around me. I am not aman to fly from a rabble: I frowned defiance upon my assailants, who con- tinued to press upon me; and some of them un- sheathed their daggers. On a sudden, and from behind me, I was seized by a powerful hand, dragged into a house, the door of which was in- stantly closed, and I found myself in the presence of your father. ‘ Carvasho,’ said he, ‘you are my enemy and my country’s; but you shall not die a dog’s death while I can protect you.’ He kept his word in defiance of the threats and im- precations of the rabble, derlaring that they should pull his house upon his head ere they vio- lated its sanctuary. <A party of military at last arrived and dispersed the rioters. Your father, at parting, said, with a smile, ‘ Now, Carvalho, we are foes again.’ And is he dead?—Then have I lost an enemy, whom to bring back to earth I would freely surrender all who now call themselves my friends. Marvel not, lady, thatI am somewhat rough and stern; ingratitude hath made me so. This city was once a ruin; gaunt famine was even in her palaces, and the cry of desolation in her streets. I gave bread to her famishing people, raised her from the dust, and made her what you see: but I sowed blessings, and curses were the harvest that I reaped. I have laboured day and night for the good of this priest-ridden people; and, because I have con- sulted their welfare rather than their prejudices, there is not man in Lisbon who would not plunge his dagger into my heart, if he had courage for the deed. A sense of gratitude to any human being is new to me, and, trust me, I will indulge it. The debt I owe your father, and which his proud spirit would not permit me to acknowledge as I purposed, I will endeavour to repay to his child. Yet how to aid you in this matter I know not. lhave to combatthe most powerful engine of the church, which on this occasion will have the prejudices of the people on its side.”
The minister paced the room for a few minutes, thoughtfully and perplexed; at length she re- sumed:—“The holy brotherhood are not wont to do their work by halves, and you will be their next victim. I know of but one way to save you and him for whom you intercede: it is replete with peril, but it shall be dared. Go home to your dwelling; tell no one that yom have seen me; and, happen what may, I will be with you in the hour of danger, if it be to perish by your side.”
Alvarez had been a prisoner three days ting which his treatment was in no respect rigorous, when he was summoned before the inquisitor. The hall of audience, as it was termed, was a spacious chamber, in the centre of which, upon an elevation or platform, about three inches frcm the floor, was a long table, covered with crimson cloth: around it were placed chairs decorated with crosses; at one-end of it sat the inquisitor, and at the other the notary of the Holy Office. At the extremity of the chamber was a figure of the Saviour on the cross, which nearly reached the ceiling; and immediately opposite was a bench appropriated to the prisoners during their examination. The inquisitor wore a kind of cap with a square crown; the notary and the priso- ner were of course uncovered. Alvarez was first commanded to lay his hand on a missal which was on the table, and swear that he would truly answer the interrogatories which might be put tohim. He was then desired to sit down upon the bench which was at the left-hand of the inquisitor, who, after a pause, said: “Senor Al- varez you are doubtless aware of the accusation upon which you haye been summoned before this tribunal.”
“Conscious of no offence which should have subjected me to the loss of my liberty, I hesitate not to pronounce the accusation false, be it what it may.”
“You speak rashly, senor; the Holy Office is not wont to proceed upon slight grounds. I pray you, therefore, to examine your conscience, and see if—not recently, perhaps, but in the course of your life—you have never committed any offence of which it is the peculiar province of the Inquisition to take cognizance.’”
“It can only repeat what I have already said:
and if any man have aught against me, let him stand forth.”
“The Holy Office, for wise reasons, does not confront the accuser and accused, as is the cus- tom in ordinary courts; neither is it our wont to declare the nature of the charge, which we rather refer to the conscience of the delinquent: but, willing that you should meet, with as little delay as may be, the accusation which has been brought against you, I will read it. it recites that, having been born of an English mother, you have embraced the tenets of the falsely-call- ed reformed religion, to the danger of your own soul and the scandal of the true faith; that yot have of late been in habits of close intercourse with a pestilent heretic of the same country, since dead, and that you are on the point of mar- riage with his daughter, also a heretic, contrary to the canons.of our holy church. This, senor Alvarez, is the charge: what have you to urge against its truth?”
“God forbid that, in hesitating to confess what I believe to be the true faith, I should deny its divine author! You have reproached me with my English parentage; and if the religion of Cranmer, of Ridley, and of Latimer be heresy, then am I a heretic; and, if the cup which was presented to their lips may not pass from mine, may God give me grace to drink it as they did, holding fast by the faith to which I have linked my hopes of Heaven’s mercy!”
“Nay, senor Alvarez, the Holy Office is not willing that any should perish, but rather rejoi- ceth in the exercise of that mercy which is in its discretioms and, although the offence of which you have confessed yourself guilty hath incurred the penalty of a death ef ignominy and torture, we have power, by deferring the execution of the sentence, to give you time to repent; so that, upon a renunciation of your errors you may
