
your son in public. I took him for a Jew."
"Supposing that to be the case," said our friend with his customary sang
froid, "does it become you, Señor Caracucarador, to roast people alive
because they are descended from a sect that formerly inhabited a rocky
canton near the Syrian desert? What does it matter to you whether a man
is circumcised or not? that he observe Easter at the full of the moon,
or on the following Sunday? It is very bad reasoning to say, 'That man
is a Jew; therefore I must have him burnt, and take his property.' The
Royal Society of London do not reason in that way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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