The Golden Grasshopper | Page 6

said to be heard. The preacher, lifting a crucifix in the air,
waved it round, and addressed the multitude below. He was met rather
by glances of hatred and fear than by looks of sympathy. Still he

continued, now in a loud voice thundering anathemas on the heads of
heretics, and threatening the vengeance of Heaven on those who
sheltered them, or refused to give them up into the hands of the
Inquisitors. Sometimes the crowd appeared to be violently agitated, and
here and there persons were seen moving among them, as if to urge
them forward in an attempt to rescue those about to suffer; but the stern
looks of the well-trained Spanish troops kept them in awe. The
sermon--if a fierce harangue composed of invectives against simple
Christianity could so be called-- was brought to a conclusion; and now,
in a loud voice, the presiding Inquisitor asked the accused for the last
time whether they would recant and make confession of their sins,
promising them absolution and a sure entrance into heaven, with a
more easy death than the terrible one to which they were condemned.
The gag was removed from the mouth of the chief prisoner that he
might give his answer.
"No, no!" he exclaimed, "I accept not such mercy as you offer. I hold
fast to a simple faith in Christ's meritorious death, and that alone is
sufficient to secure my salvation. I look upon the sacrifice of the Mass
as an act dishonouring Him. I believe that no human person has power
to absolve me from sin; that all must enter the kingdom of heaven here
who are to belong to it hereafter, and thus that masses for the dead are a
deceit and fraud; that Christ hears our prayers more willingly than any
human mediator or being who has once dwelt on earth; that His mother
was honoured among women, but not above women; that her heart was
less tender than His; and that she can no more hear prayers or intercede
with Him than can any other person of the seed of Adam requiring, like
all others, to be cleansed by His blood."
"Off with him to the stake! to the stake!" shouted the priests as these
words were uttered.
A female--a graceful lady--was next asked whether she would recant.
"I hold to the opinion my dear husband has uttered," she answered.
Master Gresham turned pale when he heard her speak, for he
recognised the features of one he had seen but a short time before. At

that moment the little boy, who had been eagerly watching the scene,
uttered a loud shriek.
"Oh! my father! my dear mother!" he cried out; "let me go to them--let
me go to save them!"
With difficulty the groom held him on his horse, for he struggled
desperately to be free. "There's kind Bertha, my nurse; and honest,
good Gunter too! Let me go, I say, that I may help them!"
The English party were too far off to allow those on the stage to
observe them. Even the servants refused to recant, though promised
their lives and liberty if they would do so.
Karl Van Verner and his wife were led down from the platform by the
steps towards the two stakes, which stood close to each other. And now
the members of the brotherhood on whom had been imposed the sad
office of executing the victims, rushed forward with faggots, which
they piled up round them. Two professional executioners, who had
been summoned for the purpose, secured the victims by the chains to
the stakes. While fire was set to the piles, the members of the
brotherhood burst forth into a melancholy miserere, which rose up even
above the groans and sighs of the people.
Master Gresham ordered his attendants to try and force their way out of
the crowd. At length, many persons, unwilling to witness the suffering
of the victims, retired along the various streets leading into the Mere,
thus giving an opportunity to the English party to retreat. Once more
the young boy cast a terrified glance towards the horrible spectacle,
when the groom, in mercy, throwing a cloak round his head, pushed on
through the crowd, the whole party making their way as rapidly as they
could towards the royal merchant's residence.
For days, for months, for years even, did that dreadful spectacle occur
again and again to the mind of the child. Thus perished his parents,
with their two faithful attendants, their only crime that of reading God's
Word, singing His praises, and holding together family prayer.

Theirs was no solitary fate. Every week, every day almost, victims
were offered up to the papal Moloch by those who thus hoped to stamp
out the very existence of Protestantism from the land.