He Did Not Exhibit The
Least Symptom Of Fear, But Dismounted From The Animal And Was Led,
Not Supported, Up The Scaffold, Where He Was Placed On The Chair,
And The Fatal Collar Put Round His Neck.
One of the priests then
in a loud voice commenced saying the Belief, and the culprit
repeated the words after him.
On a sudden, the executioner, who
stood behind, commenced turning the screw, which was of prodigious
force, and the wretched man - was almost instantly a corpse; but, as
the screw went round, the priest began to shout, "pax et
misericordia et tranquillitas," and still as he shouted, his voice
became louder and louder, till the lofty walls of Madrid rang with
it: then stooping down, he placed his mouth close to the culprit's
ear, still shouting, just as if he would pursue the spirit through
its course to eternity, cheering it on its way. The effect was
tremendous. I myself was so excited that I involuntarily shouted
"misericordia," and so did many others. God was not thought of;
Christ was not thought of; only the priest was thought of, for he
seemed at that moment to be the first being in existence, and to
have the power of opening and shutting the gates of heaven or of
hell, just as he should think proper. A striking instance of the
successful working of the Popish system, whose grand aim has ever
been to keep people's minds as far as possible from God, and to
centre their hopes and fears in the priesthood. The execution of
the second culprit was precisely similar; he ascended the scaffold
a few minutes after his brother had breathed his last.
I have visited most of the principal capitals of the world, but
upon the whole none has ever so interested me as this city of
Madrid, in which I now found myself. I will not dwell upon its
streets, its edifices, its public squares, its fountains, though
some of these are remarkable enough: but Petersburg has finer
streets, Paris and Edinburgh more stately edifices, London far
nobler squares, whilst Shiraz can boast of more costly fountains,
though not cooler waters. But the population! Within a mud wall,
scarcely one league and a half in circuit, are contained two
hundred thousand human beings, certainly forming the most
extraordinary vital mass to be found in the entire world; and be it
always remembered that this mass is strictly Spanish. The
population of Constantinople is extraordinary enough, but to form
it twenty nations have contributed; Greeks, Armenians, Persians,
Poles, Jews, the latter, by the by, of Spanish origin, and speaking
amongst themselves the old Spanish language; but the huge
population of Madrid, with the exception of a sprinkling of
foreigners, chiefly French tailors, glove-makers and peruquiers, is
strictly Spanish, though a considerable portion are not natives of
the place. Here are no colonies of Germans, as at Saint
Petersburg; no English factories, as at Lisbon; no multitudes of
insolent Yankees lounging through the streets as at the Havannah,
with an air which seems to say, the land is our own whenever we
choose to take it; but a population which, however strange and
wild, and composed of various elements, is Spanish, and will remain
so as long as the city itself shall exist.
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