"'Listen, with great attention,' he then exclaimed, addressing me, 'since you have hitherto been deaf to the advice which this holy tribunal has repeatedly given you in their spirit of peace, humanity, and religious charity. Propagator of secret and impious societies, established by the heresies of their members to destroy our holy religion and the august throne of our Catholic sovereign, you have maintained, for the space of a year, an uninterrupted correspondence with more than two hundred sectarians.... This holy tribunal has at last recourse to rigour. It will extort from you the truths, which neither the duty of a religious oath, demanded without violence, nor the mild admonitions which have been so often resorted to, in order to induce you to make the desired declarations, have been able to obtain. This evident pertinacity obliges us to use a salutary severity. We judge the cause of our Divine Redeemer and of our Catholic king, and we shall know to fulfil the high ministry with which the supreme spiritual and temporal authority has invested us. The most rigorous torments will be employed to obtain from you these truths, or you shall expire in the midst of them. All the charges I have just mentioned in a summary manner must be amply explained,—yes! amply explained! justice, God, and the king require that it should be so. This holy tribunal will fulfil their duties—yes!'
"The agitation of the moment permitted me to utter only a few words, which, however, were not listened to, and I was hurried away to the further end of the room, the jailer and his assistants exerting all their strength to secure me. Having succeeded in raising me from the ground, they placed under my arm-pits two high crutches, from which I remained suspended; after which my right arm was tied to the corresponding crutch, whilst the left being kept in a horizontal position, they encased my hand open in a wooden glove extending to the wrist, which shut very tightly, and from which two large iron bars ran as far as the shoulder, keeping the whole in the same position in which it was placed. My waist and legs were similarly bound to the crutches by which I was supported; so that I shortly remained without any other action than that of breathing, though with difficulty.