account for that second novelty by supposing that an auto would be celebrated the next day.  They brought him supper, which he refused, and, contrary to their wont at all other times, they did not insist on his taking it, but carried it away.  Assured that those were all portents of the horrible catastrophe, and reflecting on often-repeated threats in the audience chamber that he should be burnt, he gave himself up to death, and overwhelmed with sorrow, fell asleep a little before midnight.

“Scarcely had he fallen asleep when the alcayde and guards entered the cell, with great noise, bringing a lamp, for the first time since his imprisonment that they had allowed a lamp to shine there.  The alcayde, laying down a suit of clothes, bade him put them on, and be ready to go out when he came again.  At two o’clock in the morning they returned, and he issued from the cell, clad in a black vest and trowsers, striped with white, and his feet bare.  About two hundred prisoners, of whom he was one, were made to sit on the floor, along the sides of a spacious gallery, all in the same black livery, and just visible by the gleaming of a few lamps.  A large company of women were also ranged in a neighboring gallery in like manner.  But they were all motionless, and no one knew his doom.  Every eye was fixed, and each one seemed benumbed with misery.

“A third company Dellon perceived in a room not far distant, but they were walking about, and some appeared to have long habits.  Those were persons condemned to be delivered to the secular arm, and the long habits distinguished confessors busily collecting confessions in order to commute that penalty for some other scarcely less dreadful.  At four o’clock, servants of the house came, with guards, and gave bread and figs to those who would accept the refreshment.  One of the guards gave Dellon some hope of life by advising him to take what was offered, which he had refused to do.  ’Take your bread,’ said the man, ’and if you cannot eat it now, put it in your pocket; you will be certainly hungry before you return.’  This gave hope, that he should not end the day at the stake, but come back to undergo penance.

“A little before sunrise, the great bell of the cathedral tolled, and its sound soon aroused the city of Goa.  The people ran into the streets, lining the chief thoroughfares, and crowding every place whence a view could be had of the procession.  Day broke, and Dellon saw the faces of his fellow-prisoners, most of whom were Indians.  He could only distinguish, by their complexion, about twelve Europeans.  Every countenance exhibited shame, fear, grief, or an appalling blackness of apathy, as if dire suffering in the lightless dungeons underneath had bereft them of intellect.  The company soon began to move, but slowly, as one by one the alcayde led them towards the door of the great hall, where the grand inquisitor sat, and his secretary called the name of each as he came, and the name of a sponsor, who also presented himself from among a crowd of the bettermost inhabitants of Goa, assembled there for that service.  ’The general of the Portuguese ships in the Indies’ had the honor of placing himself beside our Frenchman.  As soon as the procession was formed, it marched off in the usual order.