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breasts shone the large cross, surrounded in crowds these instruments of the last cruelty.

At the appointed hour the King and Queen, followed by their Secretaries and Councillors of state, and by the whole throng of Courtiers, took their places, as was the superstitious practice of the age, in a balcony fronting the scene. Everywhere fluttered and ran from place to place, each one praying and blessing himself with no little noise and excitement, an immense crowd of the populace. The mob is never wanting at any spectacle of public mourning or rejoicing.

And now the artillery of the Arsenals, the Fortresses, and the Fleet roared their salutes. Again the bells of the Churches rang a merry chime, and picturesque bouquets of fireworks rose high in air, splitting into a thousand lines and points of light, and bursting with the noise of bombs. It was the signal that the Auto da Fé had set out from the Palace in the Largo do Rocio, and was proceeding to its destination, according to the rigid etiquette prescribed in such matters. The van was formed by the Familiars of the Holy Office, mounted, weaponed, and carrying black banners spangled with red flames, the emblems of the blood-stained Tribunal. Followed them Priests and Friars of different orders, with heads uncovered and reciting lugubrious prayers. Footguards, carrying harquebusses, swords, and long daggers, masked and in the habit of the Inquisition, surrounded the numerous victims. These were bound to one another; all walked barefoot, and their heads and faces were hidden in black hoods powdered with bright flames, whilst two eyeholes completed the disfigurement.

Next walked the members of the Holy Office, preceding and surrounding the Inquisitor-General, who was shaded by a canopy; they were escorted by more than two hundred Familiars, amongst whom, according to tradition, were Hidalgos and Nobles of the first houses in the realm, Magistrates and high function-