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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-05 22:15:00 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-05 22:15:00 -0800 |
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diff --git a/52114-0.txt b/52114-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd62239 --- /dev/null +++ b/52114-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6035 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 52114 *** + + The History and Romance of Crime + + FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY + + [Illustration] + + THE GROLIER SOCIETY + LONDON + + [Illustration] + + + + + Spanish Prisons + + + THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD + PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT + + _by_ + + MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS + _Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain_ + + _Author of + "The Mysteries of Police and Crime + "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc._ + + + _The Inquisitor-General and the Catholic Sovereigns_ + + The mandate of expulsion of the Jews from Spain was + issued by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. This edict no doubt + originated with Torquemada, who was very bitter against the + Jews. When he learned that a number of their leaders were + in conference with the King and Queen, and offering an immense + ransom, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing + a crucifix on high and crying in stentorian tones that the + sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas Iscariot. + "Here He is!" he exclaimed. "Sell Him again, not for + thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging + the crucifix on the table he ran out in a frenzy. This turned + the tables and the decree for expulsion was confirmed. + + THE GROLIER SOCIETY + + + + + Spanish Prisons + + + THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD + PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT + _by_ + + MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS _Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain_ + + _Author of "The Mysteries of Police and Crime + "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc._ + + [Illustration] + + THE GROLIER SOCIETY + + EDITION NATIONALE + + Limited to one thousand registered and numbered sets. + + NUMBER 307 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +A considerable portion of this volume is devoted to the Spanish +Inquisition, which was, for three centuries, the most important force +in Spain. Thousands were condemned by its tribunals, and its prisons +and punishments make up a large part of the penal history of that +country. Much exaggeration has crept into the popular accounts, but the +simple truth must cause a shudder, when read to-day. + +The institution was created to deal with heresy, that is, with a +departure from the accepted canons. The idea that there can be unity +in diversity was not understood. The spiritual and the temporal powers +were closely related, and bishop and king, pope and emperor, all +believed that uniformity was necessary. Hence, heresy was everywhere +treated as high treason not only to the Church but to the State +as well. The Spanish Inquisition was a state affair as well as an +ecclesiastical court. + +We shall see that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition was not confined +to the suppression of heresy. Many crimes which to-day are purely +state concerns, were then punished by it, including bigamy, blasphemy, +perjury, unnatural crimes, and witchcraft. The Spanish Inquisition +deserves credit for discouraging persecution of the last named offence, +and thereby saved the lives of thousands, who, in any other state would +have been executed. + +The adaptation to penal purposes of ancient buildings, to be found +throughout the length and breadth of Spain, was very common, as these +were immediately available although generally unsuitable. Chief among +them are the many monastic buildings vacated when the laws broke up +religious houses in Spain and which were mostly converted into prisons, +but little deserving the name. Some of these houses have been utilised +as gaols pure and simple; some have served two or more purposes as at +Huelva, where the convent-prison was also a barrack. + +Spain has been slow in conforming to the movements towards prison +reform. She could not afford to spend money on new constructions +along modern lines, and the introduction of the cellular system is +only of recent date. The model prison of Madrid, which has replaced +the hideous Saladero, was only begun in 1887. But a few separate +prisons had already been created, such as those of Loja, Pontevedra, +Barcelona, Vittoria and Naval Carnero. These establishments are new to +Spain but their methods and aims are too well known to call for fresh +description. More interest attaches to the older forms that have so +long served as places of durance. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION 5 + + I. THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN 11 + + II. PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS 32 + + III. PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS 63 + + IV. THE INQUISITION ABROAD 91 + + V. THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA 110 + + VI. EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS 123 + + VII. PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD 150 + + VIII. LIFE IN CEUTA 182 + + IX. BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE 212 + + X. A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY 236 + + + + +List of Illustrations + + + THE GRAND INQUISITOR AND THE CATHOLIC + SOVEREIGNS _Frontispiece_ + + THE ALHAMBRA PALACE, GRANADA _Page_ 52 + + THE QUESTION " 116 + + CASTEL DELL' OVO " 150 + + + + +SPANISH PRISONS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN + + Beginning and growth of religious persecution--Temporal power of the + Papacy--Pope Innocent III creates the first "Inquisitors"--Domingo de + Guzman founder of the Inquisition--Founder of the Dominican Order of + Friars--The "ancient" Inquisition--Penances inflicted--Persecution + of the Jews in Spain--Institution of the "modern" Inquisition under + Ferdinand and Isabella--Headquarters at Seville--Frequent _autos da + fé_--Thomas de Torquemada the first Inquisitor-General--The privileges + of the office--Torquemada's life and character--Sufferings of accused + persons. + + +The record of religious persecution furnishes some of the saddest +pages in the world's history. It began with the immediate successors +of Constantine the Great, the first Christian prince. They promulgated +severe edicts against heretics with such penalties as confiscation, +banishment and death against breaches of Catholic unity. In this +present tolerant age when every one may worship God after his own +fashion, it is difficult to realise how recent a growth is toleration. +For more than six centuries the flames of persecution burned fiercely +throughout Christendom, lighted by the strong arm of the law, and +soldiers were constantly engaged to extirpate dissent from the accepted +dogmas with fire and sword. The growth of the papacy and the assumption +of the temporal power exalted heresy into treason; independence of +thought was deemed opposition to authority and resistance to the +universal supremacy of the Church. The popes fighting in self-defence +stimulated the zeal of their followers unceasingly to stamp out heresy. +Alexander III in the 12th century solemnly declared that every secular +prince who spared heretics should be classed as a heretic himself and +involved in the one common curse. + +When the temporal power of the popes was fully established and +acknowledged, the papacy claimed universal sovereignty over all +countries and peoples and was in a position to enforce it by systematic +procedure against its foes. Pope Innocent III, consumed with the +fervour of his intolerant faith, determined to crush heresy. His +first step was to appoint two "inquisitors" (the first use of the +name) and two learned and devout friars, who were really travelling +commissioners, were sent to perambulate Christendom to discover heresy. +They were commended to all bishops, who were strictly charged to +receive them with kindness, treat them with affection, and "help them +to turn heretics from the error of their way or else drive them out +of the country." The same assistance was expected from the rulers of +states who were to aid the inquisitors with equal kindness. + +The mission began in the south of France and a crusade was undertaken +against the Albigensians and Waldensians, those early dissidents from +the Church of Rome, who drew down on themselves the unappeasable +animosity of the orthodox. The campaign against these original heretics +raged fiercely, but persecution slackened and might have died out +but for the appearance of one devoted zealot whose intense hatred of +heresy, backed by his uncompromising energy, revived the illiberal +spirit and organised fresh methods of attack. This was Domingo de +Guzman, a Spanish monk who accompanied Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse, +when he left his desolated diocese to take part in the fourth Lateran +Council, assembled at Rome in 1215. This Domingo, historically known as +St. Dominic, was the founder of the Dominican order of friars. + +Though generally accepted as such by Church historians, it is +now argued that St. Dominic was not really the founder of the +Inquisition[1] and that although he spent the best years of his life +in combating heresy he took no more prominent part in persecution than +hundreds of others. His eulogistic biographer describes him as "a man +of earnest, resolute purpose, of deep and unalterable convictions, full +of burning zeal for the propagation of the faith, yet kindly in heart, +cheerful in temper and winning in manner.... He was as severe with +himself as with his fellows.... His endless scourgings, his tireless +vigils, his almost uninterrupted prayer, his superhuman fasts, are +probably only harmless exaggerations of the truth." The Dominicans +boasted that their founder exhaled "an odour of sanctity" and, when his +tomb was opened, a delicious scent issued forth, so penetrating that it +permeated the whole land, and so persistent that those who touched the +holy relics had their hands perfumed for years. + +[1] Lea. History of the Inquisition. Vol. I. p. 299. + +Whatever the personal character of Dominic and whether or no he +laboured to carry out the work himself, there can be no doubt that +his Order was closely identified with the Inquisition from the first. +Its members were appointed inquisitors, they served in the prisons as +confessors, they assisted the tribunals as "qualificators," or persons +appointed to seek out proof of guilt, or estimate the extent or quality +of the heretical opinions charged against the accused; the great +ceremonials and _autos da fé_ were organised by them; they worked the +"censure" and prepared the "Index" of prohibited books. The Dominicans +were undoubtedly the most active agents in the Inquisition and they +owed their existence to him, even if he did not personally take part in +its proceedings. + +The following quotation from Prescott's "History of Ferdinand and +Isabella" may well be inserted here. "Some Catholic writers would +fain excuse St. Dominic from the imputation of having founded +the Inquisition. It is true he died some years before the perfect +organisation of that tribunal; but as he established the principles +on which, and the monkish militia by whom it was administered, it is +doing him no injustice to regard him as its real author." The Sicilian +writer, Paramo, indeed, in his heavy quarto, traces it up to a much +more remote antiquity. According to him God was the first inquisitor +and his condemnation of Adam and Eve furnished the models of the +judicial forms observed in the trials of the Holy Office. The sentence +of Adam was the type of the Inquisitional "reconciliation," his +subsequent raiment of skins of animals was the type of the _sanbenito_, +and the expulsion from Paradise, the precedent for the confiscation of +the goods of heretics. This learned personage deduces a succession of +inquisitors through the patriarchs, Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, and King +David, down to John the Baptist, and he even includes our Saviour in +whose precepts and conduct he finds abundant authority for the tribunal. + +The "Ancient Inquisition," as that first established in Spain is +generally called, had many of the features of the "modern" which dates +from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and which will presently be +described at some length. Its proceedings were shrouded in the same +impenetrable secrecy, it used the same insidious modes of accusation, +supported them by similar tortures, and punished them with similar +penalties. A manual drawn up in the fourteenth century for the guidance +of judges of the Holy Office prescribes the familiar forms of artful +interrogation employed to catch the unwary, and sometimes innocent +victim. The ancient Inquisition worked on principles less repugnant to +justice than the better known, but equally cruel modern institution, +but was less extensive in its operations because in the earlier days +there were fewer heretics to persecute. + +The ancient Inquisition was so unsparing in its actions that it almost +extirpated the Albigensian heresy. The punishments it inflicted were +even more severe than in the modern. Upon such as escaped the stake +and were "reconciled," as it was styled, a terrible "penance" was +imposed. One is cited by Llorente[2] as laid down in the ordinances of +St. Dominic. The penitent, it was commanded, should be stripped of his +clothes and beaten by a priest three Sundays in succession from the +gate of the city to the door of the church; he must not eat any kind of +meat during his whole life; must abstain from fish, oil and wine three +days in the week during life, except in case of sickness or excessive +labour; must wear a religious dress with a small cross embroidered on +each breast; must attend mass every day, if he has the means of doing +so, and vespers on Sundays and festivals; must recite the service for +the day and night and repeat the paternoster seven times in the day, +ten times in the evening, and twenty times at midnight. If he failed in +any of these requirements, he was to be burned as a "relapsed heretic." + +[2] History of the Inquisition. + +Chief among the causes that produced the new or "modern" Inquisition +was the envy and hatred of the Jews in Spain. Fresh material was +supplied by the unfortunate race of Israel, long established in the +country, and greatly prosperous. They had come in great numbers after +the Saracenic invasion, which indeed they are said to have facilitated, +and were accepted by some of the Moorish rulers on nearly equal terms, +and were treated with a tolerance seldom seen among Mahometans, though +occasional outbursts of fanaticism rendered their position not quite +secure. Under these generally favourable auspices the Jews developed +in numbers and importance. Their remarkable instinct for money making +and their unstinting diligence brought them great wealth. Their love of +letters and high intelligence gave them preëminence in the schools of +the Moorish cities of Cordova, Toledo and Granada, where they helped +to keep the flame of learning bright and shining through the darkest +ages. They became noted mathematicians, learned astronomers, devoted +labourers in the fields of practical and experimental science. Their +shrewdness in public affairs and their financial abilities commended +them to the service of the state, and many rose to the highest civic +dignities at both Christian and Moorish courts. Often, despite +prohibitory laws, they collected the revenues and supervised the +treasuries of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, while in private life +they had nearly unlimited control of commerce and owned most of the +capital in use. + +After the Christian conquest, their success drew down upon them the +envy and hatred of their less flourishing fellow subjects, who resented +also that profuse ostentation of apparel and equipage to which the +Jewish character has always inclined. Their widespread practice of +usury was a still more fruitful cause for detestation. Often large sums +were loaned, for which exorbitant rates of interest were charged, owing +to the scarcity of specie and the great risk of loss inherent to the +business. As much as twenty, thirty-three, and even forty per cent. +per annum was exacted and paid. The general animosity was such that a +fanatical populace, smarting under a sense of wrong, and urged on by a +no less fanatical clergy broke out at times into violence, and fiercely +attacked the Jews in the principal cities. The _JuderÃas_, or Jewish +quarters, were sacked, the houses robbed of their valuable contents, +precious collections, jewels and furniture were scattered abroad, and +the wretched proprietors were massacred wholesale, irrespective of sex +and age. According to the historian, Mariana, fifty thousand Jews were +sacrificed to the popular fury in one year, 1391, alone. + +This was the turning point in Spanish history. Fanaticism once aroused, +did not die until all Jews were driven out of Spain. It brought into +being another class also, the _Conversos_, or "New Christians," _i. e._ +Jews who accepted Christian baptism, though generally without any +spiritual change. At heart and in habits they remained Jews. + +The law was invoked, too, to aggravate their condition. Legislative +enactments of a cruel and oppressive kind were passed. Jews were +forbidden to mix freely with Christians, their residence restricted +to certain limited quarters, they were subject to irksome, sumptuary +regulations, debarred from all display in dress, forbidden to carry +valuable ornaments or wear expensive clothes, and they were held up to +public scorn by being compelled to appear in a distinctive, unbecoming +garb, the badge or emblem of their social inferiority. They were also +interdicted from following certain professions and callings. They might +not study or practise medicine, might not be apothecaries, nurses, +vintners, grocers or tavern keepers, were forbidden to act as stewards +to the nobility or as farmers or collectors of the public revenues, +although judging from repeated re-enactments, these laws were evidently +not strictly enforced, and often in some districts were not enforced at +all. + +Fresh fuel was added to the fiery passions vented on the Jews by the +unceasing denunciation of their heresy and dangerous irreligion, and +public feeling was further inflamed by grossly exaggerated stories +of their hideous and unchristian malpractices. The curate of Los +Palacios has detailed some of these in his "Chronicle," and they +will serve, when quoted, to show what charges were brought against +the Jew in his time. "This accursed race (the Israelites)," he says, +speaking of the proceedings taken to bring about their conversion, +"were either unwilling to bring their children to be baptised, or if +they did, they washed away the stain on the way home. They dressed +their stews and other dishes with oil instead of lard, abstained from +pork, kept the passover, ate meat in Lent, and sent oil to replenish +the lamps of their synagogues, with many other abominable ceremonies +of their religion. They entertained no respect for monastic life, and +frequently profaned the sanctity of religious houses by the violation +or seduction of their inmates. They were an exceedingly politic and +ambitious people, engrossing the most lucrative municipal offices, and +preferring to gain their livelihood by traffic, in which they made +exorbitant gains, rather than by manual labour or mechanical arts. They +considered themselves in the hands of the Egyptians whom it was a merit +to deceive and rob. By their wicked contrivances they amassed great +wealth, and thus were able often to ally themselves by marriage with +noble Christian families." + +The outcry against the Jews steadily increased in volume. The clergy +were the loudest in their protests against the alleged abominations, +and one Dominican priest, Alonso de Hojeda, prior of the monastery of +San Pablo in Seville, with another priest, Diego de Merlo, vigorously +denounced the "Jewish leprosy" so alarmingly on the increase and +besought the Catholic sovereigns to revive the Holy Office with +extended powers as the only effective means of healing it. The appeal +was strongly supported by the papal nuncio at the Court of Castile. +Ferdinand and Isabella, as devout Catholics, deplored the prevalence +of heresy, which they acknowledged to be rampant, and yet they +hesitated to surrender any of their independence. No other state in +Europe was so free from papal control or interference. Some of the +Conversos held high places about the court and they, of course, used +every effort to strengthen the reluctance of the queen, particularly. +On the other hand, the Dominican monk, Thomas de Torquemada, her +confessor in her youth, strove to instil the same spirit of unyielding +fanaticism that possessed himself, and earnestly entreated her to +devote herself to the "extirpation of heresy for the glory of God and +the glorification of the Catholic faith." She long resisted but yielded +at last to the unceasing importunities of the priests around her, and +consented to solicit a bull from the pope, Sixtus IV, to introduce +the Modern Inquisition into Castile. It was issued, under the date of +November 1st, 1478, and authorised the appointment of two or three +ecclesiastical inquisitors for the detection and suppression of heresy +throughout Spain. + +One difference from the usual form establishing such tribunals was the +location of the power of appointment of inquisitors, which was vested +in the king and queen instead of in Provincials of the Dominican or +Franciscan Orders. Heretofore the appointment of inquisitors had been +considered a delegation of the authority of the Holy See, something +entirely independent of the secular power. But so jealous of outside +interference were the Spanish rulers and the Spanish people, that the +pope was forced to give way. Though he and his successors vainly strove +to recover the power thus granted, they were never entirely successful, +and the Spanish Inquisition remained to a large extent a state affair, +and this fact explains much which otherwise is inexplicable. For +example the confiscations passed into the royal instead of into the +papal treasury. + +At first mild measures were to be tried. Cardinal Mendoza, Archbishop +of Seville, had drawn up a catechism instructing his clergy to spare no +pains in illuminating the benighted Israelites by a candid exposition +of the true principles of Christianity. Progress was slow, and after +two years the results were so meagre that it was thought necessary to +proceed to the nomination of inquisitors, and two Dominican monks, Fra +Miguel de Morillo, and Juan de San Martin, were appointed with full +powers, assisted by an assessor and a procurator fiscal. + +The Jews played into the hands of their tormentors. Great numbers +had been terrified into apostasy by the unrelenting hostility of the +people. Their only escape from the furious attacks made upon them had +been conversion to Christianity, often quite feigned and unreal. The +proselytising priests, however, claimed to have done wonders; one, St. +Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican of Valencia, had by means of his eloquence +and the miraculous power vouchsafed him, "changed the hearts of no less +than thirty-five thousand of house of Judah." These numerous converts +were of course unlikely to be very tenacious in their profession of +the new faith, and not strangely laid themselves open to constant +suspicion. Many were denounced and charged with backsliding, many more +boldly reverted to Judaism, or secretly performed their old rites. +Now uncompromising war was to be waged against the backsliding "new +Christians" or Conversos. + +The inquisitors installed themselves in Seville, and made the Dominican +convent of San Pablo their first headquarters, but this soon proved +quite insufficient in size and they were allowed to occupy the fortress +of the Triana, the great fortress of Seville, on the right bank of +the Guadalquivir, the immense size and gloomy dungeons of which were +especially suitable. This part of the city was much exposed to +inundations, and when, in 1626, it was threatened with destruction by +an unusually high flood, the seat of the tribunal was removed to the +palace of the Caballeros Tellos Taveros in the parish of San Marco. In +1639 it returned to the Triana which had been repaired, and remained +there till 1789, when further encroachments of the river caused it to +be finally transferred to the College of Las Beccas. The Triana is now +a low suburb, inhabited principally by gipsies and the lower classes. +It was at one time the potters' quarter where the famous _azulejo_ +tiles were made, and its factories to-day produce the well known +majolica vases and plates with surface of metallic lustre. + +One of the first steps of the Inquisition was to put a summary check to +the exodus of the Jews who had been fast deserting the country. All the +magnates of Castile, dukes, counts, hidalgos and persons in authority, +were commanded to arrest all fugitives, to sequestrate their property +and send them prisoners to Seville. Any who disobeyed or failed to +execute this order were to be excommunicated as abettors of heresy, to +be deposed from their dignities and deprived of their estates. Such +orders were strange to the ears of the turbulent nobles who had been +accustomed to pay little heed to pope or king. A new force had arisen +in the land. + +On the Castle of the Triana,[3] already described, a tablet was +erected over the portals with an inscription, celebrating the +inauguration of the first "modern Inquisition" in Western Europe. +The concluding words were:--"God grant that for the protection and +augmentation of the faith it may abide unto the end of time. Arise oh +Lord, judge Thy cause! Catch yet the foxes (heretics)!" + +[3] The counts of San Lucar were hereditary alcaldes of Triana, and in +return for surrendering the castle, they were granted the dignity of +Alguazil Mayor of the Inquisition. It was worth 150,000 maravedis a +year and the holder of the office provided a deputy. The maravedi, once +a gold coin of some value, latterly represented only 3/8 of a cent. + +Just now, by an ill-advised move, the Conversos lost the sympathy of +all. Diego de Susan, one of the richest citizens of Seville, called +a meeting of the "New Christians" in the church of San Salvador. It +was attended by many high officials, and even ecclesiastics of Jewish +blood. Susan suggested that they collect a store of arms, and that at +the first arrest, they rise and slay the inquisitors. The plan was +adopted but was betrayed by a daughter of Susan, who had a Christian +lover. The plotters were arrested at once, and on February sixth, 1481, +six men and women were burned and others were severely punished. + +The hunt was cunningly organised. An "Edict of Grace" was published +promising pardon to all backsliders if they would come voluntarily +and confess their sins. Many sought indulgence and were plied with +questions by the inquisitors to extract evidence against others. On +the information thus obtained the suspected were marked down, seized +and carried off to the prisons. Any adherence to Jewish customs gave +opportunity for denunciation, and the severe measures rapidly reduced +the numbers of the backsliding Jewish-Christians. In Seville alone, +according to Llorente, two hundred and ninety-eight persons were burnt +in less than a year, and seventy-nine were condemned to perpetual +imprisonment. Great sums ought to have passed into the treasury, then +and afterwards, from the confiscated property of rich people who +perished at the stake or were subjected to fine and forfeiture. But the +great engine of the Inquisition was excessively costly. The pageants +at the frequent _autos da fé_ were lavishly expensive, a great staff +of officials, experts, familiars and guards was maintained, and, in +addition, the outlay on the place of execution, the "_quemadero_" or +burning place, a great pavement on a raised platform adorned with fine +pillars and statues of the prophets, was very considerable, while the +yearly bill for fuel, for faggots and brush wood rose to a high figure. +Undoubtedly there was considerable embezzlement also. + +There was evidently too much work for two men, so in February, 1482, +seven additional inquisitors were commissioned by the pope on the +nomination of the sovereigns, and some of these were exceedingly +zealous. There was, however, much confusion because of the lack +of a unifying authority. The sovereigns were determined that the +institution must be kept under the control of the state, and so a +council of administration usually called _la Suprema_ was added to +those already existing, and was charged with jurisdiction over all +measures concerning the faith. At the head was placed a new officer, +later called the inquisitor-general. The inquisitor-general was hardly +a subject. He had direct access to the sovereign and exercised absolute +and unlimited power over the whole population and was superior to +all human law. No rank, high or low escaped his jurisdiction. Royal +personages were not exempt from his control, for the Holy Office +invaded the prince's palace as well as the pauper's hovel. There was +no sanctity in the grave, for corpses of heretics were ruthlessly +disinterred, mutilated and burned. + +The first inquisitor-general under the new organisation was Thomas +de Torquemada, who has won for himself dreadful immortality from the +signal part he played in the great tragedy of the Inquisition. He was +a Dominican monk, a native of old Castile, who had been confessor and +keeper of the Queen's conscience to Isabella in her early days and +constantly sought to instil his fiery spirit into her youthful mind. +"This man," says Prescott, "who concealed more pride under his monastic +weeds than might have furnished forth a convent of his order, was one +of that class with whom zeal passes for religion and who testify their +zeal by a fiery persecution of those whose creed differs from their +own; who compensate for their abstinence from sensual indulgence by +giving scope to those deadlier vices of the heart, pride, bigotry +and intolerance which are no less opposed to virtue and are far more +extensively mischievous to society." The cruelties which he perpetrated +grew out of a pitiless fanaticism, more cruel than the grave. He was +rigid and unbending and knew no compromise. Absolutely fearless, +he directed his terrible engine against the suspect no matter how +high-born or influential. + +Torquemada was appointed in 1483 and was authorised from Rome to frame +a new constitution for the Holy Office. He had been empowered to create +permanent provincial tribunals under chief inquisitors which sat at +Toledo, Valladolid, Madrid and other important cities, and his first +act was to summon some of these to Seville to assist him in drawing +up rules for the governance of the great and terrible engine that +was to terrorise all Spain for centuries to come. The principles of +action, the methods of procedure, the steps taken to hunt up victims +and bring them under the jurisdiction of the court, secure conviction +and enforce penalties, are all set out at length in the record of the +times. "A bloody page of history," says the historian, "attests the +fact that fanaticism armed with power is the sorest evil that can +befall a nation." For generations the Spanish people, first the Jews, +then the Moriscos, lastly the whole native born community lay helpless +in the grip of this irresponsible despotism. Few, once accused, +escaped without censure of some sort. Llorente declares with his usual +exaggeration that out of a couple of thousand cases, hardly one ended +in acquittal and the saying became proverbial that people if not +actually roasted by the Inquisition were at least singed. + +In order to appreciate fully the harshness of the Spanish Inquisition +and the cruelties perpetrated for several centuries, under the guise of +religion, we must trace the steps taken by the Holy Office, its guiding +principles and its methods of procedure. + +The great aim at the outset was to hunt up heretics and encourage the +denunciation of presumed offenders. Good Catholics were commanded by +edicts published from the pulpits of all churches to give information +against every person they knew or suspected of being guilty of heresy, +and priests were ordered to withhold absolution from any one who +hesitated to speak, even when the suspected person was a near relation, +parent, child, husband or wife. All accusations whether signed or +anonymous were accepted, but the names of witnesses were also required. +On this sometimes meagre inculpation victims might be at once arrested, +though in some cases, censors must first pass upon the evidence. Often +not a whisper of trouble reached the accused until the blow actually +fell. + +Kept thus in solitary imprisonment, cut off entirely from his friends +outside, denied the sympathy or support he might derive from their +visits or communications, he was left to brood despairingly, a prey +to agonised doubts, in ignorance even of the charges brought against +him. A few brief extracts from the depositions of witnesses might be +read to him, but the statements were so garbled that he could get no +clue to names or identities. If there were any facts favourable to him +in the testimony they were withheld from him. If he could, however, +name as mortal enemies some of the witnesses, their testimony was +much weakened. Facts of time, place and circumstance in the charges +preferred were withheld from him and he was so confused and embarrassed +that unless a man of acuteness and presence of mind he might become +involved in inextricable contradictions when he attempted to explain +himself. + +On the other hand judges were guided and supported by the most minute +instructions. "It is the high and peculiar privilege of the tribunal +that its officers are not required to act with formality; they need +observe no strict forensic rules and therefore the omission of what +ordinary justice might exact does not invalidate its actions, provided +only that nothing essential to the proof be wanting." The first +essential of justice, as we understand it, was ignored. An accused +person arraigned for heresy was expected to incriminate himself, to +furnish all necessary particulars for conviction. Testimony could +be received from persons of any class or character. "They might be +excommunicate, infamous, actual accomplices, or previously convicted +of any crime." The evidence of Jews and infidels might be taken also, +even in a question of heretical doctrine. Wife, children, relatives, +servants, might depose against a heretic. "A brother may declare +against a brother and a son against a father." The witnesses met with +no mercy. If any one did not say all he could, or seemed reluctant to +speak, the examiners occasionally ruled that torture should be applied. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS + + Increased persecution of the Jews--Accusations made against + them--Ferdinand introduces the modern Inquisition into the Kingdom + of Aragon in 1484--Fray Gaspar Juglar and Pedro Arbués appointed + Inquisitors--Assassination of Pedro Arbués--Punishment of his + murderers--Increased opposition against the Holy Office--Arrest of the + Infante Don Jaime for sheltering a heretic--Expulsion of the Jews from + Spain--Appeal to the King to revoke this edict--Ferdinand inclined + to yield, but Torquemada over-rules him--Sufferings of the Jews on + the journey--Death of Torquemada--Hernando de Talavera appointed + archbishop of Granada--His success with the Moors--Don Diego Deza new + Inquisitor-General--Succeeded by Ximenes de Cisneros--His character + and life--Appointed Primate of all Spain--His severity with the + Moors--University of Alcalá founded by Ximenes--Accession of Charles + V--Persecution of Moors--Expulsion. + + +The fires of the modern Inquisition, it was said, had been lighted +exclusively for the Jews. The fiery zeal of Torquemada and his +coadjutors was first directed against the Spanish children of Israel. +The Jews constantly offered themselves to be harassed and despoiled. +They were always fair game for avaricious greed. The inquisitors +availed themselves of both lines of attack. Jewish wealth steadily +increased as their financial operations and their industrial +activities extended and flourished. When the Catholic Kings embarked +upon the conquest of Granada, the Jews found the sinews of war; Jewish +victuallers purveyed rations to the armies in the field; Jewish +brokers advanced the cash needed for the payments of troops; Jewish +armourers repaired the weapons used and furnished new tools and warlike +implements. + +At the same time the passions of the populace were more and more +inflamed against the Jews by the dissemination of scandalous stories +of their blasphemous proceedings. It was seriously asserted by certain +monks that some Jews had stolen a consecrated wafer with the intention +of working it into a paste with the warm blood of a newly killed +Christian child and so produce a deadly poison to be administered to +the hated chief inquisitor. Another report was to the effect that +crumbs from the holy wafer had been detected between the leaves of +a Hebrew prayer book in a synagogue. One witness declared that this +substance emitted a bright effulgence which gave clear proof of its +sanctity and betrayed the act of sacrilege committed. Other tales were +circulated of the diabolical practices of these wicked Jewish heretics. + +Ferdinand in 1484 proceeded to give the modern Inquisition to the +Kingdom of Aragon, where the "ancient" had once existed but had lost +much of its rigour. It was a comparatively free country and the Holy +Office had become little more than an ordinary ecclesiastical court. +But King Ferdinand was resolved to reëstablish it on the wider basis it +had assumed in Castile and imposed it upon his people by a royal order +which directed all constituted authorities to support it in carrying +out its new extended functions. A Dominican monk, Fray Gaspar Juglar, +and a canon of the church, Pedro Arbués, were appointed by Torquemada +to be inquisitors for the diocese of Saragossa. The new institution +was most distasteful to the Aragonese, a hardy and independent people. +Among the higher orders were numbers of Jewish descent, filling +important offices and likely to come under the ban of the Inquisition. +The result was a deputation to the pope and another to the king +representing the general repugnance of the Aragonese to the institution +and praying that its action might be suspended. Neither pope nor king +would listen to the appeal and the Holy Office began its work. Two +_autos da fé_ were celebrated in Saragossa, the capital, in 1484, when +two men were executed. + +Horror and consternation seized the Conversos and a fierce desire for +reprisals developed. They were resolved to intimidate their oppressors +by some appalling act of retaliation and a plot was hatched to make +away with one of the inquisitors. The conspirators included many of +the principal "New Christians," some of whom were persons of note in +the district. A considerable sum was subscribed to meet expenses and +pay the assassins. Pedro Arbués was marked down for destruction but, +conscious of his danger, continually managed to evade his enemies. He +wore always a coat of mail beneath his robes when he attended mass in +the Cathedral, and every avenue by which he could be approached in his +house was also carefully guarded. + +At length he was taken by surprise when at his devotions. He was on his +knees before the high altar saying his prayers at midnight, when two +men crept up behind him unobserved and attacked him. One struck him +with a dagger in the left arm, the other felled him with a violent blow +on the back of the neck by which he was laid prostrate and carried off +dying. With his last breath he thanked God for being selected to seal +so good a cause with his blood. His death was deemed a martyrdom and +caused a reaction in favour of the Inquisition as a general rising of +the New Christians was feared. The storm was appeased by the archbishop +of Saragossa who gave out publicly that the murderers should be +rigorously pursued and should suffer condign punishment. The promise +was abundantly fulfilled. A stern recompense was exacted from all who +were identified with the conspiracy. The scent was followed up with +unrelenting pertinacity, several persons were taken and put to death, +and a larger number perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. All +the perpetrators of the murder were hanged after their right hands had +been amputated. The sentence of one who had given evidence against the +rest was commuted in that his hand was not cut off till after his death. + +A native of Saragossa had taken refuge in Tudela where he found +shelter and concealment in the house of the Infante, Don Jaime, the +illegitimate son of the Queen of Navarre, and nephew of King Ferdinand +himself. The generous young prince could not reject the claims of +hospitality and helped the fugitive to escape into France. But the +Infante was himself arrested by the inquisitors and imprisoned as +an "impeder" of the Holy Office. His trial took place in Saragossa, +although Navarre was outside its jurisdiction, and he was sentenced +to do open penance in the cathedral in the presence of a great +congregation at High Mass. The ceremony was carried out before the +Archbishop of Saragossa, a boy of seventeen, the illegitimate son +of King Ferdinand, and this callow stripling in his primate's robes +ordered his father's nephew to be flogged round the church with rods. + +The second story is much more horrible. One Gaspar de Santa Cruz of +Saragossa had been concerned in the rebellion, but escaped to Toulouse +where he died. He had been aided in his flight by a son who remained +in Saragossa, and who was arrested as an "impeder" of the Holy Office. +He was tried and condemned to appear at an _auto da fé_, where he was +made to read an act which held up his father to public ignominy. Then +the son was transferred to the custody of the inquisitor of Toulouse +who took him to his father's grave, forced him to exhume the corpse and +burn it with his own hands. + +The bitter hatred of the Jews culminated in the determination of the +king and queen, urged on by Torquemada, to expel them entirely from +Spain. The germ of this idea may be found in the capitulation of +Granada by the Moors, when it was agreed that every Jew found in the +city was to be shipped off forthwith to Barbary. It was now argued +that since all attempts to convert them had failed, Spain should be +altogether rid of them. The Catholic King and Queen were induced to +sign an edict dated March 30th, 1492, by which it was decreed that +every Jew should be banished from Spain within three months, save and +except those who chose to apostasise and who, on surrendering the faith +of their fathers, might be suffered to remain in the land of their +adoption, with leave to enjoy the goods they had inherited or earned. +No doubt this edict originated with Torquemada. + +Dismay and deep sorrow fell upon the Spanish Jews. The whole country +was filled with tribulation. All alike cried for mercy and offered +to submit to any laws and ordinances however oppressive, to accept +any terms, to pay any penalties if only they might escape this cruel +exile. Leading Jews appeared before King Ferdinand and pleaded abjectly +for mercy for their co-religionists, offering an immediate ransom +of six hundred thousand crowns in gold. The king was inclined to +clemency, but the queen was firm. He saw the present advantage, the +ready money, and doubted whether he would get as much from the fines +and confiscations promised by the inquisitors. But at that moment, so +the story goes, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing a crucifix +on high and cried in stentorian tones that the sovereigns were about +to act the part of Judas Iscariot. "Here he is! Sell Him again, not +for thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging +the crucifix on to the table, he ran out in a frenzy. This turned the +tables, and the decree for expulsion was confirmed. + +The terms of the edict were extremely harsh and peremptory. As a +preamble the crimes of the Jews were recited and the small effect +produced hitherto by the most severe penalties. It was asserted that +they still conspired to overturn Christianity in Spain and recourse +to the last remedy, the decree of expulsion, under which all Jews and +Jewesses were commanded to leave Spain and never return, even for a +passing visit, on pain of death, was therefore necessary. The last day +of July, 1492, or four months later, was fixed for the last day of +their sojourn in Spain. After that date they would remain at the peril +of their lives, while any person of whatever rank or quality who should +presume to receive, shelter, protect or defend a Jew or Jewess should +forfeit all his property and be discharged from his office, dignity +or calling. During the four months, the law allowed the Jews to sell +their estates, or barter them for heavy goods, but they were forbidden +to remove gold or silver or take out of the kingdom other portable +property which was already prohibited by law from exportation. + +During the preparation for, and execution of this modern exodus, the +condition of the wretched Israelites was heart-rending. Torquemada had +tried hard to proselytise, had sent out preachers offering baptism and +reconciliation, but at first few listened to the terms proposed. All +owners of property and valuables suffered the heaviest losses. Enforced +sales were so numerous that purchasers were not to be easily found. +Fine estates were sold for a song. A house was exchanged for an ass +or beast of burden; a vineyard for a scrap of cloth or linen. Despite +the prohibition much gold and silver were carried away concealed in +the stuffing of saddles and among horse furniture. Some exiles at +the moment of departure swallowed gold pieces, as many as twenty and +thirty, and thus evaded to some extent the strict search instituted at +the sea ports and frontier towns. + +At last in the first week of July, all took to the roads travelling +to the coast on foot, on horse or ass-back or were conveyed in +country carts. According to an eye-witness, "they suffered incredible +misfortunes by the way, some walking feebly, some struggling manfully, +some fainting, many attacked with illness, some dying, others coming +into the world, so that there was not a Christian who did not feel +for them and entreat them to be baptised." Here and there under the +pressure of accumulated miseries a few professed to be converted, but +such cases were very rare. The rabbis encouraged the people as they +went and exhorted the young ones to raise their voices and the women to +sing and play on pipes and timbrels to enliven them and keep up their +spirits. + +Ships were provided by the Spanish authorities at Cadiz, Gibraltar, +Carthagena, Valencia and Barcelona on which fifteen hundred of the +wealthy families embarked and started for Africa, Italy and the Levant, +taking with them their dialect of the Spanish language, such as is +still talked at the places where they landed. Of those who joined in +the general exodus some perished at sea, by wreck, disease, violence +or fire, and some by famine, exhaustion or murder on inhospitable +shores. Many were sold for slaves, many thrown overboard by savage +ship captains, while parents parted with their children for money +to buy food. On board one crowded ship a pestilence broke out, and +the whole company was landed and marooned on a desert island. Other +infected ships carried disease into the port of Naples, where it grew +into a terrible epidemic, by which twenty thousand native Neapolitans +perished. Those who reached the city found it in the throes of famine, +but were met in landing by a procession of priests, led by one who +carried a crucifix and a loaf of bread, and who intimated that only +those who would adore the first would receive the other. In papal +dominions alone was a hospitable reception accorded. The pope of the +time, Alexander VI, was more tolerant than other rulers. + +The total loss of population is now difficult to ascertain, but +undoubtedly it has been greatly exaggerated. The most trustworthy +estimate fixes the number of emigrants at one hundred and sixty-five +thousand, and the number dying of hardships and grief before leaving at +about twenty thousand. Probably fifty thousand more accepted baptism +as a consequence of the edict. The loss entailed in actual value was +incalculable and a vast amount of potential earnings was sacrificed by +the disappearance of so large a part of the most industrious members +of the population. The king and queen greatly impoverished Spain in +purging it of Hebrew heresy. Their action however was greeted with +applause by other rulers who did not go to the same lengths on account +of economic considerations. They were praised because they were willing +to sacrifice revenue for the sake of the faith. + +Open Judaism no longer existed in Spain. There were left only the +apostates, or New Christians. That many of these were Christians in +name and kept the Mosaic law in every detail is undoubted. As Jews they +were not subject to the Inquisition. As professing Christians, any +departure from the established faith subjected them to the penalties +imposed upon heretics. In spite of the high positions which many +achieved, they were objects of suspicion, and with the increasing +authority of the Inquisition their lot grew harder. + +Torquemada had been active not only against the Jews, but against +all suspected of any heresy, no matter how influential. The odium he +incurred raised up constant accusations against him, and he was obliged +on three occasions to send an agent to Rome to defend his character. +Later his arbitrary power was curtailed by the appointment of four +coadjutors, nominally, to share the burthens of office, but really to +check his action. On the whole he may be said to take rank among those +who have been the authors of evil to their species. "His zeal was of +such an extravagant character that it may almost shelter itself under +the name of insanity." His later days were filled with constant dread +of assassination, and when he moved to and fro his person was protected +by a formidable escort, a bodyguard of fifty familiars of the Holy +Office mounted as dragoons and a body of two hundred infantry soldiers. +Yet he reached a very old age and died quietly in his bed. + +Estimates of the numbers convicted and punished during his +administration differ widely. Llorente, who is, however, much given +to exaggeration, states that eight thousand eight hundred were burned +alive, and that the total number condemned was more than one hundred +and five thousand. On the other hand Langlois,[4] whose estimate is +accepted by Vancandard, and other Catholic writers, thinks that the +number put to death was about two thousand. + +[4] Langlois, L'Inquisition d'après des tableaux recénts (1902), quoted +by Vancandard (Conway's translation, 1908). + +Death overtook him when a fresh campaign against heresy was imminent. +The conquest of the Kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella opened +up a new field for the proselytising fervour of the Inquisition, which +was now resolved to convert all Mahometan subjects to the Christian +faith. A friar of the order of St. Jerome, Hernando de Talavera, a +man of blameless life, a ripe scholar, a persuasive preacher, deeply +read in sacred literature and moral philosophy, had been one of the +confessors to Royalty, and had been raised to the bishopric of Avila. +But he had begged to be allowed to resign it and devote himself +entirely to the conversion of the Moors. The pope granted his request +and appointed him archbishop of Granada with a smaller revenue than +that of the diocese he left, but he was humble minded, had no craving +to exhibit the pomp and display of a great prelate and devoted himself +with all diligence to the duties of his new charge. + +He soon won the hearts of the Moors who loved and venerated him. He +proceeded with great caution, made no open show of his desire to +convert them, and strictly refrained from any coercive measures, +trusting rather to reason them out of their heterodox belief. He +caused a translation to be made of the Bible into Arabic, distributed +it, encouraged the Moors to attend conferences, and come to him in +private to listen to his arguments. Being thus busily engaged, he +withdrew to a great extent from the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, +who came more and more under the influence of fiery bigots, to whom +the mild measures of the archbishop became profoundly displeasing. +The inquisitors, with Don Diego Deza who had succeeded Torquemada, at +their head, incessantly entreated the sovereigns to proceed with more +severity, and went the length of advising the immediate expulsion of +all Moors who hesitated to accept conversion and baptism forthwith. +They urged that it was for the good of their souls to draw them into +the fold and insisted that it would be utterly impossible for Christian +and Moslem to live peacefully and happily side by side. The king and +queen demurred, temporising as they had done with the revival of the +Inquisition. It might be dangerous, they argued, to enforce penalties +that were too harsh. Their supremacy was hardly as yet consolidated +in Granada; the Moors had not yet entirely laid aside their arms and +unwise oppression might bring about a resumption of hostilities. They +hoped that the Moors, like other conquered peoples, would in due course +freely adopt the religion of their new masters. Loving kindliness and +gentle persuasion would more surely gain ground than fierce threats and +arbitrary decrees. + +So for seven or more years the conciliatory methods of Archbishop +Talavera prevailed and met with the approval of Ferdinand and Isabella. +But now a remarkable man of very different character appeared upon the +scene and began to advocate sterner measures. This was a Franciscan +monk, Ximenes de Cisneros, one of the most notable figures in Spanish +history, who became in due course inquisitor-general and regent of +Spain. A sketch of his life may well be given to enable us better to +understand the times. + +Ximenes de Cisneros better known, perhaps, under his first name alone, +was the scion of an ancient but decayed family and destined from his +youth for the Church. He studied at the University of Salamanca and +evinced marked ability. After a stay in Rome, the best field for +preferment, he returned to Spain with the papal promise of the first +vacant benefice in the See of Toledo. The archbishop had other views, +however, and when Ximenes claimed the cure of Uceda, he was sent to +prison in its fortress and not to the presbytery. For six years Ximenes +asserted his pretensions unflinchingly and was at last nominated, when +he exchanged to a chaplaincy in another diocese, that of Siguenza, +where he continued his theological studies and acquired Hebrew and +Chaldee. Here he came under the observation of the Bishop Mendoza, +who afterwards became Cardinal Primate of Spain, and who enjoyed the +unbounded confidence of Queen Isabella. Mendoza when invited to +recommend to her a new confessor, in succession to Talavera on his +translation to the See of Granada, fixed upon Ximenes of whom he had +never lost sight since their first acquaintance at Siguenza. + +Ximenes, meanwhile, had become more and more devoted to his sacred +calling. His marked business aptitudes had gained for him the post +of steward to a great nobleman, the Conde de Cifuentes, who had been +taken prisoner by the Moors. But secular concerns were distasteful +to him and Ximenes resigned his charge. His naturally austere and +contemplative disposition had deepened into stern fanatical enthusiasm +and he resolved to devote himself more absolutely to the service of the +Church. He entered the Franciscan order, threw up all his benefices +and employments, and became a simple novice in the monastery of San +Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, where his cloister life was signalised +by extreme severity and self-mortification. He wore haircloth next +his skin, slept on the stone floor with a wooden pillow under his +head, tortured himself with continual fasts and vigils, and flogged +himself perpetually. At last he became a professed monk, and because +of the fame of his exemplary piety, great crowds were attracted to +his confessional. He shrank now from the popular favour and retired +to a lonely convent in a far off forest, where he built himself a +small hermitage with his own hands and where he passed days and +nights in solemn abstraction and unceasing prayer, living like +the ancient anchorites on the green herbs he gathered and drinking +water from the running streams. Self centred and pondering deeply on +spiritual concerns, constantly in a state of mental exaltation and +ecstasy, he saw visions and dreamed dreams, believing himself to be +in close communication with celestial agencies and was no doubt on +the eve of going mad, when his superiors ordered him to reside in the +convent of Salceda, where he became charged with its administration +and management, and was forced to exercise his powerful mind for the +benefit of others. + +It was here that the call to court found him and he was summoned to +Valladolid and unexpectedly brought into the presence of the queen. +Isabella was greatly prepossessed in his favour by his simple dignity +of manner, his discretion, his unembarrassed self-possession and +above all his fervent piety in discussing religious questions. Yet he +hesitated to accept the office of her confessor, and only did so on +the condition that he should be allowed to conform to the rules of his +order and remain at his monastery except when officially on duty at the +court. + +Soon afterwards, he was appointed Provincial of the Franciscans +in Castile and set himself to reform their religious houses, +the discipline of which was greatly relaxed. Sloth, luxury and +licentiousness prevailed and especially in his own order, which was +wealthy and richly endowed with estates in the country, and stately +dwellings in the towns. These monks, styled "conventuals," wasted large +sums in prodigal expenditure, and were often guilty of scandalous +misconduct which Ximenes, as an Observantine, one of a small section +pledged to rigid observance of monastic rules, strongly condemned. He +was encouraged and supported in the work of reform by Isabella and a +special bull from Rome armed him with full authority. His rigorous and +unsparing action met with fierce opposition, but he triumphed in the +end and won a notable reward. When the archbishop of Toledo died, in +1495, Ximenes, unknown to himself, was selected for the great post of +primate of all Spain and Lord High Chancellor of Castile. + +The right to nominate was vested in the Queen, and Ferdinand in this +instance begged her to appoint his natural son, Alfonso, already +archbishop of Saragossa, but a child almost in years. She firmly and +unhesitatingly refused and recommended her confessor to the pope as +the most worthy recipient of the honour. When the bull making the +appointment arrived from Rome, the queen summoned Ximenes to her +presence handed him the letter and desired him to open it before her. +On reading the address, "To our venerable brother, Francisco Ximenes +de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo," he changed colour, dropped the +letter, and crying, "There must be some mistake," ran out of the room. +The queen, in surprise, waited, but he did not return and it was found +that he had taken horse and fled to his monastery. Two grandees were +despatched in hot haste to ride after him, overtake him and bring him +back to Madrid. He returned but still resisted all the entreaties of +his friends and the clearly expressed wishes of his sovereign. Finally +his persistent refusal was overborne, but only by the direct command of +the pope, who ordered him to accept the post for which his sovereigns +had chosen him. He has been sharply criticised for his apparent +humility, but it is generally admitted that he was sincere in his +refusal. He was already advanced in years, ambition was dying in him, +he had become habituated to monastic seclusion and his thoughts were +already turned from the busy turmoil of this world to the life beyond +the grave. + +However reluctant to accept high office, Ximenes was by no means slow +to exercise the power it gave him. He ruled the Spanish Church with +a rod of iron, bending all his energies to the work of reforming the +practices of the clergy, enforcing discipline and insisting upon the +maintenance of the strictest morality. He trod heavily, made many +enemies, and stirred so much ill feeling that the malcontents combined +to despatch a messenger to lay their grievances before the pope. The +officious advocate, however, got no audience but went home to Spain, +where twenty months' imprisonment taught him not to offend again the +masterful archbishop of Toledo. + +Ximenes in insisting upon a strict observance of propriety and +the adoption of an exemplary life, was in himself a model to the +priesthood. He never relaxed the personal mortifications which had +been his rule when a simple monk. He kept no state and made no +show, regulating his domestic expenditure with the strictest and +most parsimonious economy, until reminded by the Holy See that the +dignity of his great office demanded more magnificence. Still, when he +increased his display and the general style of living in household, +equipages and the number of his retainers, he continued to be as harsh +as ever to himself. + +In spite of all opposition and discontent he pursued his course with +inflexible purpose. His spirit was unyielding, and his energetic +proceedings were unremittingly directed to the amelioration and +improvement in the morals of the clergy with marked success. And now +he set himself with the same uncompromising zeal to extirpate heresy. +Having begged Archbishop Talavera to allow him to join in the good work +at Granada, he took immediate advantage of the consent given and began +to attack the Moorish unbelievers in his own vigorous fashion. His +first step was to call together a great conference of learned Mussulman +doctors, to whom he expounded with all the eloquence he had at his +command, the true doctrines of the Catholic faith and their superiority +to the law of Mahomet. He accompanied his teaching with liberal gifts, +chiefly of costly articles of apparel, a specious though irresistible +bribery, which had the desired effect. Great numbers of the Moorish +doctors came over at once and their example was speedily followed by +many of their illiterate disciples. So great was the number of converts +that no less than three thousand presented themselves for baptism in +one day, and as the rite could not be administered individually, they +were christened wholesale by sprinkling them from a mop or hyssop which +had been dipped in holy water, and from which the drops fell upon the +proselytes as it was twirled over the heads of the multitude. These +early successes stimulated the primate's zeal and he next adopted more +violent measures by proceeding to imprison and impose penalties upon +all Moors who still stood out against conversion. He was resolved +not merely to exterminate heresy, but to destroy the basis of belief +contained in the most famous Arabic manuscripts, large quantities of +which were collected into great piles and burned publicly in the great +squares of the city. Many of these were beautifully executed copies +of the Koran; others, treasured theological and scientific works, and +their indiscriminate destruction is a blot upon the reputation of the +cultivated prelate who had created the most learned university in Spain. + +More temperate and cautious people besought Ximenes to hold his hand. +But he proceeded pertinaciously, declaring that a tamer policy might +serve in temporal matters, but not where the interests of the soul were +at stake. If the unbeliever could not be drawn he must be driven into +the way of salvation, and he continued with unflinching resolution +to arrest all recusants, and throw them into the prisons which were +filled to overflowing. Discontent grew rapidly and soon broke into +open violence. When an _alguazil_ in Granada was leading a woman away +as a prisoner, the people rose and released her from custody. The +insurrection became general in the city and assumed a threatening +aspect. Granada was full of warlike Moors and a mob besieged Ximenes in +his house until he was rescued by the garrison of the Alhambra. + +The king and queen were much annoyed with Ximenes and condemned his +zealous precipitancy, but he was clever enough to vindicate his action +and bring the sovereigns to believe that it was imperative that the +rebellious Moors must be sharply repressed. Now a long conflict began. +Forcible conversion became the order of the day; baptism continued to +be performed in the gross upon thousands, the alternative being exile, +and numbers were actually deported to Barbary in the royal ships. A +fierce civil conflict broke out in the Alpujarras beyond Granada, which +required a royal army to quell. The object sought was the welfare of +the state by producing uniformity of faith. + +[Illustration: _Peint par Benjamin Constant_ +_Photogravure Goupil & C^{ie}._ + +_The Alhambra Palace, Granada_ + +The beautiful Moorish stronghold during the time of the supremacy +of the Moors was often made the home of slaves captured in near-by +frontier towns of Andalusia, who endured hateful bondage under the +rule of the Mohammedan monarch. Granada and its palace were finally +captured by Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Alhambra is to-day the +finest example of Moorish architecture, with its delicate elaboration +of detail.] + +Ximenes found a strenuous supporter in Diego Deza, the +inquisitor-general, who was eager to emulate the strictness of +his predecessor, Torquemada. Deza was a Dominican who had been at +one time professor of theology and confessor to the queen. He was by +nature and predilection exactly fitted for his new office upon which he +entered with extensive powers. A bull from Pope Alexander VI dated 1499 +invested him with the title of "Conservator of the Faith" in Spain. + +Deza gave a new constitution to the Holy Office and prescribed that +there should be a general "Inquest" in places not yet visited, and +that edicts should be republished requiring all persons to lay +information against suspected heretics. He stirred up the zeal of +all subordinate inquisitors and was well served by them, especially +by one, Lucero, commonly called _el Tenebroso_, "the gloomy," whose +savage and ruthless proceedings terrorised Cordova where he presided. +He made a general attack upon the most respectable inhabitants and +arrested great numbers, many of whom were condemned and executed. +Informers crowded Lucero's ante-chamber bringing monstrous tales of +heretical conspiracies to reëstablish Judaism and subvert the Church. +His familiars dragged the accused from their beds to answer to these +charges and the prisons overflowed. Cordova was up in arms and many +would have offered armed resistance to the Inquisition, but the more +circumspect people, the Bishop and Chapter, some of the nobility and +the municipal council appealed to Deza praying him to remove Lucero. +The inquisitor-general however turned furiously upon the complainants +and caused them to be arrested as abettors of heresy. Philip I, acting +for his wife Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was +inclined to listen to the complainants, and suspended both Deza and +Lucero from their functions. But his sudden death stayed the relief +he had promised, and the tormenting officials returned to renew their +oppression. + +The Cordovese would not tamely submit and appealed to force. A strong +body of men under the Marques de Priego attacked the "Holy House," +broke open the prison and liberated many of those detained, shutting up +the officers of the Inquisition in their place. Lucero took to flight +upon a swift mule and escaped. Though for a time Deza continued to +keep his influence, he was shortly forced to resign and Cordova became +tranquil. Deza's persecution had spared no one. In the eight years +during which he held office, one account, probably greatly exaggerated, +says that 2,592 persons were burned alive, some nine hundred were +burned in effigy, and thirty-five thousand were punished by penance, +fines and confiscations. + +The fall of Deza and the hostile attitude of the people warned the +authorities that the affairs of the Inquisition must be managed +more adroitly. New inquisitors must be appointed and choice fell +upon Ximenes de Cisneros, who had already played a foremost part +in proselytising, but who now was willing to adopt more moderate +measures. The Pope in giving his approval sent him a cardinal's hat +as a recompense for past services, and as an encouragement to act +wisely in the future. He had a difficult task. Disaffection, strongly +pronounced, prevailed through the kingdom and the Inquisition was +everywhere cordially detested. Ximenes strove to appease the bitter +feeling by instituting a searching inquiry into the conduct of his +immediate predecessor, Deza, and promising to hear all complaints and +redress all grievances. He created a "Catholic Congregation" as a +special court to investigate the actions of Lucero in the proceedings +growing out of the charges against Archbishop Talavera and his +family. This court in due course pronounced a verdict of acquittal +and rehabilitation of the Talaveras. Ruined houses were rebuilt, the +memory of the dead restored to honour and fame, and this act of grace +was published at Valladolid with great solemnity in the presence of the +kings, bishops and grandees. + +Nevertheless Ximenes had no desire to remodel the Holy Office or +limit its operations to any considerable extent. On the contrary, +he bent all his efforts to develop its influence and make it an +engine of government, utilising it as a political as well as a +religious agency. It was as rigorous as ever but he set his face +like a flint against dishonesty. He systematised the division of the +realm into inquisitorial provinces, each under its own inquisitor +with headquarters in the principal cities, such as Seville, Toledo, +Valladolid, Murcia, and in Sardinia and Sicily beyond the seas. His +personal ascendancy became extraordinary. He enjoyed the unbounded +confidence and favour of the sovereign. He had been created Cardinal of +Spain, a title rarely conferred. As archbishop of Toledo, he was the +supreme head of the Spanish clergy, and as inquisitor-general, he was +the terror of every priest and every layman within his jurisdiction. +He had, in fact, reached the highest ecclesiastical rank, short of the +papacy and as he rose higher and higher he wielded powers little short +of an independent absolute monarch, and his zeal in the cause of his +religion grew more and more fervent and far-reaching. No doubt in an +earlier age he would have turned crusader, but now he sought to crush +the fugitive Moors who had escaped into Northern Africa, whence they +made constant descents upon the south of Spain, burning to avenge the +wrongs of their co-religionists, and were a constant scourge and source +of grievous trouble. + +The evils centred in the province of Oran, a fortified stronghold--the +most considerable of the Moslem possessions on the shores of the +Mediterranean--whence issued a swarm of pirate cruisers, manned by the +exiles driven out of Spain, who had sought and found a welcome refuge +in Oran. Ximenes was resolved to seize and sweep out this hornets' +nest and undertook its conquest on his own account. Much ridicule +was levelled at this "monk about to fight the battles of Spain," but +he went forth undeterred at the head of a powerful army, conveyed by +a strong fleet from Cartagena, which he landed at the African port of +Mazalquivir, and after some desperate fighting made himself master of +Oran. After his successful African campaign he resumed his duties of +chief inquisitor, and the Holy Office under his fierce and vigorous +rule became more than ever oppressive. Ximenes pursued his unwavering +course and encouraged his inquisitors in their unceasing activity. +He desired to extend the power and influence of the Inquisition, and +established it in the new countries recently added to the Spanish +dominion. A branch was set up in the newly conquered province of Oran, +and another farther afield in the recently discovered new world beyond +the Atlantic. On the initiative of Ximenes Fray Juan Quevedo, Bishop of +Cuba, was appointed chief inquisitor in the kingdom of Terrafirma, as +the territories of the new world were styled. + +The energetic pursuit of heresy did not monopolise the exertions of +Ximenes. He founded the great University of Alcalá, a vast design, a +noble seat of learning richly endowed with magnificent buildings and +a remarkable scheme of education, which produced the ablest and most +eminent scholars. Another great monument is the well known polyglot +Bible, designed to exhibit the scriptures in their various ancient +languages, a work of singular erudition upon which the munificent +cardinal expended vast sums. + +Ximenes lived to the advanced age of eighty-one, long enough to act as +regent of Spain during the interregnum preceding the arrival of Charles +I, better known as the Emperor Charles V. The immediate cause of his +death was said to have been the receipt of a letter from the Emperor in +which he was coldly thanked for his services and desired to retire to +his diocese, to "seek from heaven that reward which heaven alone could +adequately bestow." In his last moments he is reported to have said, +"that he had never intentionally wronged any man; but had rendered to +every one his due, without being swayed, as far as he was conscious, by +fear or affection." + +He combined a versatility of talent usually found only in softer and +more flexible characters. Though bred in the cloister, he distinguished +himself both in the cabinet and the camp. For the latter, indeed, so +repugnant to his regular profession, he had a natural genius, according +to the testimony of his biographer; and he evinced his relish for it +by declaring that "the smell of gunpowder was more grateful to him +than the sweetest perfume of Arabia!" In every situation, however, he +exhibited the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern lineaments +of the monk were never wholly concealed under the mask of the statesman +or the visor of the warrior. He had a full measure of the religious +bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had melancholy scope for +displaying it, as chief of that dread tribunal over which he presided +during the last ten years of his life. + +The accession of the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish +throne as Charles I (better known as the Emperor Charles V), seemed +to foreshadow a change in the relations of the Inquisition and the +state. The young sovereign was born in Ghent and was more Fleming than +Spaniard. Though his grandfather left in his will solemn injunctions +"to labour with all his strength to destroy and extirpate heresy" and +to appoint ministers "who will conduct the Inquisition justly and +properly for the service of God and the exaltation of the Catholic +faith, and who will also have great zeal for the destruction of the +sect of Mahomet," it was reported that he sympathised with the critics +of the Inquisition and was disposed to curtail its activity. The +influence of his old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, whom he commissioned +inquisitor-general, first of Aragon, and, after the death of Ximenes, +of Castile also, changed him however into a strong friend and staunch +supporter of the institution. + +Cardinal Manrique, who followed as inquisitor-general, was a man of +more kindly disposition, charitable and a benefactor to the poor. +He was inclined to relax the severities of the Holy Office but it +was urged upon him that heresy was on the increase on account of the +appearance of Lutheran opinions and the bitterest persecution was +more than ever essential. Protestants began to appear sporadically and +called for uncompromising repression. The writings of Luther, Erasmus, +Melancthon, Zwingli, and the rest of the early reformers were brought +into Spain, but the circulation was adjudged a crime, though Erasmus +had once been a favourite author. + +The Inquisition later prepared an _Index Expurgandorum_, or list of +condemned and prohibited literature. All books named on it were put +under the ban of the law. Possession of a translation of the Bible in +the vulgar tongues was forbidden in 1551, and the prohibition was not +lifted until 1782. By that time there was no longer such keen interest +in its contents, and the Book was little circulated. In 1825 the +British and Foreign Bible Society sent one of its agents into Spain to +distribute it, and his adventures are described autobiographically in +that interesting work, George Borrow's "Bible in Spain." + +In spite of all the efforts to make good Catholics and good Spaniards +of the Moriscos, little real progress was made. They had accepted +baptism under compulsion, not realising that thereby they were brought +under control of the Church. Little effort was made to instruct them, +moreover, and as a result thousands, nominally Christians, observed +scrupulously the whole Moslem ritual, used the old language, and kept +their old costume. Some, to be sure, were hardly to be distinguished +from the Spaniards with whom they had intermarried, but, on the whole, +they seemed an unassimilable element in the population. + +When Philip II succeeded his father, Charles V, in 1556, he determined +to take strong measures. A decree proclaimed in Granada in 1566 forbade +the use of the distinctive dress and of the Moorish names. The old +customs were to be abandoned, and all the baths were to be destroyed. +Rebellion followed this edict, and, for a time, it was doubtful whether +it could be crushed. Finally open resistance was overcome, and several +thousand were transferred to the mountains of Northern Spain. Meanwhile +the Inquisition was active, and thousands were brought to trial for +pagan practices. + +Prejudice continued to grow, and fanatics declared that Spain could +never prosper until the "evil seed" was destroyed or expelled from +the Christian land. Jealousy of the prosperity of the Moriscos led +the populace to agree with the bigots, and finally expulsion was +unanimously decreed by the Council of State, in 1609, during the +reign of Philip III. Valencia was first purged, and next Murcia, +Granada, Andalusia, Old and New Castile and Aragon. Afterward vigorous +attempts to root out individuals of Moorish blood, who had become +indistinguishable because of their strict conformity, were made. Great +suffering was incurred by the unfortunate exiles and many died. Those +who reached Africa carried with them a hatred which persists to the +present. + +The number driven out is uncertain. The estimates vary from three +hundred thousand to three million. Probably the most accurate estimate +is that of six hundred thousand. In this number were included the most +skilful artisans, and the most industrious and most thrifty portion of +the population. It was a mistake from which Spain has never recovered. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS + + Prisons, usually, a part of the building occupied by court--Better + than civil prisons--Torture inflicted--No new methods + invented--Description of various kinds--Two Lutheran congregations + broken up--Description of some famous _autos da fé_--Famous + victims--Englishmen punished--Archbishop Carranza's trial. + + +The prisons of the Inquisition fall under two great heads, the +"secret prisons" in which those awaiting trial were confined, and the +"penitential prisons" where sentences were served. Generally there were +also _cárceles de familiares_ where officers of the institution charged +with wrong-doing were confined. In some tribunals there were others +variously called _cárceles medias_, _cárceles comunes_, and _cárceles +públicas_, where offenders not charged with heresy might be confined. + +The secret prisons, however, have most fired the imagination. A +man might disappear from his accustomed haunts, and for years his +family and friends be ignorant of his condition, or even of his very +existence, until one day he might appear at an _auto da fé_. What +went on within the walls was a mystery. Seldom did any hint of the +proceedings leak out. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, and the arm of the +Inquisition was long, if the luckless witness or attendant failed to +heed his instructions. + +These prisons were almost invariably a part of the building occupied +by the tribunal. In Valencia, it was the archbishop's palace; in +Saragossa, the royal castle; in Seville, the Triana; in Cordova, the +Alcázar, and so on. In some, there were cells and dungeons already +prepared, in others, they were constructed. There was no common +standard of convenience or sanitation. In many cases, generally, +perhaps, they were superior to the common jails in which ordinary +prisoners were confined. Yet we know that some were entirely dark and +very damp. Others were so small that a cramped position was necessary, +and were hardly ventilated at all. Sometimes they were poorly cared +for, and loathsome filth and vermin made them unendurable. Many +places were used for prisons during the three hundred years of the +Inquisition, and no statement is broad enough to cover them all. The +mortality was high, yet not so high as in the prisons generally. Since +many were unsuitable and often unsafe, the wearing of fetters was +common. Prisoners often, incidentally, speak of their chains. + +Occasionally more than one prisoner occupied the same room, and much +evidence was secured in this way, as each hoped to lighten his own +punishment by inculpating others. Writing materials were permitted, +though every sheet of paper must be accounted for and delivered into an +official's hands. Lights were not permitted however. + +Yet entire secrecy was not always secured. Attendants were sometimes +bribed, and by various ingenious methods, communications occasionally +found their way in or out. Again in cases of severe sickness, the +prisoner might be transferred to a hospital, which however must account +for him if he recovered. Cardinal Adrian, the inquisitor-general, +reminded the tribunals that the prison was for detention, not for +punishment, that prisoners must not be defrauded of their food, and +that the cells must be carefully inspected. + +These and similar instructions issued at intervals were not always +obeyed, for inquisitors were often negligent. According to Lea, "no +general judgment can be formed as to the condition of so many prisons +during three centuries, except that their average standard was +considerably higher than that in other jurisdictions, and that, if +there were abodes of horror, such as have been described by imaginative +writers they were wholly exceptional."[5] Again the same author quotes +instances where prisoners speak of improved health, due to better +food in prison than they were accustomed to at home, and in summing +up declares that the general management was more humane than could be +found elsewhere, either in or out of Spain. + +[5] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. II. p. 526. + +We may briefly recapitulate the various processes of the Inquisition +in order, as they obtained. First came the denunciation, followed +by seizure and the commencement of an inquiry. The several offences +imputed were next submitted to those logical experts named "qualifiers" +who decided, so to speak, "whether there was a true bill," in which +case the procurator fiscal committed the accused to durance. Three +audiences were given him, and the time was fully taken up with cautions +and monitions. The charges were next formulated but with much prolixity +and reduplication. They were not reduced to writing and delivered to +the accused for slow perusal and reply, but were only read over to him, +hurriedly. On arraignment he was called upon to reply, then and there, +to each article, to state at once whether it was true or false. The +charges were usually originated by an informer and resort was had, if +necessary, to "inquiry," the hunting up of suspicious or damaging facts +on which evidence was sought, in any quarter and from any one good or +bad. If the accused persisted in denial he was allowed counsel, but +later the counsel became an official of the Inquisition and naturally +made only a perfunctory defence. An appeal to torture was had if the +prisoner persisted in denying his guilt, in the face of plausible +testimony, or if he confessed only partially to the charges against +him, or if he refused to name his accomplices. A witness who had +retracted his testimony or had contradicted himself, might be tortured +in order that the truth might be made known. + +It was admitted, however, that torture was by no means an infallible +method for bringing out the truth. "Weak-hearted men, impatient of the +first pain, will confess crimes they never committed and criminate +others at the same time. Bold and strong ones will bear the most severe +torments. Those who have been already on the rack are likely to bear +it with greater courage, for they know how to adapt their limbs to it +and can resist more powerfully." It may be admitted that the system +was so far humane that the torture was not applied until every other +effort had been tried and had failed. The instruments of torture +were first exhibited with threats, but when once in use, it might be +repeated day after day, "in continuation," as it was called, and if any +"irregularity" occurred, such as the death of a victim, the inquisitors +were empowered to absolve one another. Nobles were supposedly exempted +from torture, and it was not permissible by the civil laws in Aragon, +but the Holy Office was nevertheless authorised to torture without +restriction all persons of all classes. + +Torture was not inflicted as a punishment by the Inquisition, nor was +it peculiar to its trials. Until a comparatively recent date it was +a recognised method of securing testimony, accepted in nearly all +courts of Europe as a matter of course. The Inquisition seems to have +invented no new methods, and seldom used the extreme forms commonly +practised. In fact in nearly every case, torture was inflicted by the +regular public executioner who was called in for the purpose and sworn +to secrecy. The list of tortures practised on civil prisoners was +long, and they seem to us now fiendish in their ingenuity. A complete +course would require many hours, and included apparently the infliction +of pain to every organ or limb and to almost every separate muscle +and nerve. The records of the Inquisition show almost invariably the +infliction of a few well known sorts. + +Some sorts were abandoned because of the danger of permanent harm, and +others less violent, but probably no less painful, were substituted. +Often the record states that the prisoner "overcame the torture," +_i. e._ was not moved to confess. Evidently, though the whole idea is +abhorrent to us to-day, torture as inflicted was less awful than some +writers would have us believe.[6] + +[6] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. III. + +A curious memento of the methods employed by the Holy Office has been +preserved in an ancient "Manual of the Inquisition of Seville," a +thin quarto volume bound in vellum, with pages partly printed, partly +in manuscript. It bears the date 1628, and purports to be compiled +from ancient and modern instructions for the order of procedure. It +was found in the Palace of the Inquisition at Seville, when it was +sacked in the year 1820. One part of this manual details the steps to +be taken, "when torture has to be performed." The criminal having +been brought into the audience, was warned that he had not told the +entire truth, and as he was believed to have kept back and hidden many +things, he was about to be "tormented" to compel him to speak out. +Formal sentence to the torture chamber was then passed, after "invoking +the name of Christ." It was announced that the "question" would be +administered. The method of infliction was detailed whether by pulleys +or by water or cords, or by all, to be continued for "as long a time as +may appear well," with the proviso that if in the said torment, "he (or +she) should die or be wounded, or if there be any effusion of blood or +mutilation of member, the blame should be his (or hers) not ours." + +Here follows in manuscript the description of the torments applied to +one unfortunate female whose name is not given. + +"On this she was ordered to be taken to the chamber of Torment whither +went the Lords Inquisitors, and when they were there she was admonished +to tell the truth and not to let herself be brought into such great +trouble. + +"Her answer is not recorded. + +"Carlos Felipe, the executor of Justice, was called and his oath taken +that he would do his business well and faithfully and that he would +keep the secret. All of which he promised. + +"She was told to tell the truth or orders would be given to strip her. +She was commanded to be stripped naked. + +"She was told to tell the truth or orders would be given to cut off her +hair. It was taken off and she was examined by the doctor and surgeon +who certified that there was no reason why she should not be put to the +torture. + +"She was commanded to mount the rack and to tell the truth or her +body should be bound; and she was bound. She was commanded to tell +the truth, or they would order her right foot to be made fast to the +_trampazo_."[7] + +[7] _Trampazo_ means, exactly, an "extreme tightening of cords": _La +ultima de las vueltas que se dan en el tormento de las cuerdas_. + +After the _trampazo_ of the right foot that of the left followed. Then +came the binding and stretching of the right arm, then that of the +left. After that the _garrote_ or the compression of the fleshy parts +of the arms and thighs with fine cords, a plan used to revive any +person who had fainted under the torture. Last of all the _mancuerda_ +was inflicted, a simultaneous tension of all the cords on all the limbs +and parts. + +The water torture was used to extort confession. The patient was +tightly bound to the _potro_, or ladder, the rungs of which were +sharp-edged. The head was immovably fastened lower than the body, and +the mouth was held open by an iron prong. A strip of linen slowly +conducted water into the mouth, causing the victim to strangle and +choke. Sometimes six or eight jars, each holding about a quart, were +necessary to bring the desired result. This is the "water-cure" found +in the Philippines by American soldiers when the islands were captured. + +If these persuasions still failed of effect, or if the hour was late, +or "for other considerations" the torment might be suspended with the +explanation that it had been insufficiently tried and the victim was +taken back to his prison to be brought out again after a respite. If, +on the other hand, a confession was secured, it was written down word +for word and submitted to the victim for ratification after at least +twenty-four hours had elapsed. If he revoked the confession, he might +be tortured again. + +When a number of cases had been decided, the Suprema appointed a day, +usually a Sunday or a feast day, for pronouncing sentence. This was +an _auto da fé_, literally an "act of faith." The greater festivals, +Easter day, Christmas day, or Sundays in Advent or Lent were excepted +because these holy days had their own special musical or dramatic +entertainments in the churches. The day fixed was announced from all +the pulpits in the city (Seville or Madrid or Cordova as the case might +be) and notice given that a representative of the Inquisition would +deliver a "sermon of the faith" and that no other preacher might raise +his voice. The civil authorities were warned to be ready to receive +their victims. At the same time officials unfurled a banner and +made public proclamation to the effect that "no person whatever his +station or quality from that hour until the completion of the _auto_ +should carry arms offensive or defensive, under pain of the greater +excommunication and the forfeiture of such arms; nor during the same +period should any one ride in coach, or sedan chair, or on horseback, +through the streets in the route of the procession, nor enter the +enclosure in which the place of execution (_quemadero_) was erected," +which was usually beyond the walls. + +On the eve of the great day a gorgeous procession was organised, for +which all the communities of friars in the city and neighbourhood +assembled at the Holy House of the Inquisition, together with the +commissaries and familiars of the Holy Office. They sallied forth in +triumphal array, followed by the "qualifiers" and experts, all carrying +large white tapers, lighted. In their midst a bier was borne covered +with a black pall, and, bringing up the rear, was a band, instrumental +and vocal, performing hymns. In this order the procession reached the +public square, when the pall was removed from the bier and a green +cross disclosed which was carried to the altar on the platform, and +there erected surrounded by a dozen candles. The white cross was +carried to the burning place. Now a strong body of horse and a number +of Dominican friars took post to watch through the night and the rest +of the actors dispersed. At the same time those who were to suffer +were prepared for the fatal event. All were shaved close, both head +and beard, so that they might present an appearance of nakedness and +humiliation suitable to their forlorn condition. At sunrise on their +last day they were arrayed in the prescribed garb and brought from +their cells into the chapel or great hall. The least heinous offenders +were in coarse black blouses and pantaloons, and were bare-footed and +bare-headed. The worst culprits were in the _sanbenito_ or penitential +sack of yellow canvas, adorned with a St. Andrew's cross in bright red +paint, and they often carried a halter round their necks as a badge +of ignominy. Those to die at the stake were distinguished by black +_sanbenitos_ with painted flames and wore on their heads a conical +paper headdress in the shape of a bishop's mitre, but also resembling +somewhat a fool's cap. This was called the _coroza_, a contemptuous +form of _corona_ or crown. To make the clothing more hideous, it was +decorated by coarse pictures of devils in flames. The condemned as +they passed on their way were assailed to the last with importunate +exhortations to repent, and a promise was held out to them that if +they yielded they would be rewarded by a less painful death, and would +be strangled before the flames reached them. All the penitents were +obliged to sit upon the ground in profound silence and without so much +as moving a limb, while the slow hours dragged themselves along. In the +morning a sumptuous meal was set before them, and they were suffered +to eat their fill. All the officials and visitors were also regaled +before the day's business began. + +After the sermon, the secretary read to all the people the oath +pledging them to support the Inquisition. Then sentences were +pronounced, beginning with the lesser offenders and proceeding to the +graver. The punishments ranged from a reprimand, through abjuration, +fines, exile, for a longer or shorter period, destruction of residence, +penance, scourging, the galleys, imprisonment, wearing the _sanbenito_ +or penitential garment, up to "relaxation to the secular arm;" _i. e._ +death by fire. These penalties carried with them civil disability, and +tainted the blood of the descendants of the condemned as well. + +Penance might be inflicted in various forms. The condemned, perhaps, +might be required to fast one day in every week, to recite a specified +number of prayers on appointed days, or to appear at the church door +with a halter around his neck on successive Sundays. When scourging was +inflicted, the penitent, naked to the waist, was placed astride an ass, +and paraded through the principal streets preceded by the town crier. +Meanwhile the executioner, accompanied by a clerk to keep tally, plied +the _penca_ or leather strap, but was charged most solemnly not to draw +blood. Usually two hundred lashes was the limit. + +Theoretically a heretic who escaped the stake by confession was +sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. This penalty might be served in +a prison, a monastery, or in a private house. As a matter of fact, +comparatively few were kept in prisons as the expense of maintenance +was a heavy burden, and the sentences were usually changed to +deportation to the colonies, or assignment to the galleys, or else the +sentence was shortened. + +The trial and sentence of the bodies of the dead was common, but it +was not peculiar to the Inquisition. As late as 1600, in Scotland, the +bodies of the Earl of Gowrie and his brother were brought into court, +and sentenced to be hanged, quartered and gibbeted. Logan of Restalrig, +in 1609, three years after his death, was tried on the charge of being +concerned in the same conspiracy, was found guilty and his property was +confiscated. + +In recounting the punishments imposed by the Inquisition, we must not +forget that it assumed jurisdiction over many crimes which to-day +are tried by the civil courts. Bigamy was punished as, by a second +marriage, the criminal denied the authority of the Church which makes +marriage a sacrament. Certain forms of blasphemy also were brought +before it, and perjury as well. Personation of the priesthood, or +of officials of the Inquisition, was punished, and later it gained +jurisdiction over unnatural crimes. Sorcery and witchcraft, which in +other states, including the American colonies, were considered subjects +for the secular courts, were within the jurisdiction of the Spanish +Inquisition. + +Strange as it may appear at first thought, the attitude of the +Inquisition toward the witchcraft delusion was one of skepticism almost +from the beginning. Individual inquisitors, influenced by the well nigh +universal belief, were occasionally active, but the Suprema moderated +their zeal. In 1610 an _auto_ was held at Logroño, which was the centre +of wild excitement. Twenty-nine witches were punished, six of whom were +burned, and the bones of five others who had died in prison were also +consumed. The eighteen remaining were "reconciled." In 1614, however, +the Suprema drew up an elaborate code of instructions to the tribunals. +While not denying the existence of witchcraft, these instructions +treated it as a delusion and practically made proof impossible. As a +result of this policy the victims of the craze in Spain can be counted +almost by the score, while in almost every other country of Europe, +they are numbered by the thousand. In Great Britain the best estimate +fixes the number of victims at thirty thousand, and as late as 1775 +the great legal author, Sir William Blackstone, says that to deny +"the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery is at once flatly to +contradict the revealed word of God."[8] + +[8] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. IV. + +Heresy, of course, according to the views not only of Catholics but +of Protestants, deserved death as a form of treason. Tolerance is a +modern idea. Calvin burned Servetus at Geneva and was applauded for +it. Protestants in England persecuted other Protestants as well as +Catholics. The impenitent heretic in Spain was burned alive. That +one, who after conviction, expressed his repentance, and his desire +to die in the Church was usually strangled before the flames touched +him. Before going on to describe some famous _autos da fé_ and the +subsequent infliction of the death penalty, a word of explanation is in +order. + +Protestant doctrines were introduced into Spain either by foreigners +or by natives who travelled or studied in foreign lands, but made slow +headway. In 1557 a secret organisation, comprising about one hundred +and twenty members, was discovered in Seville. The next year another +little band of about sixty was found in Valladolid. + +The almost simultaneous exposure of these two heretical organisations, +both of which included some prominent people, created great commotion. +Charles V, then living at San Yuste, whither he had retired after his +abdication, wrote to his daughter Juana, who was acting as regent +in the absence of Philip II, urging the most stringent measures and +advocating that the heretics be pursued mercilessly. Little stimulation +of the Inquisition was necessary, and the two little congregations were +destroyed. + +A part of those condemned at Valladolid were sentenced at a great +_auto da fé_ held on Trinity Sunday, May 21st, 1559, in Valladolid, +not before Philip II, who was abroad, but his sister, Princess +Juana, presided and with her was the unhappy Prince, Don Carlos. +It was a brilliant gathering, a great number of grandees of Spain, +titled noblemen and gentlemen untitled, ladies of high rank in +gorgeous apparel, all seated in great state to watch the arrival of +the penitential procession. Fourteen heretics were to die, sixteen +more to be "reconciled" but to be branded with infamy and suffer +lesser punishments. Among the sufferers were many persons of rank +and consideration such as the two brothers Cazalla and their sister, +children of the king's comptroller, one of them a canon of the Church, +the other a presbyter, and all three members of the little Lutheran +congregation. Their mother had died in heresy and on this occasion her +effigy, clad in her widow's weeds and wearing a mitre with flames, was +paraded through the streets and then burned publicly. Her house, where +Lutherans had met for prayer, was razed to the ground and a pillar +erected with an inscription setting forth her offence and sentence. +Another victim was the licentiate, Antonio Herrezuelo, an impenitent +Lutheran, the only one who went to the stake unmoved, singing psalms by +the way, and reciting passages of scripture. They gagged him at last +and a soldier in his zeal stabbed him with his halberd, but the wound +was not mortal and bleeding and burning, he slowly expired. + +The sixteen who survived the horrors of the day were haled back to +the prison of the Inquisition to spend one more night in the cells. +Next morning they were again taken before the inquisitors who exhorted +them afresh, and their sentences were finally read to them. Some +destined to the galleys were transferred first to the civil prison to +await removal, after they had been flogged through the streets and +market places. Others clad in the _sanbenito_ and carrying ropes were +exposed to the hoots and indignities of the ribald crowd. All who +passed through the hands of the Holy Office were sworn to seal up in +everlasting silence whatever they had seen, heard or suffered, on peril +of a renewed prosecution. + +Philip II was present at the second great _auto_ in Valladolid in +October of the same year, when the remainder of the Protestants were +sentenced. His wife, Queen Mary of England, was dead, and he returned +to Spain by way of the Netherlands, embarking at Flushing for Laredo. +Rough weather and bad seamanship all but wrecked his fleet in sight of +port, and Philip vowed if he were permitted to set foot on shore, to +prosecute the heretics of Spain unceasingly. He was saved from drowning +and went at once to Valladolid to carry out his vow. + +The ceremony was organised with unprecedented pomp and splendour. The +king came in state, rejoicing that several notable heretics had been +reserved to die in torments, for his especial delectation. His heir, +Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, was also present but under compulsion; +he was, at that time, no more than fourteen years of age and had +writhed with agony at the sight of the suffering at the former _auto_. +Moreover, when called upon to swear fidelity to the Inquisition, he +had taken the oath with great reluctance. Not so King Philip, who when +called upon to take the same oath at the second _auto da fé_, rose in +his place, drew his sword and brandished it as he swore to show every +favour to the Holy Office and support its ministers against whomsoever +might directly or indirectly impede its efforts or affairs. "_Asi lo +juro_," he said with deep feeling. "Thus I swear." + +The victims at this great _auto da fé_ were many and illustrious. +One was Don Carlos de Seso, an Italian of noble family, the son of +a bishop, a scholar who had long been in the service of the Emperor +Charles V, and was chief magistrate of Toro. He had married a Spanish +lady and resided at Logroño, where he became an object of suspicion +as a professor of Lutheranism, and was arrested. They took him to the +prison of Valladolid, where he was charged, tortured and condemned to +die. When called upon to make confession, he wrote two full sheets +denouncing the Catholic teaching, claiming that it was at variance with +the true faith of the gospel. The priests argued with him in vain, +and he was brought into church next morning, gagged, and so taken to +the burning place, "lest he should speak heresy in the hearing of the +people." At the stake the gag was removed and he was again exhorted to +recant but he stoutly refused and bade them light up the fire speedily +so that he might die in his belief. + +Much grief was felt by the Dominicans at the lapse of one of their +order, Fray Domingo de Rojas, who was undoubtedly a Lutheran. On his +way to the stake he strove to appeal to the king who drove him away +and ordered him to be gagged. More than a hundred monks of his order +followed him close entreating him to recant, but he persisted in a +determined although inarticulate refusal until in sight of the flames. +He then recanted and was strangled before being burned. One Juan +Sanchez, a native of Valladolid, had fled to Flanders, but was pursued, +captured and brought back to Spain to die on this day. When the cords +which had bound him snapped in the fire, he bounded into the air with +his agony but still repelled the priests and called for more fire. Nine +more were burned in the presence of the king, who was no merely passive +spectator, but visited the various stakes and ordered his personal +guard to assist in piling up the fuel. + +The congregation at Seville were sentenced at _autos_ held in 1559 and +1560. On December 22d of the latter year, there were fourteen burned in +the flesh and three in effigy. The last were notable people. One was +Doctor Egidio, who had been a leading canon of Seville Cathedral, and +who had been tried and forced to recant his heresies in 1552. After +release he renewed his connection with the Lutherans, but soon died +and was buried at Seville. His corpse was exhumed, brought to trial, +and burnt with his effigy; all his property was confiscated and his +memory declared infamous. Another was Doctor Ponce de la Fuente, a man +of deep learning and extraordinary eloquence who had been chaplain and +preacher to the emperor. He followed the Imperial Court into Germany, +then returned to charm vast congregations in Seville, but his sermons +were reported by spies to be tainted with the Reformed doctrines. He +was seized by the Inquisition and many incriminating papers were also +taken. When cast into a secret dungeon and confronted with these proofs +of his heresy, he would make no confession, nor would he betray any +of his friends. He was transferred to a subterranean cell, damp and +pestiferous, so narrow he could barely move himself, and was deprived +of the commonest necessaries of life. Existence became impossible under +such conditions, and he died, proclaiming with his last breath that +neither Scythians nor cannibals could be more cruel and inhuman than +the barbarians of the Holy Office. The third effigy consumed was that +of Doctor Juan Pérez de Pineda, then a fugitive in Geneva. + +Chief among the living victims was Julian Hernandez, commonly called +_el Chico_, "the little," from his diminutive stature. Yet his heart +was of the largest and his courage extraordinary. He was a deacon +in the Reformed Church and dared to penetrate the interior of Spain, +disguised as a muleteer, carrying merchandise in which Lutheran +literature was concealed. Being exceedingly shrewd and daring he +travelled far and wide, beyond Castile into Andalusia, distributing his +books among persons of rank and education in all the chief cities. His +learning, skill in argument, and piety, were not less remarkable than +the diligence and activity by which he baffled all efforts to lay hold +of him. At last he was caught and imprisoned. Relays of priests were +told off to controvert his opinions, and he was repeatedly tortured to +extract the names of those who had aided him in his long and dangerous +pilgrimage through the Peninsula, but he was staunch and silent to the +last. + +A citizen of London, one Nicholas Burton, was a shipmaster who traded +to Cadiz in his own vessel. He was arrested on the information of a +"familiar" of the Inquisition, charged with having spoken in slighting +terms of the religion of the country. No reason was given him, and +when he protested indignantly, he was thrown into the common gaol +and detained there for a fortnight, during which he was moved to +administer comfort and preach the gospel to his fellow-prisoners. +This gave a handle to his persecutors and he was removed on a further +charge of heresy to Seville, where he was imprisoned, heavily ironed +in the secret gaol of the Inquisition in the Triana. At the end he was +condemned as a contumacious Lutheran, and was brought out, clad in +the _sanbenito_ and exposed in the great hall of the Holy Office with +his tongue forced out of his mouth. Last of all, being obdurate in his +heresy, he was burned and his ship with its cargo was taken possession +of by his persecutors. + +The story does not end here. Another Englishman, John Frampton, an +attorney of Bristol, was sent to Cadiz by a part-owner to demand +restoration of the ship. He became involved in a tedious law suit and +was at last obliged to return to England for enlarged powers. Bye and +bye he went out a second time to Spain, and on landing at Cadiz was +seized by the servants of the Inquisition and carried to Seville. He +travelled on mule back "tied by a chain that came three times under its +belly and the end whereof was fastened in an iron padlock made fast to +the saddle bow." Two armed familiars rode beside him, and thus escorted +and secured, he was conveyed to the old prison and lodged in a noisome +dungeon. The usual interrogatories were put to him and it was proved +to the satisfaction of the Holy Office that he was an English heretic. +The same evidence sufficed to place him on the rack, and after fourteen +months, he was taken to be present as a penitent at the same _auto da +fé_ which saw Burton, the ship's captain, done to death. Frampton went +back to prison for another year and was forbidden to leave Spain. He +managed to escape and returned to England to make full revelation of +his wrongs, but the ship was never surrendered and no indemnity was +obtained. + +Other Englishmen fell from time to time into the hands of the +Inquisition. Hakluyt preserved the simple narratives of two English +sailors, who were brought by their Spanish captors from the Indies as +a sacrifice to the "Holy House" of Seville, though the authenticity of +the statement has been attacked. One, a happy-go-lucky fellow, Miles +Phillips, who had been too well acquainted in Mexico with the dungeons +of the Inquisition, slipped over the ship's side at San Lucar, near +Cadiz, made his way to shore, and boldly went to Seville, where he +lived a hidden life as a silk-weaver, until he found his chance to +steal away and board a Devon merchantman. The other, Job Hortop, added +to his two years of Mexican imprisonment, two more years in Seville. +Then "they brought us out in procession," as he tells us, "every one of +us having a candle in his hand and the coat with S. Andrew's cross on +our backs; they brought us up on an high scaffold, that was set up in +the place of S. Francis, which is in the chief street in Seville; there +they set us down upon benches, every one in his degree and against +us on another scaffold sate all the Judges and the Clergy on their +benches. The people wondered and gazed on us, some pitying our case, +others said, 'Burn those heretics.' When we had sat there two hours, we +had a sermon made to us, after which one called Bresina, secretary to +the Inquisition, went up into the pulpit with the process and called +on Robert Barret, shipmaster, and John Gilbert, whom two familiars of +the Inquisition brought from the scaffold in front of the Judges, and +the secretary read the sentence, which was that they should be burnt, +and so they returned to the scaffold and were burnt. + +"Then, I, Job Hortop and John Bone, were called and brought to the same +place, as the others and likewise heard our sentence, which was, that +we should go to the galleys there to row at the oar's end ten years +and then to be brought back to the Inquisition House, to have the coat +with St. Andrew's cross put on our backs and from thence to go to the +everlasting prison remediless. + +"I, with the rest were sent to the Galleys, where we were chained +four and four together.... Hunger, thirst, cold and stripes we lacked +none, till our several times expired; and after the time of twelve +years, for I served two years above my sentence, I was sent back to +the Inquisition House in Seville and there having put on the above +mentioned coat with St. Andrew's cross, I was sent to the everlasting +prison remediless, where I wore the coat four years and then, upon +great suit, I had it taken off for fifty duckets, which Hernandez de +Soria, treasurer of the king's mint, lent me, whom I was to serve for +it as a drudge seven years." This victim, too, escaped in a fly-boat at +last and reached England. + +The records of the Inquisition of this period contain the name of an +eminent Spanish ecclesiastic who offended the Holy Office and felt +the weight of its arm. This was Bartolome de Carranza, Archbishop of +Toledo, Primate of Spain, a Dominican,--whose rise had been rapid and +who was charged with leanings toward Lutheranism. In early life he +had passed through the hands of the Inquisition and was censured for +expressing approval of the writings of Erasmus, but no other action +was taken. His profound theological knowledge indeed commended him to +the Councils of the Church, for which he often acted as examiner of +suspected books. + +Carranza's connection with English history is interesting. At the +time of Queen Mary's marriage with Philip II, he came to London to +arrange, in conjunction with Cardinal Pole, for the reconciliation +of England to Rome. He laboured incessantly to win over British +Protestants, "preached continually, convinced and converted heretics +without number, ... guided the Queen and Councils and assisted in +framing rules for the governance of the English Universities." He +was particularly anxious for the persecution of obstinate heretics, +and was in a measure responsible for the burning of Thomas Cranmer, +Archbishop of Canterbury. His zeal and his great merits marked him down +as the natural successor to the archbishopric of Toledo, when it became +vacant, and he was esteemed as a chief pillar of the Catholic Church, +destined in due course to the very highest preferment. He might indeed +become cardinal and even supreme pontiff before he died. + +Yet when nearing the topmost pinnacle he was on the verge of falling +to the lowest depths. He had many enemies. His stern views on Church +discipline, enunciated before the Council of Trent, alienated many of +the bishops, who planned his ruin and secretly watched his discourses +and writings for symptoms of unsoundness. Valdés, the chief inquisitor, +was a leading opponent and industriously collected a mass of evidence +tending to inculpate Carranza. He had used "perilous language" when +preaching in England, especially in the hearing of heretics, and one +witness deposed that some of his sermons might have been delivered +by Melancthon himself. He had affirmed that mercy might be shown to +Lutherans who abjured their errors, and had frequently manifested +scandalous indulgence to heretics. Valdés easily framed a case against +Carranza, strong enough to back up an application to the pope to +authorise the Inquisition to arrest and imprison the primate of Spain. +Paul IV, the new pope, permitted the arrest. Great circumspection was +shown in making it because of the prisoner's rank. Carranza was invited +to come to Valladolid to have an interview with the king, and, with +some misgivings, the archbishop set out. A considerable force of men +was gathered together by the way--all loyal to the Inquisition--and at +the town of Torrelaguna, the arrest was made with great formality and +respect. + +On reaching Valladolid the prisoner begged he might be lodged in the +house of a friend. The Holy Office consented but hired the building. +The trial presented many serious difficulties. Here was no ordinary +prisoner; Carranza was widely popular, and the Supreme Council of the +Kingdom was divided as to the evidences of his guilt. Nearly a hundred +witnesses were examined, but proof was not easily to be secured. +Besides, Carranza had appealed to the Supreme Pontiff. Year after year +was spent in tiresome litigation and a fierce contest ensued between +Rome and the Spanish court which backed up the Inquisition. At length, +after eight years' confinement, the primate was sent to Cartagena to +take ship for Rome, accompanied by several inquisitors and the Duke of +Alva, that most notorious nobleman, the scourge and oppressor of the +Netherlands. All landed at Civita Vecchia and the party proceeded to +the Holy City, when Carranza was at once lodged in the Castle of St. +Angelo, the well known State prison. He was detained there nine years, +until released by Pope Gregory XIII. He was censured for his errors, +and required to abjure the Lutheran principles found in his writings, +and was relieved from his functions as archbishop, to which, however, +his strength, impaired by age and suffering, was no longer equal. While +visiting the seven churches as a penance, he was taken ill, April 23d, +1576, and soon died. Before his death, however, the pope gave him full +indulgence. + +Those who saw him in his last days record that he bore his trials with +dignity and patience. But this learned priest who had been called to +the highest rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, only to be himself +assailed and thrown down, was the same who had sat in cruel judgment +upon Thomas Cranmer and compassed his martyrdom. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE INQUISITION ABROAD + + Fresh field for the Inquisition in Spanish America--Operations begun + by Ximenes and more firmly established by Charles V--Spanish Viceroys' + complaints--Zeal of the Inquisitors checked for a while--Revived + under Philip II--Royal Edict forbidding heretics to emigrate to + Spanish America--Inquisition extended to the Low Countries--Dutch + rebellion proceedings--The Inquisition of the Galleys instituted by + Philip--Growing dislike of the Inquisition--Experiences of Carcel, a + goldsmith--His account of an _auto da fé_--Decline of the powers of + the Inquisition. + + +The acquisition of Spanish America opened a fresh field for the +activity of the Inquisition. Besides the natives there were the New +Christians who had fled across the seas seeking refuge from intolerance +in the old country. Although the emigration of heretics was forbidden +after a time, lest they should spread the hateful doctrines, Cardinal +Ximenes, when inquisitor-general, resolved that the New World should +have its own Holy Office, and appointed Fray Juan de Quevedo, then +Bishop of Cuba, as inquisitor-general of the "Tierra Firma" as the +Spanish mainland was commonly called. The Inquisition was more broadly +established by Charles V, who empowered Cardinal Adrian to organise +it and appoint new chiefs. The Dominicans were supreme, as in the +old country, and proceeded with their usual fiery vigour, wandering +at large through the new territories and spreading dismay among the +native population. The Indians retreated in crowds into the interior, +abandoned the Christianity they had never really embraced, and joined +the other native tribes still unsubdued. The Spanish viceroys alarmed +at the general desertion complained to the king at home and the +excessive zeal of the inquisitors was checked for a time. But when +Philip II came into power he would not agree with this milder policy, +and although the inquisitors were no longer permitted to perambulate +the country districts hunting up heretics, the Holy Office was +established with its palaces and prisons in the principal cities and +acted with great vigour. Three great central tribunals were created at +Panama, Lima, and at Cartagena de las Indias, and persecution raged +unceasingly, chiefly directed against Jews and Moors. In the city of +Mexico also there was an inquisitor-general. A royal edict proclaimed +that "no one newly converted to our Holy Faith from being Moor or Jew +nor his child shall pass over into our Indies without our express +license." At the same time the prohibition was extended to any who had +been "reconciled," and to the child or grandchild of anyone who had +worn the _sanbenito_ or of any person burnt or condemned as a heretic +... "all, under penalty of loss of goods and peril of his person, shall +be perpetually banished from the Indies, and if he have no property +let them give him a hundred lashes, publicly." + +The emperor, Charles V, is responsible for the extension of the +Inquisition from Spain to the Low Countries, by which he repaid the +loyal service and devotion the Dutch people had long rendered him. +This Inquisition was headed at first however by a layman, and then +four inquisitors chosen from the secular clergy were named. The +Netherlanders resisted stoutly its establishment and its operation, +and in 1646 it was provided that no sentence should go into effect +unless approved by some member of the provincial council. Heretics +were condemned of course, but the number was not large, though in some +way grossly exaggerated reports of the numbers of victims have gained +credence. Finally, on the application of the people of Brabant, who +declared that the name would injure commercial prosperity in their +district, the name was dropped altogether. At best it was a faint and +feeble copy of the Spanish institution, and during the reign of Charles +was little feared. In proof we may cite the fact that eleven successive +edicts were necessary to keep the Inquisition at work between 1620 and +1650. + +Philip II, on his accession, attempted to increase the power of the +institution, with the hope of uprooting the reformed doctrines. The +assertion, often made, however, that the Inquisition is responsible for +the revolt of the Netherlands is entirely too broad. Other factors than +religious differences entered into the complex situation. The terrible +war which finally resulted in the independence of the Protestant +Netherlands, falls outside the plan of this volume. + +Philip wished to extend the sway of the Inquisition and planned a +naval tribunal to take cognisance of heresy afloat. He created the +Inquisition of the Galleys, or, as it was afterwards styled, of the +Army and Navy. In every sea port a commissary general visited the +shipping to search for prohibited books and make sure of the orthodoxy +of crews and passengers. Even cargoes and bales of merchandise were +examined, lest the taint of heresy should infect them. This marine +inspection was most active in Cadiz, at that time the great centre +of traffic with the far West. A visitor from the Holy Office with a +staff of assistants and familiars boarded every ship on arrival and +departure and claimed that their authority should be respected, so that +nothing might be landed or embarked without their certificate. The +merchants resented this system which brought substantial commercial +disadvantages, and the ships' captains disliked priestly interference +with their crews, whose regular duties were neglected. The men were +kept below under examination, when they were wanted on deck to make or +shorten sail or take advantage of a change in the wind or a turn in the +tide. By degrees the marine Inquisition was thought to impede business +on the High Seas and fell into disuse. + +Under succeeding sovereigns the Holy Office was still favoured and +supported, but the reign of Philip III witnessed loud and frequent +remonstrances against its operation. The Cortes of Castile implored +the king to put some restraint upon the too zealous inquisitors, but +they still wielded their arbitrary powers unchecked, and Philip sought +further encouragement for them from Rome. The accession of Philip IV to +the throne was celebrated by an _auto da fé_, but no victim was put to +death, and the only corporal punishment inflicted was the flogging of +an immoral nun who professed to have made a compact with the devil. She +was led out gagged, and, wearing the _sanbenito_, received two hundred +lashes followed by perpetual imprisonment. Philip IV strove for a time +to check the activity of the Inquisition, but he was too weak and +wavering to make permanent headway against an institution, the leaders +of which knew precisely what they were striving for, and pertinaciously +pursued it. + +A graphic account of what purport to have been the painful experiences +of a poor soul who fell at a later date into the clutches of the +inquisitors is related by himself in a curious pamphlet printed in +Seville, by one Carcel, who was a goldsmith in that city. Evidently +there is the work of another hand in it, however, as it is written with +too much regard for the dramatic to have been his own composition. The +description of the _auto_ is also unusual, and not according to the +usual procedure. + +He says that he was arrested on the 2nd of April, 1680, at ten o'clock +in the evening, as he was finishing a gold necklace for one of the +queen's maids of honour. A week after his first arrest Carcel was +examined. We will quote his own words:-- + +"In an ante-room," he says, "a smith frees me of my irons and I pass +from the ante-chamber to the 'Inquisitor's table,' as the small inner +room is called. It is hung with blue and citron-coloured taffety. +At one end, between the two grated windows, is a gigantic crucifix +and on the central estrade (a table fifteen feet long surrounded by +arm-chairs), with his back to the crucifix, sits the secretary, and on +my right, Francisco Delgado Ganados, the Grand Inquisitor, who is a +secular priest. The other inquisitors had just left, but the ink was +still wet in their quills, and I saw on papers before their chairs some +names marked with red ink. I am seated on a low stool opposite the +secretary. The inquisitor asks my name and profession and why I come +there, exhorting me to confess as the only means of quickly regaining +my liberty. He hears me, but when I fling myself weeping at his knees, +he says coolly there is no hurry about my case; that he has more +pressing business than mine waiting, (the secretary smiles), and he +rings a little silver bell which stands beside him on the black cloth, +for the alcaide who leads me off down a long gallery, where my chest is +brought in and an inventory taken by the secretary. They cut my hair +off and strip me of everything, even to my ring and gold buttons; +but they leave me my beads, my handkerchief and some money I had +fortunately sewn in my garters. I am then led bareheaded into a cell, +and left to think and despair till evening when they bring me supper. + +"The prisoners are seldom put together. Silence perpetual and strict is +maintained in all the cells. If any prisoner should moan, complain or +even pray too loud, the gaolers who watch the corridors night and day +warn them through the grating. If the offence is repeated, they storm +in and load you with blows to intimidate the other prisoners, who, in +the deep grave-like silence, hear your every cry and every blow. + +"Once every two months the inquisitor, accompanied by his secretary +and interpreter, visits the prisoners and asks them if their food is +brought them at regular hours, or if they have any complaint to make +against the gaolers. But this is only a parade of justice, for if a +prisoner dares to utter a complaint, it is treated as mere fanciful +ravings and never attended to. + +"After two months' imprisonment," goes on Carcel, "one Saturday, +when, after my meagre prison dinner, I give my linen, as usual, to +the gaolers to send to the wash, they will not take it and a great +cold breath whispers at my heart--to-morrow is the _auto da fé_. When, +immediately after the vespers at the cathedral, they ring for matins, +which they never do but when rejoicing on the eve of a great feast, +I know that my horrid suspicions are right. Was I glad at my escape +from this living tomb, or was I paralysed by fear, at the pile perhaps +already hewn and stacked for my wretched body? I know not. I was torn +in pieces by the devils that rack the brains of unhappy men. I refused +my next meal, but, contrary to their wont, they pressed it more than +usual. Was it to give me strength to bear my torture? Do God's eyes not +reach to the prisons of the Inquisition? + +"I am just falling into a sickly, fitful sleep, worn out with +conjecturing, when, about eleven o'clock at night, the great bolts of +my cell grind and jolt back and a party of gaolers in black, in a flood +of light, so that they looked like demons on the borders of heaven, +come in. + +"The alcaide throws down by my pallet a heap of clothes, tells me to +put them on and hold myself ready for a second summons. I have no +tongue to answer, as they light my lamp, leave me and lock the door +behind them. Such a trembling seizes me for half an hour, that I cannot +rise and look at the clothes which seem to me shrouds and winding +sheets. I rise at last, throw myself down before the black cross I had +smeared with charcoal on the wall, and commit myself, as a miserable +sinner, into God's hands. I then put on the dress, which consists of a +tunic with long, loose sleeves and hose drawers, all of black serge, +striped with white. + +"At two o'clock in the morning the wretches came and led me into a long +gallery where nearly two hundred men, brought from their various cells, +all dressed in black, stood in a long silent line against the wall of +the long, plain vaulted, cold corridor where, over every two dozen +heads, swung a high brass lamp. We stood silent as a funeral train. +The women, also in black, were in a neighbouring gallery, far out of +our sight. By sad glimpses down a neighbouring dormitory I could see +more men dressed in black, who, from time to time, paced backwards and +forwards. These I afterwards found were men doomed also to be burnt, +not for murder--no, but for having a creed unlike that of the Jesuits. +Whether I was to be burnt or not I did not know, but I took courage, +because my dress was like that of the rest and the monsters could not +dare to put two hundred men at once into one fire, though they did hate +all who love doll-idols and lying miracles. + +"Presently, as we waited sad and silent, gaolers came round and handed +us each a long yellow taper and a yellow scapular, or tabard, crossed +behind and before with red crosses of Saint Andrew. These are the +_sanbenitos_ that Jews, Turks, sorcerers, witches, heathen or perverts +from the Roman Catholic Church are compelled to wear. Now came the +gradation of our ranks--those who have relapsed, or who were obstinate +during their accusations, wear the _zamarra_, which is gray, with +a man's head burning on red faggots painted at the bottom and all +round reversed flames and winged and armed black devils horrible to +behold. I, and seventy others, wear these, and I lose all hope. My +blood turns to ice; I can scarcely keep myself from swooning. After +this distribution they bring us, with hard, mechanical regularity, +pasteboard conical mitres (_corozas_) painted with flames and devils +with the words '_sorcerer_' and '_heretic_' written round the rim. Our +feet are all bare. The condemned men, pale as death, now begin to weep +and keep their faces covered with their hands, round which the beads +are twisted. God only--by speaking from heaven--could save them. A +rough, hard voice now tells us we may sit on the ground till our next +orders come. The old men and boys smile as they eagerly sit down, for +this small relief comes to them with the refreshment of a pleasure. + +"At four o'clock they bring us bread and figs, which some drop by their +sides and others languidly eat. I refuse mine, but a guard prays me to +put it in my pocket for I may yet need it. It is as if an angel had +comforted me. At five o'clock, at daybreak, it was a ghastly sight to +see shame, fear, grief, despair, written on our pale livid faces. Yet +not one but felt an undercurrent of joy at the prospect of any release, +even by death. + +"Suddenly, as we look at each other with ghastly eyes, the great bell +of the Giralda begins to boom with a funeral knell, long and slow. It +was the signal of the gala day of the Holy Office, it was the signal +for the people to come to the show. We are filed out one by one. As +I pass the gallery in the great hall, I see the inquisitor, solemn +and stern, in his black robes, throned at the gate. Beneath him is +his secretary, with a list of the citizens of Seville in his wiry +twitching hands. The room is full of the anxious frightened burghers, +who, as their names are called and a prisoner passes through, move +to his trembling side to serve as his godfather in the Act of Faith. +The honest men shudder as they take their place in the horrible death +procession. The time-serving smile at the inquisitor, and bustle +forward. This is thought an honourable office and is sought after by +hypocrites and suspected men afraid of the Church's sword. + +"The procession commences with the Dominicans. Before them flaunts the +banner of the order in glistening embroidery that burns in the sun +and shines like a mirror, the frocked saint, holding a threatening +sword in one hand, and in the other, an olive branch with the motto, +'Justitia et misericordia' (Justice and mercy). Behind the banner +come the prisoners in their yellow scapulars, holding their lighted +torches, their feet bleeding with the stones and their less frightened +godfathers, gay in cloak and sword and ruff tripping along by their +side, holding their plumed hats in their hands. The street and windows +are crowded with careless eyes, and children are held up to execrate +us as we pass to our torturing death. The _auto da fé_ was always a +holiday sight to the craftsmen and apprentices; it drew more than even +a bull fight, because of the touch of tragedy about it. Our procession, +like a long black snake, winds on, with its banners and crosses, its +shaven monks and mitred bare-footed prisoners, through street after +street, heralded by soldiers who run before to clear a way for us--to +stop mules and clear away fruit-stalls, street-performers and their +laughing audiences. We at last reach the Church of All the Saints, +where, tired, dusty, bleeding and faint we are to hear mass. + +"The church has a grave-vault aspect and is dreadfully like a charnel +house. The great altar is veiled in black, and is lit with six silver +candlesticks, whose flames shine like yellow stars with clear twinkle +and a soft halo round each black, fire-tipped wick. On each side of +the altar, that seems to bar out God and his mercy from us and to +wrap the very sun in a grave cloak, are two thrones, one for the +grand-inquisitor and his counsel, another for the king and his court. +The one is filled with sexton-like lawyers, the other with jewelled and +feathered men. + +"In front of the great altar and near the door where the blessed +daylight shines with hope and joy, but not for us, is another altar, +on which six gilded and illuminated missals lie open; those books of +the Gospels, too, in which I had once read such texts as--God is love; +Forgive as ye would be forgiven; Faith, hope, charity: these three, +but the greatest of these is charity. Near this lesser altar the monks +had raised a balustraded gallery, with bare benches, on which sat +the criminals in their yellow and flame-striped tabards with their +godfathers. The doomed ones came last, the more innocent first. Those +who entered the black-hung church first, passing up nearest to the +altar sat there, either praying or in a frightened trance of horrid +expectancy. The trembling living corpses wearing the mitres, yellow and +red, came last, preceded by a gigantic crucifix, the face turned from +them. + +"Immediately following these poor mitred men came servitors of the +Inquisition, carrying four human effigies fastened to long staves, +and four chests containing the bones of those men who had died before +the fire could be got ready. The coffers were painted with flames and +demons and the effigies wore the dreadful mitre and the crimson and +yellow shirt all a-flame with paint. The effigies sometimes represented +men tried for heresy since their death and whose estates had since been +confiscated and their effigies doomed to be burnt as a warning; for no +one within their reach may escape if they differ in opinion with the +Inquisition. + +"Every prisoner being now in his place--godfathers, torchmen, pikemen, +musketeers, inquisitors, and flaunting court--the Provincial of the +Augustins mounted the pulpit, followed by his ministrant and preached +a stormy, denouncing, exulting sermon, half an hour long (it seemed +a month of anguish), in which he compared the Church with burning +eloquence to Noah's ark; but with this difference, that those animals +who entered it before the deluge came out of it unaltered, but the +blessed Inquisition had, by God's blessing, the power of changing those +whom its walls once enclosed, turning them out meek as the lambs he saw +around him so tranquil and devout, all of whom had once been cruel as +wolves and savage and daring as lions. + +"This sermon over, two readers mounted the pulpit to shout the list of +names of the condemned, their crimes (now, for the first time, known to +them) and their sentences. We grew all ears and trembled as each name +was read. + +"As each name was called the alcaide led out the prisoner from his pen +to the middle of the gallery opposite the pulpit, where he remained +standing, taper in hand. After the sentence he was led to the altar +where he had to put his hand on one of the missals and to remain there +on his knees. + +"At the end of each sentence, the reader stopped to pronounce in a +loud, angry voice, a full confession of faith, which he exhorted us, +the guilty, to join with heart and voice. Then we all returned to +our places. My offence, I found, was having spoken bitterly of the +Inquisition, and having called a crucifix a mere bit of cut ivory. I +was therefore declared excommunicated, my goods confiscated to the +king, I was banished Spain and condemned to the Havana galleys for +five years with the following penances: I must renounce all friendship +with heretics and suspected persons; I must, for three years, confess +and communicate three times a month; I must recite five times a day, +for three years, the Pater and Ave Maria in honour of the Five Wounds; +I must hear mass and sermon every Sunday and feast day; and above all, +I must guard carefully the secret of all I had said, heard, or seen +in the Holy Office (which oath, as the reader will observe, I have +carefully kept). + +"The inquisitor then quitted his seat, resumed his robes and followed +by twenty priests, each with a staff in his hand, passed into the +middle of the church and with divers prayers some of us were relieved +from excommunication, each of us receiving a blow from a priest. +Once, such an insult would have sent the blood in a rush to my head, +and I had died but I had given a return buffet; now, so weak and +broken-spirited was I, I burst into tears. + +"Now, one by one, those condemned to the stake, faint and staggering, +were brought in to hear their sentences, which they did with a +frightened vacancy, inconceivably touching, but the inquisitors were +gossiping among themselves and scarcely looked at them. Every sentence +ended with the same cold mechanical formula: That the Holy Office being +unhappily unable to pardon the prisoners present, on account of their +relapse and impenitence, found itself obliged to punish them with all +the rigour of earthly law, and therefore delivered them with regret +to the hands of secular justice, praying it to use clemency and mercy +towards the wretched men, saving their souls by the punishment of +their bodies and recommending death, but not effusion of blood. Cruel +hypocrites! + +"At the word blood the hangmen stepped forward and took possession of +the bodies, the alcaide first striking each of them on the chest to +show that they were now abandoned to the rope and fire." Then he goes +on to describe the scene at the _quemadero_, which, however, included +nothing of importance not already mentioned elsewhere. + +After the death of Philip IV, and during the minority of his son, +Charles II, Father Nithard, a Jesuit, who combined the two forces +long in opposition, the disciples of Loyola and the descendants of +Torquemada, was for a time inquisitor-general. The Holy Office was +hotly opposed by Don John of Austria, a natural son of Philip IV, +who rose to political power and would have fallen a victim to the +Inquisition had not popular indignation sided with him against Nithard, +who fled from Spain to Rome. He was stripped of all his offices but +still kept the favour of the queen-mother who finally secured for him +from Pope Clement X the coveted cardinal's hat. Don John was unequal +to the task of curbing the power of the Inquisition, however, and the +institution claimed wider and wider jurisdiction. + +Growing dissatisfaction prevailed, and in 1696, the king, Charles II, +summoned a conference or Grand Junta to enquire into the complaints +that poured in from all quarters against the Inquisition. It was +composed of two councillors of state from Castile, Aragon, the Indies, +and the Spanish provinces in Italy, with two members of the religious +orders. It reported that the Holy Office exercised illegal powers, +still arrogated the right to throw persons of rank into prison and +cover their families with disgrace. It punished with merciless severity +the slightest opposition or disrespect shown to dependents or familiars +who had come to enjoy extensive and exorbitant privileges. They claimed +secular jurisdiction in matters nowise appertaining to religion, +and set aside restrictions contained in their own canon law. The +Junta strongly recommended that these restrictions should be rigidly +enforced, and that no one should be thrown into the prisons of the +Inquisition, save on charges of an heretical nature. It urged the right +of appeal to the throne, and the removal of all causes to the royal +courts for trial. It detailed the privileges granted to the servants +of the Holy Office. Even a coachman or a lackey demanded reverence and +might conduct himself with unbounded insolence. If a servant girl were +not treated obsequiously in a shop she might complain and the offender +was liable to be cast into the dungeons of the Inquisition. So great +was the discontent, so many tumults arose, that the Junta would have +all such unrighteous privileges curtailed, and would authorise the +civil courts to keep the encroachments of the Holy Office in check. + +With the eighteenth century the authority of the Holy Office visibly +waned. Philip V, a French prince, and a grandson of Louis XIV, whose +succession produced the long protracted war of the Spanish Succession, +declined to be honoured with an _auto da fé_ at his coronation, but he +maintained the Inquisition as an instrument of despotic government, +and actually used it to punish as heretics those who had any doubt +concerning his title to the crown. Yet he rather used the Inquisition +than supported it; for he deprived of his office an inquisitor-general +who had presumed to proceed for heresy against a high officer. The +Cortes of Castile again, (1714), recorded their condemnation, but +without any further benefit than that which must eventually result +from the disclosure of a truth. The same body reiterated their +disapproval a few years afterwards, (1720). But while Philip V used the +Inquisition for his own service, and the heretical doctrine which had +prevailed two centuries before no longer left a trace behind, there +were multitudes of persons accused of attempting to revive Judaism and +others gave offence by their efforts to promote Freemasonry. This gave +the inquisitors abundant pretext for the discharge of their political +mission. + +During the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV, a revival of +literature and an advance in political science guided the attention +of the clergy and the government to the position of the court of Rome, +as well as to the proceedings of the inquisitors. The former of these +monarchs nearly yielded to the advice of his councillors to suppress +the Inquisition, as well as to expel the Jesuits. He banished the +Society, but, in regard to the Inquisition, said: "The Spaniards want +it and it gives me no trouble." + +Meanwhile death sentences nearly ceased, and once when a good man was +sentenced to be delivered to the secular arm, in compliance with the +letter of the law, the inquisitors let him go free. By this contrivance +Don Miguel Solano, priest of Esco, a town in Aragon, walked out of +the prison of the Inquisition in Saragossa, as a maniac, forgiven his +heresy, and lived on as a maniac, exempted from priestly ministrations, +while every one knew him to be a reasonable man and treated him +accordingly. In the end he died, refusing Extreme Unction, and was +buried in unconsecrated ground within the walls of the Inquisition on +the banks of the Ebro. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA + + The Inquisition in Spain abolished by Napoleon's invasion--Its + revival--Persecution of the Freemasons--The "Tribunal of Faith" + established--Inquisition in Portugal--The case of an Englishman + who is arrested, tortured and burnt alive--Difference between + the Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal--The supreme power of the + Holy Office in Portugal in the eighteenth century--The terrible + earthquake at Lisbon--Establishment of the Holy Office in India at + Goa--Description of the Inquisition prison at Goa by M. Dellon--Case + of Father Ephrem--His arrest and rescue by the English from the hands + of the inquisitors. + + +Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the removal of the young king, +Ferdinand VII, to France, put an end to the Inquisition. When the +Emperor took possession of Madrid, he called upon all public bodies +to submit to his authority, but the Holy Office refused. Whereupon he +issued an order to arrest the inquisitors, abolish the Inquisition, +and sequestrate its revenues. All Spain did not readily yield to the +French conqueror, and when the Cortes met in Cadiz they empowered one +of the inquisitors, who had escaped, to reconstitute the tribunal, but +it was never really restored. At the same time, the governing powers +appointed a special commission to enquire into the legal status of the +ancient body, and to decide whether the Inquisition had any legal right +to exist. A report was published in 1812, reviewing its whole history +and condemning it as incompatible with the liberties of the country. +The indictment against it was couched in very vigorous language. It was +held to have been guilty of the most harsh and oppressive measures; to +have inflicted the most cruel and illegal punishments; "in the darkness +of the night it had dragged the husband from the side of his wife, the +father from the children, the children from their parents, and none may +see the other again until they are absolved or condemned without having +had the means of contributing to their defence or knowing whether they +had been fairly tried." The result was a law passed by the Cortes to +suppress the Inquisition in Spain. + +The restoration of Ferdinand VII, at the termination of the war in +1814, gave the Inquisition fresh life. He resented the action taken by +the Cortes, arrested its members, and cast them into prison, declaring +them to be infidels and rebels, and forthwith issued a decree reviving +the tribunal of the Holy Office. Its supreme council met in Seville and +persecution was renewed under the new inquisitor-general, Xavier Mier y +Campillo, who put out a fresh list of prohibited books, tried to raise +revenues and issued a new Edict of Faith. There might have been another +_auto da fé_ even in the nineteenth century, but informers would +not come forward and latter-day victims could not be found. Dread, +nevertheless, prevailed, and numbers fled for refuge into foreign +lands. Fierce energy was directed against the Freemasons, for during +the French occupation, the palace of the Inquisition at Seville had +been used, partly as a common gaol and partly as a Freemasons' lodge. +The members of the craft who were found in Spain were dealt with as +heretics, and all Freemasons were excommunicated. + +For a time the Inquisition languished, although favoured by the +arbitrary régime introduced by Ferdinand VII, who sought to reinstate +it on its former lines. It was destroyed or at least suspended by +the Revolution of 1820, and on his restoration, the king did not +reëstablish it, though the officials still hoped for a better day and +continued to draw their salaries. Some of the bishops established +_juntas de fé_, which took up much the same work, and July 26th, 1826, +a poor schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll, was hanged for heresy--the last +execution for this crime in Spain. Finally, January 4th, 1834, the +Inquisition was definitely abolished, and the _juntas de fé_ were +abolished the next year. + +The Inquisition extended its influence into the neighbouring country of +Portugal, which was an independent kingdom until conquered by Philip +II in 1580. Here persecution prevailed from the fifteenth century, +chiefly of the Jews and new Christians, who flocked into the country +from Spain, and were treated with great severity. The Holy Office +was set up in Lisbon under an inquisitor-general, Diego de Silva, and +Portugal was divided into inquisitional districts. _Autos da fé_ were +frequent, and on a scale hardly known in Spain, though the records are +fragmentary. + +From among the cases reported, we may quote that of an Englishman, a +native of Bristol, engaged in commerce in Lisbon, who boldly assaulted +the cardinal archbishop in the act of performing mass. Gardiner, +as fiercely intolerant as those of the dominant religion who were +worshipping according to their own rites, attacked the priest when he +elevated the host, "snatched away the cake with one hand, trod it under +his feet, and with the other overthrew the chalice." The congregation, +at first utterly astounded, raised one great cry and fell bodily upon +the sacrilegious wretch, who was promptly stabbed in the shoulder and +haled before the king, who was present in the cathedral, and forthwith +interrogated. It was thought that he had been instigated by the English +Protestants to this outrageous insult, but he declared that he had been +solely moved by his abhorrence of the idolatry he had witnessed. He was +imprisoned and with him all the English in Lisbon. So soon as his wound +was healed, he was examined by the Holy Office, tortured and condemned. +Then he was carried to the market place on an ass and his left hand +was cut off; thence he was taken to the river side and by a rope and +pulley hoisted over a pile of wood which was set on fire. "In spite +of the great torment he continued in a constant spirit and the more +terribly he burned the more vehemently he prayed." He was in the act of +reciting a psalm, when by the use of exceeding violence, the burning +rope broke and he was precipitated into the devouring flames. + +A fellow lodger of Gardiner was detained in the Inquisition for two +years, and was frequently tortured to elicit evidence against other +Englishmen, but without avail. A Scotch professor of Greek in the +university of Coimbra was charged with Lutheranism, and imprisoned for +a year and a half, after which he was committed to a monastery so that +he might be instructed by the monks in the true religion. They did not +change his views and he was presently set free. Another, an English +shipmaster, was less fortunate and was burned alive as a heretic at +Lisbon. + +It has been observed that, on comparison of the Inquisitions of Spain +and Portugal, a certain marked difference was disclosed between them. +The same precise rigour of the Spanish inquisitors was not exhibited +by the Portuguese. In Portugal the discipline was more savage yet +more feeble. Yet in the latter country there was a brutal and more +wanton excess in inflicting pain at the _autos da fé_. When convicts +were about to suffer they were taken before the Lord Chief Justice to +answer the enquiry as to what religion they intended to die in. If +the answer was "in the Roman Catholic Apostolic," the order was given +that they should be strangled before burning. If in the Protestant, or +in any other religion, death in the flames was decreed. At Lisbon the +place of execution, as has been said, was at the waterside. A thick +stake was erected for each person condemned, with a wide crosspiece +at the top against which a crosspiece was nailed to receive the tops +of two ladders. In the centre the victim was secured by a chain, with +a Jesuit priest on either side, seated on a ladder, who proceeded to +exhort him to repentance. If they failed they declared they left him +to the devil and the mob roared, "Let the dog's beard be trimmed," in +other words, "his face scorched." This was effected by applying an +ignited furze bush at the end of a long pole till his face was burned +and blackened. The record of the Portuguese Inquisition to 1794 shows a +total of one thousand, one hundred and seventy-five relaxed in person, +_i. e._ executed, six hundred and thirty-three relaxed in effigy, and +twenty-nine thousand, five hundred and ninety penanced. + +The Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade with the Far East +and, after Vasco de Gama had discovered India, Albuquerque annexed and +occupied Goa, which might have become the seat and centre of the great +empire which fell at length into British hands. + +Portugal sacrificed all power and prosperity to the extirpation of +heresy in its new possessions and was chiefly concerned in the +establishment of the Holy Office in India. The early Portuguese +settlers in the East clamoured loudly for the Inquisition; the Jesuit +fathers who were zealous in their propaganda in India declared that +the tribunal was most necessary in Goa, owing to the prevailing +licentiousness and the medley of all nations and superstitions. It +was accordingly established in 1560, and soon commenced its active +operations with terrific vigour. General baptisms were frequent in +this the ecclesiastical metropolis of India, and so were _autos da fé_ +conducted with great pomp with many victims. + +A light upon the proceedings of the Holy Office in Goa is afforded by +the story told by a French traveller, M. Dellon, who was arrested at +the instance of the Portuguese governor at Damaum, and imprisoned at +Goa in the private prison of the archbishop. "The most filthy," says +Dellon, "the darkest and most horrible of any I had ever seen.... It +is a kind of cave wherein there is no day seen but by a very little +hole. The most subtle rays of the sun cannot enter it and there is +never any true light in it. The stench is extreme...." M. Dellon +was dragged before the Board of the Holy Office, seated in the Holy +House, which is described as a great and magnificent building, "one +side of a great space before the church of St. Catherine." There were +three gates. The prisoners entered by the central or largest, and +ascending a stately flight of steps, reached the great hall. Behind the +principal building was another very spacious, two stories high +and consisting of a double row of cells. Those on the ground floor +were the smallest, due to the greater thickness of the walls, and +had no apertures for light or air. The upper cells were vaulted and +whitewashed, and each had a small strongly grated window without glass. +The cells had double doors, the outer of which was kept constantly +open, an indispensable plan in this climate or the occupant must have +died of suffocation. + +[Illustration: _Peint par D. F. Laugée_ +_Photogravure Goupil & C^{ie}._ + +_The Question_ + +One of the forms of torture before a tribunal of the Inquisition, used +in the examination of the accused. Lighted charcoal was placed under +the victim's feet, which were greased over with lard, so that the heat +of the fire might more quickly become effective.] + +The régime was, to some extent, humane. Water for ablutions was +provided and for drinking purposes, food was given sparingly in three +daily meals, but was wholesome in quality. Physicians were at hand +to attend the sick and confessors to wait on the dying, but they +administered no unction, gave no viaticum, said no mass. If any died, +as many did, his death was unknown to all without. He was buried within +the walls with no sacred ceremony, and if it was decided that he had +died in heresy, his bones were exhumed to be burnt at the next act of +Faith. While alive he lived apart in all the strictness of the modern +solitary cell. Alone and silent, for the prisoner was forbidden to +speak, he was not allowed even to groan or sob or sigh aloud. + +The Holy Office in Goa was worked on the same lines as that of Spain as +already described and by the same officers. There was the _Inquisidor +Mor_ or grand-inquisitor, a secular priest, a second or assistant +inquisitor, a Dominican monk, with many deputies; "qualifiers," to +examine books and writings; a fiscal and a procurator; notaries and +familiars. The authority of the tribunal was absolute in Goa except +that the great officials, archbishop and his grand-vicar, the viceroy +and the governor, could not be arrested without the sanction of the +supreme council in Lisbon. The procedure, the examination and use of +torture was exactly as in other places. + +M. Dellon was taxed with having spoken ill of the Inquisition, and +was called upon to confess his sins, being constantly brought out and +again relegated to his cell and continually harassed to make him accuse +himself, until in a frenzy of despair he resolved to commit suicide +by refusing food. The physician bled him and treated him for fever, +but he tore off the bandages hoping to bleed to death. He was taken up +insensible, restored by cordials, and carried before the inquisitor, +where he lay on the floor and was assailed with bitter reproaches, +heavily ironed and sent back to languish in his cell in a wild access +of fury approaching madness. + +At last the great day of the Act of Faith approached, and Dellon heard +on every side the agonised cries of both men and women. During the +night the alcaide and warders came into his cell with lights bringing +a suit of clothes, linen, best trousers, black striped with white. He +was marched to join a couple of hundred other penitents squatted on +the floor along the sides of a spacious gallery, all motionless but +in an agony of apprehension, for none knew his doom. A large company +of women were collected in a neighbouring chamber and a third lot in +_sanbenitos_, among whom the priests moved seeking confessions and if +made the boon of strangulation was conceded before "tasting the fire." + +Shortly before sunrise the great bell of the Cathedral tolled and +roused the city into life. People filled the chief streets, lined the +thoroughfares and crowded into places whence they might best see the +procession. With daylight Dellon saw from the faces of his companions +that they were mostly Indians with but a dozen white men among them. M. +Dellon went barefoot with the rest over the loose flints of the badly +paved streets, and, at length, cut and bleeding, entered the church of +St. Francisco, for the ceremony could not be performed under the fierce +sky of this torrid climate. Dellon's punishment was confiscation of all +his property, and banishment from India, with five years' service in +the galleys of Portugal. + +The rest of his sad adventures may be told briefly. He was brought +back to Lisbon and worked at the oar with other convicts for some +years, when at the intercession of friends in France the Portuguese +government consented to release him. There is no record that the French +authorities made any claim or reclamation for the ill-usage of a French +subject. + +It was otherwise with their neighbours, the English, who even before +their power in India was established, would not suffer the Portuguese +authorities in Goa to ill-treat a person who could claim British +protection. A French Capuchin, named Father Ephrem, had visited Madras +when on his way to join the Catholic mission in Pegu. He was invited to +remain in Madras and was promised entire liberty with respect to his +religion, and permitted to minister to the Catholics already settled +in the factory. In the course of his preaching he laid down a dogma +offensive, as it was asserted, to the Mother of God, and information +thereof was laid with the inquisitors at Goa, who made their plans to +kidnap Father Ephrem and carry him off to Goa, some six hundred miles +distant from Madras. The plot succeeded and the French Capuchin was +lodged in the prison of the Holy Office at Goa. This was not to be +brooked by the English in Madras. An English ship forthwith proceeded +to Goa and a party of ten determined men, well-armed, landed and +appeared at the gates of the Inquisition and demanded admittance. +Leaving a couple of men on guard at the gate, the rest entered the gaol +and insisted at the point of the sword that Father Ephrem should be +forthwith surrendered to them. An order thus enforced was irresistible, +and the prisoner was released, taken down to the ship's boat, +reëmbarked and carried back in safety to Madras. + +The aims of the Inquisition are no longer those of modern communities. +So widely has the idea of toleration extended, that we often forget +how recent it is. The relations of Church and State are so changed in +the last two centuries, that it is difficult to understand the times +of the Spanish Inquisition. Then it was universally believed that +orthodoxy in faith was intimately connected with loyalty to the state. +As a matter of fact, nearly all the earlier heretical movements were +also social or political revolts. It is, therefore, easy to see how +heresy and high treason came to appear identical. + +Some of the inquisitors were corrupt, others were naturally cruel, +others, drunk with power, were more zealous in exerting that power +than they were in deciding between guilt and innocence. On the other +hand many were zealous because of their honesty. If a man believes +that he knows the only hope of salvation, it is perfectly logical +to compel another by force, if necessary, to follow that hope. Any +physical punishment is slight compared with the great reward which +reconciliation brings. On the other hand, if he is firm in his heresy, +he is as dangerous as a wild beast. We are more tolerant now, less +certain, perhaps, of our ground, but three or four hundred years ago +these points were a stern reality. + +That many inquisitors were more concerned with the Church as an +institution than as a means of salvation is also true. They punished +disrespect to an officer or to a law more severely than they did +a doctrinal error, but that was, perhaps, inevitable. The Spanish +Inquisition, which, as has been said, was to some extent a state +affair, punished many for what we might call trifling offences, or, +indeed, no offence at all, but it was an intolerant age, in and out of +Spain. + +The number punished has been grossly exaggerated, but it was enough to +injure Spain permanently, to crush out freedom of thought and action to +an unwarrantable extent. The historian must attribute much of Spain's +decadence to the work of the mistaken advocate of absolute uniformity. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS + + Slow development of Prison Reform in Spain--Description of the old + Saladero--George Borrow's account of his arrest and imprisonment + there--Balseiro's escape and subsequent escapades--He seizes the two + sons of a wealthy Basque and holds them for ransom--His capture and + execution--The _valientes_ or bullies--The cruelties they practised + upon their weaker fellow prisoners--Don Rafael Salillas' description + of the Seville prison. + + +The prisons in Spain have been generally divided into three categories: +First, the _depositos correcionales_, the _cárceles_ or common gaols, +one in the capital of each province, to which were sent accused persons +and all sentenced to two years or less; second, the _presidios_ of +the Peninsula for convicts between two years and eight years; and +third, the African penal settlements for terms beyond eight years. +The character and condition of the bulk of these places of durance +long continued most unsatisfactory. In 1888 in an official report, the +Minister of Grace and Justice said, "The present state of the Spanish +prisons is not enchanting. They are neither safe nor wholesome, nor +adapted to the ends in view." This criticism was fully borne out by +the result of a general inquiry instituted. It was found that of a +total of four hundred and fifty-six of the correctional prisons only +one hundred and sixty-six were really fit for the purpose intended and +the remainder were installed in any buildings available. Some were very +ancient, dating back to the 16th century; and had once been palaces, +religious houses, castles or fortresses. + +Many of these buildings were ancient monuments which suffered much +injury from the ignoble rôle to which they were put. A protest was +published by a learned society of Madrid against the misuse of the +superb ex-convents of San Gregorio in Valladolid and San Isidro del +Campo near Seville, and the mutilation by its convict lodgers of the +very beautiful gateway of the Templo de la Piedad in Guadalajara. The +installation of the prison at Palma de Mallorca all but hopelessly +impaired the magnificent cloisters of the convent of San Francisco, a +thirteenth century architectural masterpiece, and a perfect specimen of +the ogival form, like nothing else in Spain. Within a short period of +ten years several of these interesting old buildings were ruined. The +entire convent prison at Coruña sank, causing many casualties, loss of +life and serious wounds. + +Sometimes the authorities hired private dwellings to serve as prisons, +or laid hands on whatever they could find. At Granada a slice of the +Court House was used, a dark triangle to which air came only from the +interior yard. The prison of Allariz at Orense was on the ground floor +of a house in the street, having two windows looking directly on to +it, guarded by a grating with bars so far apart that a reasonably thin +man could slip through. One of the worst features of many of these +ancient prisons was their location in the very heart of the towns with +communication to the street. Friends gathered at the _rejas_ outside, +and the well known picture of flirtation at the prison window was +drawn from life. A common sight also was the outstretched hand of the +starving prisoner imploring alms from the charitable, for there was no +regular or sufficient supply of provisions within. Free access was also +possible when the domestic needs of the interior took the prisoners to +the public well in the street. + +The Carmona gaol in Seville was for years half in ruins; no sunlight +reached any part of it with the exception of two of the yards; the +dungeons had no ventilation except by a hole in their doors; an open +sewer ran through the gaol, the floors were always wet, fleas abounded, +as also rats, beetles and cockroaches; cooking was done in one corner +of the exercising yard and clothes were washed in the other. The +removal of the gaol was ordered and plans for a new building prepared +in 1864, but they were pigeon-holed until 1883, then sent back to be +revised, and the project is still delayed. The Colmenar prison of +Malaga was always under water in heavy rain, and although simple +repairs would have rectified this, nothing was done. The prison of Leon +was condemned in 1878 as unfit for human habitation, and its alcalde +(governor) stated that it had been reported for a century or more that +it wanted light, air and sanitary arrangements; typhoid was endemic +and three alcaldes had died of zymotic disease in a few years. It +was generally denounced as "a poisonous pesthouse, a judicial burial +ground." The Totana prison of Murcia was not properly a prison, but +only a range of warehouses and shops fit for the storage of grain +and herbs, but wholly unsuitable to lodge human beings. The district +governor speaking of the Infiesto prison at Oviedo in 1853 wrote: +"Humanity shudders at the horrible aspect of this detestable place." + +At Cartagena the common gaol was on the ground floor of the _presidio_ +or convict prison. Here the innocent, still untried prisoners occupied +a dark, damp den, enduring torments of discomfort, speedily losing +health and strength, and exposed by its ruinous condition to the +extremes of heat and cold in the varying seasons. Females were lodged +on a lower floor, darker and closer and even exposed to the worst +temptations. The convicts of the _presidio_ had free access to their +prison and immorality could not be prevented; no amount of supervision +(and there was really none) could have checked the moral contamination +more easily conveyed than the physical. These painful facts may be +read in an official report dated October, 1877, and are practically the +same as those detailed in the famous indictment of John Howard just a +century earlier.[9] + +[9] "Vida Penal en Espana," by Rafael Salillas, Madrid, 1888. + +Many of the makeshift prisons mentioned above were located in the very +heart of towns and were without boundary walls or means of separation +from the public, and two hundred and sixty-four had windows giving upon +the streets. It was impossible to ensure safe custody so limited was +the supervision, so insecure and ruinous the state of these imperfect +prisons. Escapes had been of very frequent occurrence, but the total +number could not be stated owing to the absence of accurate records +from year to year. One authority gave the annual average of escapes +as thirty-four, ranging over five successive years. They were greatly +facilitated by the slack, slipshod system of discipline and the +careless guard kept at the gates through which crowds constantly passed +in and out. Friends admitted wholesale to visit prisoners brought in +disguises and easily helped them to evade the vigilance of warders and +keepers. Escapes were most numerous in the small gaols,--about three +to one when compared to those from the _presidios_,--and were often +effected on the way to gaol through the neglect or connivance of the +escort, especially when the journey was made on foot and officers in +charge willingly consented to linger on the road in order to enjoy +themselves in the taverns and drinking shops. They even allowed their +prisoners to pay lengthened visits to their own homes if situated +anywhere near. + +A famous escape took place, _en masse_, in one of the prisons on the +occasion of a theatrical performance given by the prisoners in honour +of the governor's birthday. Permission had been duly accorded and the +function was organised on an imposing scale. The stage was erected in +an open space, scenery provided and a fine curtain or act drop behind +which the usual preparations were made. These had not gone beyond +rehearsal, however. All was ready to "ring up," the prison audience all +seated, enduring with increased impatience and dissatisfaction the long +wait which seemed and was actually endless. At last the authorities +interposed and the governor sent a messenger behind the curtain with +a peremptory order to begin. There was no company. Every single soul, +manager and actors had disappeared under cover of the curtain. A great +hole or gap had been made in the outer wall, through which all of the +performers had passed out to freedom. + +Numerous as are the escapes, recaptures are also frequent. That fine +corps, the _guardias civiles_, which constitutes the rural police of +Spain, always so active in the prevention and suppression of crime, has +been highly successful in the pursuit of fugitives, few of whom remain +at large for any length of time. Travellers in Spain, especially in +the country districts, must have been struck with the fine appearance +of these stalwart champions of the law. They are all old soldiers, well +trained and disciplined, ever on the side of order, never mixing in +politics, and conspicuous for their loyalty to the existing régime. + +The most disgraceful of the old prisons were in Madrid. The Saladero +which survived until very recently had been once an abattoir and +salting place of pigs. But it replaced one more ancient and even worse +in every aspect. The earlier construction is described by a Spanish +writer, Don Francisco Lastres, as the most meagre, the darkest, +dirtiest place imaginable. It had yet a deeper depth, an underground +dungeon, commonly called "el Infierno," hell itself, in which light was +so scarce that when new comers arrived, the old occupants could only +make out their faces by striking matches, manufactured from scraps of +linen steeped in grease saved from their soup or salad oil. When the +gaol was emptied it was so encrusted with abominable filth that to +clean it was out of the question and the whole place was swept bodily +out of existence. + +This must have been the prison in which George Borrow was confined when +that enterprising Englishman was arrested for endeavouring to circulate +the Bible in Spain, as the agent and representative of the British +Bible Society in 1835 and the following years. His experiences as told +by himself constitute one of the most thrilling books of adventure in +the English language, and his strangely interesting personality will +long be remembered and admired. He had led a very varied life, had +wandered the world over as the friend and associate of those curious +people, the gipsies, whose "crabbed" language he spoke with fluency +and to whose ways and customs he readily conformed. Readers whom his +"Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" have delighted will bear witness to the +daring and intrepid character which carried him safely through many +difficult and dangerous situations. He was a man of great stature, well +trained in the art of self defence, as he proved by his successful +contest with the "Flaming Tinker" described in "Lavengro." The bigoted +Spanish authorities caught a Tartar in Borrow. It was easy to arrest +him as he was nothing loth to go to gaol; he had long been thinking, as +he tells us, "of paying a visit to the prison, partly in the hope of +being able to say a few words of Christian instruction to the criminals +and partly with a view to making certain investigations in the robber +language of Spain." But, once in, he refused to come out. He took +high ground; his arrest had been unlawful; he had never been tried +or condemned and nothing would satisfy him but a full and complete +apology from the Spanish government. He was strongly backed up by the +British Ambassador and he was gratified in the end by the almost abject +surrender of the authorities. But he spent three weeks within the +walls and we have to thank his indomitable spirit for a glimpse into +the gloomy recesses of the Carcel de la Corte, the chief prison, at +that time, of the capital of Spain. + +The arrest was made openly in one of the principal streets of Madrid by +a couple of _alguazils_ who carried their prisoner to the office of the +_corregidor_, or chief magistrate, where he was abruptly informed that +he was to be forthwith committed to gaol. He was led across the Plaza +Mayor, the great square so often the scene in times past of the _autos +da fé_. Borrow, as he went, cast his eyes at the balcony of the city +hall where, on one occasion, "the last of the Austrian line in Spain +(Philip II) sat, and, after some thirty heretics of both sexes had been +burnt by fours and fives, wiped his face perspiring with heat and black +with smoke and calmly inquired, '_No hay mas?_'" (No more to come?) for +which exemplary proof of patience he was much applauded by his priests +and confessors, who subsequently poisoned him. + +"We arrived at the prison," Borrow goes on, "which stands in a narrow +street not far from the great square. We entered a dusty passage at +the end of which was a wicket. There was an exchange of words and in a +few moments I found myself within the prison of Madrid, in a kind of +corridor which overlooked at a considerable altitude what appeared to +be a court from which arose a hubbub of voices and occasional wild +shouts and cries...." Several people sat here, one of whom received the +warrant of committal, perused it with attention and, rising, advanced +towards Borrow. + +"What a figure! He was about forty years of age and ... in height might +have been some six feet two inches had his body not been curved much +after the fashion of the letter S. No weasel ever appeared lanker; +his face might have been called handsome, had it not been for his +extraordinary and portentous meagreness; his nose was like an eagle's +bill, his teeth white as ivory, his eyes black (oh, how black!) and +fraught with a strange expression; his skin was dark and the hair +of his head like the plumage of a raven. A deep quiet smile dwelt +continually on his features, but with all the quiet it was a cruel +smile, such a one as would have graced the countenance of a Nero. + +"'_Caballero_,' he said, 'allow me to introduce myself as the alcaide +of this prison.... I am to have the honour of your company for a time, +a short time doubtless, beneath this roof; I hope you will banish +every apprehension from your mind. I am charged to treat you with all +respect, a needless charge and _Caballero_, you will rather consider +yourself here as a guest than as a prisoner. Pray issue whatever +commands you may think fit to the turnkeys and officials as if they +were your own servants. I will now conduct you to your apartment. We +invariably reserve it for cavaliers of distinction. No charge will be +made for it although the daily hire is not unfrequently an ounce of +gold.' + +"This speech was delivered in pure sonorous Castilian with calmness, +gravity and almost dignity and would have done honour to a gentleman +of high birth. Now, who in the name of wonder, was this alcaide? One +of the greatest rascals in all Spain. A fellow who more than once by +his grasping cupidity and his curtailment of the miserable rations of +the prisoners caused an insurrection in the court below only to be +repressed by bloodshed and the summoning of military aid; a fellow of +low birth who five years previously had been a drummer to a band of +Royalist volunteers." + +The room allotted to Borrow was large and lofty, but totally destitute +of any kind of furniture except a huge wooden pitcher containing +the day's allowance of water. But no objection was made to Borrow's +providing for himself and a messenger was forthwith despatched to his +lodgings to fetch bed and bedding and all necessaries, with which +came a supply of food, and the new prisoner soon made himself fairly +comfortable. He ate heartily, slept soundly and rejoiced next day to +hear that this illegal arrest and confinement of a British subject +was already causing the high-handed minister who had ordered it, much +uneasiness and embarrassment. Borrow steadfastly refused to go free +without full and ample reparation for the violence and injustice +done to him. "Take notice," he declared, "that I will not quit this +prison till I have received full satisfaction for having been sent +hither uncondemned. You may expel me if you please, but any attempt +to do so shall be resisted with all the bodily strength of which I am +possessed." In the end the _amende_ was made in an official document +admitting that he had been imprisoned on insufficient grounds, and +Borrow went out after three weeks' incarceration, during which he +learned much concerning the prison and the people it contained. + +He refrains from a particular description of the place. "It would +be impossible," he says, "to describe so irregular and rambling an +edifice. Its principal features consisted of two courts, the one +behind the other, in which the great body of the prisoners took air +and recreation. Three large vaulted dungeons or _calabozos_ occupied +the three sides of the (first) court ... roomy enough to contain +respectively from one hundred to one hundred and fifty prisoners who +were at night secured with lock and bar, but during the day were +permitted to roam about the courts as they thought fit. The second +court was considerably larger than the first, though it contained but +two dungeons, horribly filthy and disgusting, used for the reception of +the lower grades of thieves. Of the two dungeons one was if possible +yet more horrible than the other. It was called the _gallinerÃa_ or +'chicken coop' because within it every night were pent up the young +fry of the prison, wretched boys from seven to fifteen years of age, +the greater part almost in a state of nudity. The common bed of all +the inmates of these dungeons was the ground, between which and their +bodies nothing intervened save occasionally a _manta_ or horse cloth or +perhaps a small mattress; this latter luxury was however of exceedingly +rare occurrence. + +"Besides the _calabozos_ connected with the courts were other dungeons +in various parts of the prison, some of them quite dark, intended for +the reception of those whom it might be deemed expedient to treat with +peculiar severity. There was likewise a ward set apart for females. +Connected with the principal corridor were many small apartments where +resided prisoners confined for debt or for political offences, and, +lastly, there was a small _capilla_ or chapel in which prisoners cast +for death passed the last three days of their existence in the company +of their ghostly advisers. + +"I shall not forget my first Sunday in prison. Sunday is the gala +day ... and whatever robber finery is to be found in it is sure to +be exhibited on that day of holiness. There is not a set of people +in the world more vain than robbers in general, more fond of cutting +a figure whenever they have an opportunity. The famous Jack Sheppard +delighted in sporting a suit of Genoese velvet and when he appeared in +public generally wore a silver hilted sword by his side.... Many of the +Italian bandits go splendidly decorated, the cap alone of the Haram +Pacha, the head of the cannibal gipsy band which infested Hungary at +the conclusion of the 18th century, was adorned with gold and jewels to +the value of several thousand guilders.... The Spanish robbers are as +fond of display as their brethren of other lands, and whether in prison +or out are never so happy as when decked out in a profusion of white +linen in which they can loll in the sun or walk jauntily up and down." + +To this day, snow-white linen is an especial mark of foppery in the +Spanish peasant. To put on a clean shirt is considered a sufficient +and satisfactory substitute for a bath and in the humblest house a +white table cloth is provided for meals and clean sheets for the +beds. Borrow gives a graphic picture of the "tip-top thieves" he came +across. "Neither coat nor jacket was worn over the shirt, the sleeves +of which were wide and flowing, only a waistcoat of green or blue silk +with an abundance of silver buttons which are intended more for show +than use, as the waistcoat is seldom buttoned. Then there are wide +trousers something after the Turkish fashion; around the waist is a +crimson _faja_ or girdle and about the head is tied a gaudily coloured +handkerchief from the loom of Barcelona. Light pumps and silk stockings +complete the robber's array. + +"Amongst those who particularly attracted my attention were a father +and son; the former a tall athletic figure, of about thirty, by +profession a housebreaker and celebrated through Madrid for the +peculiar dexterity he exhibited in his calling. He was in prison for +an atrocious murder committed in the dead of night in a house in +Carabanchel (a suburb of Madrid), in which his only accomplice was his +son, a child under seven years of age. The imp was in every respect the +counterpart of his father though in miniature. He too wore the robber +shirt sleeves, the robber waistcoat with the silver buttons, the robber +kerchief round his brow and, ridiculously enough, a long Manchegan +knife in the crimson faja. He was evidently the pride of the ruffian +father who took all imaginable care of him, would dandle him on his +knee, and would occasionally take the cigar from his own mustachioed +lips and insert it in the urchin's mouth. The boy was the pet of the +court, for the father was one of the 'bullies' of the prison and those +who feared his prowess and wished to pay their court to him were always +fondling the child." + +Borrow when in the "Carcel de la Corte" renewed his acquaintance with +one, Balseiro, whom he had met in a low tavern frequented by thieves +and bull fighters on a previous visit to Madrid. One of these, Sevilla +by name, professed deep admiration for the Englishman and backed him to +know more than most people of the "crabbed" Gitano language. A match +was made with this Balseiro who claimed to have been in prison half +his life and to be on most intimate terms with the gipsies. When Borrow +came across him for the second time he was confined in an upper story +of the prison in a strong room with other malefactors. There was no +mistaking this champion criminal with his small, slight, active figure +and his handsome features, "but they were those of a demon." He had +recently been found guilty of aiding and abetting a celebrated thief, +Pepe Candelas, in a desperate robbery perpetrated in open daylight on +no less a person than the Queen's milliner, a Frenchwoman, whom they +bound in her own shop, from which they took goods to the amount of five +or six thousand dollars. Candelas had already suffered for his crime, +but Balseiro, whose reputation was the worse of the two, had saved his +life by the plentiful use of money, and the capital sentence had in his +case been commuted to twenty years' hard labour in the _presidio_ of +Malaga. + +When Borrow condoled with him, Balseiro laughed it off, saying that +within a few weeks he would be transferred and could at any time escape +by bribing his guards. But he was not content to wait and joined with +several fellow convicts who succeeded in breaking through the roof of +the prison and getting away. He returned forthwith to his evil courses +and soon committed a number of fresh and very daring robberies in and +around Madrid. At length dissatisfied with the meagre results and the +smallness of the plunder he secured, Balseiro planned a great stroke +to provide himself with sufficient funds to leave the country and live +elsewhere in luxurious idleness. + +A Basque named Gabira, a man of great wealth, held the post of +comptroller of the Queen's household. He had two sons, handsome boys +of twelve and fourteen years of age respectively, who were being +educated at a school in Madrid. Balseiro, well aware of the father's +strong affection for his children, resolved to make it subservient +to his rapacity. He planned to carry off the boys and hold them for +ransom at an enormous price. Two of his confederates, well-dressed and +of respectable appearance, drove up to the school and presenting a +forged letter, purporting to be written by the father, persuaded the +schoolmaster to let them go out for a jaunt in the country. They were +carried off to a hiding place of Balseiro's in a cave some five miles +from Madrid in a wild unfrequented spot between the Escorial and the +village of Torre Lodones. Here the two children were sequestered in +the safekeeping of their captors, while Balseiro remained in Madrid to +conduct negotiations with the bereaved father. But Gabira was a man +of great energy and determination and altogether declined to agree to +the terms proposed. He invoked the power of the authorities instead, +and, at his request, parties of horse and foot soldiers were sent to +scour the country and the cave was soon discovered, with the children, +who had been deserted by their guards in terror at the news of the +rigorous search instituted. Further search secured the capture of the +accomplices and they were identified by their young victims. Balseiro, +when his part in the plot became known, fled from the capital but was +speedily caught, tried, and with his associates suffered death on the +scaffold. Gabira with his two children was present at the execution. + +A brief description of the old Saladero, which has at last disappeared +off the face of the earth, may be of interest. It stood at the top +of the Santa Barbara hill on the left hand side, in external aspect +a half-ruined edifice tottering to its fall, propped and buttressed, +at one corner quite past mending, at another showing rotten cement +and plaster with its aged weather-worn walls stained with great black +patches of moisture and decay. A poor and wretched place outside with +no architectural pretensions, its interior was infinitely worse. It +was entered by a wide entrance not unlike that of an ancient country +inn or hostelry with a broken-down wooden staircase, leading to a +battered doorway of rotten timbers. The portals passed, the prison +itself was reached, a series of underground cellars with vaulted roofs +purposely constructed, as it seemed, to exclude light and prevent +ventilation, permeated constantly with fetid odours and abominable +foul exhalations from the perpetual want of change of atmosphere or +circulation of fresh air. Yet human beings were left to rot in these +nauseous and pestiferous holes for two or three years continuously. At +times the detention lasted five years on account of the disgracefully +slow procedure in the law courts and this although trials often ended +in acquittal or a verdict of non-responsibility for the criminal +act charged. Many of the unfortunate wretches subjected to these +interminable delays and waiting judgment, therefore still innocent in +the eyes of the law, were yet herded with those already convicted of +the most heinous offences. + +This neglect of the rules, generally accepted as binding upon civilised +governments in the treatment of those whom the law lays by the heels, +produced deplorable results. The gaol fever, that ancient scourge which +once ravaged ill-kept prisons and swept away thousands, but long ago +eliminated from proper places of durance, survived in the Saladero +of Madrid until quite a recent date. Forty cases occurred as late as +1876 and zymotic disease was endemic in the prison. It was also a +hotbed of vice, where indiscriminate association of all categories, +good, bad and indifferent--the worst always in the ascendent, fostered +and developed criminal instincts and multiplied criminals of the +most daring and accomplished kind. When, with a storm of indignant +eloquence, an eminent Spanish deputy, Don Manuel Silvela, denounced +the Saladero in the Cortes and took the lead in insisting upon its +demolition, he pointed out its many shortcomings. It was in the last +degree unhealthy; it was nearly useless as a place of detention, for +the bold or ingenious prisoner laughed at its restraints and escapes +took place daily to the number of fourteen and sixteen at a time. If, +however, with increased precautions it was possible to keep prisoners +secure within the walls, nothing could save them from one another. +Contamination was widespread and unceasing in a mass of men left +entirely to themselves without regular occupation, without industrial +labour or improving education and with no outlet for their energies but +demoralising talk and vicious practices. Not strangely the Saladero +became a great criminal centre, a workshop and manufactory of false +money, where strange frauds were devised, such as the _entierro_[10] or +suggested revelation of hidden treasure, the well known Spanish swindle +which has had ramifications almost all over the world. + +[10] See _post_, p. 161. + +An independent witness, nevertheless, speaking from experience, the +same George Borrow already quoted, has a good word to say for the +inmates of Spanish gaols. He was greatly surprised at their orderly +conduct and quiet demeanour. "They had their occasional bursts of +wild gaiety; their occasional quarrels which they were in the habit +of settling in a corner of the interior court with their long knives, +the result not infrequently being death or a dreadful gash in the face +or abdomen; but upon the whole their conduct was infinitely superior +to what might have been expected from the inmates of such a place. +Yet this was not the result of coercion or any particular care which +was exercised over them; for perhaps in no part of the world are +prisoners so left to themselves and so utterly neglected as in Spain, +the authorities having no further anxiety about them than to prevent +their escape, not the slightest attention being paid to their moral +conduct,--not a thought bestowed on their health, comfort or mental +improvement whilst within the walls. Yet in this prison of Madrid, and +I may say in Spanish prisons in general (for I have been an inmate +of more than one), the ears of the visitor are never shocked with +horrid blasphemy and obscenity as in those of some other countries and +more particularly in civilised France, nor are his eyes outraged or +himself insulted as he would assuredly be were he to look down upon the +courts from the galleries of the Bicêtre (in Paris)." And yet in this +prison of Madrid were some of the most desperate characters in Spain; +ruffians who had committed acts of cruelty and atrocity sufficient to +make one shudder with horror. Gravity and sedateness are the leading +characteristics of the Spaniards, and the worst robber, except in those +moments when he is engaged in his occupation, (and then no one is +more sanguinary, pitiless and wolfishly eager for booty), is a being +who can be courteous and affable and who takes pleasure in conducting +himself with sobriety and decorum. Borrow thought so well of these +fellow-prisoners that he was willing to entertain them at dinner in his +own private apartment in the gaol, and the governor made no objection +to knocking off their irons temporarily so that they might enjoy the +meal in comfort and convenience. + +A more intimate acquaintance with the inner life of the Spanish +gaols has been accorded by a modern writer, Don Rafael Salillas. He +summarises all its evils in the single word "money." All disorders +and shortcomings, the corruption, the absence of discipline, the +cruelties perpetrated, the prevailing license, the shameful immorality +constantly winked at or openly permitted, have had one and the same +origin, the use and misuse of the private funds the prisoners have at +their disposal. Until quite a recent date, everything, even temporary +liberty, had its price in Spanish prisons. This vicious system dated +from the times when the "alcaide" or head of an establishment, the +primary purpose of which was the safe custody of offenders, bought +his place and was permitted to recoup himself as best he could out +of his charges. The same abominable practice was at one time almost +a world-wide practice, but nowhere has it flourished so largely as +in Spain. No attempt was made to check it; it was acknowledged and +practically deemed lawful. + +In an ancient work on the prison of Seville, dating from the sixteenth +century, the writer, Christobal de Chaves, classifies the interior +under three heads; the spaces entered respectively by three doors +of gold, silver or copper, each metal corresponding to the profits +drawn from each. Imprisonment might be made more tolerable by payment +regulated according to a fixed tariff. For a certain sum any prisoner +might go home to sleep, he might purchase food where little, if any, +was provided, he might escape fetters or purchase "easement of irons," +as in the old English prisons. To enhance the value of the relief +afforded worse hardships were inflicted at the outset. Restraint was +made most irksome in the beginning of imprisonment. The fetters were +then the heaviest and most varied, the deepest and vilest dungeons were +the first quarters allotted. A plain hint of relaxation and alleviation +was given, to be obtained at a price and the converse made equally +certain. Increased pain and discomfort were the penalty for those who +would not, or, worse still, who could not produce the extortionate sums +demanded. Tasks imposed were rendered more difficult; it was a common +practice to oil or grease the rope by which water was raised from a +well, so that it should slip through the fingers and intensify the +labour. + +When authority had sold its good will or wrung the life blood from its +victims they were handed over to the tender mercies of their fellow +prisoners, the self-constituted masters and irresponsible tyrants in +the place. The most brutal and overbearing ruled supreme within the +walls and levied taxes by the right of the strongest. The "garnish" of +the old British prisons, the enforced payments to gain a first footing, +was exacted to the last in Spain from all new arrivals and was called +"_cobrar el patente_," _i. e._ collecting the dues. To hesitate or +refuse payment was promptly punished by cruel blows; the defaulters +were flogged; they got the _culebrazo_ (whipping) with a rope kept for +the purpose. The quite penniless were despoiled of their clothing and +consoled with the remark that it was better for them to take to their +beds because they were naked, than on account of injuries and wounds, +or they wrapped themselves up in some ragged cloak infested with fleas. +The bullies or _valientes_ were not interfered with by the authorities +but rather supported by them. In fact they played into each other's +hands. Both worked their wicked will upon their victims and in their +own way,--the authorities by right of the legal powers they wielded, +the master-prisoners by force of character and the strength of their +muscles. Both squeezed out money like juice from a lemon, robbed, +swindled or stole all that came in their way. + +Guzman de Alfarache, the typical thief of the time of Philip II, whose +life and adventures are told by the author of the most famous of the +picaresque novels, describes his journey from Seville to Cadiz to +embark upon one of the galleys which made up the naval power of Spain. +"As we started on the road, we came upon a swine-herd with a number of +young pigs, which we surrounded and captured, each of us taking one. +The man howled to our commissary that he should make us restore them, +but he turned a deaf ear and we stuck to our plunder. At the first +halt we laid hands on other goods and concealed them inside one of the +pigs when the commissary interposed, discovered the things and took +possession of them himself." + +The alcaide of the prison turned everything to profit. He sold the +Government stores, bedding and clothing to the prison bullies who +retailed the pieces to individual prisoners. He trafficked in the +disciplinary processes, accepting bribes to overlook misconduct, and +pandered to the worst vices of the inmates by allowing visitors of +both sexes to have free access to them and to bring in all manner of +prohibited articles, unlimited drink, and dangerous weapons, knives and +daggers and other arms for use in attack and defence in the quarrels +and murderous conflicts continually occurring. + +A fruitful source of profit was the sale of privileged offices, permits +to hawk goods and to trade within the precincts of the prison. Salillas +when he visited the Seville prison not many years ago, saw numbers of +prisoners selling cigars and cigarettes in the yards, various articles +of food, such as _gazpacho_, the popular salad of Andalusia, compounded +of oil and bread soaked in water, and drinks including _aguardiente_, +that powerful Spanish spirit akin to Hollands. Some kept gaming tables +and paid a tax on each game and its profits and especially when the +"King" was turned up at "Monte." + +Salillas publishes a list of prices that ruled for places, privileges +and boons conceded to the prisoners. To become a "_cabo de vara_," a +"corporal carrying the stick" or wand of office, cost from eight to +sixteen dollars. "Who and what was the _Cabo de Vara_?" he asks and +answers the question. "A hybrid creature the offspring of such diverse +parents as the law and crime; half murderer, half robber, who after +living in defiance of the law is at least prevented from doing further +harm in freedom, is locked up and entrusted with executive authority +over companions who have passed through the same evil conditions and +are now at his mercy. He is half galley-slave chained to the oar, half +public functionary wearing the badge of officialdom and armed with a +stick to enforce his authority. He represents two very opposite sets of +ideas; on the one hand that of good order and the maintenance of penal +discipline, on the other that of a natural inclination towards the +wrong doing in which he has been a practitioner and for which he is, in +a way, enduring the penalty. To succeed he must possess some strongly +marked personal qualities; he should be able to bully and impose his +will upon those subjected to his influence, overbearing, masterful, +swaggering, ready to take the law into his own hands and insist upon +its observance as he chooses to interpret its dictates." + +The post of hospital orderly or cook or laundry-man could be secured +for about the same price, while a small fee to the prison surgeon +gained a perfectly sound man admission to hospital for treatment he +did not need, but in which he was much more comfortable than in the +ordinary prison. The place of prison barber was to be bought for +four dollars; employment as a shoemaker two dollars; relief from a +punishment ordered three dollars; permission to pay a visit home, four +dollars. These prices were not definitely settled and unchangeable. +Where a certain profit could be extracted from a particular post such +as the charge of the canteen it was put up to auction and knocked down +to the highest bidder. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD + + The presidio or convict prison--Stations at home and in + Northern Africa--Convict labour--Cruelties inflicted on the + presidiarios employed in road making--Severity of the régime at + Valladolid--Evils of overcrowding--Ceuta--Its fortifications--Early + history--The _entierro_ or "Spanish swindle"--Several interesting + instances--Monsignor X--Armand Carron--M. Elked--Credulity of the + victims--Boldness of the swindlers--Attempt to dupe a Yorkshire + squire--Discovery of the fraud. + + +The Spanish "presidios" or penal establishments for offenders sentenced +to long terms are the counterpart of the English convict prisons. +They are of two classes, those at home in provincial capitals or in +fortresses and strongholds, and those abroad installed in North Africa, +as the alternative or substitute for the penal colonies beyond the +sea established by Italy and France. Home presidios are at Burgos, +Cartagena, Granada, Ocana, Santona, Valladolid and Saragossa. There are +two at Valencia, one at Tarragona and two more at Alcalá de Henares. +Of the foregoing that of Cartagena was especially constructed to meet +the needs of the arsenal and dockyard and is spoken of as deplorably +deficient by those who visited it. Four hundred convicts were +lodged miserably in one dormitory; their bedding consisted of a rough +mattress and one brown rug; clothing was issued only every two years; +the dietaries were supplied by a thievish contractor who supplied +a soup consisting of beans boiled in water, abstracting the ration +of oil and bacon. A presidio of ancient date was installed in the +arsenal of La Carraca near Cadiz, a survival really of the _galera_ or +galleys planted on shore when human motive power ceased to be used in +propelling warships. + +[Illustration: _Castel dell' Ovo_ + +Situated on a high rocky island near the shore of Naples, it was a +place of great security. A number of the islands in the bay of Naples +have been utilised as prisons and as penal settlements.] + +A terrible story is preserved of the cruelties inflicted on a number +of these _presidiarios_ employed to make the road between San Lucar de +Barrameda and Puerto Santa Maria. Their labour was leased to an inhuman +contractor who worked them literally to death. They were half-starved, +over-burthened with chains and continually flogged so that within one +year half their whole number of one thousand had disappeared; they had +died "of privation, of blows, hunger, cold, insufficient clothing and +continuous neglect." The contractor cleared a large profit, but lost it +and died in extreme poverty after having been arraigned and tried for +his life as a murderer. + +The presidio of Valladolid was also condemned for the severity of +its régime. The climate alternated between great summer heat and +extreme cold in winter, but the convicts worked in the quarries in +all weathers. The death record rose in this prison to such a high +figure that a third of the average total population of three thousand +perished within eighteen months. The general average of the presidios +was low but as a rule the death rate was not high. Even when twenty +per cent. of males and twenty-five per cent. of the females were sick +and hospital accommodation was scarce and imperfect, the deaths did +not exceed two and a half per cent. per annum and this included the +fatal results of quarrels ending in duels to the death. One of the +most serious evils was overcrowding. Official figures give the prison +population as about nineteen thousand and the available house-room was +for not more than twelve thousand. Salillas puts it at a much lower +total, asserting there was barely room for three thousand. + +While the prisons of Cuba are not strictly within the scope of this +work, one of historic and particular interest may be mentioned. This is +Morro Castle, which still guards the Harbour of Havana. It was begun +in 1589, soon after the unsuccessful attack on Havana by Drake, and +was finished in 1597. In 1862 it was partly destroyed by the English +who captured it and remained in possession of the city for a year. The +arms of the city, granted by royal decree, were appropriately three +castles of silver on a blue field, and a golden key. The castles were +La Fuerza, El Morro and La Punta, guarding the harbour. + +The ancient fortress has been described as a "great mass of dun +coloured rock and tower and battlement and steep, of which the various +parts seem to have grown into one another." It contains cells as +damp, dark and unwholesome as those in the notorious dungeons of the +old world. This is testified to by a California journalist, Charles +Michelson, who was arrested by mistake and thrown into a cell in the +castle just before the Spanish-American War. Although he was liberated +in two days, his experience was not soon forgotten. The cell was an +arch of heavy masonry, damp with the moisture of years. The only window +was high up in the arch, and there was no furniture--no bed, blanket or +chair. He was not without company of a kind, however, for the place was +full of cockroaches and rats. When he clambered up and tried to look +out of the window, which commands a fine view of the harbour, a guard +outside poked at him with a bayonet. The soup brought him was, he said, +"strong and scummy, and the can had been so recently emptied of its +original contents that there was a film of oil over the top of it." His +interpreter, who was arrested at the same time, fared worse, for he was +bound and kept in even a fouler cell. + +In the days of Spanish sovereignty, many Cuban prisoners were shot +and their bodies were hurled from the outer wall of the castle to the +sharks of the so-called "shark's nest," forty feet below, on the gulf +side. + +There are said to be many caverns in the castle through which the rush +and noise of the waves make music, but this is probably due to the +winds rather than the tides. + +Spain maintains several presidios beyond sea, chiefly on the North +African coast, and there is one also at Palma de Mallorca, one of +the Balearic islands. Those in Africa are Alhucemas, Melilla, Peñon +de Velez de la Gomera, Chaferinas and Ceuta, immediately opposite +Gibraltar, which is no doubt the first and original of all Spanish +presidios. The expression when first used was taken to convey the +meaning of a penal settlement, established within a fortress under +military rule and guardianship, with its personnel constantly employed +on the fortifications, constructing, repairing and making good wear +and tear, and answering, if need be, the call to arms in reinforcement +of the regular garrison. The early records of Ceuta prove this. This +stronghold, on one side rising out of the sea, with its landward +defences ever confronting a fierce hostile power, was exposed at all +times to siege and incursion. When the Moorish warriors became too +bold the Spanish general sallied forth to beat up their quarters, +destroy their batteries and drive them back into the mountains. Working +parties of _presidiarios_, armed, accompanied the troops and did +excellent service, eager, as the old chronicler puts it, to clear their +characters by their heroism, "always supposing that blood may wash out +crime." + +Ceuta was a type of the military colony beyond sea, held by a strong +garrison against warlike natives who resisted the invasion and would +have driven out the intruders. The settlement was secured by continual +fortification in which the abundant penal labour was constantly +employed. Its social conditions were precisely similar to those which +obtained in the early days of Australian transportation and such +as prevail to-day in the French penal colony of New Caledonia. The +population is made up of two principal classes, bond and free. The +first are convicts serving their sentences and the second the officials +who guard them. Ordinary colonists have not settled to any large extent +in these North African possessions. A few traders and agriculturists +have come seeking such fortune as offers and the number of residents is +increased by released convicts, the counterpart of the emancipist class +in the Antipodes, who remain with the prospect of earning a livelihood +honestly, instead of lapsing into evil courses on their return to the +mother country. + +Ceuta is essentially a convict city, not exactly founded by penal +labour but enlarged and improved by it and served by it in all the +needs of daily domestic life. The first period of close confinement +on arrival is comparatively brief and is spent in the prison proper +outside the city at hard labour in association on the fortifications, +in the workshops and quarries. In the second period the convicts +are permitted to enter the city and are employed under supervision +in warehouses, offices and in water carrying. In the third period, +commonly called from "gun to gun," extending daily from the morning +gun fire until the evening, the convicts are allowed to go freely into +the city and work there on their own account. The fourth and last, +entered when two thirds of the whole sentence has been completed, is +called "under conditions," that is to say, in conditional freedom, and +the convicts are let out to private employers precisely as they were +"assigned" in old Australian days. They may live with their masters, +sleep out, and are only obliged to report at the prison once a month +for muster. More than a third of the total number are thus employed. + +The result is that Ceuta offers the singular spectacle that it is +nominally a prison, but the bulk of the prisoners live beyond the +walls, quite unguarded and really in the streets forming part of the +ordinary population. Convicts are to be met with at every corner, they +go in and out through the front doors of houses, no one looks at them +in surprise, no one draws aside to let them pass. The situation is +described graphically by Salillas. "Who is the coachman on the box? A +convict. Who is the man who waits at table? A convict. The cook in the +kitchen? A convict. The nursemaid in charge of the children? A convict +(male). Are their employers afraid of being robbed or murdered? Not in +the least." + +Another eye witness[11] writes:-- + +[11] Relosillas, "Four Months in Ceuta." + +"Could this happen in any other city in Spain? If the inhabitants found +themselves rubbing shoulders with the scum of the earth, with the worst +malefactors, with criminals guilty of the most heinous offences, would +they have enjoyed one moment's peace? Could they overcome the natural +repugnance felt by honest and respectable people for those whom the law +has condemned to live apart? The fact is that at Ceuta no one objects. +The existing state of things is deemed the most natural thing in the +world. It has been too long the rule and it is claimed seriously that +no evil consequences have resulted. The utmost confidence is reposed +in these ex-criminals whose nature has been seemingly quite changed +by relegation to the African presidio. They wash and get up linen +without losing more pieces than a first class washerwoman, they wait +on the children with the tenderest concern, they perform all sorts of +household service, go to market, run messages, polish the floors and +the furniture with all the zeal and industry of the best servants in +the world. The most cordial relations exist between employers and their +convict attendants and cases have been known where the former have +carried the latter back to Spain to continue their service. One was a +Chinese cook who was excused ten years' supervision to go back with his +master." + +It is claimed by the champions of Ceuta that despite the freedom +accorded to the convicts their conduct is exemplary. "I can certify," +says Relosillas[12] "that during a whole year there were but three +or four instances of crime amongst the convicts employed in domestic +service." Others however are not so laudatory. An independent witness, +Doña Concepcion Arenal, has little good to say of the prisons. "In +them justice is punished or rather crucified," she wrote, "and with +it hygiene, morality, decency, humanity, all, in a word, which every +one who is not himself hateful and contemptible, respects. It is +impossible to give any idea of the _cuartel principal_ or chief convict +barrack in the place. We can only refer to its terrible and revolting +demoralisation." Yet she is inclined to contradict herself and argues +that the convict when trusted will behave well. His life on the whole +is light and easy; he has sufficient food, congenial company, and can +better his position by steady industry; he wears no chains, performs no +rude or laborious tasks and is driven neither into insubordination nor +crime. + +[12] "Four Months in Ceuta." + +The statements just quoted are hardly credible and cannot be reconciled +with the reports of others, from personal experience. Mr. Cook, an +English evangelist, who has devoted himself to extensive prison +visitation, has drawn a dark picture of this ideal penal settlement as +he saw it in 1892. At that date general idleness was the rule. Hundreds +hung about with no work to do. Criminals with the worst antecedents +were included in the prison population. One had been a _bandido_ or +brigand who had been guilty of seven murders; another had four murders +to his credit and one assassin was in a totally dark cell, confined +hand and foot, condemned to death and daily expecting to be shot. No +fewer than one hundred and twelve slept in one large room without +more supervision than that exercised by their fellows discharging the +functions of warders. Mr. Cook expresses his wonder that they did not +break out oftener into rebellion. As a matter of fact and as against +the statement given above, outbreaks were not uncommon with fierce +attacks upon officers and murderous affrays among the prisoners. Crime +and misconduct are certainly not unknown in Ceuta. + +A gruesome description was given by a correspondent writing to the +_London Times_ in the year 1876. When he visited the citadel prison he +found from eight hundred to one thousand convicts lodged there in a +wretched condition, clad only in tattered rags, the cast off uniforms +of soldiers, generally insufficient for decency. They tottered in and +out of the ruinous sheds supposed to shelter them, quarrelled like +hyenas over their meagre and repulsive rations, which were always short +through the dishonesty of the thieving contractor, and fought to the +death with the knives which every one carried. Each shed contained +from one to two hundred where they lay like beasts upon the ground. +Vermin crept up the wall and dirt abounded on all sides. "No words of +mine," said this outspoken eye-witness, "can paint the darkness, the +filth, the seething corruption of these dens of convicts, dens into +which no streak of sunlight, divine or human, ever finds its way, and +where nothing is seen or heard but outrage and cruelty on the one hand, +misery and starvation and obscenity on the other." There was a worse +place, the "Presidio del Campo," or field prison in which the hard +labour gangs[13] employed on the fortifications were housed in still +filthier hovels, with less food and more demoralisation. This same +correspondent when he enquired his way to the presidio was told by a +Spanish officer: "They are not presidios but the haunts of wild beasts +and nurseries of thieves." Obviously there is much discrepancy in the +various accounts published. + +[13] Irons are not carried by the convicts, not even by those sentenced +to imprisonment "in chains," _con la cadena_. They were considered an +interference with the efforts and strength of the labourer. + +The true state of the case may best be judged by examining and setting +forth the conditions prevailing. On the surface the convicts may seem +to abstain from serious misconduct, but even this may be doubted from +the facts in evidence. "It is a wild beasts' cage," writes one well +informed authority. It may be to some extent a cage without bars, or +in which the wild beasts are so tamed that they may be allowed to go +at large and do but little harm, but evil instincts are at times in +the ascendancy as shown in the quarrels and disorders that occur, but +to no greater extent says the apologist than in any of the prisons on +the Spanish mainland. It may be that the régime is so mild that the +convicts yield willingly to it without a murmur and seldom rise against +it. But the very atmosphere of the place is criminal. There may be few +prison offences where rules are easy but if serious offences against +discipline are but rarely committed within the limits, others against +society are constantly prepared for execution beyond. Ceuta is a hot +bed of crime, the seed is sown there, nourished and developed to bear +baleful fruit afterwards. It is a first class school for the education +of thieves, swindlers, coiners, and forgers who graduate and take +honours in the open world of evil doing. It is the original home, some +say, of the famous fraud, peculiarly Spanish, called the _entierro_, +which still flourishes and draws profit as ever, not from Spain alone, +but from far and wide in nearly all civilised countries. + +The _entierro_, or the "burial" literally translated, means an artful +and specious proposal to reveal the whereabouts of a buried treasure. +It is another form of the well known "confidence trick" or, as the +French call it, the "_vol à l'americaine_," and we cannot but admire +the ingenuity and inventiveness so often displayed in its practice, +while expressing surprise at the credulity and gullibility of those +who are deluded by it. It originates as a rule in a letter addressed +from the prison to some prominent person in Spain or elsewhere, for the +astute practitioner is well provided with lists of names likely to be +useful to him in his business. It is on record that a seizure was made +in the presidio of Granada of a whole stock in trade, a great mass of +information secretly collected from all parts of the world to serve in +carrying out the fraud of the _entierro_, and with it a number of forms +of letters in various European languages. The invitation is marked +"very private and confidential" and conveys with extreme caution and +mystery the suggestion that for a sufficient consideration the secret +hiding place of a very valuable treasure will be confided to the person +addressed. Colour is given to the proposal by some plausible but not +always probable story on which it is based. + +In one case the writer pretended to be a Spanish officer who had +received from the hands of Napoleon III himself, when flying to England +in September, 1870, a casket of jewels which he was charged to convey +to the Countess of Montijo, mother of the Empress Eugenie, in Madrid. +The messenger had however become involved in a Carlist or revolutionary +movement and was now in prison, but he had succeeded before arrest +in burying the jewels in a remote spot so cleverly concealed that he +alone possessed the secret. The liberal offer was made to the person +addressed of a fourth share of the total value provided he would +transmit to the prisoner correspondent through a sure hand, indicated, +the sum of three hundred pounds in cash by means of which he could +secure release and proceed to unearth the treasure. + +Another story is as follows: + +One day the regular mail boat brought to Ceuta an Italian ecclesiastic, +a high dignitary of the Church, of grave and venerable appearance, who +proceeded at once to make a formal call upon the commandant or general +commanding for the time being. He was in search of certain information +and he more particularly desired to be directed to an address he +sought, that of a small house in a retired spot in one of the small +little-frequented streets in the hilly town. He carried with him a +heavy and rather bulky handbag which when he started from the general's +he begged he might leave in his charge on the plea that its contents +were valuable. + +After the lapse of two or three hours the Monsignor returned with +terrified aspect and evidently in the greatest distress of mind. He +entreated that a priest might be summoned to whom he might confess, and +his wish was forthwith gratified. The moment he had unbosomed himself +to his ghostly adviser, he seized his handbag and ran down to the port +just in time to catch the return mail boat to Algeciras. The priest who +had heard his confession was to be released from the secret confided +to him and reveal it to the authorities as soon as the safe arrival of +the mail boat at the mainland was signalled across to Ceuta. Then the +whole story came out. + +Monsignor X was one of the most trusted and confidential chaplains of +his Holiness the Pope and he had gone to Ceuta in the interests of an +ex-Carlist general who had the misfortune to be detained there as a +political prisoner. A sum of money was needed to compass his escape +from the presidio and help him to reach in safety the burying place +of a vast treasure, to disinter it and apply it to the furtherance of +the civil war in progress. This general seems to have satisfied the +papal dignitaries of his identity and good faith; his communication +was endorsed with plans and statements pointing to the whereabouts of +the hidden treasure, and the method by which the money he needed for +his enterprise was to be used, was minutely described. He said he was +too closely watched to allow any messenger to reach him direct, but he +had friends in Ceuta, two titled ladies, near relatives who had been +permitted to live in the prison town and to visit him from time to time +and who would pass the money to him when it was brought to Ceuta. + +Monsignor X landed as we have seen and learned where he was to go, +but with commendable caution he hesitated to take his money with him. +He would hand it over when he had made the personal acquaintance of +the general's aristocratic friends. They did not prove very desirable +acquaintances. He found the house he was to visit, was admitted +without question, but then the door was shut behind him and he was +murderously assailed by half a dozen convicts, knife in hand. He was +ordered to give up the money he had brought, and when on searching him +it was found missing, he was rifled of everything he carried in his +pockets, both his watch and a considerable sum in cash. His life was +spared because it was certain that his prolonged absence would lead to +a hue and cry, but he was obliged to swear that he would not attempt +to leave the house for one clear hour so that the robbers might make +good their escape. Moreover he was warned if he gave the alarm he +would certainly be assassinated. Hence his desire to pass beyond the +Straits of Gibraltar before the outrage became known. When the house +was visited it was found empty and unfurnished with not a sign of life +on the premises. The most interesting feature in the story is that the +swindlers should fly at such high game, but it is founded on undoubted +fact. The Carlist insurrection was often used to father the attempt to +defraud. + +In another case a letter conveyed to the proprietor of a vineyard at +Maestrazgo the alluring news that a large sum in gold was hidden on +his ground, the accumulated contributions of Carlist supporters in +the neighbourhood. The exact position would be revealed and a plan +forwarded in exchange for a sum of four thousand dollars in hard +cash, which was to be forwarded to Ceuta according to certain precise +instructions. The money was sent but no reply came. Days and weeks +passed and at last, weary of waiting and a little unhappy, the easily +duped victim made up his mind to cross to Ceuta in person and bring his +disappointing correspondent to book. The wine grower unhappily landed +in the presidio on the day they were baiting a bull in the streets, a +game constantly played and with more danger to the passers-by than the +players. The bull goaded into a state of fury attacked the new comer +and tossed him so that he fell to the ground with both legs broken. The +poor man got no plan and no news of his dollars. All he gained was two +months in bed lying between life and death. + +The writer Relosillas, who filled the place of an inspector or surveyor +of works at Ceuta, has given some of his personal experiences in that +convict prison.[14] He describes how on one occasion he was present +at a free fight among the convicts in the barracks which had been +originally a Franciscan convent. He was in his own office at a late +hour, hard by, when he heard a terrible uproar in the great dormitory +and ran over to exercise his authority and prevent bloodshed. Knives +were out and being freely used by combatants ranged on two sides, one +lot backing up a friend who had been robbed of a photograph of his +sister, the other lot defending the thief, who had stolen the portrait +for use in a buried treasure swindle. He had created her a marchioness +and intended to forward it as a bait to show his intimacy with the +aristocracy and prepare the way for the fraud. The case may be quoted +to show how minutely the practitioners in the _entierro_ studied their +ground and acquired the means of operating. In all Spanish prisons and +notably in Ceuta, cunning convicts are to be found, men of ability +and experience, who have travelled far and wide, who are conversant +with many languages and well acquainted with prominent people in other +countries and the leading facts and particulars of their lives. + +[14] _Catorce Meses en Ceuta_, Malaga, 1886. + +A few additional stories of swindles akin to the _entierro_ are of much +interest. + +A French landowner by name Armand Carron, a resident of a small town +in the Department of Finistère, received, some time ago, a letter from +Ceuta, signed Santiago (or James) Carron. The writer explained that he +was a native of Finistère where the Frenchman resided; that he was a +namesake and a member of the landowner's family, son of a first cousin +of his who had left France many years before and settled in Spain with +wife and three sons, of whom he, Santiago Carron, now alone survived. +This Santiago, the letter went on, had been placed by his father in +the military college at Segovia, had served through all the subaltern +grades as an artillery officer, had risen to the rank of brigadier +and in that capacity had been sent out in command of the district of +the Cinco Villas in Cuba, where he had married the daughter of Don +Diego Calderon, a wealthy Havana merchant, and the owner of vast +sugar plantations. His wife had brought him a dowry of four million +reales (£40,000) and had died leaving him a daughter called after her +mother, Juanita, now about 17 years old. This girl, the only object of +her father's love and care, had been by him sent to Europe and placed +for her education at the convent of the Sacre Coeur at Chamartin near +Madrid. + +His career in the army had been for many years very fortunate and his +wedded life in Cuba exceedingly happy. He had been laden with honours +by a grateful Government and received many proofs of his country's +trust, but lately the officer in charge of the chest of the military +district at Cinco Villas had absconded and run away to New York with +a sum of two million reales. As he, the brigadier, was answerable for +his subaltern's conduct and was not willing to sacrifice one half of +his wife's--now his daughter's--fortune to pay for the defaulter, he +had been summoned to Spain and then relegated, or sent as a prisoner +on parole to the fortress at Ceuta to take his trial before a court +martial, which owing to the dilatoriness of all things in Spain might +sit till doomsday. + +After thus giving an account of himself and his belongings the +brigadier proceeded to explain the reasons which induced him to address +himself to his unknown French relative. Having suffered much from long +exposure to the heat of a tropical climate he felt old before his time, +and his hereditary enemy, the gout, had by several sharp twinges made +him aware of the precariousness of his tenure of life. He had only that +one daughter in the world, the sole heiress of a considerable patrimony +who might at any moment be deprived of her natural protector and for +whose final education and introduction into society it was his duty to +provide. The girl had great natural gifts, had inherited her mother's +Creole beauty, and the accounts of her proficiency, given by the nuns +at Chamartin were most flattering to his paternal pride. He was anxious +to appoint a guardian to his daughter and he could think of no one +fitter in every respect for that charge than his only relative, M. +Armand Carron. + +He (the brigadier) had lately been diligently looking over his father's +papers; had found among them very numerous and interesting family +documents--ample evidence that a hearty and loving correspondence had +for many years been kept up between his father, Vincent Carron, and the +father of M. Armand Carron, also called Armand, and he followed up the +narrative with frequent allusions to several incidents occurring in the +early youth of the two cousins, with descriptions of localities, common +acquaintances and the usual joys and sorrows alternating in their +domestic circles. Altogether it was a well contrived, plausible story +verging so closely upon probability as to avoid shipwreck upon the rock +of truth. + +M. Armand Carron of Finistère did not think it right or expedient to +cast doubt on the genuineness of the communication. He answered the +brigadier's appeal by calling him "My dear cousin," saying he had a +perfect recollection of his father's frequent allusions to Vincent +Carron, the cousin who had grown up with him in their own home and only +left their native town on arriving at man's estate. After heartily +congratulating the brigadier on his conspicuous career which reflected +so much lustre on their own name, and condoling with him about the +momentary cloud that had now--undeservedly he felt sure--settled upon +it, he assured his newly found relative of his sympathy and of his +readiness to look upon the brigadier's daughter as his own child, +to receive her into the bosom of his family and take that care of +her which so precious a jewel as she was described to be, must fully +deserve. + +So the matter was settled. The correspondence between the two newly +found relatives continued for six or seven months and became very +affectionate and confidential. The brigadier sent the Frenchman +his photograph and that of his daughter, both taken in Havana and +bearing the name and trade mark of the artist. The one represented a +middle-aged officer of high rank in full uniform and with the Grand +Cross of San Hermengeldo on his breast, a fine manly countenance with +long grey silky moustache; the other exhibiting the arch, pretty +countenance of a brunette in her teens, with smooth bands of raven hair +on either side of her low forehead and the shade of a moonlit night in +her dark eyes; a bright blooming creature with dimples and pouting lips +and a look of humour and frolic and sense in every feature. Together +with the photographs came a letter of Juanita Carron to the brigadier, +her father, from the convent, and bearing the Chamartin postmark, +in which the girl congratulated her father on his discovery of his +Finistère relative, expressed a firm confidence that her loving father +would long be spared to her and concluded that she would for her part, +in the worst event, willingly acknowledge her relative as a second +father and acquiesce in every arrangement that might be made for her +welfare. + +Seven months passed and the post one morning brought M. Armand Carron +a letter with the Ceuta postmark, but no longer in his cousin's +handwriting. The writer who signed himself Don Francisco Muñoz, parish +priest of San Pedro in Ceuta, announced the death of Brigadier Santiago +Carron, which had occurred seven days before the date of the letter. He +stated that the brigadier, brought to the last extremity by a sudden +attack of gout, had been attended, by him, Don Francisco, as priest +in his last hours, and been instructed to wind up all his earthly +affairs both in Ceuta and in Madrid. He was further empowered to remove +the Señorita Juanita, the brigadier's daughter, from the Chamartin +convent and take charge of her during her journey to Finistère where +she should be delivered into the hands of her appointed guardian. The +priest's letter enclosed the printed obituary handbill announcing the +brigadier's decease, according to Spanish custom, the last will and +testament of the deceased appointing M. Armand Carron sole executor, +guardian and trustee of his only daughter Juanita, and entrusting to +him the management of her fortune of one million francs, (£40,000), +mentioning the banks in Paris and Amsterdam in which that sum lay +in good state securities. The whole document was duly drawn up by +a notary, with witnesses' signatures, seals, etc., and even with +certificates of the brigadier's burial, the signatures and stamps of +the civil and military authorities at Ceuta and those of the governor +in command of the place. + +At the close of this minute statement the priest expressed his +readiness to comply with the brigadier's instructions by travelling to +Madrid, receiving the young Juanita from the hands of the Sacre Coeur +nuns and continuing with her the journey to Finistère, immediately +upon hearing from M. Armand Carron that he was prepared to receive +his lovely ward. M. Armand Carron answered by return of post that +his house and arms were open to welcome his relative's orphan child. +Where there came after some time another letter from Don Francisco +Muñoz explaining that the brigadier, although the most methodical and +careful of men, had left some trifling debts at Ceuta and there were +the doctors' and undertakers' bills to be settled: also the travelling +expenses for himself and the young lady which he, the priest, was not +able to defray. Besides all this the papers, deeds, books and other +portable property left by the brigadier, some of it very valuable, but +also bulky--among which were the certificates of the state securities +deposited in the French and Dutch banks--which at the express desire of +the deceased would have at once to be conveyed to Finistère. He, the +priest, would have to be responsible for all this, so that, what with +the boarding money and fees due to the nuns, and the clothes, linen +and other necessaries the young lady might require to fit herself for +appearance in the world, an expense would have to be incurred of which +it was difficult to calculate the exact amount. The conclusion was that +he could not undertake the journey unless M. Armand Carron supplied him +with a round sum of money, say four thousand francs, which he could +forward in French bank notes and in a registered letter addressed not +to him but to a Doña Dolores Mazaredo, a pious woman, whom her reduced +fortunes had compelled to take service as a washerwoman of the Ceuta +state prison. + +The reason alleged by the priest for receiving the money in this +roundabout way was that as the brigadier had died in debt to the +state and the government might suspect that property belonging to the +deceased had come into his, the priest's charge and be subject to the +law of embargo on the brigadier's effects, it was desirable that every +precaution should be taken to disarm suspicion and prevent injury. + +The fraud was entirely successful and in due course the letter from +Finistère enclosing bank notes for four thousand francs was delivered +to the washerwoman and from her passed into the hands of the sharpers +whose deep laid plan and transcendent inventive powers were thus +crowned with full success. M. Armand Carron heard no more of his +orphaned relative. + +The most astonishing feature in the "Spanish Swindle," as it is +commonly and almost universally known, is the extent to which it is +practised and in countries far remote from those in which the trick +originates. In one case a resident in the Argentine Republic received a +letter from Madrid which he communicated to the press stating that he +could not conceive how his name and address had become known. But it +was clear that the Argentine and many other directories were possessed +by the swindler, for similar letters all conveying the usual rosy +stories of hidden treasure had come into the country wholesale. The +fraudulent agent had long discovered that the credulity and cupidity on +which he trades are universal weaknesses and that he is likely to find +victims in every civilised part of the world. At another time Germany +was inundated with typewritten letters from the Spanish prisoner, and +the correspondent cleverly accounted for his use of the machine by +stating that he was employed as a convict clerk in the office of the +governor of the prison. + +An attempt of the same kind was tried on a Swiss gentleman of Geneva, +but it failed signally. The swindler in Barcelona thought he had +beguiled his correspondent into purchasing certain papers at the +price of twelve thousand francs by which a treasure was to be found, +and sent a young woman to Geneva to receive the cash. But the Swiss +police, having been informed of the transaction, were on the alert, +and when she kept her appointment with the proposed dupe she was taken +into custody. An individual staying at the same hotel and said to have +been in communication with her was also arrested. The emissary denied +all complicity in the intended fraud protesting that she had been +commissioned by a stranger she met in Barcelona to convey a letter to +Geneva and bring back another in return. + +The ubiquity of the swindle is proved by the adventures of a certain +M. Elked, a restaurateur of Buda-Pest, who was lured into making a +journey to Madrid, carrying with him a sum of ten thousand francs in +cash. The money was to be used in securing possession of a fortune +of three hundred thousand francs, part of which was lying in a trunk +deposited in the cloak room of a French railway station and part in +the strong room of a Berlin bank. Elked was to get the half in return +for his advance. On arrival in Madrid he met the representative of his +correspondent and was shown bogus receipts from the railway and bank. +To remove all possible doubt it was suggested that telegrams should +be sent to the railway station and to the bank and in due course what +purported to be replies were brought to Elked by a pretended telegraph +messenger. The sham telegrams finally convinced him of the genuineness +of the business and he arranged to meet the swindler in a certain café +to hand over the ten thousand francs. + +All this time an eye was kept upon Elked by a brother Hungarian named +Isray, a commercial traveller, who had come to Madrid by the same train +and who on hearing the purpose of the restaurateur's visit had vainly +tried to persuade him that the affair was a fraud. Isray followed his +infatuated compatriot to the café in a very low quarter of Madrid +and arrived just in time to see three men attempting to hustle Elked +into a carriage. He had apparently hesitated to hand over the money +at the last moment and the ruffians were attempting to get him away +to a spot where he could be conveniently searched and robbed. Isray +drew his revolver and fired two or three shots at Elked's assailants, +but did not succeed in hitting any one. He contrived however to +injure the horse and the struggle ended in the three bandits running +away, leaving Elked still in possession of his money. No passers-by +offered the Hungarians any assistance during the fight, nor did any +police appear on the scene. When Elked subsequently complained to the +police authorities they simply laughed at him for displaying so much +credulity. The victims of the "Spanish Swindle" are certainly not +entitled to much sympathy. Although arrests are occasionally made, the +Spanish police have never been able to cope very successfully with the +ancient and ever flourishing fraud. + +Some of the Spanish prisoner's lies are the crudest and most +transparent attempts at fraud, but a few are really very fine works of +art. An English country gentleman once received the following letter: + + "DEAR SIR AND RELATIVE: Not having the honour to know you but for + the reference which my dead wife, Mary--your relative--gave me, who + in detailing the various individuals of our family warmly praised + the honest and good qualities which distinguished you, I now address + myself to you for the first time and perhaps for the last one + considering the grave state of my health, explaining my sad position + and requesting your protection for my only daughter, a child of + fourteen years old whom I keep as a pensioner in a college--" + +This is the prelude to a really clever and picturesque story of the +writer's adventures in Cuba, where, after having been secretary and +treasurer to Martinez Campos, he had subsequently been driven by +General Weyler to join the insurgents, and was eventually forced to +flee the country taking with him his fortune of thirty-seven thousand +pounds. Subsequently being summoned to Spain by the illness of his +"only daughter child" he deposited the money in a London bank under the +form of "security document." After this we are introduced to the old +mechanism of this venerable swindle. The deposited note was concealed +in a secret drawer of the prisoner's portmanteau. The prisoner had +been arrested on his arrival in Spain, but a trusty friend at large +was willing to assist him in recovering the money for the benefit +of his child, if only the dear relative in England "would advance +the necessary funds for expenses." It is possible to imagine that +anyone who had never heard of these ingenious frauds might be taken +in by such a plausible narrative, but it is difficult to understand +such ignorance. A letter was received from the Castle of Montjuich +in Barcelona by a man in Dublin, who showed it to several friends in +the city explaining the process. It was new to them all, and arrests +of persons who had all but succeeded in completing this well-worn +confidence trick are constantly made in London. The boldness of these +attempts may be seen in the case of the swindlers who despatched +three letters identically the same, to three persons who were near +neighbours, residing at North Berwick near Edinburgh. The letter dated +from Madrid and said:-- + + "SIR, Detained here as a bankrupt, I ask if you would help me to + withdraw the sum of fr. 925,000 (£37,000) at present lodged in a + secure place in France. It would be necessary for you to visit Madrid + and obtain possession of my baggage by paying a lien on it. In one + valise concealed in a secret niche is the document which must be + produced as a warrant for the delivery of the above mentioned sum. + I propose to hand you over a third of the whole in return for your + outlay and trouble." + +The rest of the letter simply contained instructions as to telegraphing +an answer to Madrid. The whole was a very stupid and clumsy attempt +to deceive, lacking all the emotional appeals, the motherless child, +the persecuted political adherent of a failing cause. Worse yet it +openly invited co-operation with a bankrupt seeking to defraud his +creditors. Nor is there any effort to explain the selection of these +three particular persons in the same small town as parties to the +fraud, and the only conclusion is that dupes had been found even under +such circumstances who were afterward reluctant to reveal their own +foolishness. + +A more elaborate fraud was perpetrated soon after the fall of +Cartagena; the story ran as follows: Two of the well known +leaders of the hare-brained republican movement that led to that +catastrophe,--General Contreras and Señor Galdez,--both deputies of +the Constituent Cortes, came as fugitives to England and lodged in the +Bank of England a sum amounting to several millions of reales in state +securities, obtaining for them of course the regular certificates and +receipt from the bank. These two Spanish gentlemen afterwards lived for +some time on the continent. General Contreras took up his quarters as +a political exile in France and Señor Galdez ventured under a disguise +into Spain, where he had the misfortune to be recognised, arrested and +shut up in the Saladero. The certificates had been left in England in +trusty hands, in a trunk belonging to Señor Galdez, who from his prison +sent directions that the box should be sent by rail to Madrid addressed +to a person enjoying his full confidence. This person however had some +claim upon Señor Galdez for an old debt of six thousand francs or about +two hundred and forty pounds and insisted upon payment of this sum +before he would either part with the trunk or allow it to be opened and +the precious certificates to be taken from it. + +The matter required delicate handling, for Señor Galdez was a prisoner, +General Contreras an exile, both beyond reach, and about the money +they had placed in the bank there might lie some mystery into which it +was not desirable that enquiry should be made. An easy way of getting +at the contents of the trunk could be found if any one would think it +worth while to supply two hundred and forty pounds, settle the claims +of Señor Galdez's creditor, and laying hold of the certificates, +convey them to England and withdraw the securities from the bank. A +man whose name was given and whose address was in the Calle de la +Abada or Rhinoceros Street, Madrid, would undertake to carry through +the negotiations if any one would call upon him with the needful two +hundred and forty pounds and allow him half an hour to rescue the trunk +and deliver the certificates. The worthy Yorkshire squire to whom +intimation had been conveyed of the coup there was to be made, looked +upon the story as extremely probable. He fancied it was corroborated by +a good deal of circumstantial evidence and thought he might venture on +the speculation. A professional adviser whom he consulted undertook to +do the job for him and carry the two hundred and forty pounds to the +Calle de la Abada, taking a revolver with him, as a precaution, and +intending to deliver the money in Bank of England notes, the numbers +of which should be stopped the moment he found out that any trick was +being played on his good faith. + +Further enquiries were made, however, before any decided steps were +taken, and it was ascertained beyond doubt that Señor Galdez was +no longer a prisoner, that General Contreras had come back from +banishment, that the house in the Calle de la Abada was a notorious +haunt of malefactors and den of thieves, and the whole scheme was +another instance of the criminal ingenuity of the Spanish swindler. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LIFE IN CEUTA + + Dangerous weapons manufactured within the prison walls--Frequent + quarrels--Murderous assaults on warders of constant + occurrence--Disorders and lack of discipline owing to the employment + of prisoners as warders--The "_cabos de vara_"--These posts sold + to the highest bidder--Salillas' description of these convict + warders--Worst criminals often promoted to exercise authority + over their fellows--Terrible evils arising from such a state of + affairs--Description of Ceuta--Life at Ceuta no deterrent to crime + by reason of the pleasant conditions under which the convicts + lived--Popularity of the theatre in Spanish prisons--Escapes from + Ceuta--The case of El Niño de Brenes--The different characteristics + of the Andalusians and Aragonese--Foreigners from Spanish colonies + imprisoned at Ceuta--Chinamen and negroes--Dolores, the negro + convict--His assassination by two fellow convicts--Political + prisoners--Carlists--Different types of murderers. + + +Life is held cheap in Ceuta and indeed in all Spanish presidios and +gaols. The saying "a word and a blow," may be expanded into "a word and +a knife thrust." The possession of a lethal weapon is common to all +prisoners and prevails despite prohibiting regulations. Fatal affrays +are of constant occurrence. At Valladolid five men were wounded in +a fight over cards, which were openly permitted. An official enquiry +followed, with the result that on a search instituted through the +prison, numbers of large knives were discovered and many smaller +daggers. + +It is pretended by the authorities that the introduction of such +weapons as well as of spirits and packs of cards cannot be prevented. +The gate keepers however exercise no vigilance or are readily bribed +to shut their eyes. The ruinous condition of many gaols with their +numerous cracks and openings and holes in the walls is partially +responsible. As a natural consequence blood flowed freely when rage +and unbridled passion were so easily inflamed and the means of seeking +murderous satisfaction were always ready to hand. Quarrels grew at once +into fierce fights which could not be prevented and must be fought +out then and there even to the death. Chains and stone walls and iron +bars were ineffective in imposing order. There could be no semblance +of discipline where the two essentials were absolutely wanting, +supervision and honest service in the keepers. + +Knives were often provided by the ingenious adaptation of all kinds +of material within the walls, such as one-half of a pair of scissors +firmly fixed in a handle bound round with cloth; or a piece of tin +doubled to form a blade and stiffened by two pieces of wood to keep +the point sharp; or the handle of a wooden spoon sharpened and as +formidable as an inflexible fish bone.[15] Other arms carried and +used on occasion for premeditated or unexpected attack or in set, +formal encounters were a razor, a file, a carpenter's adze, a hammer, a +cobbler's awl. + +[15] I have seen a precisely similar weapon in an English convict +prison, the product of an evil-minded prisoner who used it in an +assault upon his officer. + +Some surprising figures have been collected by Salillas to show how +frequent was the appeal to violence and how fatal the consequences +of the bloodthirsty strife so constantly breaking out among the more +reckless members of this hot-tempered Latin race. They had often +their origin in drunken quarrels, for _aguardiente_, the Spanish +equivalent to whiskey or gin, was always plentiful, introduced almost +openly by the warders. Ancient feuds were revived when the opportunity +of settling them was offered by the chance meeting in the gaol. +Occasionally a homicidal lunatic ran loose about the yards and struck +blindly at any inoffensive person he met when the furious fit was on +him. Salillas tells us that in one year sixteen murderous assaults +were committed upon warders,[16] and twenty-four free fights occurred +among the prisoners, eleven of whom were killed outright and forty-two +seriously wounded. One truculent ruffian fell upon an aged wardsman +(a convict also), struck him with a shoemaker's knife and then, +brandishing his weapon, defied interference or the rescue of his victim +whom he "finished" with repeated blows. A Valencian newspaper describes +an encounter between two inmates of the Torres Serranos prison in that +city. "Without warning or suggesting the cause of difference the two +silently hurried to a large empty room, rushed at each other with their +knives, and the only sounds heard were those of blows struck and warded +off and of shuffling feet as they circled round each other. Warders +headed by the governor (alcaide) strove to separate the combatants and +succeeded at last in doing so but at peril of their lives. Both the +antagonists were wounded, one had his cheek laid open and the other's +face was horribly gashed. At Saragossa an old man who complained that +one of his blankets had been stolen was fiercely attacked in the +shoemaker's shop by the thief, who had been cutting out sole leather +with a heavy iron tool. Deadly wounds were inflicted on the victim, +but the infuriated aggressor stood over him, keeping those who would +have interposed at bay until it was clearly evident that death had +supervened. + +[16] An official report dated 1888 gives a total of 221 prisoners in +the whole of the establishments admitted into hospital suffering from +wounds, fractures and contusions received in the gaols. + +The primary cause of the chronic discreditable, disgraceful disorder +that reigned in the Spanish prisons was the prevailing custom of +employing prisoners in the service and discipline of the prisons. This +practice is now universally condemned as reprehensible and it has been +abolished in most civilised countries and even in Spain. The excuse +offered which long passed current in Spain was the expense entailed by +employing a proper staff of officers, a necessity in every well ordered +prison administration. But till quite a recent date the control and +supervision of prisoners in Spanish gaols was practically their own +affair. There were the usual superior officials, assisted by a few free +overseers (_capataces_) but the bulk of the work was entrusted to the +_cabos de vara_. + +The vicious system was the more objectionable from the uncertainty +which prevailed in its working. If the _cabo de vara_ had been +carefully selected from the best and most exemplary prisoners some of +the worst evils might have been avoided. But it was all a matter of +chance. Not only was there no selection of the best but there was no +rejection or elimination of the worst candidates. In some conspicuous +cases the office of _cabo de vara_ was suffered to fall into the hands +of men altogether unfit to hold it. Two in particular may be quoted, +those of Pelufo and Carrillo, who having first committed atrocious +crimes, escaped punishment and were actually promoted. One, Pelufo, +was a convict in the presidio of Cartagena who murdered a _cabo_ and +cut his way out of the St. Augustin prison, knife in hand; the other, +Carrillo, slew a comrade in a duel in the presidio of San Miguel de +los Reyes (Valencia) and both were subsequently appointed _cabos_, "a +reward," as a witty official said, "which they had earned by their +services to penitentiary methods." + +With such examples and under such authorities serious crimes were +naturally numerous. A few may be mentioned. A _cabo_ named Casalta +killed a fellow _cabo_ in St. Augustin prison of Valencia with five +cruel thrusts and afterwards stabbed an officer to the heart. When the +military guard came up he seriously injured one of the soldiers and +wounded two convicts, one in the head, the other in the back. Casalta +was however condemned to a fresh sentence of twelve years. One Ferreiro +Volta cut a comrade's throat for having given evidence against the +man, Pelufo, already mentioned. Many more cases of the same heinous +character where the homicidal instinct had full play may be picked out +of the published lists. In one prison thirteen already guilty of murder +or attempted murder repeated their crimes as prisoners; in another nine +convicted of maliciously wounding, pursued the practice or were guilty +of awful threats to murder in the gaols. The cases might be multiplied +almost indefinitely but it will suffice to indicate the terrible +conditions constantly prevailing. No doubt murderous attacks were often +stimulated by the tyranny of the prisoner _cabos_, against whom their +fellows, goaded to desperation, rose and wreaked vengeance. + +The discipline exercised by these prisoner warders was naturally not +worth much. It was their duty to correct and restrain their comrades, +to assist in their pursuit when they escaped after having originally +most probably facilitated the evasion, to side with the authority in +cases of serious insubordination and disturbance. But they were weak +vessels yielding readily to temptation, accepting bribes hungrily, +swallowing drink greedily when offered, quickly cowed by the threats +of prison bullies and surrendering at discretion when opposed. But +even although there were good and trusty men to be found at times +among them, no real reliance could be placed in them. They generally +represented fifty per cent. of the staff and the necessity for the +substitution of the non-convicted, properly paid, fairly honourable +warders has been very wisely decided upon. The chief danger lay in +their close and intimate association with the rest, day and night +constantly alone when no official supervision was possible. Their +value depended entirely upon their personal qualifications. If they +were weak-kneed and invertebrate, they could apply no check upon the +ill-conditioned, could neither intimidate nor repress: if on the other +hand they were of masterful character with arrogant, overbearing +tempers, they might do immense mischief by tyrannising over their +charges and leading them astray. Men of this class often claimed an +equality with the recognised officials, treated them with off-hand +familiarity, spoke without saluting or removing their caps, while +insolently puffing the smoke of a half-consumed cigarette in faces +of the officers. Salillas sums up the type as "semi-functionary, +semi-convict and all hangman." + +The external aspect of Ceuta is not unpleasing. It is built on seven +hills, the highest of which is topped by the fortress, and in the +word "septem" we may trace the name Ceuta. It still possesses a few +Moorish remains, for it was once an important Moorish city. Some of +the streets show a tesselated pavement of red, white and green tiles, +and house fronts are to be seen in white, black and serpentine marble +with decorated scroll work running in a pattern below the gutter. +It has some claims to be picturesque and possesses certain artistic +architectural features. An imposing barrack, that called Del Valle, +built by prison labour, is considered one of the finest Spanish +military edifices. It has also a cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of +Africa, engineering and artillery yards, a military hospital, another +church, public offices, and above all a palace of the governor and +general commanding. The latter in particular, with its extensive +grounds, handsome façade, and suites of fine rooms, the whole well +mounted and served by a large staff of convict attendants, is the +envy of all other government officials. One wide street traverses the +city from west to east crossed by a network of smaller ways, all airy +and well ventilated by sea breezes and constantly illuminated by a +brilliant sun. From time to time convicts in their distinctive dress +pass along, but scarcely cast a shadow upon the scene, showing few +signs of their thraldom and passing along with light-hearted freedom, +smoking excellent tobacco or singing a gay song. No beggars offend the +eye, for to solicit public charity is strictly forbidden. Generally a +contented well-to-do air is worn by the crowd, and even the convicts +are decently dressed. Other inhabitants, Moors from the mainland, and +Jews long established in commerce seem prosperous and evidently possess +ample means gained by their industry and thrift. + +The presidio or prison proper of Ceuta covers a large part of the +peninsula or promontory and embraces four distinct districts; the first +is situated in the new or modern town; the second lies just outside +it; the third is within the old town and the fourth is beyond the +outer line of walls. The first part is connected with the third by a +drawbridge called _boquete de la sardina_ or the "sardine's entrance"; +the second with the third by a portcullis; the third with the fourth +and last by the outer gate of the city. + +In the first are the artisans' quarters, situated in the cloisters of +an ancient monastery, that of San Francisco, and but for the patching +and whitewashing would look quite ruinous. It is neither secure nor of +sufficient size. The night guards are posted in the old mortuary house, +the bars to many windows are of wood. The building contains offices, +schoolhouse, store for clothing and the workshops, these being in a +sort of patio or courtyard, or in hollow spaces in the cloisters, and +are simply dens and rookeries, in part exactly over the old burial +ground. The handicrafts pursued when I visited it were various: men +were making shoes; fourteen tailors were at work; a blacksmith with +a life sentence constantly hammered out the red hot iron; a tinsmith +produced many useful articles; a turner at his lathe worked admirably +in the old meat bones and fashioned handles for walking sticks and +umbrellas. This turner earned much money and was comfortably lodged. +Convicts at Ceuta are not deprived of their profits and spend their +money buying better food, superior clothing and _aguardiente_ and +using it to bribe their overseers, or they cleverly conceal it, adding +constantly to their store. Industry is a chief source of wealth, but +many political prisoners bring large sums in with them, or it is +smuggled in to them, and a successful hit with the "buried treasure +fraud" will supply plenty of cash. + +Other industries followed are carpentering and the construction of +trunks and boxes which sell well. A number of looms are engaged in +weaving canvas for the manufacture of sails for the local shipping, +rough material for sacking and clothing of the convicts, all in large +quantities and to a really valuable extent. These workshops are +filled by the prisoners in the first stage of their detention. The +water-carriers and clerks in the government office are in the second +period, and on reaching the third the convicts obtain the privilege of +going at large to accept employment in the town "from gun to gun." + +The prison hospital is situated in this first district, an ancient +edifice erected with part of the funds subscribed in times past to +purchase freedom for Christian captives enslaved by the Barbary Moors. +The building is of good size, well ventilated, and enjoys good hygienic +conditions. But the defects and shortcomings in Spanish administration +extend even to Ceuta and the prison hospital, which a local authority +says "is detestably organised and mounted miserably." The roof is so +slight that it affords no proper protection in summer and the intense +heat of the blazing sun striking through is very injurious to the +patients. The medical resources are small and inferior; the beds +few and unclean; the whole of the interior arrangements, furniture +fittings and appliances, insufficient and worn out. There is no +mortuary and to add a small detail in proof of the imperfections, +autopsies were performed in a small den, part of the hospital proper, +without disinfectants and the essential appliances for carrying out +post mortems. Patients seldom made a long stay in the hospital, for +they were rarely admitted until they had reached the last stages of an +illness and came in as a rule only to die. + +The second district contains the principal quarters for convicts. One +is in the chief barrack called _cuartel principal_ and another in the +fortress _el Hacho_.[17] Some further evidence of their evil condition +may be extracted from an account given by Salillas. "It is impossible +to conceive," he writes, "a more unsuitable, unsavoury place for a +prison. The rooms and dormitories occupied by the convicts are dark +and gloomy, always damp, full of pestilential odours and dirty beyond +description. The floors are of beaten earth, ever secure hiding places +for all forbidden articles, weapons, tools for compassing escape, +jars of drink, the fiery and poisonous _aguardiente_. It seems to me +extraordinary," he goes on to say, "that life under such conditions is +possible. A thousand and odd men who seldom if ever wash, who never +change their clothes, are crowded together promiscuously in small, +unclean, ill-ventilated, noisome dens and must surely engender and +propagate loathsome epidemic disease." The fetid air is foul with the +noisome exhalations of many generations of pestiferous people. It is +one sink of concentrated malaria--a reeking hot bed of infection. +The services of supply are carried out with abominable carelessness: +the kitchen is an abode of nastiness: the cooking is performed by +repulsive looking convicts in greasy rags who plunge their dirty arms +deep into the seething mess of soup which they bail out into buckets, a +malodorous compound of the colour and consistency of the mortar used in +building a wall. + +[17] See ante, pp. 159 sqq. + +Close by is another quarter in which convicts are lodged, _el Hacho_, +or the hilly ground or topmost point of Ceuta on which is placed the +citadel which crowns the fortifications. It takes the overflow from +the principal barrack and is moreover generally occupied by the worst +characters, the most insubordinate and incorrigible members of the +prison population. The rooms, as in the barrack below, are dirty, +overcrowded and insecure, but a few windows of the upper story open on +to the Mediterranean and are not always protected by either wooden or +iron bars. _El Hacho_ contains within its limits a certain number of +solitary cells, well known and much dreaded by the habitual criminals +of Spain. They are essentially punishment cells used in the coercion +of the incorrigible and are just as dark, damp and wretched as the +larger rooms. But the solitary inmate in each cell is generally kept +chained to the wall or is as it is styled _amarrado en blanca_, nearly +naked and heavily ironed. The treatment is exemplary in its cruelty, +but does not necessarily cure the subject. There was one irreclaimable +upon whom several years of the _calabozo_ had had no effect. He had +been sentenced to be thus chained up as the penalty for murderously +wounding an overseer in _el Hacho_, but he did not mend his manners. +On one occasion on the arrival of a new governor all under punishment +were pardoned. This convict when sent out forthwith furiously attacked +the first warder he met and was again condemned to be locked up as a +ceaseless danger to the presidio. He is remembered as little more than +a youth, but with a diabolical countenance and indomitable air. + +The district of the _Barcas_ does not contain a barrack properly +speaking, but there is a space cut in the thickness of the line wall +entering a patio or courtyard which gives upon seven rooms, some +high, some low; of these three and part of the yard were filled with +munitions of war, and a battery of artillery was placed over the +dormitories on their upper floor. Many of the convicts are employed as +boatmen and watchmen in the port, others have charge of the walls and +carry water up to the guardhouses on the higher level. They also attend +to the service of the drawbridge between the old and new town. One +who was employed as gatekeeper at the drawbridge was well remembered. +He was trusted to call on all convicts who passed to produce their +permits of free circulation or to enter and leave the fortress. He +had a pleasant rubicund face, was one armed, a little deaf, but with +very sharp eyes, not easily hoodwinked. He was a confirmed gossip who +picked up all the news which he retailed to all who passed in and out. +Escapes were of constant occurrence at Ceuta, but few occurred by the +drawbridge of the _Barcas_. + +Half way up the road from the town to the citadel and the fort of +the Seraglio was the Jadu barrack which was occupied by the convicts +who were engaged in agricultural work, in making tiles and burning +charcoal. Many of these were foreigners and negroes. The bulk of the +residents was made up of those who had completed three fourths of their +sentences and lived "under conditions," or in a state of conditional or +semi-freedom. There was little wrong-doing in Jadu, thefts were rare, +fights and quarrels seldom took place. The Seraglio was a fortified +barrack of rectangular shape occupied by troops of the garrison and +lodging an odd hundred convicts labouring on adjacent farms in private +hands. + +It will be observed that the convicts established in these last-named +quarters beyond the walls do not appear to exhibit all the unpleasant +features attributed to them by some writers in recording their +experiences of Ceuta.[18] No doubt the truth lies somewhere between +the two extremes but it is certain that the chief penal colony of +Spain shares to a marked extent the drawbacks inseparable from all +forms of penal colonisation. We may see, beyond all question, that at +Ceuta no beneficial results are achieved by the system. Criminals who +undergo the penalty are not improved by it; their reformation, too +generally a will-o'-the-wisp under the very best auspices, is not even +attempted, much less assured. On the other hand, it is perfectly clear +that evil is perpetually in the ascendent, that criminal tendencies +are largely encouraged by the facilities given in the education and +practice of wrong doing; that the presidio itself is a criminal centre +where the seeds of crime are sown and their growth fostered despite the +difficulties of distance and inconvenience. The fear of penal exile is +no deterrent to crime for the simple reason that life in Ceuta is not +particularly irksome and that the convict finds many compensations +there. The obligation to hard labour is not strictly enforced. Man +must work, but not hard and chiefly for his own advantage, to gain +the means of softening and bettering his lot. He passes his time very +much as he pleases. Though he rises with the sun, as is the universal +custom of his country, he turns out of bed without giving a thought to +personal cleanliness and proceeds to his appointed labour leisurely, +after disposing of his breakfast, adding perhaps more toothsome +articles of food, including a morning drink of _aguardiente_ bought +from the hawkers and hucksters awaiting him at the prison gates. He is +dressed in prison uniform, but it is sufficient and suitably varied +with the season. He is not hampered by fetters, as the ancient practice +of chaining convicts together in couplets has long since ceased. The +wearing of irons fell into disuse years ago at the building of the +great barrack del Valle, when several deplorable accidents occurred and +it was found that chains interfered with the free movement of workmen +on scaffolding and so forth. The idea was that irons should again +be imposed at the conclusion of the building; "but all who thought +so did not know Spanish ways, nor the despotism of custom when once +established."[19] "To-day (1873)," says same writer, "there are not +fifty suits of chains in the storehouse and not more than twenty are +worn by special penalty and by no means as a general practice." The +convict loafs about the rooms or courtyard or idly handles the tools +of his trade, gossiping freely with his comrades, or taking a hand at +_monte_ or _chapas_ with the full permission of warders not indisposed +to have a "little on the games"; he finds easy means to issue into the +streets to carry on some delectable flirtation; there may be a bull +baiting afoot, a _novillos_ in which all may join, or a theatrical +performance is being given by a convict company in one of the penal +establishments. + +[18] See ante, p. 159. + +[19] Relosillas. + +The theatre is a passion with the average Spaniard and the taste +extends to those in durance. Cases constantly occur in which popular +plays have been reproduced in prisons situated in the principal cities. +Salillas[20] states that almost all the prisons of Spain had their +theatre and he gives the names of Burgos, Ceuta, Ocana, Valladolid, +Saladero (Madrid) and Alcalá de Henares. One writer who visited the +prison performance at Seville of a musical piece, the "Viejas Ricas +de Cadiz," said it was given well and that the vocal talent was +considerable in that and other prisons. At the presidio of San Miguel +de los Reyes the convicts were heard singing a chorus on Christmas Eve +which was perfectly executed and with great feeling. + +[20] "Vida Penal en Espana." + +In the Valladolid gaol the theatre was regularly installed by a +company of forty convicts who had contributed substantial sums for +the purpose. It had working committees with rules and regulations +formally sanctioned by the governor of the province. The theatre with +seats for an audience of four hundred, and four private boxes holding +twelve persons each, was constructed in a building which afterwards +became the blacksmith shops. A refreshment room was provided in which a +contractor dispensed sweets and pastry and strong drink; real actresses +were engaged from outside at a salary of a dollar for each performance; +invitations were issued to the free residents and the convicts paid +two reales for admission. Well known, high class plays were produced, +comedies, dramas and comic operas. + +The whole proceeding was a caricature upon prison discipline and the +authorities who permitted it were very properly sharply and severely +condemned. They exposed themselves to reproof and worse for flagrant +contempt of the most ordinary restrictions in allowing women to pass +in constantly, and in permitting the sale of alcoholic liquors. That a +place of durance, primarily intended for the restraint and punishment +of evil doers should be converted into a show and spectacle was an +intolerable misuse of power and a disgraceful travesty of the fitness +of things. The positive evil engendered was seen in the wholesale +escape of the theatrical company, while the audience patiently waited +in front of the curtain which "went up" eventually on a wholly +unexpected performance.[21] + +[21] See ante, p. 128. + +In the matter of escapes Ceuta was famous. It was not difficult to +get away from that imperfectly guarded stronghold when the convict +had means to bribe officers or buy a boat and had the courage to make +the voyage across the Straits of Gibraltar. The story of one veteran +convict who escaped from Ceuta is interesting because he was driven to +take himself off by what he no doubt deemed the ill-judged severity of +his injudicious keepers. This was an old brigand known as "_El Niño de +Brenes_," (the lad of Brenes), a name he must have earned some time +back for he was a man aged seventy when he "withdrew" (the word is +exact) from Ceuta. He was a well-behaved, well-to-do convict of affable +address who had gained many staunch friends among the officials and +his own comrades. The position he had created for himself was one of +practical ease and comfort; he lived in _el Hacho_ pursuing various +industries, usury among the rest, and gradually grew so rich that he +gained possession of a strip of land which he cultivated profitably and +kept a fine poultry yard as well as many sheep and goats. + +El Niño was a tall well built old man, dark-skinned, with abundant +white hair. He was of highly respectable appearance, very stout and +sleek, and, being on the best of terms with his masters, he took +upon himself to discard the prison uniform and dress himself as an +Andalusian peasant with gaiters and red sash and _sombrero calañes_ +(round hard hat). Not strangely this presumption displeased the +authorities and he was told that he must conform to the rules and +appear in the proper convict clothing and cease to act as a money +lender to his poorer brethren. He received this intimation with +a smiling protest; he pointed out that he used his influence in +pacifying ill-conditioned convicts, in staving off disturbances and +preventing quarrels. If his services were not better appreciated +and he was tied down to the strict observance of the ordinary rules +he would move further away; his remaining in the presidio was quite +a matter of favour and he had always at his disposal the means to +make his escape, and if he were interfered with he would take his +departure. This impudent reply quite exasperated the authorities, +who thereupon resolved to employ sharp measures. The facts as he had +stated them were more or less true and the blame lay really with the +faulty and inefficient régime in force. But the authorities would not +tamely submit to be defied and a peremptory order was issued that he +should dispose of his private property by a certain date, wind up his +financial affairs and renounce all idea of exceptional treatment. El +Niño took this as a threat to which there could be but one reply. +He gathered together his cash and portable property and quietly +disappeared. A hue and cry was raised; the usual signals flew at the +signal staff; all gates and exits were closely watched; the police were +unceasingly active in pursuit, but the fugitive had laid his plans +astutely and was never recaptured. Having the command of ample means he +doubtless used them freely to purchase freedom by taking some sure road +past the frontier or across the sea. + +Allies and auxiliaries were never wanting to the enterprising fugitive +willing to pay liberally for assistance. In one case a convict had the +courage to allow himself to be shut up in a chest half full of tobacco +and to be thus conveyed to Gibraltar, to which it was returned as +containing damaged goods. Gibraltar is a free port and the chest was +landed without question. Then the consignee opened it without delay +and extracted the fugitive convict uninjured. The last part of the +story is somewhat incredible and we may wonder why the fugitive did not +succumb to the discomforts of his narrow receptacle, want of air, the +exhalations of the tobacco and the shakings and bumping of the box as +it made its voyage, albeit a short one, from Ceuta to the Rock. + +An escape on a large scale was effected from the principal barrack when +eighteen convicts descended into the drains, and finding their progress +unimpeded threaded them safely and passing under the outer wall reached +the outlet to the sea. It happened that the water was high and that +there was a great conflict of currents in which that setting inward had +most force and the exit was blocked by the stormy waves. Some of the +convicts committed themselves to the waters but were washed back with +violence against the rocky fortifications and all of them in terror +for their lives raised loud cries, calling for help. The sentries gave +the alarm, the guards ran down and recaptured all the fugitives but +one, a fine swimmer who persisted in his attempt and was swept seaward +clear of the rough water till he was able to regain the shore on the +far side of the Moorish sentries. + +The prison population of Ceuta is made up of a number of motley, +polyglot types of the many diverse families that compose the +Spanish race and of other distinct nationalities. The Spaniards are +generally classified under two principal heads: the Aragonese and the +Andalusians. The first named comprises all from the northern provinces +who are generally coarse, quarrelsome and brutal, sentenced chiefly for +crimes of violence, murders premeditated and committed under aggravated +circumstances, the outcome of furious and ungovernable passion. The +Andalusian is of more generous character, lively and light-hearted, +but of unsettled disposition and much impelled to attempt escapes. He +is a chronic grumbler constantly moved to complain, dissatisfied with +his rations and clamorous for special privileges. The Aragonese on +the other hand suffers long in silence which leads eventually, after +long brooding, into mutinous combination. The Andalusian makes his +grievances heard by word of mouth, the Aragonese rushes without notice +into overt action and organised attack. Another distinct section of +the Spanish race is the Galician and the native of the Asturias, a +sober, quiet and well-conducted people at home, who exhibit great +ferocity as convicts. Sanguinary encounters are little known in these +provinces, but when an Asturian or Galician takes the life of his +enemy, he uses artifice and waylays him, decoying him into an ambush +and murdering him often with horrible mutilation. A criminal feature, +peculiar to the women of these provinces, is their addiction to the use +of poison. Other Spanish females will use violence and inflict lethal +wounds openly, but the Galician woman administers poison secretly, +deliberately choosing her victims among her nearest relatives. + +The colonial empire of Spain, now a thing of the past, contributed +in its time a substantial contingent of yellow and black convicts, +Chinamen from the Philippines and negroes from Cuba. It was a +reprehensible practice to associate these foreigners with the European +convicts and it produced many evils. The Chinaman was often shamefully +ill-treated. He bore it patiently, but at times when goaded beyond +endurance, retaliated with bloodthirsty violence. The story of one +negro convict, a rather remarkable person, is still remembered at +Ceuta. He rejoiced in the somewhat inappropriate feminine name of +Dolores, and despite his colour was a singularly handsome man. He +had a slight, active figure, a highly intelligent face and a clear, +penetrating eye. His mental faculties were of a high order, although +he had received only an indifferent education. He had the fondness +of his race for fine clothes and although conforming to the prison +uniform wore it with a certain distinction, improving and adding to it +where possible and having quite a gentlemanly appearance. He had been +guilty of a hideous murder in Havana for which he had received a nearly +interminable sentence. His behaviour in gaol was orderly and submissive +and he always displayed the utmost loyalty to his masters, who in +return lightened his lot as far as was possible. + +Dolores, as a rule, was of a patient disposition, although he was +easily roused into fits of violent temper and could be at times, +according to his treatment, either a lion or a lamb. It seemed almost +incomprehensible that the mild eyes so calm and peaceable, when he was +unmoved, could blaze with sudden fury or that his small delicately +shaped hands could fasten murderously on a fellow creature's throat. +Tyranny and oppression were intolerable to him and he altogether +declined to submit to be domineered over by the chief bully in the +prison. His defiance led to an embittered conflict--a duel fought out +with knives--in which the black champion conquered after inflicting +many deep wounds upon his antagonist. With his victory Dolores gained +also the implacable ill-will of his fellows. They put him on his trial, +in a corner of the principal barrack and condemned him to death, which +would certainly have been inflicted had not the authorities interposed +to give him their protection. He was removed to _el Hacho_ and placed +in one of the separate cells used generally for the punishment of the +incorrigible.[22] This was fatal to him. Two water-carriers belonging +to the hostile faction entered the cell when Dolores was engaged in +writing with his back to the door, and throwing themselves upon him +gave him two mortal wounds under the left shoulder. In this supreme +moment Dolores put forth his tremendous strength, caught his assailants +by their necks and broke them before the warders could interfere on +either side. Dolores died but he is still remembered in the prison +annals as one of the most valiant and indomitable convicts who had ever +been detained in the presidio. + +[22] See ante, p. 194. + +Another alien convict to whom Relosillas pays a high tribute was his +own Chinese servant, a convict known as "Juan de la Cruz, the Asiatic." +He seems to have been unceasingly loyal and devoted in his service, an +admirable cook, an indefatigable nurse, a faithful watchman who guarded +his effects and secured his privacy. Juan had many accomplishments; +he could weave shade hats of the finest palm fibre, he was as clever +as any seamstress with his needle; he was a first-class housemaid and +laundress; he could make a dollar go further in the market than the +most economical housewife. He drove the most astonishing bargains with +the hucksters and purveyors of food, fish and game, with which Ceuta +was plentifully supplied. He had been condemned to a long term for +a murder committed in Havana at a hotel, of which he was the chief +cook. In appearance he was younger than his years, tall, thin, anæmic +looking, shortsighted, with jet black hair and oblique eyes. He was +a man of great intelligence, a dramatic author in Chinese and was +released before his time to accompany the Director General of Prisons +to Madrid as his cook. In the end he started a fruit shop in the +capital and prospered greatly. + +An entirely different class of prisoners came to Ceuta in considerable +numbers from time to time,--those exiled for political misdeeds. A +whole discipline battalion was composed of military offenders, among +them a number of artillerymen condemned for the rising in Barcelona +and crowds of Carlists and those concerned in the so-called cantonal +risings. One or two politicals were strange characters, such as the +old soldier named "_el Cojo_" (the lame man) of Cariñena, a conceited +veteran very proud of his many campaigns in which he had served, and +who went everywhere on donkey back, being infirm and crippled. Another +was the ex-curé of Berraonda, a Biscayan priest of ferocious aspect, +tall, corpulent, dark-skinned, with an abundant snow white bushy beard, +which grew to his waist and which was left untouched by the prison +barber. + +Speaking in general terms of the whole body all types of character were +represented. Some when in funds liked to pose as dandies with fine +linen, smart shoes or rope sandals tied with ribbons and coloured +sashes (fajas); others, the larger number, were coarse and brutal +ruffians, without private means, or too idle to acquire them by the +labour of their hands, much given to drunkenness and very quarrelsome +in their cups. The attitude of most convicts is mute irritation against +everyone, but they especially hate their warders and superiors; they +are surly and forbidding in manner, silent as to their past, little +disposed to talk of their criminal adventures. Yet they display the +most contradictory traits. Even when they have been guilty of the most +horrible misdeeds they often show a calm, innocent face and are little +vexed by conscience. One who was noted for his submissive demeanour and +who in any trouble always sided with authority, was a parricide who had +killed his father under the most revolting conditions. + +This youth, barely of age at the time of his crime, had sought his +father's consent to his marriage with an unworthy character, and +when refused, he retaliated by beating in his parent's brain with a +pickaxe. The fit of homicidal fury which possessed him drove him to +kill his father's donkey also and the dog which had been at his heels. +Then, having satiated his rage, he went home seemingly undisturbed, +and made some paltry excuse for his father's absence. When the corpse +was found he was arrested on suspicion, but for want of more than +circumstantial evidence escaped the garrote, and was sent to Ceuta +for life. Yet this miscreant betrayed no outward sign of the horrible +passions that sometimes dominated him, but was always placid and +of an engaging countenance. He was lamblike in his demeanour, most +attentive to his religious duties, never missed a mass or failed to +confess. He was devoted to children and his greatest pleasure was to +fondle the baby child of one of the warders which he carried about in +his arms in the streets of Ceuta. He seemed absolutely callous and +insensible to the prickings of conscience, but he showed in two ways +that he was consumed with remorse. When any reference was made to his +crime, at the slightest hint or the vaguest question, a fierce look +came into his eyes, his mouth closed, his hand sought his knife and +he was ready to attempt some fresh act of violence. The other sign of +his mental distress was that he seldom slept and never soundly or for +long, and his nights were disturbed with groans, deep sighs, even yells +of despair. Yet his general health was good, he ate with appetite, +maintained his strength well, and there was no apparent mental +failure. But he was no doubt mad and under a more intelligent system +of jurisprudence he would have been relegated to a criminal lunatic +asylum. There is no record however that at Ceuta he had been seized +again by homicidal mania. + +There were many other types of murderers in Ceuta. The husbands who +had killed their wives formed a distinct group. Jealousy because of +real or fancied injury led to the vindictive thirst for revenge and +this was more frequently found in the peasant than in the higher +and better educated classes. Death had been inflicted in most cases +by violence, but one aggrieved Othello chose poison, rejoicing in +the acute suffering produced by arsenic. Another, who was half a +Frenchman, adopted the French method of dismemberment, and to dispose +of the damning evidence of the corpse, cut it up into small pieces and +distributed them far and wide, but could not hide them effectually. +Extenuating circumstances were allowed him and he went to Ceuta, where +he is said to have lived quite contentedly, never regretting the savage +act that had avenged his dishonour and made him a widower. + +Ceuta made its own murderers. Duels to the death were of constant +occurrence as elsewhere, and the authorities rarely interfered even +when fatal consequences ensued. On this point Relosillas says: "During +my stay of fourteen months in Ceuta hardly an hour passed without a +serious quarrel, not a day when some one was not wounded, not a week +without a violent death in the _Cuartel Principal_. These troubles +were due invariably to the same causes, the admission of _aguardiente_ +and the facility with which knives and lethal weapons could be +obtained--points already noted and discussed at the beginning of this +chapter. The drink was always on tap, as it could be introduced without +difficulty through the dishonesty of the warders and the unlimited +traffic with the townspeople. The weapons were never wanting, as it was +impossible to check their presence, for no convict would be without his +long sharp knife ready for instant use. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE + + Disordered state of Spain at the accession of Isabella--Brigandage + raised into an organised system by lawless nobility and rebels--The + revival of the Santa Hermandad or Holy Brotherhood--This + institution revived again in the 19th century under the name of + "Migueletes"--Attack on the mail coach outside Madrid--The famous + brigand José Maria--His daring robberies in the Serrania--His + early life--English officers from Gibraltar captured and held to + ransom--Beloved and venerated by the peasants--In 1833 appointed an + officer of the Migueletes--Brigandage not extinct in Spain--Don Julian + de Zugasti appointed governor of Cordova--Methods of procedure--The + famous robber Vizco el Borje--His seizure of Don Pedro de M.--Enormous + ransom extorted--Agua Dulce. + + +Brigandage, the form of organised highway robbery practised by bands of +thieves in countries where roads are long and lonely and imperfectly +guarded, has been always popular with the Latin races. It suited the +tastes and temperament of reckless people who defied the law and +laughed at the attempt to protect defenceless wayfarers. Their activity +was stimulated by the long wastes of rugged country that separated the +towns, giving harbourage and security to the robbers who issued forth +to prey upon travellers and easily retired to their rocky fastnesses +and escaped pursuit. These Ishmaelites have been especially active in +Spain and Italy and the aggressive spirit that moved them is not yet +entirely extinct. More settled government has produced a more effective +police in these latter days, but acts of brigandage in its latest +development, that of "holding up" modern means of conveyance, express +trains, bicycles and motor cars, have occurred, and may be reasonably +expected to increase. + +Brigandage is as old as the hills in Spain and some of its earliest +phases are well worth describing before they are forgotten or replaced +by newer processes. We may look back and gather some idea of those +early days in Spain. + +When Isabella, the Catholic, ascended the throne of Castile, she was +called upon to govern a country profoundly demoralised, infested +with evil doers and dominated by a turbulent and vicious nobility. +The throne was an object of contempt, the treasury empty, the +people poverty stricken, and the princes of the Church rebellious +and rejoicing in large revenues. A lawless aristocracy hungry for +independent authority were fighting for their own lands or conspiring +secretly to overawe the Crown. Titled alcaldes, traitors and rebels, +openly raised brigandage into a system, exacted tribute by blackmail +from the lower classes, and made unceasing war upon the higher. Within +the kingdom a rival pretender aimed at the Crown. One near neighbour, +Alfonso V of Portugal, menaced the peace of the country and kept +an army on the frontier; another, Louis XI of France, crafty and +unscrupulous, constantly threatened war and held his army in Guipuscoa. + +In a few short years the whole aspect of the country was changed. +Isabella brought her rebellious nobles to their knees, all of them +asking pardon and promising allegiance; the French army withdrew +hastily to France; the Portuguese was defeated and expelled; the +claimant to the throne was imprisoned and numbers of high-born +criminals suffered on the scaffold. The great ecclesiastics disgorged +much of their wealth to buy forgiveness, the robber haunts were +attacked and destroyed, the high-roads became perfectly safe, thieves +and highwaymen took to honest labour. Now the revenue was largely +improved, the law was respected, crime was actively pursued and +rigorously punished. But for the terrors and cruelties practised by the +Inquisition, Spain would have enjoyed unbroken domestic peace and all +the benefits accruing from general good government. These satisfactory +results were largely achieved by the excellent police organised by +Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand. The revival and consolidation of +the "Santa Hermandad" or Holy Brotherhood which had always existed in +the country districts to secure peace and tranquillity, but heretofore +wielding smaller powers, worked wonders. A comprehensive system was now +introduced by which all parts were patrolled by well-armed guardians +of the law, mounted and on foot, who checked, prevented or punished +misdeeds. In every collection of thirty houses or more two officials +were appointed to deal with all offenders according to a strict code. +Every thief when taken was punished with fine, flogging and exile, in +penalties proportioned to the amount stolen. For more heinous offences +his ears were cut off and he got a hundred lashes, or yet again one of +his feet was amputated and he was peremptorily forbidden to ride on a +horse or mule at peril of his life. A sentence of death was carried out +by shooting with arrows. + +This ancient Hermandad was at one time revived in the _Migueletes_, +a body of men organised early in the nineteenth century to act as +escorts to private travellers, as the regular mails and diligences +were under the protection of troops provided by the Government. The +_Migueletes_ were a semi-military force composed of picked youths of +courageous conduct, wearing uniform and armed with a short gun, with +a sword, a single pistol and carrying a cord by which to secure their +prisoners. The _Migueletes_ took their name from one Miguel de Pratz, +who had been a lieutenant of Caesar Borgia. They were often recruited +from the robbers who were offered service as a condition of pardon when +captured, and afterwards behaved admirably. No one with an escort of +ten or twelve _Migueletes_ need fear attack. + +The mail coach was sometimes attacked, and on one occasion was stopped +at Almuwadiel outside Madrid. It carried several passengers, among +others an Englishman, a German artist and a Spaniard. At the first +appearance of the brigands, the guard threw himself on the ground with +his face in the mud and the postillions did the same. When summoned +to deliver up their possessions, the Englishman gave up his well +filled purse and was warmly thanked; the German artist would have been +ill-treated as a punishment for his empty pockets, but was spared +when his poverty was explained; the Spaniard was caught attempting to +conceal his valuables in the carriage lining and narrowly escaped a +beating. The coach was at last permitted to proceed and at parting the +leader of the band shook hands with the Englishman and said he was a +real gentleman, the German was ignored and the Spaniard was sharply +taken to task for his attempted "fraud." + +To this period (1825-35) belongs the famous brigand, José Maria, the +Spanish Fra Diavolo, whose name is still remembered in the "Serrania" +or mountain country of Ronda and throughout Southern Andalusia, for his +daring robberies and continual defiance of the authorities. A "pass" or +safe conduct granted by him was a better protection than any official +escort. So great was his power that he was known by the proud title +of "El Señor del Campo" (the lord of the country), and he ruled more +absolutely in Andalusia than King Ferdinand in Spain. Travellers paid +him a head tax, blackmail was levied on all public conveyances and, as +has been said, he issued passports at a price to all who chose to pay +for his protection. Strong bodies of troops were sent against him, but +he managed always to elude or oppose them successfully. + +José Maria started in life as a small cultivator in a village near +Antequera, but, unable to earn a decent living, he took to the more +profitable business of smuggling, a profession greatly honoured and +esteemed in Spain. In one of his operations he was drawn into an affray +with the soldiers and unfortunately shot and killed one of them. He at +once fled to the mountains, where he was soon surrounded by other no +less reckless companions, all of them outlaws like himself, and became +the chief and centre of the band which soon spread terror throughout +Southern Spain. His headquarters were in the rugged and lofty mountain +district of Ronda near the little town of Grazalema, but he was +ubiquitous in his rapid movements and traversed the whole of Andalusia. +A story is preserved of an English nobleman who travelled to Spain +for the express purpose of making his acquaintance but long sought +him in vain in his favourite haunts and much disappointed retraced +his steps to Madrid. But on the road between Carmona and Ecija[23] he +had the questionable good fortune to meet José Maria in person, who +thanked him courteously for the compliment he had paid him in seeking +an interview, in return for which he proceeded to relieve his lordship +of his valuables and his baggage so that he might continue his journey +without encumbrance. He had many ways of levying contributions. One was +to send a messenger to some landed proprietor, demanding a large sum of +money, and declaring that if it was not paid he would swoop down to lay +waste his lands and burn his house over his head. Another plan was to +take post with his gang, all of them well mounted and fully armed, on +the highroad just outside some populous city, and "hold up" every one +who passed in or out, seizing all ready money and carrying off to some +secret fastness all persons known to possess means. + +[23] This town of Ecija is renowned in the history of Spanish +brigandage as the home of the "Seven Sons of Ecija," a very daring +and dangerous band whose achievements have been told by the Spanish +novelist, Fernandez y Gonzalez. + +English officers, part of the garrison of the Rock of Gibraltar, did +not escape the exactions of José Maria. Once a shooting party in the +woods near Gibraltar was suddenly attacked and captured, but after +the first surprise they showed fight and a brigand was wounded. The +lives of all of them were in danger but were saved on the persuasion +of José Maria that they would be more valuable as prisoners for whom a +large ransom would be obtained than as corpses. One of the party was +accordingly sent to the Rock to procure the money while the rest were +detained as hostages for his return at a certain hour the next day. +The messenger was warned that if a rescue was attempted, the whole of +the prisoners would be instantly massacred. He reached the Rock after +gunfire, but the gates were presently especially opened to admit him, +the money was collected, not without difficulty, and was conveyed to +the brigands in sufficient time to secure the release of the captives. +For some time later English officers were forbidden to go into Spain +except in sufficient numbers to set the brigands at defiance. In quite +recent years (1871) two gentlemen, natives of the Rock, were carried +off and detained until a large ransom was paid. + +José Maria dominated the country for nearly ten years. The secret of +his long continued impunity may be traced to the fact that many of +the local authorities, influenced either by fear or interest, were in +collusion with him, and that the peasantry all wished him success; +for, as he never oppressed them, but assisted and protected their +smuggling transactions in which they are nearly all, in one way or +other, engaged by opposing the regular troops, he was greatly beloved +and venerated. He was in fact regarded as a hero; for such a life, wild +and adventurous, where there is plenty of plunder and no laborious +duty, has wondrous charms in the eyes of the lower Andalusians, by +whom the laws of _meum_ and _tuum_ have never been well understood. +How long José might have continued in power it is impossible to say, +but like some other great personages he chose to abdicate. In 1833, he +made his own terms with the Queen's government, agreeing to break up +his band on condition of receiving an _indulto_, or pardon for all past +offences, and a salaried appointment as an officer of Migueletes, or +"police." He did not long exercise this honest calling, for soon after, +when attempting to secure some of his former comrades who had taken +refuge in a farmhouse, he was shot dead as he burst open the door. + +With all his bad qualities, José had some of a redeeming character. +Among these were his kindness to his female prisoners, his generosity +to the poor, and his forbearance, for he frequently restrained his +troop from acts of violence, and displayed on occasions a certain +chivalrous nobility of character, hardly to be expected from a robber. +In person he was very small, scarcely more than five feet in height, +with bowed legs; but he was stout, strong and active and made amends +in boldness, determination and talent for his physical deficiencies. +His success and the long continued control which he exercised over the +lawless fellows who composed his band proved that he possessed the +difficult art of command. His courage indeed was proverbial. As an +instance of it, it is reported that he once ventured into the presence +of the Prime Minister at Madrid and dared to beard him in his own house. + +Brigandage has not wholly disappeared in Spain although it no longer +exists on the grand scale of former days when the mountain passes +and lesser highways were infested by robber bands led by daring +and unscrupulous chiefs who stopped travellers, blackmailed landed +proprietors and carried off country folk whom they held to ransom often +for considerable sums. To-day, if the knights of the road are still to +be met with occasionally, they are for the most part paltry pilferers +bent on stealing small sums from the poorer folk returning from market, +or in rare cases holding up some solitary vehicle and its defenceless +passengers. These are of the type of the old fashioned _salteadores_ +or "jumpers," so named because they jumped out from behind a rock and +dropped suddenly on their prey with the old peremptory summons of +"_Boca abajo!_" "_Boca à tierra!_" "Faces down! Mouth to the ground!" +The cry may still be heard, and it means mischief when backed as of old +by the muzzle of a gun protruding from the bushes in some narrow pass +or defile. They are courageous too, these Spanish road agents, ready +to fight at need as well as to rob, to overbear resistance and to meet +the officers of the law with their own weapons. A story is told of one +daring ruffian, Rullo de Zancayro, who, in 1859, murdered the alcalde +of his village and was followed by two _guardias civiles_. At the end +of a long chase they went too near some brushwood, when one was shot +dead and the fugitive made good his escape. + +In the year 1870 brigandage was general throughout Spain, but the +heart and centre of it was the province of Andalusia, with branches +and ramifications everywhere, spreading dismay and apprehension +among all peaceable people. This was in the interregnum that followed +the revolution which drove Queen Isabella from the throne. There +was safety for no one. Respectable landowners dared not visit nor +reside upon their estates for fear of attack, dreading robbery with +violence or seizure of their persons, and they constantly received +threatening letters demanding the purchase of immunity on the payment +of considerable sums. The roads were more than ever insecure, trains +and diligences were repeatedly held up, and small parties of travellers +or solitary wayfarers were certain to be laid under contribution. It +was claimed that the _guardias civiles_, the fine rural police, were +no longer active but were diverted from their legitimate duties by +political party leaders in power. So many bitter complaints, so many +indignant demands for protection, reached the central government in +Madrid, that the authorities resolved to put down brigandage with a +strong hand. A new governor of Cordova was appointed, a man of vigour +and determination, armed with full powers to purge the province of its +desperadoes. + +The choice fell upon Don Julian de Zugasti y Saenz, who had been a +member of the Cortes and employed as civil administrator, first as +governor of Teruel, where he had restored order in a period of grave +disorder, and at Burgos, where he had laid bare a formidable conspiracy +against the government. When Zugasti undertook the task, it was high +time to adopt energetic measures. There was no security for life or +property as robberies on a large scale were perpetrated both in town +and country. Well-to-do citizens were seized in the public streets and +carried off to sequestration; farmers and cultivators were compelled to +share their produce, their harvests, and their herds with the brigands +who swooped down on them; the police were impotent or too much overawed +to interfere in the interest of honest folk. The prevailing anarchy +and widespread lawlessness were a disgrace to any country that called +itself civilised. Zugasti did a great work in restoring order and +giving security to the disturbed districts. The whole story is told +at some length in his book on "Bandolerismo,"[24] which deals with +brigandage in Spain from its very beginnings, describing the principal +feats of the banditti. + +[24] "Bandolerismo estudo social y memorias historicas," by Don Julian +de Zugasti. Madrid, 1876. + +At the outset he was faced with a most difficult situation. Crimes +in great number had been committed with impunity. Many of their +perpetrators were wholly hidden from the authorities, while others +were perfectly well known. A crowd of spies were ever on the watch and +ready, whether from greed or to curry favour, with abundant information +of openings that offered for attempts at crime. On the other hand the +_guardias civiles_ were greatly discouraged and far too weak in numbers +for the onerous duties they were expected to perform. Judges were +dishonest and had been known to accept bribes, the ordinary police were +torpid, nearly useless and generally despised. A complete reform in the +administration of justice was a crying need, as the power and authority +of the law were completely broken down. + +The new governor was helpless and handicapped on every side. His +representations to the government for support were but coldly +received and he had to rely on such scanty means as he had at hand. +He looked carefully into the character of all police employés and +dismissed all of doubtful reputation. He established a system of +supplying the _guardias civiles_ at all stations with photographs of +criminals at large whom they could identify and arrest, and insisted +on strictly revising the permits issued to carry arms, allowing none +but respectable persons to do so. The prohibition was extended to all +kinds of knives, many of them murderous weapons of the well known type. +The quarters of all evil doers he heard of were broken up, including +the farm which had come to be called Ceuta because it harboured a +mob of ex-convicts, escaped prisoners who were eager to resume their +depredations by joining themselves to the plans and projects of others. + +These active measures were bitterly resented and vigorously resisted by +all evil doers, who went so far as to seek the removal of the governor, +and it was falsely announced in more than one newspaper that he had +sent in his resignation. The disastrous consequence was the immediate +revival of brigandage in various forms. Horses and cattle were once +more stolen in the open country and a house in the town of Estado +was broken into and a large amount in cash and securities with much +valuable jewelry was seized. At the same time ten prisoners escaped +in a body from the gaol of that city. On the highroad between Posadas +and Villaviciosa, seven armed men robbed nineteen travellers, and a +party had the audacity to carry off a child of nine and hold him to +ransom. The police and well-disposed people were greatly disheartened, +the _guardias civiles_, which had done excellent service in capturing +more than a hundred prisoners in a short time, slackened in their +endeavours, while the municipal police, which had forty captures to +its credit, also held their hand. The whole situation was greatly +aggravated and crime gained the ascendancy. But Zugasti rose to the +occasion, publicly denied the report of his resignation; the government +published a complimentary decree commending his conduct, and his +pursuit of wrong doers was continued with renewed energy. Naturally he +incurred the bitterest hostility and went constantly in danger of his +life. He received anonymous letters containing the most bloodthirsty +threats and was warned by his friends that they could not possibly +support or protect him. Undeterred he held his way, bravely and wisely +organised an association akin to the "Regulators" of the wild days +in the Western States of the United States to patrol the country and +insure the general safety, and employed a large force of secret police +agents to perambulate the country, keeping close watch upon suspicious +persons, travelling by all trains, patrolling all roads, visiting +taverns in low quarters, entering the prisons in disguise and gaining +the confidence of the fellow prisoners. Zugasti himself spent long +periods in the various gaols, observing, investigating and interviewing +notable offenders. + +The thoroughness of his proceedings might be gathered from the choice +he made of his agents. One of the most useful was an idiot boy, whose +weak-mindedness was relieved by some glimmerings of sense and who +passed entirely unsuspected by those upon whom he spied. His foolish +talk and silly ways gained him ready admission into cafés and clubs, +where he was laughed at and treated as a butt upon whom food, drink +and unlimited cigars were generously bestowed. He had the gift of +remaining wide awake while seeming to be sound asleep, his ears ever on +the stretch to pick up compromising facts which were openly mentioned +before him. He had also a prodigious memory and seldom forgot what he +heard, storing up everything to be produced later when he attended +upon the governor. In this way Zugasti often heard of crimes almost +as soon as they were planned, and could hunt up their perpetrators +without delay. On one occasion a mysterious crime was unravelled by +placing the idiot in the same cell with two of the suspected actors, +who entirely believed in the imbecility of their cell companion and +unguardedly revealed the true inwardness of the whole affair. + +The _ladron en grande_, the "robber chief" at the head of a numerous +band, is still to be met with, although rarely representing the type +of the famous José Maria. These leaders rose to the command of their +lawless fellows by force of superior will, and they were unhesitatingly +obeyed and followed with reckless devotion in the constant commission +of crime. One or two noted specimens have survived till to-day and some +account of them may be extracted from recent records. + +Vizco el Borje was long a terror to the peaceable people in northern +Andalusia. He was originally an officer of _carabineros_, the "custom +house" regiment of Spain, but had been, in his own judgment, unjustly +dismissed and found himself deprived of the means of subsistence. +Falling lower and lower, step by step he became an outcast, an +Ishmaelite consumed with an intense hatred of all social arrangements, +with his hand against every man. He began business as a smuggler and +soon took to worse, following the Spanish proverb:-- + + "De contrabandista e ladron + No haymas que un escalon." + +"There is only one short step from smuggler to thief," and Vizco +quickly crossed the narrow space and became a notorious criminal. He +carried on the war against law and order with constantly increasing +recklessness and more and more daring outrages. His strong personal +character, his iron will, his unbounded courage and boldness gave +him a great ascendancy over the men who collected around him and who +served him with the greatest loyalty and unstinting effort. One of his +exploits may be quoted at some length as exhibiting his methods and the +success that generally attended them. + +A certain landowner, Don Pedro de M----, whose estates were in the +neighbourhood of the mountain village of Zahrita, was in the habit of +providing bulls free of charge for the amusement of the villagers, at +the annual festival of their patron saint. Amateur bull fighters are +always to be found to take part in the performance of a _novillos_, +or game with young bulls. Don Pedro like many of his class was also +an _aficionado_, an amateur devoted to bull fighting, and he loved to +pick out himself the animals he gave from his herds, trying first their +temper and their aptitude for the so-called sport of _tauromaquia_. +He was thus engaged, assisted by his steward and a herdsman, and had +dismounted with the steward to walk round the herd, when the ominous +cry was raised, "_Boca abajo!_" and they found themselves covered +by the rifles of three brigands who had crept upon them unobserved. +Resistance was hopeless, though they also were armed, for their guns +hung at the saddles of their horses, which they led at the full length +of their reins, and to have made any hostile move would have drawn +down a murderous fire. The chance soon passed, for one of the robbers +quickly took possession of both horses and guns. The seizure was +complete and the captors proceeded to carry off their prize. + +All remounted by order of the chief of the band, who took the lead, +and the party started in single file along the narrow mountain path, +an armed escort bringing up the rear. They made straight for the +upper sierra, avoiding the frequented track until they reached a +dense thicket, where a halt was called and a scout sent on ahead. +After an interchange of whistled signals, nine other horsemen rode +up, the two prisoners were ordered to dismount, their eyes closely +bandaged, and they were warned that their lives depended upon their +implicit obedience to the orders they received. Then the march was +resumed. The road led constantly upward, becoming more and more rugged +and precipitous till from the utter absence of brushwood and the +stumbling of their horses they knew that they were climbing through +a mountainous region. Another halt was called, all again dismounted, +and the prisoners were led on foot along a narrow passage, that from +the echoing sounds and the closeness of the air evidently penetrated +far into the hill. It opened presently into an extensive cavern, +probably the long-abandoned workings of some ancient Roman mine. +Here their bandages were removed and Don Pedro saw that he was in the +presence of the three bandits who had first made him prisoner. The cave +contained nothing but a few empty boxes, on one of which was a light, +a flickering wick in a saucerful of oil. Another box was offered Don +Pedro as a seat, writing materials were produced and he was desired to +write from dictation as follows:-- + + "DEAR FATHER, I am in the power of the 'Sequestradores,' who make good + plans and bind fast. It is madness to put the government on their + track--they will escape and you will lose your son. Your secrecy and + your money can at once free me. You can send the silver by Diego our + steward, who is the bearer of this. Let him appear on the mountain + between Grazalema and El Bosque, riding a white donkey and bringing + ten thousand dollars." + +Here the prisoner stopped short and point blank refused to demand so +large a sum, declaring that to pay it his brothers would be robbed of +their patrimony and that he had no right to ask even when his life was +at stake for more than his individual share as one member of a large +family. It was a fair argument and he held out so staunchly that the +brigand was pleased to reduce the demand to six thousand dollars. The +letter conveying these terms was then completed, signed and delivered +to Diego, who was told to make the best of his way to Xeres, and as +dawn had now broken he had no difficulty in finding the road. + +Don Pedro was hospitably entertained. A wine skin (_borracha_) was +broached and a plentiful supper laid out. The day was spent in sleep, +but at nightfall the march was resumed. The prisoner was once more +blindfolded, the weary pilgrimage, halting by day, travelling by +night for three nights in succession, was resumed. On one occasion he +seemed near rescue. A cry of "Civiles! Civiles!" was raised, an alarm +of the near approach of the much dreaded _guardias civiles_. Orders +were promptly issued to prepare for action. The brigands closed their +ranks, sent their prisoner to the rear and took post to open fire. In +the confusion Don Pedro, keenly alert for the deliverance that seemed +so near, managed to lift the bandage over his eyes sufficiently to +peep around. The party stood on a narrow ledge of the mountain side, +straight cliff above, sheer drop below: movement forward or back was +alone feasible. Meanwhile the increasing clatter of hoofs betrayed +the enemy's approach, nearer and nearer, and the brigands barring the +narrow road hoped to take them at a disadvantage and, after shooting +them down, make good their retreat. But the sight of the first horse +showed that it had been a false alarm. These were not "_Civiles_" but +"_Contrabandistas_," smugglers not policemen, friends not foes. A long +train of animals, heavily laden with goods that had paid no duty, were +being guided across the mountains. Don Pedro's hopes were crushed +out of him when he heard the interchange of friendly greetings: "_Muy +buenas noches!_" on one side and "_Vayan ustedes con Dios_," on the +other; "Good night!" and "Go in God's keeping," and room was made by +the robbers for the safe passage of the smuggling train. + +On the third day news came that the authorities were on the alert and +it would be unsafe to meet the messenger returning on his white donkey. +Another tryst was therefore appointed. Don Pedro's father was desired +to send half the whole sum demanded to Grazalema and the other half was +carried by a man on the white donkey to a lonely spot among the hills. +The father started in person on the long ride from Xeres to Grazalema +weighted with three thousand dollars in cash, reached his destination +safely but remained there for a couple of days tortured with suspense. +On the third morning he was approached by a man leading a pony laden +with rolls of the rough brown cloth manufactured in Grazalema, who +said under his breath as he passed, "Follow me." The peddler led the +way to a small draper's shop where the same cloth was exposed for sale +and, dismounting, passed into the back premises, where another man, +also a peddler, was seated waiting. This was Vizco el Borje himself, +who at once asked for the money, producing Don Pedro's pencil case +as his credentials. The dollars had been sewn for security into the +pack saddle of the pony which had brought the old man, and they were +extracted, counted and handed over. Vizco forthwith climbed on top of +the pile of cloth carried by his own mount and rode boldly out of the +town. + +Meanwhile Diego, the steward on the white donkey, with the remaining +three thousand dollars patiently hung about the mountain lair to +which he had been directed, and at last encountered a goatherd at the +entrance of the village, who told him to ride on till he met a woman +dressed in black seated by the side of a well. "She will ask you the +time, and you will answer twelve o'clock, at which she will guide you +to the spot where you are expected." It was a cavern in the hill and he +was met there by his young master Don Pedro safe and sound. The money +was handed over, but no release was permitted until news came of the +delivery of the other half, when the prisoners were guided to a path +familiar to them and they were free to return home. Next evening they +rode into Xeres after a captivity of fifteen days. + +The end of Vizco el Borje was such as might be expected. He was shot +down by the _guardias civiles_. For a long time he carried his life +in his hands and had many hairbreadth escapes, saved always by his +fine pluck and resourcefulness. At last the authorities had positive +information of his whereabouts, gained through treachery, and he was +surrendered. He made a gallant defence, but his retreat was cut off +and he was soon overpowered. When he fell his body had been pierced by +five rifle bullets. + +Another type of brigand was Agua Dulce, who worked on a much smaller +scale, but was long a terror in the neighbourhood of Xeres. He was +a mean, contemptible ruffian who preyed upon charcoal burners, poor +travellers, carriers and workmen returning home with their hard earned +wages. He had one narrow escape. After securing an unusually large sum, +the equivalent of £600, all in small coins, he was caught dividing +these with two accomplices in a wine shop. His arrest and imprisonment +followed. When called upon to account for his possession of the gold, +Agua Dulce explained that he had got it in the course of a business +transaction in Seville and was removed to that city for trial, where he +was acquitted, although little doubt was entertained of his guilt. + +For years he continued his depredations, committing for the most part +small thefts and petty larcenies. Now and again he made bold coups, as +when, under threat of damaging a herd of valuable mares, he extorted +three thousand dollars from a lady who raised horses. He levied a +thousand dollars on another landowner by using the same menace and a +third gentleman, who had stoutly refused to be blackmailed and who +owned a large drove of donkeys, found them all with their throats cut +lying by the high road. When his misdeeds became too numerous to be +borne the municipal guard of Gorez swore to put an end to him. A hot +pursuit was organised and he was found at a ford near a wood belonging +to the Duke of San Lorenzo, where he was caught hiding among the trees. +Two guards opened fire, which was returned, with the result that one +guard was killed and one robber. Agua Dulce, who was still alive, got +into the covert, and shots were again and again exchanged, ending in +the destruction of the brigand. + +A later affair with brigands occurred at Gibraltar in 1870, when two +gentlemen, natives of the Rock, much given to hunting and taking long +rides in the neighbourhood, were waylaid and made prisoners. They were +carried off to a lonely house in the hills near Ronda and detained +for ransom, which was advanced by the British government through the +governor of the fortress of Gibraltar, and eventually repaid by the +Spanish authorities. After the money had been paid over the _guardias +civiles_ intercepted the robbers and shot them down. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY + + Wonderful results achieved by Colonel Montesinos in the presidio + at Valencia--Montesinos repairs and reconstructs the prison with + convict labour--His system of treatment--Period--Marvellous success + in reforming criminals--Convicts entrusted with confidential + despatches in civil war--Armed to resist attack on the prison + by insurgents--Employed to hunt down brigands--Movement towards + prison reform in 1844--Three new model prisons planned for + Madrid--Executions--The "garrote"--Account of the trial and execution + of José de Rojas--The condemned cell at the Saladero--An Englishman's + description of a Spanish execution. + + +The reader who has followed this detailed description of Spanish penal +methods has realised the hideous shortcomings of Spanish prisons, the +horrible practices so constantly prevailing within the walls, the +apparently incurable nature of the criminals who regularly fill them, +and he might reasonably doubt that definite and substantial amendment +was possible. Yet the contrary is true and to the most marked and +astonishing degree if we are to believe the facts on record. In one +instance the personal character of one man, backed by his unshaken +determination and the exercise of a resolute and inflexible will, +brought a large mass of convicts into an admirable condition of +self-control and good behaviour. The story reads like a fairy tale, +as set forth in contemporary chronicles. One of the most interesting +accounts is to be found in a book of travels entitled "Spain as It +Is," by a Mr. Hoskins, in which he gives his personal observations +of the results achieved in the prison at Valencia by the enlightened +administration of its Governor, Colonel Montesinos. A brief account of +the man himself should precede our appreciation of his work. + +Montesinos was a soldier, trained to arms, whose education and +experience were entirely military. He had no previous acquaintance +with or insight into prison systems, although he had travelled far +and wide in many countries. He had never visited or inspected their +penal establishments nor had he penetrated into any single prison in +his native Spain. He served in the Spanish army, beginning as a cadet +at fourteen, was actively engaged in the war of Independence, and was +carried off as a prisoner into France. When set free at the conclusion +of peace, he accepted a post in the secretariat of the War Office at +Madrid, where he remained for five years. Then came the political +troubles which ended in the fall of the constitutional government +in 1823 and the surrender of Cadiz. With many other soldiers and +citizens, he left Spain and wandered through Europe and America, with +no very definite idea of examining into the laws and customs of other +countries, but gaining knowledge and breadth of views. On his return +to Spain when close on forty years of age he was appointed governor of +the convict prison in Valencia. + +Montesinos entered upon his duties with a firm conviction of the +paramount importance of military discipline, of that passive and +unquestioning obedience to authority, the absolute surrender of +individual volition, the complete subjection of the many to the single +will of one superior master, which he believed to be the essence of all +personal government and more particularly in a prison. To enforce such +discipline was the only effectual method of securing good order and +the due subordination of the rough and possibly recalcitrant elements +under his command. In this he entirely succeeded and established an +extraordinary influence over his charges. He became an autocrat but +in the best sense; his prisoners resigned themselves submissively and +unhesitatingly to his control, anxious to gain his good will by their +exemplary demeanour and their unvarying desire to behave well. What +he actually made of his charges, how he succeeded in changing their +very natures, in transforming lawbreakers and evil doers into honest, +trustworthy persons, successfully restraining their evil instincts, +will be best realised by a few strange facts which, if not positively +vouched for, would be considered beyond belief. But before relating +these marvellous results it will be well to describe in some detail the +processes adopted by him and the principles on which he acted. + +When Colonel Montesinos was appointed governor of the Valencian convent +prison, it was located in an ancient mediæval edifice known as the +"_Torres de Cuarte_," two towers flanking the great gate which gave +upon the suburb known as "_El Cuarte_." This semi-ruinous building, +dating from the fifteenth century, lodged about a thousand prisoners, +herded together in a number of dark, dirty, ill-kept and insecure +chambers, wholly unfit for human habitation. They were on several +floors communicating by narrow passages and tortuous staircases, below +which were deep underground cellars divided up into obscure foul +dungeons, which were always humid from the infiltration from the city +ditch and into which neither sunlight nor fresh air came to dry up the +damp pavement and the streaming walls. Montesinos saw at once that it +would be impossible to introduce reforms in such a building and he +laboured hard to move into better quarters, securing at length, after +a long correspondence, new quarters in the monastery of St. Augustine, +which indeed was but little better. Here also the buildings had fallen +into disrepair. A large part was without roof, there was little +flooring, and many broken windows and decayed walls offered numerous +facilities for escape. Extensive repairs were indispensable, yet funds +were wanting, for the Spanish government was sorely taxed to meet the +expenses of the civil war (Carlist) now in full swing. Nevertheless +Montesinos, strenuous and indefatigable, a host in himself, transferred +his people, a thousand convicts of dangerous character, into their new +abode and set them to work to repair and reconstruct the old building. +He meant to succeed, by drawing upon his own limitless energies, +creating means from his own native resources, and was backed by the +ready response of those he brought under the dominion of an indomitable +will. + +All difficulties yielded before his intense spirit. He was the very +incarnation of activity and it was enough to look at him to be +spurred on to assiduous effort. His personal traits and their effect +upon his surroundings are thus described by his biographer, Vincente +Boix,--"There can be no doubt that his martial air, his tall figure +and the look in his face, a mixture of imperious command with great +kindliness and shrewd appreciation of willing effort, had a marked +effect upon his people, and convicts who had been once coerced and +driven by the fear of punishment yielded much more readily to his +moral force. His obvious determination and strength of character got +more out of them than threats or penalties, although, if needs were, +he was ready enough to appeal to the strong arm. They acknowledged +his superiority, and rough undisciplined men, quite capable of rising +against authority when unchecked or weakly held, succumbed to his +lightest word like children to their father. They yielded even against +the grain absolute compliance to his lightest wish without needing a +sharp look or a cross word." + +It will be interesting to follow Montesinos' procedure. Under his +system the treatment was progressive and divided into three periods; +first, that of chains; second, that of labour; and third, that of +conditional liberation. This arrangement is in some respects akin to +that generally known as the "Irish" system as practised many years ago +with conspicuous success. + +(1) The wearing of irons at that time was general in Spain, although +now the practice has fallen into disuse. With Montesinos the rule was +to impose irons of varying weight graduated to the length of sentence. +A two years' man carried them of four pounds' weight; a four years' +man of six pounds, while between six and eight years they were of +eight pounds. They consisted of a single chain fastened to a fetter on +the right ankle, while the other end was attached to a waist belt, a +method supposed to cause no great inconvenience. With Montesinos the +period of wearing them was of short duration. It terminated on the +day that the convict petitioned for regular employment, for on first +reception, after having entered the first courtyard, which was kept +bright with garden flowers and the songs of many birds in cages hanging +around, the new arrival was given no work. He remained at the depot +idle and silent, for no conversation was permitted, although he was +associated with others, and if he put a question to a neighbour he +got no reply. Weariness and boredom soon supervened in this period of +first probation and the convict was keen to pass on. He appealed to his +officer, who told him to seek employment at some trade. "I know none." +"Then learn one, you cannot get quit of your irons in any other way." +If the convict hesitated he was left studiously to himself, unhappy +and ashamed, for his condition was deemed disgraceful. He could not +hold his head up, for a wide gulf separated him from others who had +escaped the chain. He was a marked man, shunned and sneered at, and was +required to work from the second day at ignominious and humiliating +labour, such as sweeping, cleaning, and so forth. They were the helots +and scavengers of the prison. Their lot was the more unbearable because +they were debarred from many privileges conferred on those who were +at regular labour, and who were earning wages to spend in part upon +themselves. These regular labourers might buy toothsome food and +cigars, the delight of every Spaniard's heart. Meanwhile the governor +had been watching him closely, noting his disposition and whether +or not he was desirous of taking up work which was so much to his +advantage and of which he would be speedily deprived unless he applied +himself to it with zeal and unflagging industry. + +(2) A wide choice of labour obtained in Valencia. Trades and +handicrafts were varied and numerous. Carpenters, turners, saddlers, +shoemakers, fanmakers, workers with esparto grass, weavers of +palm straw hats, silk spinners, tailors, basket makers, were all +represented, and the total was some forty trades, with seven hundred +artisans. To-day there would be nothing remarkable in this industrial +activity, which may be seen in well governed prisons, but in Valencia +at that date (1835-40) it was a novelty due very largely to Montesinos' +initiative, and he could boast that out of three thousand convicts, +barely a fourth left prison without having acquired some smattering +of a trade. Stress must not be laid upon the exact amount of skill +possessed by these prison taught artisans, and it is to be feared +that it was no more thorough than in these latter days of ours, when +the same principles as those of Montesinos have actuated prison +administration. This is the crux of the system of prison instruction. +It cannot be expected to turn out workmen sufficiently well trained and +expert to go out into the open labour market, so generally overcrowded, +and compete for wages against the free labourer who has had the benefit +of full apprenticeship. Adults cannot easily acquire knowledge and +dexterity in the use of tools, and inevitable waste of materials +accompanies the experiments made by unskilled hands. We have no record +of how far these drawbacks affected Montesinos' well-meant practice. + +(3) We have no facts to show how far the third period, that of +conditional liberation, was successful at Valencia. There is no +possibility of knowing definitely whether it was really tried or +went beyond the enunciation of the theory so long in advance of our +modern practice. It is little likely, however, that the effective +and elaborate method of police supervision on which it is absolutely +dependent was in existence or even understood in Spain in the days of +Montesinos. + +No permanent results seemed to have been achieved by the Montesinos +system. There is no record that it survived the man who created it +or that the government sought to extend the admirable principles +on which it rested. It was essentially a one man system, depending +entirely for success on the personal qualities of the individual +called upon to carry it out. Montesinos was not, however, singular in +his remarkable achievement. The German Obermaier did much the same +in the prison of Kaiserslautern, and Captain Maconochie in Norfolk +Island exercised a notable mastery over the Australian convicts. The +effects produced by Montesinos were little less than phenomenal. He so +developed the probity of his convicts that he could rely implicitly +upon their honesty and good faith. During the civil war he sent them +with confidential despatches to commanders in the field and never had +cause to regret the trust placed in them. They were sent out as scouts +seeking information of the enemy's movements and brought in news with +punctuality and despatch. A message was brought one day to the governor +directing him to send a clerk to fetch a thousand dollars from the +provincial Treasury. Montesinos forthwith summoned one of his convicts +and despatched him, carrying with him the receipt for the money. Within +half an hour the man returned with the dollars. Whenever a convict +escaped from the presidio, a rare occurrence indeed, other convicts +were despatched in pursuit and seldom failed to bring in the fugitive. + +At one time the Spanish government decided to build a new prison in +the capital and to employ convict labour in the construction. The +Governor of the presidio of Valencia was ordered to send up a number +of prisoners, and next day at daylight they marched, taking with +them a quantity of material, the whole escorted by a small body of +_cabos_, "prisoner warders," and commanded by a veteran overseer. The +journey was safely made to Madrid without the smallest mishap, not a +sign or symptom of misbehaviour shown on the road, and the alcaldes +of the towns on the route, after anticipating the worst evils, were +agreeably surprised and were satisfied to lodge the travellers at +night in private houses if there was no prison accommodation. A second +experiment of the kind was made in the same year. + +On a previous occasion Valencia was threatened by a strong force of +Carlists under that distinguished Carlist general, Cabrera, and it was +feared that he would capture a large body of convicts at that time +employed on a new road, Las Cabrillas, a little distance from the city. +There were hardly any troops in the capital except the city militia +only recently organised and barely equal to the duties and dangers +imposed upon them. Great fears were entertained that Cabrera would +seize the convicts and incorporate with his own force. Montesinos was +desired to prevent this, and he turned up in person one evening at Las +Cabrillas, where he assumed command and drew off the greater number, +happily escaping without attack or interference by the enemy. So loyal +was the demeanour of the Valencian prisoners that under the direction +of Montesinos at another time they were armed and resisted an attack +made upon the gates of their convent prison by the insurgents in a +rising in Valencia. The following extraordinary story is related in an +official publication by the well known poet Don Ramon de Campoamor, +at that time governor of the province of Valencia. A formidable band +of brigands was devastating the neighbourhood of Valencia and a reign +of terror prevailed. The governor sent for Colonel Montesinos and +inquired whether there were any old brigands among the convicts in +custody and who were willing to atone for past misdeeds by coming to +the assistance of the authorities. Montesinos, who made it a rule to +know all his prisoners by heart, their present dispositions, and indeed +their inmost thoughts, spoke confidently of one as quite a reformed +character, and at the governor's request entrusted him with the special +mission of clearing out the country. The convict, after receiving +his instructions, went out with a sufficient escort, hunted down the +brigands, broke up their bands, killing or capturing the whole. Here +the commanding influence of Montesinos was paramount even beyond the +walls of the presidio. By the power of his strong will he called out +fine qualities and exacted loyal service from the worst materials whom +he had won to a high sense of discipline. + +A minor and more sentimental instance is recorded of the confidence +he could repose in his reformed criminals. The mother of one of the +convicts was at the point of death. The man was summoned to the +governor's office and informed of her desperate condition. "Do you wish +to see her in her last moments?" asked the governor. "Can I trust you +to return if I give you permission to leave the prison for a time?" +The man much moved solemnly promised not to misuse his liberty. He was +allowed to exchange his prison uniform for a peasant's dress; he went +without escort to his mother's cottage, received her blessing, and went +back to durance as had been agreed. + +The experience of Valencia was unique and short-lived. A commendable +effort was made to extend the principles on which Montesinos had acted, +and decrees embodying them and recommending them for general adoption +were issued but soon became a dead letter. Excellent in theory, their +success depended entirely on the man to give them effect. A second +Montesinos did not appear and Spanish prisons continued to exhibit the +worst features down to the present day. + +A movement towards prison reform had been commenced as early as 1844, +when three new "model" prisons were planned for Madrid, but their +construction was long delayed. About the same date a model convict +prison was planned at Valladolid, but slow progress was made with +this and with other new prisons, including that of Saragossa, and +at the Casa de Galera of Alcalá de Henares. A penitentiary was also +projected on the island of Cabrera, opposite Cadiz. The chief effort +was concentrated on the model prison of Madrid, which was undertaken +in 1876 after much debate and discussion. It was to be an entirely +new building, to which were devoted all the funds that might have +been expended upon the impossible reform and repair of the hideous +old Saladero. Several years passed before the building began, and not +until 1884 did the tenants of the dismantled Saladero move into the new +prison. It is for the most part on the cellular or separate system, +by which each individual is held strictly apart from his fellows, +according to the most modern ideas, which have claimed to have exerted +a potent effect in the reformation of offenders and the diminution of +crime. Nevertheless the system is still in its trial and its beneficial +results are by no means universally conceded. The new prison is a very +distinct improvement on the old, and the former horrors and atrocities +are fast disappearing, but the secluded solitary life has its own +peculiar terrors which press hardly on transgressors, with results that +are very distinctly deterrent if not very largely reformatory. + +What those actually subjected to the treatment feel we may read in +their own effusions. The literary quality of prison writers does not +rank high but they sometimes put their views forcibly. One says of the +"model":--"If I leave this trying place alive I can at least declare +that I have been buried underground and had made the acquaintance of +the grave diggers." Another writer:--"If you wish to know what life is +like here, come and take your lodging inside. They are handsome, but +curious, well provided with means to drive you out of your mind. There +is a water tap which overflows in drought and runs dry in wet weather; +a pocket handkerchief and a towel; a plate, a basin and a wooden spoon, +a broom, a dust box, one blanket and a mattress with four straws that +gives you pain in every limb: many things more, but one alone much +needed is absent, a rope by which you commit suicide." + +It has been said that the worst use to which a man may be put is to +shut him up in a prison. A still more wasteful extravagance is to put +him out of the world. The penalties known to Spanish law have been +very various; there have been many forms of imprisonment, perpetual +imprisonment, greater or less detention, exile, the application of +fetters of several sorts, handcuffs, shackles, the _guarda amigo_ or +"holdfriend," the "persuader" or "come along with me"; the leg irons +and waist chains of varying weights. Penal labour was enforced in +_maniobras infimas_ by convicts chained together on public works, +fortifications, harbours and mines. All forms of secondary punishment +have been inflicted, winding up with capital, the death sentence +inflicting the extreme penalty of the law. This last irrevocable act +does not find favour with all Spanish legists, whose chief objection +is the familiar one that when a judicial error has been committed, +rectification is altogether impossible. Spain can add one to the many +well known cases such as those of Callas and Lesurques, and it may be +quoted here as it is probably little known. + +The case occurred in Seville and grew out of a sudden quarrel in a +tavern followed by a fight to the death with knives. The combatants +went on the ground and attacked each other in the regular fashion when +one dropped to the ground mortally wounded and the other with his +second ran away. The wounded man's second went up to see whether his +principal was dying or already dead, when he got up and declared that +he was entirely unhurt. He had slipped upon a stone and fallen with +the obviously cowardly desire to escape from his antagonist's attack. +The second was furiously angry and rated his man soundly. He retorted +fiercely and another quarrel and another encounter ensued, also with +knives, in which the first man again fell and this time was killed +outright, by his own second, who at once made off. The body lay where +it had fallen until next morning, when the police found it. The story +of the original quarrel but nothing of the second had become known, and +it was naturally concluded that death had been inflicted by the first +combatant. On the face of it the evidence was conclusive against him, +and he did not attempt to deny the facts as they appeared when arrested +and put upon his trial. At that time the law treated homicide in a duel +as murder and the victim suffered the extreme penalty without protest, +believing himself to be guilty. The truth was never known, until the +real offender, years after, confessed the part he had played, but too +late of course to prevent the judicial murder of the innocent man. +This case has naturally been added to give weight to the many powerful +arguments against capital punishment. + +The extreme penalty of the law is nowadays inflicted in Spain by the +_garrote_, a method of strangulation by the tightening of an iron +collar, the substitute for hanging introduced by King Ferdinand VII +(1820). Till then the hanging was carried out in the clumsiest and most +brutal manner. The culprits were dragged by the executioner up the +steps of a ladder leaning against the scaffold. At a certain height +he mounted on the victim's shoulders and thus seated flung himself off +with his victim underneath. As they swung to and fro the hangman's +fingers were busily engaged in choking the convict so as to complete +the strangulation. The _garrote_ is a very simple contrivance. The +condemned man sits on a stool or low seat, leaning his back against a +strong, firm upright post to which an iron collar is fixed. This, when +opened, encircles his neck, and is closed and tightened by a powerful +screw, worked by a lever from behind. Death is instantaneous. + +Public executions must prove very popular performances with a people +who still revel in a bull fight and flock to look at the hairbreadth +escapes of human beings from hardly undeserved death by the horns +of a fierce beast tortured into madness. De Foresta, an Italian +traveller,[25] tells us that never was a greater concourse seen in +Madrid than that which collected in 1877 to witness the execution of +two murderers, Mollo and Agullar, when it was estimated that 80,000 +people were present. Ford describes an execution in Seville in 1845 +when the crowd was enormous and composed largely of the lower orders, +of the humbler ranks, "who hold the conventions of society very cheap +and give loose rein to their morbid curiosity to behold scenes of +terror, which operates powerfully on the women, who seem irresistibly +impelled to witness sights the most repugnant to their nature and to +behold sufferings which they would most dread to undergo," and many of +whom "brought in their arms young children at the beginning of life +to witness its conclusion." "They desire to see how the criminal will +conduct himself, they sympathise with him if he displays coolness and +courage, and despise him on the least symptom of unmanliness." + +[25] La Spagna; Da Irun a Malaga, by Adolfo de Foresta, Bologna, 1879. + +Ford in his "Gatherings from Spain" gives a graphic account of the +execution of a highway robber, one of the band of the famous José +Maria already mentioned. The culprit, José de Rojas, was nicknamed +"Veneno," poison, from his venomous qualities and had made a desperate +resistance before he was finally overcome by the troops who captured +him. He fell wounded with a bullet in his leg, but killed the soldier +who ran forward to secure him. When in custody he turned traitor and +volunteered to betray his old associates and give such information as +would lead to their arrest if his own life was spared. The offer was +accepted and he was sent out with a sufficient force to seize them. +Such was the terror of his name that all surrendered, but not to him. +On this quibble the indemnity promised him was withdrawn, he was +brought to trial, condemned, and in due course executed on the Plaza +San Francisco, which adjoins the prison in Seville and is commonly used +for public executions. + +Ford was admitted within the walls and describes Veneno "_en +capilla_," a small room set apart as a condemned cell, the approach to +which was thronged with officers, portly Franciscan friars and "members +of a charitable brotherhood collecting alms from the visitors to be +expended in masses for the eternal repose of the soul of the criminal. +The levity of those assembled without, formed a heartless contrast with +the gloom and horror of the melancholy interior of the _capilla_. At +the head of the cell was placed a table with a crucifix, an image of +the Virgin and two wax tapers, near which stood a silent sentinel with +a drawn sword. Another soldier was stationed at the door with a fixed +bayonet. In a corner of this darkened compartment lay Veneno curled up +like a snake, with a striped coverlet drawn closely over his mouth, +leaving visible only a head of matted locks, and a glistening dark +eye rolling restlessly out of its deep socket. On being approached he +sprang up and seated himself on a stool. He was almost naked, but a +chaplet of beads hung across his exposed breast and contrasted with +the iron chains around his limbs.... The expression of his face though +low and vulgar was one which, once seen, was not easily forgotten. +His sallow complexion appeared more cadaverous in the uncertain light +and was heightened by a black unshorn beard, growing vigorously on a +half-dead countenance. He appeared to be reconciled to his fate and +repeated a few sentences, the teaching of the monks, as by rote. His +situation was probably more painful to the spectator than himself, an +indifference to death arising rather from an ignorance of its dreadful +import than from high moral courage." + +When Veneno came out to die he was clad in a coarse yellow baize gown, +the colour which in Spain denotes the crime of murder and appropriated +always to Judas Iscariot in Spanish paintings, the colour, too, of +the _sanbenito_ or penitential cloak worn by the victims of the +Inquisition at an _auto da fé_. He walked slowly, stopping often to +kiss the crucifix held to his lips by the attendant confessor, a monk +of the Franciscan order, whom it was the convict's privilege to choose +for himself to accompany him to the scaffold. He was met there by the +executioner, a young man dressed in black who proceeded to bind his +naked legs and arms so tightly that they swelled and turned black: +a necessary precaution, as this very executioner's father had been +killed when struggling with a convict unwilling to die. Veneno made +no resistance, but he spoke with supreme contempt of this degraded +functionary, saying, "_Mi delito me mata no ese hombre_" (My crime +kills me and not this creature). He uttered many pious ejaculations, +and his dying cry was, "Viva la Virgen Santisima." The last scene was +ghastly in the extreme. While the priest stood by, "a bloated corpulent +man more occupied in shading the sun from his face than in his ghostly +office," the robber sat with a writhing look of agony, grinding his +clenched teeth. The executioner took the lever of the screw in both +hands, gathered himself up for a strong muscular effort, drew the iron +collar tight while an attendant threw a black handkerchief over the +face. A convulsive pressure of the hands and a heaving of the chest +were the only visible signs of the passing of the convict's spirit. + +"After a pause of a few moments the executioner cautiously peeped under +the handkerchief and, after having given another turn of the screw, +lifted it off, carefully put it in his pocket and proceeded to light +a cigar. The face of the dead man was slightly convulsed, the mouth +open, the eye balls turned into their sockets from the wrench. A black +bier with two lanterns fixed on staves was now set down before the +scaffold. A small table and a dish into which alms were again collected +to be paid to the priests who sang masses for his soul was also brought +forward.... The body remained on the scaffold till after noon. It was +then thrown into a scavenger's cart and led by the _pregonero_ or +common crier beyond the jurisdiction of the city to a square platform +called the "mesa del Rey," the king's table, where it was to be +quartered and cut up. Here the carcass was hewed and hacked into pieces +by the bungling executioner and his assistants." + +The condemned cell at the Saladero was a part of the prison chapel in +which the Spanish convict spent the last twenty-four hours of life and +was a horrible and painfully gruesome hole. The _capilla_ is described +by de Foresta, who saw it when it was on the eve of abolition. It was +of narrow dimensions, damp, dark, windowless and lighted only with one +or two small candles burning upon the altar which occupied a large +space filling all one wall. In a corner cut off by a black iron railing +from the rest of the chapel was a small space fitted with a bed or +stone shelf with rings to which the convict's chains were fastened and +where he knelt close to the bars to converse with or confess to the +ministering priests. The chapel was dimly lighted by a hanging lamp and +one or two wax candles. Its walls and floor were damp and it received +light and air only through the door. This gruesome den rejoiced in the +name _el confortador_, or the "place of comfort." + +Another traveller gives the following graphic account of a Spanish +execution:-- + +"At seven we find ourselves in the crowd immediately beneath the prison +walls. Large bodies of troops are drawn up on either side of the +_plaza_ and there is a tolerably large concourse of male spectators +present. In a few minutes the mournful cortége appears upon the wall. +First comes the executioner, the Spanish Calcraft, a wiry looking +fellow, carrying a coil of rope; next comes a very stout padre armed +with a baton, and bawling out prayers at the top of his voice; he is +followed by the convict, who walks on in prison uniform, with his +neck bare and arms pinioned, clasping the cross in his hands and +looking literally in a blue fright; a couple more priests and two armed +sentries complete the group, who range themselves along the wall, the +criminal in the centre. The terrible scene is long protracted. The fat +padre roars out _Ave Marias_, exhortations and prayers, waving his +baton frantically in the air and making the miserable wretch repeat +after him. He then clasps him in his arms, and sitting down on chairs +opposite each other, they are covered with a large black pall held +by the supernumerary priests; under this they remain for some time +perfectly motionless, while the poor creature is unburdening his soul +and pouring forth his load of crimes into the ear of his confessor. + +"The nerves of the spectators are strained to an intense pitch during +the awful pause, as is evident from the oppressive silence which +prevails and the anxious looks directed at the scaffold. At length the +pall is removed and the executioner proceeds to business. The culprit +is made to sit against an upright post to which he is firmly lashed; +the _garrote_, a machine consisting of an iron collar worked back by +a powerful screw and a long lever, is carefully adjusted round his +neck, a small handkerchief thrown over his face and all is ready. The +priest recommences shouting while the executioner, preparing himself +for a mighty effort, suddenly turns the handle two or three times as +quick as lightning; the head of the victim drops, the knees and arms +quiver for a few seconds and all is over. Priests and sentries retire, +Calcraft peeps under the handkerchief and, whipping it off with a +jerk, immediately disappears, leaving the ghastly corpse exposed to +open view. It is a sickening and disgusting sight: the face is of a +livid hue, the tongue protruding, and shedding saliva on the breast; +the bystanders shudder, the troops march off with drums gaily beating +and the crowd slowly disperses. I make a rapid sketch of the body and +return to the hotel fully satisfied that, were it not for the cruel +state of suspense in which the criminal is kept before the execution, +the punishment of the _garrote_ is far more merciful and expeditious +than the less speedy death by hanging in this country." + +The profession of hangman does not entitle those who practise it to +the very highest honour, although in France in the case of the Sansons +it was an hereditary office in which son succeeded father for many +generations and the family took considerable pride in their functions. +In Spain the _verdugo_ is by no means a popular person. De Foresta, the +Italian traveller already quoted, tells us that in several towns he saw +a person of forbidding aspect who was walking about with a camp stool +under his arm and generally shunned. On enquiry he was informed that +this was the gentleman who administered the _garrote_. He was strictly +forbidden to take a seat at a café or in any place of public resort, +hence the camp stool on which he rested himself when tired. No one +recognised or addressed to him a single word. De Foresta's comment on +this is a story of the French executioner who, when called to Nice to +guillotine a criminal, was unable to find anywhere to lay his head. +He was turned away from every door, was refused a mouthful of food +and was obliged to dine on what he could find at the railway station +restaurant, and he spent the night in walking up and down the platform. +It may not be generally known that in England the executioner is +provided with board and lodging in the gaol where his victim is waiting +to be "finished." + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + +Superscript text is represented with carat and brackets (i.e. E=MC^{2} ) + +Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History and Romance of Crime; +Spanish Prisons, by Arthur Griffiths + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 52114 *** diff --git a/52114-h/52114-h.htm b/52114-h/52114-h.htm index fe00a06..e7e9321 100644 --- a/52114-h/52114-h.htm +++ b/52114-h/52114-h.htm @@ -1,8919 +1,8498 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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-Prisons, by Arthur Griffiths
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-Title: The History and Romance of Crime; Spanish Prisons
-
-Author: Arthur Griffiths
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-Release Date: May 21, 2016 [EBook #52114]
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY AND ROMANCE OF CRIME ***
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-
-
-<div class="half-title front-matter">
-
- <p class="ph1 oldeng red">The History and
- Romance of
- Crime</p>
-
- <p class="center">FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES<br />
- TO THE PRESENT DAY</p>
-
- <div class="figemblem">
- <img src="images/title-emblem.jpg" alt="Lock Emblem" />
- </div>
-
-
- <p class="ph3">THE GROLIER SOCIETY<br />
- LONDON</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="front-matter">
- <hr class="chap" />
-
- <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece">[Frontispiece]</a></span></p>
-
- <div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/i_frontis.jpg" alt="Frontispiece" />
- </div>
- <hr class="chap" />
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph1 oldeng red mt2">
-Spanish Prisons</p>
-
-<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD<br />
-PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT</p>
-
-<p class="ph3"><em>by</em></p>
-
-<p class="ph2">MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS</p>
-<p class="ph3"><em>Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain</em><br />
-<br />
-<cite>Author of<br />
-"The Mysteries of Police and Crime<br />
-"Fifty Years of Public Service," etc.</cite></p>
-
-<p class="ph2"><em>The Inquisitor-General and the Catholic Sovereigns</em></p>
-
-<p>The mandate of expulsion of the Jews from Spain was
-issued by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. This edict no doubt
-originated with Torquemada, who was very bitter against the
-Jews. When he learned that a number of their leaders were
-in conference with the King and Queen, and offering an immense
-ransom, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing
-a crucifix on high and crying in stentorian tones that the
-sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas Iscariot.
-"Here He is!" he exclaimed. "Sell Him again, not for
-thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging
-the crucifix on the table he ran out in a frenzy. This turned
-the tables and the decree for expulsion was confirmed.</p>
-
-
-<p class="ph3 mb2">THE GROLIER SOCIETY</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-<div class="front-matter">
- <h1 class="oldeng mt2">
- Spanish Prisons
- </h1>
-
- <p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD
- PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT
- </p>
-
- <p class="ph3"><em>by</em></p>
-
- <p class="ph2">MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS</p>
- <p class="ph4"><em>Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain</em></p>
-
- <p class="ph4"><cite>Author of<br />
- "The Mysteries of Police and Crime<br />
- "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc.</cite></p>
-
-
- <div class="figemblem">
- <img src="images/title-emblem.jpg" alt="Lock Emblem" />
- </div>
-
-
- <p class="ph3 mb2">THE GROLIER SOCIETY</p>
-
-
- <hr class="chap" />
- </div>
-
- <div class="front-matter">
- <p class="ph2">EDITION NATIONALE</p>
-
- <p class="ph3">Limited to one thousand registered and numbered sets.</p>
-
- <p class="ph2">NUMBER <span class="u">307</span></p>
-
- <hr class="chap" />
-</div>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
-</div>
-
-
-<p>A considerable portion of this volume is devoted
-to the Spanish Inquisition, which was, for
-three centuries, the most important force in Spain.
-Thousands were condemned by its tribunals, and its
-prisons and punishments make up a large part of the
-penal history of that country. Much exaggeration
-has crept into the popular accounts, but the simple
-truth must cause a shudder, when read to-day.</p>
-
-<p>The institution was created to deal with heresy,
-that is, with a departure from the accepted canons.
-The idea that there can be unity in diversity was
-not understood. The spiritual and the temporal
-powers were closely related, and bishop and king,
-pope and emperor, all believed that uniformity was
-necessary. Hence, heresy was everywhere treated
-as high treason not only to the Church but to the
-State as well. The Spanish Inquisition was a state
-affair as well as an ecclesiastical court.</p>
-
-<p>We shall see that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition
-was not confined to the suppression of heresy.
-Many crimes which to-day are purely state concerns,
-were then punished by it, including bigamy, blasphemy,
-perjury, unnatural crimes, and witchcraft.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
-The Spanish Inquisition deserves credit for discouraging
-persecution of the last named offence, and
-thereby saved the lives of thousands, who, in any
-other state would have been executed.</p>
-
-<p>The adaptation to penal purposes of ancient buildings,
-to be found throughout the length and breadth
-of Spain, was very common, as these were immediately
-available although generally unsuitable. Chief
-among them are the many monastic buildings vacated
-when the laws broke up religious houses in
-Spain and which were mostly converted into prisons,
-but little deserving the name. Some of these houses
-have been utilised as gaols pure and simple; some
-have served two or more purposes as at Huelva,
-where the convent-prison was also a barrack.</p>
-
-<p>Spain has been slow in conforming to the movements
-towards prison reform. She could not afford
-to spend money on new constructions along modern
-lines, and the introduction of the cellular system is
-only of recent date. The model prison of Madrid,
-which has replaced the hideous Saladero, was only
-begun in 1887. But a few separate prisons had already
-been created, such as those of Loja, Pontevedra,
-Barcelona, Vittoria and Naval Carnero. These
-establishments are new to Spain but their methods
-and aims are too well known to call for fresh description.
-More interest attaches to the older forms
-that have so long served as places of durance.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table class="toc" summary="Contents">
- <tr>
- <th class="tdl" colspan='2'>CHAPTER</th>
- <th class="tdr">PAGE</th>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom"> </td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">I.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition in Spain</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">II.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Persecution of Jews and Moors</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">III.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Prisons and Punishments</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">IV.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition Abroad</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">V.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition in Portugal and India</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">VI.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Early Prisons and Prisoners</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">VII.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Presidios at Home and Abroad</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">VIII.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Life in Ceuta</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">IX.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Brigands and Brigandage</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td>
- </tr><tr>
- <td class="rom">X.</td>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">A Bright Page in Prison History</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a><br />
-<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>List of Illustrations</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table class="toc" summary="Illustrations">
-<tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Grand Inquisitor and the Catholic Sovereigns</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Frontispiece"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Alhambra Palace, Granada</span></td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_52"><em>Page</em> 52</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht">The Question</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
-</tr><tr>
- <td class="cht">Castel dell' Ovo</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a><br />
-<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="ph1">SPANISH PRISONS</p>
-<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Beginning and growth of religious persecution—Temporal
-power of the Papacy—Pope Innocent III creates the first
-"Inquisitors"—Domingo de Guzman founder of the Inquisition—Founder
-of the Dominican Order of Friars—The
-"ancient" Inquisition—Penances inflicted—Persecution
-of the Jews in Spain—Institution of the "modern"
-Inquisition under Ferdinand and Isabella—Headquarters
-at Seville—Frequent <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>—Thomas de Torquemada
-the first Inquisitor-General—The privileges of the
-office—Torquemada's life and character—Sufferings of
-accused persons.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>The record of religious persecution furnishes
-some of the saddest pages in the world's history.
-It began with the immediate successors of Constantine
-the Great, the first Christian prince. They promulgated
-severe edicts against heretics with such
-penalties as confiscation, banishment and death
-against breaches of Catholic unity. In this present
-tolerant age when every one may worship God after
-his own fashion, it is difficult to realise how recent
-a growth is toleration. For more than six centuries
-the flames of persecution burned fiercely throughout<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
-Christendom, lighted by the strong arm of the law,
-and soldiers were constantly engaged to extirpate
-dissent from the accepted dogmas with fire and
-sword. The growth of the papacy and the assumption
-of the temporal power exalted heresy into treason;
-independence of thought was deemed opposition
-to authority and resistance to the universal supremacy
-of the Church. The popes fighting in self-defence
-stimulated the zeal of their followers unceasingly
-to stamp out heresy. Alexander III in
-the 12th century solemnly declared that every secular
-prince who spared heretics should be classed as
-a heretic himself and involved in the one common
-curse.</p>
-
-<p>When the temporal power of the popes was
-fully established and acknowledged, the papacy
-claimed universal sovereignty over all countries and
-peoples and was in a position to enforce it by systematic
-procedure against its foes. Pope Innocent
-III, consumed with the fervour of his intolerant
-faith, determined to crush heresy. His first step
-was to appoint two "inquisitors" (the first use of
-the name) and two learned and devout friars, who
-were really travelling commissioners, were sent to
-perambulate Christendom to discover heresy. They
-were commended to all bishops, who were strictly
-charged to receive them with kindness, treat them
-with affection, and "help them to turn heretics from
-the error of their way or else drive them out of the
-country." The same assistance was expected from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
-the rulers of states who were to aid the inquisitors
-with equal kindness.</p>
-
-<p>The mission began in the south of France and a
-crusade was undertaken against the Albigensians
-and Waldensians, those early dissidents from the
-Church of Rome, who drew down on themselves the
-unappeasable animosity of the orthodox. The campaign
-against these original heretics raged fiercely,
-but persecution slackened and might have died out
-but for the appearance of one devoted zealot whose
-intense hatred of heresy, backed by his uncompromising
-energy, revived the illiberal spirit and organised
-fresh methods of attack. This was Domingo
-de Guzman, a Spanish monk who accompanied
-Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse, when he left
-his desolated diocese to take part in the fourth
-Lateran Council, assembled at Rome in 1215. This
-Domingo, historically known as St. Dominic, was
-the founder of the Dominican order of friars.</p>
-
-<p>Though generally accepted as such by Church
-historians, it is now argued that St. Dominic was
-not really the founder of the Inquisition<a name="Anchor-1" id="Anchor-1"></a><a href="#Footnote-1" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 1.">[1]</a> and that
-although he spent the best years of his life in combating
-heresy he took no more prominent part in
-persecution than hundreds of others. His eulogistic
-biographer describes him as "a man of earnest,
-resolute purpose, of deep and unalterable convictions,
-full of burning zeal for the propagation of the
-faith, yet kindly in heart, cheerful in temper and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>winning in manner.... He was as severe with
-himself as with his fellows.... His endless
-scourgings, his tireless vigils, his almost uninterrupted
-prayer, his superhuman fasts, are probably
-only harmless exaggerations of the truth." The
-Dominicans boasted that their founder exhaled "an
-odour of sanctity" and, when his tomb was opened,
-a delicious scent issued forth, so penetrating that it
-permeated the whole land, and so persistent that
-those who touched the holy relics had their hands
-perfumed for years.</p>
-
-<p>Whatever the personal character of Dominic and
-whether or no he laboured to carry out the work
-himself, there can be no doubt that his Order was
-closely identified with the Inquisition from the first.
-Its members were appointed inquisitors, they served
-in the prisons as confessors, they assisted the tribunals
-as "qualificators," or persons appointed to
-seek out proof of guilt, or estimate the extent or
-quality of the heretical opinions charged against the
-accused; the great ceremonials and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> were
-organised by them; they worked the "censure"
-and prepared the "Index" of prohibited books.
-The Dominicans were undoubtedly the most active
-agents in the Inquisition and they owed their existence
-to him, even if he did not personally take part
-in its proceedings.</p>
-
-<p>The following quotation from Prescott's "History
-of Ferdinand and Isabella" may well be inserted
-here. "Some Catholic writers would fain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
-excuse St. Dominic from the imputation of having
-founded the Inquisition. It is true he died some
-years before the perfect organisation of that tribunal;
-but as he established the principles on which,
-and the monkish militia by whom it was administered,
-it is doing him no injustice to regard him as
-its real author." The Sicilian writer, Paramo, indeed,
-in his heavy quarto, traces it up to a much
-more remote antiquity. According to him God was
-the first inquisitor and his condemnation of Adam
-and Eve furnished the models of the judicial forms
-observed in the trials of the Holy Office. The sentence
-of Adam was the type of the Inquisitional
-"reconciliation," his subsequent raiment of skins of
-animals was the type of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i>, and the expulsion
-from Paradise, the precedent for the confiscation
-of the goods of heretics. This learned personage
-deduces a succession of inquisitors through
-the patriarchs, Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, and King
-David, down to John the Baptist, and he even includes
-our Saviour in whose precepts and conduct
-he finds abundant authority for the tribunal.</p>
-
-<p>The "Ancient Inquisition," as that first established
-in Spain is generally called, had many of the
-features of the "modern" which dates from the
-reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and which will
-presently be described at some length. Its proceedings
-were shrouded in the same impenetrable secrecy,
-it used the same insidious modes of accusation,
-supported them by similar tortures, and pun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>ished
-them with similar penalties. A manual drawn
-up in the fourteenth century for the guidance of
-judges of the Holy Office prescribes the familiar
-forms of artful interrogation employed to catch the
-unwary, and sometimes innocent victim. The ancient
-Inquisition worked on principles less repugnant
-to justice than the better known, but equally
-cruel modern institution, but was less extensive in
-its operations because in the earlier days there were
-fewer heretics to persecute.</p>
-
-<p>The ancient Inquisition was so unsparing in its
-actions that it almost extirpated the Albigensian
-heresy. The punishments it inflicted were even
-more severe than in the modern. Upon such as escaped
-the stake and were "reconciled," as it was
-styled, a terrible "penance" was imposed. One is
-cited by Llorente<a name="Anchor-2" id="Anchor-2"></a><a href="#Footnote-2" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 2.">[2]</a> as laid down in the ordinances
-of St. Dominic. The penitent, it was commanded,
-should be stripped of his clothes and beaten by a
-priest three Sundays in succession from the gate of
-the city to the door of the church; he must not eat
-any kind of meat during his whole life; must abstain
-from fish, oil and wine three days in the week
-during life, except in case of sickness or excessive
-labour; must wear a religious dress with a small
-cross embroidered on each breast; must attend mass
-every day, if he has the means of doing so, and
-vespers on Sundays and festivals; must recite the
-service for the day and night and repeat the paternoster
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>seven times in the day, ten times in the evening,
-and twenty times at midnight. If he failed in
-any of these requirements, he was to be burned as a
-"relapsed heretic."</p>
-
-<p>Chief among the causes that produced the new
-or "modern" Inquisition was the envy and hatred
-of the Jews in Spain. Fresh material was supplied
-by the unfortunate race of Israel, long established
-in the country, and greatly prosperous. They had
-come in great numbers after the Saracenic invasion,
-which indeed they are said to have facilitated, and
-were accepted by some of the Moorish rulers on
-nearly equal terms, and were treated with a tolerance
-seldom seen among Mahometans, though occasional
-outbursts of fanaticism rendered their position
-not quite secure. Under these generally favourable
-auspices the Jews developed in numbers
-and importance. Their remarkable instinct for
-money making and their unstinting diligence
-brought them great wealth. Their love of letters
-and high intelligence gave them preëminence in the
-schools of the Moorish cities of Cordova, Toledo
-and Granada, where they helped to keep the flame
-of learning bright and shining through the darkest
-ages. They became noted mathematicians, learned
-astronomers, devoted labourers in the fields of practical
-and experimental science. Their shrewdness
-in public affairs and their financial abilities commended
-them to the service of the state, and many
-rose to the highest civic dignities at both Christian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
-and Moorish courts. Often, despite prohibitory
-laws, they collected the revenues and supervised the
-treasuries of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon,
-while in private life they had nearly unlimited control
-of commerce and owned most of the capital in
-use.</p>
-
-<p>After the Christian conquest, their success drew
-down upon them the envy and hatred of their less
-flourishing fellow subjects, who resented also that
-profuse ostentation of apparel and equipage to
-which the Jewish character has always inclined.
-Their widespread practice of usury was a still more
-fruitful cause for detestation. Often large sums
-were loaned, for which exorbitant rates of interest
-were charged, owing to the scarcity of specie and
-the great risk of loss inherent to the business. As
-much as twenty, thirty-three, and even forty per
-cent. per annum was exacted and paid. The general
-animosity was such that a fanatical populace, smarting
-under a sense of wrong, and urged on by a no
-less fanatical clergy broke out at times into violence,
-and fiercely attacked the Jews in the principal cities.
-The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Juderías</i>, or Jewish quarters, were sacked, the
-houses robbed of their valuable contents, precious
-collections, jewels and furniture were scattered
-abroad, and the wretched proprietors were massacred
-wholesale, irrespective of sex and age. According
-to the historian, Mariana, fifty thousand
-Jews were sacrificed to the popular fury in one year,
-1391, alone.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>This was the turning point in Spanish history.
-Fanaticism once aroused, did not die until all Jews
-were driven out of Spain. It brought into being
-another class also, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Conversos</i>, or "New Christians,"
-<em>i. e.</em> Jews who accepted Christian baptism,
-though generally without any spiritual change. At
-heart and in habits they remained Jews.</p>
-
-<p>The law was invoked, too, to aggravate their condition.
-Legislative enactments of a cruel and oppressive
-kind were passed. Jews were forbidden to
-mix freely with Christians, their residence restricted
-to certain limited quarters, they were subject to irksome,
-sumptuary regulations, debarred from all display
-in dress, forbidden to carry valuable ornaments
-or wear expensive clothes, and they were held up to
-public scorn by being compelled to appear in a distinctive,
-unbecoming garb, the badge or emblem of
-their social inferiority. They were also interdicted
-from following certain professions and callings.
-They might not study or practise medicine, might
-not be apothecaries, nurses, vintners, grocers or
-tavern keepers, were forbidden to act as stewards
-to the nobility or as farmers or collectors of the
-public revenues, although judging from repeated re-enactments,
-these laws were evidently not strictly
-enforced, and often in some districts were not enforced
-at all.</p>
-
-<p>Fresh fuel was added to the fiery passions vented
-on the Jews by the unceasing denunciation of their
-heresy and dangerous irreligion, and public feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
-was further inflamed by grossly exaggerated stories
-of their hideous and unchristian malpractices. The
-curate of Los Palacios has detailed some of these in
-his "Chronicle," and they will serve, when quoted,
-to show what charges were brought against the Jew
-in his time. "This accursed race (the Israelites),"
-he says, speaking of the proceedings taken to bring
-about their conversion, "were either unwilling to
-bring their children to be baptised, or if they did,
-they washed away the stain on the way home. They
-dressed their stews and other dishes with oil instead
-of lard, abstained from pork, kept the passover, ate
-meat in Lent, and sent oil to replenish the lamps of
-their synagogues, with many other abominable ceremonies
-of their religion. They entertained no respect
-for monastic life, and frequently profaned the
-sanctity of religious houses by the violation or seduction
-of their inmates. They were an exceedingly
-politic and ambitious people, engrossing the most
-lucrative municipal offices, and preferring to gain
-their livelihood by traffic, in which they made exorbitant
-gains, rather than by manual labour or mechanical
-arts. They considered themselves in the
-hands of the Egyptians whom it was a merit to deceive
-and rob. By their wicked contrivances they
-amassed great wealth, and thus were able often to
-ally themselves by marriage with noble Christian
-families."</p>
-
-<p>The outcry against the Jews steadily increased in
-volume. The clergy were the loudest in their pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>tests
-against the alleged abominations, and one
-Dominican priest, Alonso de Hojeda, prior of the
-monastery of San Pablo in Seville, with another
-priest, Diego de Merlo, vigorously denounced the
-"Jewish leprosy" so alarmingly on the increase and
-besought the Catholic sovereigns to revive the Holy
-Office with extended powers as the only effective
-means of healing it. The appeal was strongly supported
-by the papal nuncio at the Court of Castile.
-Ferdinand and Isabella, as devout Catholics, deplored
-the prevalence of heresy, which they acknowledged
-to be rampant, and yet they hesitated to surrender
-any of their independence. No other state
-in Europe was so free from papal control or interference.
-Some of the Conversos held high places
-about the court and they, of course, used every effort
-to strengthen the reluctance of the queen, particularly.
-On the other hand, the Dominican monk,
-Thomas de Torquemada, her confessor in her youth,
-strove to instil the same spirit of unyielding fanaticism
-that possessed himself, and earnestly entreated
-her to devote herself to the "extirpation of heresy
-for the glory of God and the glorification of the
-Catholic faith." She long resisted but yielded at
-last to the unceasing importunities of the priests
-around her, and consented to solicit a bull from the
-pope, Sixtus IV, to introduce the Modern Inquisition
-into Castile. It was issued, under the date of
-November 1st, 1478, and authorised the appointment
-of two or three ecclesiastical inquisitors for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
-the detection and suppression of heresy throughout
-Spain.</p>
-
-<p>One difference from the usual form establishing
-such tribunals was the location of the power of appointment
-of inquisitors, which was vested in the
-king and queen instead of in Provincials of the
-Dominican or Franciscan Orders. Heretofore the
-appointment of inquisitors had been considered a
-delegation of the authority of the Holy See, something
-entirely independent of the secular power.
-But so jealous of outside interference were the
-Spanish rulers and the Spanish people, that the pope
-was forced to give way. Though he and his successors
-vainly strove to recover the power thus
-granted, they were never entirely successful, and the
-Spanish Inquisition remained to a large extent a
-state affair, and this fact explains much which otherwise
-is inexplicable. For example the confiscations
-passed into the royal instead of into the papal treasury.</p>
-
-<p>At first mild measures were to be tried. Cardinal
-Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville, had drawn up a
-catechism instructing his clergy to spare no pains in
-illuminating the benighted Israelites by a candid
-exposition of the true principles of Christianity.
-Progress was slow, and after two years the results
-were so meagre that it was thought necessary to
-proceed to the nomination of inquisitors, and two
-Dominican monks, Fra Miguel de Morillo, and Juan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
-de San Martin, were appointed with full powers,
-assisted by an assessor and a procurator fiscal.</p>
-
-<p>The Jews played into the hands of their tormentors.
-Great numbers had been terrified into apostasy
-by the unrelenting hostility of the people. Their
-only escape from the furious attacks made upon
-them had been conversion to Christianity, often
-quite feigned and unreal. The proselytising priests,
-however, claimed to have done wonders; one, St.
-Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican of Valencia, had by
-means of his eloquence and the miraculous power
-vouchsafed him, "changed the hearts of no less
-than thirty-five thousand of house of Judah." These
-numerous converts were of course unlikely to be
-very tenacious in their profession of the new faith,
-and not strangely laid themselves open to constant
-suspicion. Many were denounced and charged with
-backsliding, many more boldly reverted to Judaism,
-or secretly performed their old rites. Now uncompromising
-war was to be waged against the backsliding
-"new Christians" or Conversos.</p>
-
-<p>The inquisitors installed themselves in Seville,
-and made the Dominican convent of San Pablo their
-first headquarters, but this soon proved quite insufficient
-in size and they were allowed to occupy
-the fortress of the Triana, the great fortress of
-Seville, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, the
-immense size and gloomy dungeons of which were
-especially suitable. This part of the city was much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
-exposed to inundations, and when, in 1626, it was
-threatened with destruction by an unusually high
-flood, the seat of the tribunal was removed to the
-palace of the Caballeros Tellos Taveros in the parish
-of San Marco. In 1639 it returned to the Triana
-which had been repaired, and remained there till
-1789, when further encroachments of the river
-caused it to be finally transferred to the College of
-Las Beccas. The Triana is now a low suburb, inhabited
-principally by gipsies and the lower classes.
-It was at one time the potters' quarter where the
-famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">azulejo</i> tiles were made, and its factories
-to-day produce the well known majolica vases and
-plates with surface of metallic lustre.</p>
-
-<p>One of the first steps of the Inquisition was to put
-a summary check to the exodus of the Jews who had
-been fast deserting the country. All the magnates
-of Castile, dukes, counts, hidalgos and persons in
-authority, were commanded to arrest all fugitives,
-to sequestrate their property and send them prisoners
-to Seville. Any who disobeyed or failed to execute
-this order were to be excommunicated as abettors
-of heresy, to be deposed from their dignities
-and deprived of their estates. Such orders were
-strange to the ears of the turbulent nobles who had
-been accustomed to pay little heed to pope or king.
-A new force had arisen in the land.</p>
-
-<p>On the Castle of the Triana,<a name="Anchor-3" id="Anchor-3"></a><a href="#Footnote-3" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 3.">[3]</a> already described, a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>tablet was erected over the portals with an inscription,
-celebrating the inauguration of the first "modern
-Inquisition" in Western Europe. The concluding
-words were:—"God grant that for the protection
-and augmentation of the faith it may abide
-unto the end of time. Arise oh Lord, judge Thy
-cause! Catch yet the foxes (heretics)!"</p>
-
-<p>Just now, by an ill-advised move, the Conversos
-lost the sympathy of all. Diego de Susan, one of
-the richest citizens of Seville, called a meeting of
-the "New Christians" in the church of San Salvador.
-It was attended by many high officials, and
-even ecclesiastics of Jewish blood. Susan suggested
-that they collect a store of arms, and that at the first
-arrest, they rise and slay the inquisitors. The plan
-was adopted but was betrayed by a daughter of
-Susan, who had a Christian lover. The plotters
-were arrested at once, and on February sixth, 1481,
-six men and women were burned and others were
-severely punished.</p>
-
-<p>The hunt was cunningly organised. An "Edict
-of Grace" was published promising pardon to all
-backsliders if they would come voluntarily and confess
-their sins. Many sought indulgence and were
-plied with questions by the inquisitors to extract
-evidence against others. On the information thus
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>obtained the suspected were marked down, seized
-and carried off to the prisons. Any adherence to
-Jewish customs gave opportunity for denunciation,
-and the severe measures rapidly reduced the numbers
-of the backsliding Jewish-Christians. In Seville
-alone, according to Llorente, two hundred and
-ninety-eight persons were burnt in less than a year,
-and seventy-nine were condemned to perpetual imprisonment.
-Great sums ought to have passed into
-the treasury, then and afterwards, from the confiscated
-property of rich people who perished at the
-stake or were subjected to fine and forfeiture. But
-the great engine of the Inquisition was excessively
-costly. The pageants at the frequent <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>
-were lavishly expensive, a great staff of officials,
-experts, familiars and guards was maintained, and,
-in addition, the outlay on the place of execution, the
-"<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>" or burning place, a great pavement
-on a raised platform adorned with fine pillars and
-statues of the prophets, was very considerable, while
-the yearly bill for fuel, for faggots and brush wood
-rose to a high figure. Undoubtedly there was considerable
-embezzlement also.</p>
-
-<p>There was evidently too much work for two men,
-so in February, 1482, seven additional inquisitors
-were commissioned by the pope on the nomination
-of the sovereigns, and some of these were exceedingly
-zealous. There was, however, much confusion
-because of the lack of a unifying authority. The
-sovereigns were determined that the institution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
-must be kept under the control of the state, and so
-a council of administration usually called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">la Suprema</i>
-was added to those already existing, and was
-charged with jurisdiction over all measures concerning
-the faith. At the head was placed a new
-officer, later called the inquisitor-general. The inquisitor-general
-was hardly a subject. He had
-direct access to the sovereign and exercised absolute
-and unlimited power over the whole population
-and was superior to all human law. No rank, high
-or low escaped his jurisdiction. Royal personages
-were not exempt from his control, for the Holy
-Office invaded the prince's palace as well as the
-pauper's hovel. There was no sanctity in the grave,
-for corpses of heretics were ruthlessly disinterred,
-mutilated and burned.</p>
-
-<p>The first inquisitor-general under the new organisation
-was Thomas de Torquemada, who has won
-for himself dreadful immortality from the signal
-part he played in the great tragedy of the Inquisition.
-He was a Dominican monk, a native of old
-Castile, who had been confessor and keeper of the
-Queen's conscience to Isabella in her early days and
-constantly sought to instil his fiery spirit into her
-youthful mind. "This man," says Prescott, "who
-concealed more pride under his monastic weeds
-than might have furnished forth a convent of his
-order, was one of that class with whom zeal passes
-for religion and who testify their zeal by a fiery
-persecution of those whose creed differs from their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
-own; who compensate for their abstinence from
-sensual indulgence by giving scope to those deadlier
-vices of the heart, pride, bigotry and intolerance
-which are no less opposed to virtue and are far more
-extensively mischievous to society." The cruelties
-which he perpetrated grew out of a pitiless fanaticism,
-more cruel than the grave. He was rigid and
-unbending and knew no compromise. Absolutely
-fearless, he directed his terrible engine against the
-suspect no matter how high-born or influential.</p>
-
-<p>Torquemada was appointed in 1483 and was authorised
-from Rome to frame a new constitution
-for the Holy Office. He had been empowered to
-create permanent provincial tribunals under chief
-inquisitors which sat at Toledo, Valladolid, Madrid
-and other important cities, and his first act was to
-summon some of these to Seville to assist him in
-drawing up rules for the governance of the great
-and terrible engine that was to terrorise all Spain
-for centuries to come. The principles of action, the
-methods of procedure, the steps taken to hunt up
-victims and bring them under the jurisdiction of
-the court, secure conviction and enforce penalties,
-are all set out at length in the record of the times.
-"A bloody page of history," says the historian,
-"attests the fact that fanaticism armed with power
-is the sorest evil that can befall a nation." For
-generations the Spanish people, first the Jews, then
-the Moriscos, lastly the whole native born community
-lay helpless in the grip of this irresponsible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
-despotism. Few, once accused, escaped without
-censure of some sort. Llorente declares with his
-usual exaggeration that out of a couple of thousand
-cases, hardly one ended in acquittal and the saying
-became proverbial that people if not actually roasted
-by the Inquisition were at least singed.</p>
-
-<p>In order to appreciate fully the harshness of the
-Spanish Inquisition and the cruelties perpetrated for
-several centuries, under the guise of religion, we
-must trace the steps taken by the Holy Office, its
-guiding principles and its methods of procedure.</p>
-
-<p>The great aim at the outset was to hunt up heretics
-and encourage the denunciation of presumed
-offenders. Good Catholics were commanded by
-edicts published from the pulpits of all churches to
-give information against every person they knew
-or suspected of being guilty of heresy, and priests
-were ordered to withhold absolution from any one
-who hesitated to speak, even when the suspected
-person was a near relation, parent, child, husband
-or wife. All accusations whether signed or anonymous
-were accepted, but the names of witnesses
-were also required. On this sometimes meagre inculpation
-victims might be at once arrested, though
-in some cases, censors must first pass upon the evidence.
-Often not a whisper of trouble reached the
-accused until the blow actually fell.</p>
-
-<p>Kept thus in solitary imprisonment, cut off entirely
-from his friends outside, denied the sympathy
-or support he might derive from their visits or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
-communications, he was left to brood despairingly,
-a prey to agonised doubts, in ignorance even of the
-charges brought against him. A few brief extracts
-from the depositions of witnesses might be read to
-him, but the statements were so garbled that he
-could get no clue to names or identities. If there
-were any facts favourable to him in the testimony
-they were withheld from him. If he could, however,
-name as mortal enemies some of the witnesses,
-their testimony was much weakened. Facts of
-time, place and circumstance in the charges preferred
-were withheld from him and he was so confused
-and embarrassed that unless a man of acuteness
-and presence of mind he might become involved
-in inextricable contradictions when he attempted to
-explain himself.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand judges were guided and supported
-by the most minute instructions. "It is the
-high and peculiar privilege of the tribunal that its
-officers are not required to act with formality; they
-need observe no strict forensic rules and therefore
-the omission of what ordinary justice might exact
-does not invalidate its actions, provided only that
-nothing essential to the proof be wanting." The
-first essential of justice, as we understand it, was
-ignored. An accused person arraigned for heresy
-was expected to incriminate himself, to furnish all
-necessary particulars for conviction. Testimony
-could be received from persons of any class or character.
-"They might be excommunicate, infamous,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
-actual accomplices, or previously convicted of any
-crime." The evidence of Jews and infidels might
-be taken also, even in a question of heretical doctrine.
-Wife, children, relatives, servants, might depose
-against a heretic. "A brother may declare
-against a brother and a son against a father." The
-witnesses met with no mercy. If any one did not
-say all he could, or seemed reluctant to speak, the
-examiners occasionally ruled that torture should be
-applied.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Increased persecution of the Jews—Accusations made against
-them—Ferdinand introduces the modern Inquisition into
-the Kingdom of Aragon in 1484—Fray Gaspar Juglar and
-Pedro Arbués appointed Inquisitors—Assassination of
-Pedro Arbués—Punishment of his murderers—Increased
-opposition against the Holy Office—Arrest of the Infante
-Don Jaime for sheltering a heretic—Expulsion of the
-Jews from Spain—Appeal to the King to revoke this edict—Ferdinand
-inclined to yield, but Torquemada over-rules
-him—Sufferings of the Jews on the journey—Death of
-Torquemada—Hernando de Talavera appointed archbishop
-of Granada—His success with the Moors—Don Diego
-Deza new Inquisitor-General—Succeeded by Ximenes de
-Cisneros—His character and life—Appointed Primate of
-all Spain—His severity with the Moors—University of Alcalá
-founded by Ximenes—Accession of Charles V—Persecution
-of Moors—Expulsion.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>The fires of the modern Inquisition, it was said,
-had been lighted exclusively for the Jews. The
-fiery zeal of Torquemada and his coadjutors was
-first directed against the Spanish children of Israel.
-The Jews constantly offered themselves to be harassed
-and despoiled. They were always fair game
-for avaricious greed. The inquisitors availed
-themselves of both lines of attack. Jewish wealth
-steadily increased as their financial operations and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
-their industrial activities extended and flourished.
-When the Catholic Kings embarked upon the conquest
-of Granada, the Jews found the sinews of
-war; Jewish victuallers purveyed rations to the
-armies in the field; Jewish brokers advanced the
-cash needed for the payments of troops; Jewish
-armourers repaired the weapons used and furnished
-new tools and warlike implements.</p>
-
-<p>At the same time the passions of the populace
-were more and more inflamed against the Jews by
-the dissemination of scandalous stories of their
-blasphemous proceedings. It was seriously asserted
-by certain monks that some Jews had stolen a consecrated
-wafer with the intention of working it into
-a paste with the warm blood of a newly killed
-Christian child and so produce a deadly poison to
-be administered to the hated chief inquisitor. Another
-report was to the effect that crumbs from the
-holy wafer had been detected between the leaves of
-a Hebrew prayer book in a synagogue. One witness
-declared that this substance emitted a bright
-effulgence which gave clear proof of its sanctity
-and betrayed the act of sacrilege committed. Other
-tales were circulated of the diabolical practices of
-these wicked Jewish heretics.</p>
-
-<p>Ferdinand in 1484 proceeded to give the modern
-Inquisition to the Kingdom of Aragon, where the
-"ancient" had once existed but had lost much of
-its rigour. It was a comparatively free country and
-the Holy Office had become little more than an or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>dinary
-ecclesiastical court. But King Ferdinand
-was resolved to reëstablish it on the wider basis it
-had assumed in Castile and imposed it upon his
-people by a royal order which directed all constituted
-authorities to support it in carrying out its
-new extended functions. A Dominican monk, Fray
-Gaspar Juglar, and a canon of the church, Pedro
-Arbués, were appointed by Torquemada to be inquisitors
-for the diocese of Saragossa. The new
-institution was most distasteful to the Aragonese,
-a hardy and independent people. Among the higher
-orders were numbers of Jewish descent, filling important
-offices and likely to come under the ban of
-the Inquisition. The result was a deputation to the
-pope and another to the king representing the general
-repugnance of the Aragonese to the institution
-and praying that its action might be suspended.
-Neither pope nor king would listen to the appeal
-and the Holy Office began its work. Two <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da
-fé</i> were celebrated in Saragossa, the capital, in 1484,
-when two men were executed.</p>
-
-<p>Horror and consternation seized the Conversos
-and a fierce desire for reprisals developed. They
-were resolved to intimidate their oppressors by some
-appalling act of retaliation and a plot was hatched
-to make away with one of the inquisitors. The
-conspirators included many of the principal "New
-Christians," some of whom were persons of note in
-the district. A considerable sum was subscribed to
-meet expenses and pay the assassins. Pedro Arbués<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
-was marked down for destruction but, conscious of
-his danger, continually managed to evade his enemies.
-He wore always a coat of mail beneath his
-robes when he attended mass in the Cathedral, and
-every avenue by which he could be approached in
-his house was also carefully guarded.</p>
-
-<p>At length he was taken by surprise when at his
-devotions. He was on his knees before the high
-altar saying his prayers at midnight, when two men
-crept up behind him unobserved and attacked him.
-One struck him with a dagger in the left arm, the
-other felled him with a violent blow on the back of
-the neck by which he was laid prostrate and carried
-off dying. With his last breath he thanked God for
-being selected to seal so good a cause with his blood.
-His death was deemed a martyrdom and caused a
-reaction in favour of the Inquisition as a general
-rising of the New Christians was feared. The storm
-was appeased by the archbishop of Saragossa who
-gave out publicly that the murderers should be
-rigorously pursued and should suffer condign punishment.
-The promise was abundantly fulfilled. A
-stern recompense was exacted from all who were
-identified with the conspiracy. The scent was followed
-up with unrelenting pertinacity, several persons
-were taken and put to death, and a larger number
-perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. All
-the perpetrators of the murder were hanged after
-their right hands had been amputated. The sentence
-of one who had given evidence against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
-rest was commuted in that his hand was not cut off
-till after his death.</p>
-
-<p>A native of Saragossa had taken refuge in Tudela
-where he found shelter and concealment in the
-house of the Infante, Don Jaime, the illegitimate
-son of the Queen of Navarre, and nephew of King
-Ferdinand himself. The generous young prince
-could not reject the claims of hospitality and helped
-the fugitive to escape into France. But the Infante
-was himself arrested by the inquisitors and imprisoned
-as an "impeder" of the Holy Office. His trial
-took place in Saragossa, although Navarre was outside
-its jurisdiction, and he was sentenced to do open
-penance in the cathedral in the presence of a great
-congregation at High Mass. The ceremony was
-carried out before the Archbishop of Saragossa, a
-boy of seventeen, the illegitimate son of King Ferdinand,
-and this callow stripling in his primate's
-robes ordered his father's nephew to be flogged
-round the church with rods.</p>
-
-<p>The second story is much more horrible. One
-Gaspar de Santa Cruz of Saragossa had been concerned
-in the rebellion, but escaped to Toulouse
-where he died. He had been aided in his flight by
-a son who remained in Saragossa, and who was
-arrested as an "impeder" of the Holy Office. He
-was tried and condemned to appear at an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da
-fé</i>, where he was made to read an act which held
-up his father to public ignominy. Then the son was
-transferred to the custody of the inquisitor of Tou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>louse
-who took him to his father's grave, forced him
-to exhume the corpse and burn it with his own
-hands.</p>
-
-<p>The bitter hatred of the Jews culminated in the
-determination of the king and queen, urged on by
-Torquemada, to expel them entirely from Spain.
-The germ of this idea may be found in the capitulation
-of Granada by the Moors, when it was agreed
-that every Jew found in the city was to be shipped
-off forthwith to Barbary. It was now argued that
-since all attempts to convert them had failed, Spain
-should be altogether rid of them. The Catholic
-King and Queen were induced to sign an edict
-dated March 30th, 1492, by which it was decreed
-that every Jew should be banished from Spain
-within three months, save and except those who
-chose to apostasise and who, on surrendering the
-faith of their fathers, might be suffered to remain
-in the land of their adoption, with leave to enjoy the
-goods they had inherited or earned. No doubt this
-edict originated with Torquemada.</p>
-
-<p>Dismay and deep sorrow fell upon the Spanish
-Jews. The whole country was filled with tribulation.
-All alike cried for mercy and offered to submit
-to any laws and ordinances however oppressive,
-to accept any terms, to pay any penalties if only they
-might escape this cruel exile. Leading Jews appeared
-before King Ferdinand and pleaded abjectly
-for mercy for their co-religionists, offering an immediate
-ransom of six hundred thousand crowns in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
-gold. The king was inclined to clemency, but the
-queen was firm. He saw the present advantage, the
-ready money, and doubted whether he would get
-as much from the fines and confiscations promised
-by the inquisitors. But at that moment, so the story
-goes, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing
-a crucifix on high and cried in stentorian tones that
-the sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas
-Iscariot. "Here he is! Sell Him again, not for
-thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and
-flinging the crucifix on to the table, he ran out in
-a frenzy. This turned the tables, and the decree for
-expulsion was confirmed.</p>
-
-<p>The terms of the edict were extremely harsh and
-peremptory. As a preamble the crimes of the Jews
-were recited and the small effect produced hitherto
-by the most severe penalties. It was asserted that
-they still conspired to overturn Christianity in Spain
-and recourse to the last remedy, the decree of expulsion,
-under which all Jews and Jewesses were commanded
-to leave Spain and never return, even for
-a passing visit, on pain of death, was therefore necessary.
-The last day of July, 1492, or four months
-later, was fixed for the last day of their sojourn in
-Spain. After that date they would remain at the
-peril of their lives, while any person of whatever
-rank or quality who should presume to receive, shelter,
-protect or defend a Jew or Jewess should forfeit
-all his property and be discharged from his
-office, dignity or calling. During the four months,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
-the law allowed the Jews to sell their estates, or
-barter them for heavy goods, but they were forbidden
-to remove gold or silver or take out of the
-kingdom other portable property which was already
-prohibited by law from exportation.</p>
-
-<p>During the preparation for, and execution of this
-modern exodus, the condition of the wretched Israelites
-was heart-rending. Torquemada had tried hard
-to proselytise, had sent out preachers offering baptism
-and reconciliation, but at first few listened to
-the terms proposed. All owners of property and
-valuables suffered the heaviest losses. Enforced
-sales were so numerous that purchasers were not to
-be easily found. Fine estates were sold for a song.
-A house was exchanged for an ass or beast of burden;
-a vineyard for a scrap of cloth or linen. Despite
-the prohibition much gold and silver were carried
-away concealed in the stuffing of saddles and
-among horse furniture. Some exiles at the moment
-of departure swallowed gold pieces, as many as
-twenty and thirty, and thus evaded to some extent
-the strict search instituted at the sea ports and frontier
-towns.</p>
-
-<p>At last in the first week of July, all took to
-the roads travelling to the coast on foot, on horse
-or ass-back or were conveyed in country carts.
-According to an eye-witness, "they suffered incredible
-misfortunes by the way, some walking feebly,
-some struggling manfully, some fainting, many
-attacked with illness, some dying, others coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
-into the world, so that there was not a Christian who
-did not feel for them and entreat them to be baptised."
-Here and there under the pressure of accumulated
-miseries a few professed to be converted,
-but such cases were very rare. The rabbis encouraged
-the people as they went and exhorted the young
-ones to raise their voices and the women to sing
-and play on pipes and timbrels to enliven them and
-keep up their spirits.</p>
-
-<p>Ships were provided by the Spanish authorities
-at Cadiz, Gibraltar, Carthagena, Valencia and Barcelona
-on which fifteen hundred of the wealthy
-families embarked and started for Africa, Italy and
-the Levant, taking with them their dialect of the
-Spanish language, such as is still talked at the places
-where they landed. Of those who joined in the
-general exodus some perished at sea, by wreck, disease,
-violence or fire, and some by famine, exhaustion
-or murder on inhospitable shores. Many were
-sold for slaves, many thrown overboard by savage
-ship captains, while parents parted with their children
-for money to buy food. On board one crowded
-ship a pestilence broke out, and the whole company
-was landed and marooned on a desert island. Other
-infected ships carried disease into the port of Naples,
-where it grew into a terrible epidemic, by which
-twenty thousand native Neapolitans perished.
-Those who reached the city found it in the throes
-of famine, but were met in landing by a procession
-of priests, led by one who carried a crucifix and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
-loaf of bread, and who intimated that only those
-who would adore the first would receive the other.
-In papal dominions alone was a hospitable reception
-accorded. The pope of the time, Alexander VI, was
-more tolerant than other rulers.</p>
-
-<p>The total loss of population is now difficult to
-ascertain, but undoubtedly it has been greatly exaggerated.
-The most trustworthy estimate fixes the
-number of emigrants at one hundred and sixty-five
-thousand, and the number dying of hardships and
-grief before leaving at about twenty thousand.
-Probably fifty thousand more accepted baptism as
-a consequence of the edict. The loss entailed in
-actual value was incalculable and a vast amount of
-potential earnings was sacrificed by the disappearance
-of so large a part of the most industrious members
-of the population. The king and queen greatly
-impoverished Spain in purging it of Hebrew heresy.
-Their action however was greeted with applause by
-other rulers who did not go to the same lengths on
-account of economic considerations. They were
-praised because they were willing to sacrifice revenue
-for the sake of the faith.</p>
-
-<p>Open Judaism no longer existed in Spain. There
-were left only the apostates, or New Christians.
-That many of these were Christians in name and
-kept the Mosaic law in every detail is undoubted.
-As Jews they were not subject to the Inquisition.
-As professing Christians, any departure from the
-established faith subjected them to the penalties<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
-imposed upon heretics. In spite of the high positions
-which many achieved, they were objects of
-suspicion, and with the increasing authority of the
-Inquisition their lot grew harder.</p>
-
-<p>Torquemada had been active not only against the
-Jews, but against all suspected of any heresy, no
-matter how influential. The odium he incurred
-raised up constant accusations against him, and he
-was obliged on three occasions to send an agent to
-Rome to defend his character. Later his arbitrary
-power was curtailed by the appointment of four coadjutors,
-nominally, to share the burthens of office,
-but really to check his action. On the whole he may
-be said to take rank among those who have been the
-authors of evil to their species. "His zeal was of
-such an extravagant character that it may almost
-shelter itself under the name of insanity." His later
-days were filled with constant dread of assassination,
-and when he moved to and fro his person was
-protected by a formidable escort, a bodyguard of
-fifty familiars of the Holy Office mounted as dragoons
-and a body of two hundred infantry soldiers.
-Yet he reached a very old age and died quietly in
-his bed.</p>
-
-<p>Estimates of the numbers convicted and punished
-during his administration differ widely. Llorente,
-who is, however, much given to exaggeration, states
-that eight thousand eight hundred were burned
-alive, and that the total number condemned was
-more than one hundred and five thousand. On the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
-other hand Langlois,<a name="Anchor-4" id="Anchor-4"></a><a href="#Footnote-4" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 4.">[4]</a> whose estimate is accepted by
-Vancandard, and other Catholic writers, thinks that
-the number put to death was about two thousand.</p>
-
-<p>Death overtook him when a fresh campaign
-against heresy was imminent. The conquest of the
-Kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella
-opened up a new field for the proselytising fervour
-of the Inquisition, which was now resolved to convert
-all Mahometan subjects to the Christian faith.
-A friar of the order of St. Jerome, Hernando de
-Talavera, a man of blameless life, a ripe scholar, a
-persuasive preacher, deeply read in sacred literature
-and moral philosophy, had been one of the confessors
-to Royalty, and had been raised to the bishopric
-of Avila. But he had begged to be allowed to
-resign it and devote himself entirely to the conversion
-of the Moors. The pope granted his request
-and appointed him archbishop of Granada with a
-smaller revenue than that of the diocese he left, but
-he was humble minded, had no craving to exhibit
-the pomp and display of a great prelate and devoted
-himself with all diligence to the duties of his new
-charge.</p>
-
-<p>He soon won the hearts of the Moors who loved
-and venerated him. He proceeded with great caution,
-made no open show of his desire to convert
-them, and strictly refrained from any coercive measures,
-trusting rather to reason them out of their
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>heterodox belief. He caused a translation to be
-made of the Bible into Arabic, distributed it, encouraged
-the Moors to attend conferences, and come
-to him in private to listen to his arguments. Being
-thus busily engaged, he withdrew to a great extent
-from the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, who came
-more and more under the influence of fiery bigots,
-to whom the mild measures of the archbishop became
-profoundly displeasing. The inquisitors, with
-Don Diego Deza who had succeeded Torquemada,
-at their head, incessantly entreated the sovereigns
-to proceed with more severity, and went the length
-of advising the immediate expulsion of all Moors
-who hesitated to accept conversion and baptism
-forthwith. They urged that it was for the good of
-their souls to draw them into the fold and insisted
-that it would be utterly impossible for Christian and
-Moslem to live peacefully and happily side by side.
-The king and queen demurred, temporising as they
-had done with the revival of the Inquisition. It
-might be dangerous, they argued, to enforce penalties
-that were too harsh. Their supremacy was
-hardly as yet consolidated in Granada; the Moors
-had not yet entirely laid aside their arms and unwise
-oppression might bring about a resumption of
-hostilities. They hoped that the Moors, like other
-conquered peoples, would in due course freely adopt
-the religion of their new masters. Loving kindliness
-and gentle persuasion would more surely gain
-ground than fierce threats and arbitrary decrees.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>So for seven or more years the conciliatory
-methods of Archbishop Talavera prevailed and met
-with the approval of Ferdinand and Isabella. But
-now a remarkable man of very different character
-appeared upon the scene and began to advocate
-sterner measures. This was a Franciscan monk,
-Ximenes de Cisneros, one of the most notable figures
-in Spanish history, who became in due course
-inquisitor-general and regent of Spain. A sketch
-of his life may well be given to enable us better to
-understand the times.</p>
-
-<p>Ximenes de Cisneros better known, perhaps, under
-his first name alone, was the scion of an ancient
-but decayed family and destined from his youth for
-the Church. He studied at the University of Salamanca
-and evinced marked ability. After a stay in
-Rome, the best field for preferment, he returned to
-Spain with the papal promise of the first vacant
-benefice in the See of Toledo. The archbishop had
-other views, however, and when Ximenes claimed
-the cure of Uceda, he was sent to prison in its fortress
-and not to the presbytery. For six years
-Ximenes asserted his pretensions unflinchingly and
-was at last nominated, when he exchanged to a
-chaplaincy in another diocese, that of Siguenza,
-where he continued his theological studies and acquired
-Hebrew and Chaldee. Here he came under
-the observation of the Bishop Mendoza, who afterwards
-became Cardinal Primate of Spain, and who
-enjoyed the unbounded confidence of Queen Isa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>bella.
-Mendoza when invited to recommend to her
-a new confessor, in succession to Talavera on
-his translation to the See of Granada, fixed upon
-Ximenes of whom he had never lost sight since their
-first acquaintance at Siguenza.</p>
-
-<p>Ximenes, meanwhile, had become more and more
-devoted to his sacred calling. His marked business
-aptitudes had gained for him the post of steward to
-a great nobleman, the Conde de Cifuentes, who had
-been taken prisoner by the Moors. But secular concerns
-were distasteful to him and Ximenes resigned
-his charge. His naturally austere and contemplative
-disposition had deepened into stern fanatical enthusiasm
-and he resolved to devote himself more absolutely
-to the service of the Church. He entered the
-Franciscan order, threw up all his benefices and employments,
-and became a simple novice in the monastery
-of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, where
-his cloister life was signalised by extreme severity
-and self-mortification. He wore haircloth next his
-skin, slept on the stone floor with a wooden pillow
-under his head, tortured himself with continual fasts
-and vigils, and flogged himself perpetually. At
-last he became a professed monk, and because of the
-fame of his exemplary piety, great crowds were
-attracted to his confessional. He shrank now from
-the popular favour and retired to a lonely convent
-in a far off forest, where he built himself a small
-hermitage with his own hands and where he passed
-days and nights in solemn abstraction and unceasing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
-prayer, living like the ancient anchorites on the
-green herbs he gathered and drinking water from
-the running streams. Self centred and pondering
-deeply on spiritual concerns, constantly in a state of
-mental exaltation and ecstasy, he saw visions and
-dreamed dreams, believing himself to be in close
-communication with celestial agencies and was no
-doubt on the eve of going mad, when his superiors
-ordered him to reside in the convent of Salceda,
-where he became charged with its administration
-and management, and was forced to exercise his
-powerful mind for the benefit of others.</p>
-
-<p>It was here that the call to court found him and
-he was summoned to Valladolid and unexpectedly
-brought into the presence of the queen. Isabella
-was greatly prepossessed in his favour by his simple
-dignity of manner, his discretion, his unembarrassed
-self-possession and above all his fervent piety
-in discussing religious questions. Yet he hesitated
-to accept the office of her confessor, and only did
-so on the condition that he should be allowed to
-conform to the rules of his order and remain at his
-monastery except when officially on duty at the
-court.</p>
-
-<p>Soon afterwards, he was appointed Provincial
-of the Franciscans in Castile and set himself to reform
-their religious houses, the discipline of which
-was greatly relaxed. Sloth, luxury and licentiousness
-prevailed and especially in his own order,
-which was wealthy and richly endowed with estates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
-in the country, and stately dwellings in the towns.
-These monks, styled "conventuals," wasted large
-sums in prodigal expenditure, and were often guilty
-of scandalous misconduct which Ximenes, as an
-Observantine, one of a small section pledged to rigid
-observance of monastic rules, strongly condemned.
-He was encouraged and supported in the work of
-reform by Isabella and a special bull from Rome
-armed him with full authority. His rigorous and
-unsparing action met with fierce opposition, but he
-triumphed in the end and won a notable reward.
-When the archbishop of Toledo died, in 1495,
-Ximenes, unknown to himself, was selected for the
-great post of primate of all Spain and Lord High
-Chancellor of Castile.</p>
-
-<p>The right to nominate was vested in the Queen,
-and Ferdinand in this instance begged her to appoint
-his natural son, Alfonso, already archbishop
-of Saragossa, but a child almost in years. She
-firmly and unhesitatingly refused and recommended
-her confessor to the pope as the most worthy recipient
-of the honour. When the bull making the
-appointment arrived from Rome, the queen summoned
-Ximenes to her presence handed him the
-letter and desired him to open it before her. On
-reading the address, "To our venerable brother,
-Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, Archbishop of
-Toledo," he changed colour, dropped the letter, and
-crying, "There must be some mistake," ran out of
-the room. The queen, in surprise, waited, but he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
-did not return and it was found that he had taken
-horse and fled to his monastery. Two grandees
-were despatched in hot haste to ride after him, overtake
-him and bring him back to Madrid. He returned
-but still resisted all the entreaties of his
-friends and the clearly expressed wishes of his
-sovereign. Finally his persistent refusal was overborne,
-but only by the direct command of the pope,
-who ordered him to accept the post for which his
-sovereigns had chosen him. He has been sharply
-criticised for his apparent humility, but it is generally
-admitted that he was sincere in his refusal. He
-was already advanced in years, ambition was dying
-in him, he had become habituated to monastic seclusion
-and his thoughts were already turned from the
-busy turmoil of this world to the life beyond the
-grave.</p>
-
-<p>However reluctant to accept high office, Ximenes
-was by no means slow to exercise the power it gave
-him. He ruled the Spanish Church with a rod of
-iron, bending all his energies to the work of reforming
-the practices of the clergy, enforcing discipline
-and insisting upon the maintenance of the strictest
-morality. He trod heavily, made many enemies,
-and stirred so much ill feeling that the malcontents
-combined to despatch a messenger to lay their grievances
-before the pope. The officious advocate, however,
-got no audience but went home to Spain, where
-twenty months' imprisonment taught him not to
-offend again the masterful archbishop of Toledo.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Ximenes in insisting upon a strict observance of
-propriety and the adoption of an exemplary life, was
-in himself a model to the priesthood. He never relaxed
-the personal mortifications which had been his
-rule when a simple monk. He kept no state and
-made no show, regulating his domestic expenditure
-with the strictest and most parsimonious economy,
-until reminded by the Holy See that the dignity of
-his great office demanded more magnificence. Still,
-when he increased his display and the general style
-of living in household, equipages and the number
-of his retainers, he continued to be as harsh as ever
-to himself.</p>
-
-<p>In spite of all opposition and discontent he pursued
-his course with inflexible purpose. His spirit
-was unyielding, and his energetic proceedings were
-unremittingly directed to the amelioration and improvement
-in the morals of the clergy with marked
-success. And now he set himself with the same
-uncompromising zeal to extirpate heresy. Having
-begged Archbishop Talavera to allow him to join in
-the good work at Granada, he took immediate advantage
-of the consent given and began to attack the
-Moorish unbelievers in his own vigorous fashion.
-His first step was to call together a great conference
-of learned Mussulman doctors, to whom he expounded
-with all the eloquence he had at his command,
-the true doctrines of the Catholic faith and
-their superiority to the law of Mahomet. He accompanied
-his teaching with liberal gifts, chiefly of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
-costly articles of apparel, a specious though irresistible
-bribery, which had the desired effect.
-Great numbers of the Moorish doctors came over
-at once and their example was speedily followed by
-many of their illiterate disciples. So great was the
-number of converts that no less than three thousand
-presented themselves for baptism in one day, and
-as the rite could not be administered individually,
-they were christened wholesale by sprinkling them
-from a mop or hyssop which had been dipped in
-holy water, and from which the drops fell upon the
-proselytes as it was twirled over the heads of the
-multitude. These early successes stimulated the
-primate's zeal and he next adopted more violent
-measures by proceeding to imprison and impose
-penalties upon all Moors who still stood out against
-conversion. He was resolved not merely to exterminate
-heresy, but to destroy the basis of belief contained
-in the most famous Arabic manuscripts,
-large quantities of which were collected into great
-piles and burned publicly in the great squares of the
-city. Many of these were beautifully executed
-copies of the Koran; others, treasured theological
-and scientific works, and their indiscriminate destruction
-is a blot upon the reputation of the cultivated
-prelate who had created the most learned university
-in Spain.</p>
-
-<p>More temperate and cautious people besought
-Ximenes to hold his hand. But he proceeded pertinaciously,
-declaring that a tamer policy might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
-serve in temporal matters, but not where the interests
-of the soul were at stake. If the unbeliever
-could not be drawn he must be driven into the way
-of salvation, and he continued with unflinching resolution
-to arrest all recusants, and throw them into
-the prisons which were filled to overflowing. Discontent
-grew rapidly and soon broke into open violence.
-When an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">alguazil</i> in Granada was leading
-a woman away as a prisoner, the people rose and
-released her from custody. The insurrection became
-general in the city and assumed a threatening
-aspect. Granada was full of warlike Moors and a
-mob besieged Ximenes in his house until he was
-rescued by the garrison of the Alhambra.</p>
-
-<p>The king and queen were much annoyed with
-Ximenes and condemned his zealous precipitancy,
-but he was clever enough to vindicate his action and
-bring the sovereigns to believe that it was imperative
-that the rebellious Moors must be sharply repressed.
-Now a long conflict began. Forcible conversion
-became the order of the day; baptism continued
-to be performed in the gross upon thousands,
-the alternative being exile, and numbers were actually
-deported to Barbary in the royal ships. A fierce
-civil conflict broke out in the Alpujarras beyond
-Granada, which required a royal army to quell.
-The object sought was the welfare of the state by
-producing uniformity of faith.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
- <img src="images/i_052fp.jpg" alt="" />
- <div class="caption">
- <p><cite>Peint par Benjamin Constant</cite> <cite>Photogravure Goupil & C<sup>ie</sup>.</cite></p>
-
- <p><cite>The Alhambra Palace, Granada</cite></p>
-
- <p>The beautiful Moorish stronghold during the time of the
- supremacy of the Moors was often made the home of slaves
- captured in near-by frontier towns of Andalusia, who endured
- hateful bondage under the rule of the Mohammedan monarch.
- Granada and its palace were finally captured by Ferdinand
- and Isabella, and the Alhambra is to-day the finest example
- of Moorish architecture, with its delicate elaboration of detail.</p>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Ximenes found a strenuous supporter in Diego
-Deza, the inquisitor-general, who was eager to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>emulate the strictness of his predecessor, Torquemada.
-Deza was a Dominican who had been at one
-time professor of theology and confessor to the
-queen. He was by nature and predilection exactly
-fitted for his new office upon which he entered with
-extensive powers. A bull from Pope Alexander VI
-dated 1499 invested him with the title of "Conservator
-of the Faith" in Spain.</p>
-
-<p>Deza gave a new constitution to the Holy Office
-and prescribed that there should be a general "Inquest"
-in places not yet visited, and that edicts
-should be republished requiring all persons to lay information
-against suspected heretics. He stirred up
-the zeal of all subordinate inquisitors and was well
-served by them, especially by one, Lucero, commonly
-called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Tenebroso</i>, "the gloomy," whose savage
-and ruthless proceedings terrorised Cordova where
-he presided. He made a general attack upon the
-most respectable inhabitants and arrested great
-numbers, many of whom were condemned and executed.
-Informers crowded Lucero's ante-chamber
-bringing monstrous tales of heretical conspiracies to
-reëstablish Judaism and subvert the Church. His
-familiars dragged the accused from their beds to
-answer to these charges and the prisons overflowed.
-Cordova was up in arms and many would have offered
-armed resistance to the Inquisition, but the
-more circumspect people, the Bishop and Chapter,
-some of the nobility and the municipal council appealed
-to Deza praying him to remove Lucero. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
-inquisitor-general however turned furiously upon
-the complainants and caused them to be arrested
-as abettors of heresy. Philip I, acting for his wife
-Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was
-inclined to listen to the complainants, and suspended
-both Deza and Lucero from their functions. But
-his sudden death stayed the relief he had promised,
-and the tormenting officials returned to renew their
-oppression.</p>
-
-<p>The Cordovese would not tamely submit and appealed
-to force. A strong body of men under the
-Marques de Priego attacked the "Holy House,"
-broke open the prison and liberated many of those
-detained, shutting up the officers of the Inquisition
-in their place. Lucero took to flight upon a swift
-mule and escaped. Though for a time Deza continued
-to keep his influence, he was shortly forced
-to resign and Cordova became tranquil. Deza's
-persecution had spared no one. In the eight years
-during which he held office, one account, probably
-greatly exaggerated, says that 2,592 persons were
-burned alive, some nine hundred were burned in effigy,
-and thirty-five thousand were punished by
-penance, fines and confiscations.</p>
-
-<p>The fall of Deza and the hostile attitude of the
-people warned the authorities that the affairs of the
-Inquisition must be managed more adroitly. New
-inquisitors must be appointed and choice fell upon
-Ximenes de Cisneros, who had already played a
-foremost part in proselytising, but who now was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
-willing to adopt more moderate measures. The
-Pope in giving his approval sent him a cardinal's
-hat as a recompense for past services, and as an encouragement
-to act wisely in the future. He had a
-difficult task. Disaffection, strongly pronounced,
-prevailed through the kingdom and the Inquisition
-was everywhere cordially detested. Ximenes strove
-to appease the bitter feeling by instituting a searching
-inquiry into the conduct of his immediate predecessor,
-Deza, and promising to hear all complaints
-and redress all grievances. He created a "Catholic
-Congregation" as a special court to investigate the
-actions of Lucero in the proceedings growing out
-of the charges against Archbishop Talavera and his
-family. This court in due course pronounced a verdict
-of acquittal and rehabilitation of the Talaveras.
-Ruined houses were rebuilt, the memory of the
-dead restored to honour and fame, and this act
-of grace was published at Valladolid with great
-solemnity in the presence of the kings, bishops and
-grandees.</p>
-
-<p>Nevertheless Ximenes had no desire to remodel
-the Holy Office or limit its operations to any considerable
-extent. On the contrary, he bent all his
-efforts to develop its influence and make it an engine
-of government, utilising it as a political as well
-as a religious agency. It was as rigorous as ever but
-he set his face like a flint against dishonesty. He
-systematised the division of the realm into inquisitorial
-provinces, each under its own inquisitor with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
-headquarters in the principal cities, such as Seville,
-Toledo, Valladolid, Murcia, and in Sardinia and
-Sicily beyond the seas. His personal ascendancy
-became extraordinary. He enjoyed the unbounded
-confidence and favour of the sovereign. He had
-been created Cardinal of Spain, a title rarely conferred.
-As archbishop of Toledo, he was the supreme
-head of the Spanish clergy, and as inquisitor-general,
-he was the terror of every priest and every
-layman within his jurisdiction. He had, in fact,
-reached the highest ecclesiastical rank, short of the
-papacy and as he rose higher and higher he wielded
-powers little short of an independent absolute monarch,
-and his zeal in the cause of his religion grew
-more and more fervent and far-reaching. No doubt
-in an earlier age he would have turned crusader,
-but now he sought to crush the fugitive Moors who
-had escaped into Northern Africa, whence they
-made constant descents upon the south of Spain,
-burning to avenge the wrongs of their co-religionists,
-and were a constant scourge and source of
-grievous trouble.</p>
-
-<p>The evils centred in the province of Oran, a fortified
-stronghold—the most considerable of the
-Moslem possessions on the shores of the Mediterranean—whence
-issued a swarm of pirate cruisers,
-manned by the exiles driven out of Spain, who had
-sought and found a welcome refuge in Oran.
-Ximenes was resolved to seize and sweep out this
-hornets' nest and undertook its conquest on his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
-account. Much ridicule was levelled at this "monk
-about to fight the battles of Spain," but he went
-forth undeterred at the head of a powerful army,
-conveyed by a strong fleet from Cartagena, which
-he landed at the African port of Mazalquivir, and
-after some desperate fighting made himself master
-of Oran. After his successful African campaign he
-resumed his duties of chief inquisitor, and the Holy
-Office under his fierce and vigorous rule became
-more than ever oppressive. Ximenes pursued his
-unwavering course and encouraged his inquisitors in
-their unceasing activity. He desired to extend the
-power and influence of the Inquisition, and established
-it in the new countries recently added to the
-Spanish dominion. A branch was set up in the
-newly conquered province of Oran, and another
-farther afield in the recently discovered new world
-beyond the Atlantic. On the initiative of Ximenes
-Fray Juan Quevedo, Bishop of Cuba, was appointed
-chief inquisitor in the kingdom of Terrafirma, as
-the territories of the new world were styled.</p>
-
-<p>The energetic pursuit of heresy did not monopolise
-the exertions of Ximenes. He founded the
-great University of Alcalá, a vast design, a noble
-seat of learning richly endowed with magnificent
-buildings and a remarkable scheme of education,
-which produced the ablest and most eminent scholars.
-Another great monument is the well known
-polyglot Bible, designed to exhibit the scriptures in
-their various ancient languages, a work of singular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
-erudition upon which the munificent cardinal expended
-vast sums.</p>
-
-<p>Ximenes lived to the advanced age of eighty-one,
-long enough to act as regent of Spain during the
-interregnum preceding the arrival of Charles I,
-better known as the Emperor Charles V. The immediate
-cause of his death was said to have been the
-receipt of a letter from the Emperor in which he
-was coldly thanked for his services and desired to
-retire to his diocese, to "seek from heaven that
-reward which heaven alone could adequately bestow."
-In his last moments he is reported to have
-said, "that he had never intentionally wronged any
-man; but had rendered to every one his due, without
-being swayed, as far as he was conscious, by
-fear or affection."</p>
-
-<p>He combined a versatility of talent usually found
-only in softer and more flexible characters. Though
-bred in the cloister, he distinguished himself both
-in the cabinet and the camp. For the latter, indeed,
-so repugnant to his regular profession, he had a
-natural genius, according to the testimony of his
-biographer; and he evinced his relish for it by declaring
-that "the smell of gunpowder was more
-grateful to him than the sweetest perfume of Arabia!"
-In every situation, however, he exhibited
-the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern
-lineaments of the monk were never wholly concealed
-under the mask of the statesman or the visor of the
-warrior. He had a full measure of the religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
-bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had
-melancholy scope for displaying it, as chief of that
-dread tribunal over which he presided during the
-last ten years of his life.</p>
-
-<p>The accession of the grandson of Ferdinand and
-Isabella to the Spanish throne as Charles I (better
-known as the Emperor Charles V), seemed to foreshadow
-a change in the relations of the Inquisition
-and the state. The young sovereign was born in
-Ghent and was more Fleming than Spaniard.
-Though his grandfather left in his will solemn injunctions
-"to labour with all his strength to destroy
-and extirpate heresy" and to appoint ministers
-"who will conduct the Inquisition justly and properly
-for the service of God and the exaltation of the
-Catholic faith, and who will also have great zeal
-for the destruction of the sect of Mahomet," it was
-reported that he sympathised with the critics of the
-Inquisition and was disposed to curtail its activity.
-The influence of his old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht,
-whom he commissioned inquisitor-general, first of
-Aragon, and, after the death of Ximenes, of Castile
-also, changed him however into a strong friend and
-staunch supporter of the institution.</p>
-
-<p>Cardinal Manrique, who followed as inquisitor-general,
-was a man of more kindly disposition,
-charitable and a benefactor to the poor. He was
-inclined to relax the severities of the Holy Office
-but it was urged upon him that heresy was on the
-increase on account of the appearance of Lutheran<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
-opinions and the bitterest persecution was more than
-ever essential. Protestants began to appear sporadically
-and called for uncompromising repression.
-The writings of Luther, Erasmus, Melancthon,
-Zwingli, and the rest of the early reformers were
-brought into Spain, but the circulation was adjudged
-a crime, though Erasmus had once been a favourite
-author.</p>
-
-<p>The Inquisition later prepared an <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Index Expurgandorum</i>,
-or list of condemned and prohibited
-literature. All books named on it were put
-under the ban of the law. Possession of a translation
-of the Bible in the vulgar tongues was forbidden
-in 1551, and the prohibition was not lifted until
-1782. By that time there was no longer such keen
-interest in its contents, and the Book was little circulated.
-In 1825 the British and Foreign Bible
-Society sent one of its agents into Spain to distribute
-it, and his adventures are described autobiographically
-in that interesting work, George Borrow's
-"Bible in Spain."</p>
-
-<p>In spite of all the efforts to make good Catholics
-and good Spaniards of the Moriscos, little real progress
-was made. They had accepted baptism under
-compulsion, not realising that thereby they were
-brought under control of the Church. Little effort
-was made to instruct them, moreover, and as a result
-thousands, nominally Christians, observed scrupulously
-the whole Moslem ritual, used the old language,
-and kept their old costume. Some, to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
-sure, were hardly to be distinguished from the Spaniards
-with whom they had intermarried, but, on the
-whole, they seemed an unassimilable element in the
-population.</p>
-
-<p>When Philip II succeeded his father, Charles V,
-in 1556, he determined to take strong measures. A
-decree proclaimed in Granada in 1566 forbade the
-use of the distinctive dress and of the Moorish
-names. The old customs were to be abandoned, and
-all the baths were to be destroyed. Rebellion followed
-this edict, and, for a time, it was doubtful
-whether it could be crushed. Finally open resistance
-was overcome, and several thousand were transferred
-to the mountains of Northern Spain. Meanwhile
-the Inquisition was active, and thousands were
-brought to trial for pagan practices.</p>
-
-<p>Prejudice continued to grow, and fanatics declared
-that Spain could never prosper until the "evil
-seed" was destroyed or expelled from the Christian
-land. Jealousy of the prosperity of the Moriscos
-led the populace to agree with the bigots, and
-finally expulsion was unanimously decreed by the
-Council of State, in 1609, during the reign of
-Philip III. Valencia was first purged, and next
-Murcia, Granada, Andalusia, Old and New Castile
-and Aragon. Afterward vigorous attempts to root
-out individuals of Moorish blood, who had become
-indistinguishable because of their strict conformity,
-were made. Great suffering was incurred by the
-unfortunate exiles and many died. Those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
-reached Africa carried with them a hatred which
-persists to the present.</p>
-
-<p>The number driven out is uncertain. The estimates
-vary from three hundred thousand to three
-million. Probably the most accurate estimate is
-that of six hundred thousand. In this number were
-included the most skilful artisans, and the most industrious
-and most thrifty portion of the population.
-It was a mistake from which Spain has never
-recovered.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Prisons, usually, a part of the building occupied by court—Better
-than civil prisons—Torture inflicted—No new
-methods invented—Description of various kinds—Two
-Lutheran congregations broken up—Description of some
-famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>—Famous victims—Englishmen punished—Archbishop
-Carranza's trial.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>The prisons of the Inquisition fall under two
-great heads, the "secret prisons" in which those
-awaiting trial were confined, and the "penitential
-prisons" where sentences were served. Generally
-there were also <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles de familiares</i> where officers
-of the institution charged with wrong-doing were
-confined. In some tribunals there were others variously
-called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles medias</i>, <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles comunes</i>, and
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles públicas</i>, where offenders not charged with
-heresy might be confined.</p>
-
-<p>The secret prisons, however, have most fired the
-imagination. A man might disappear from his accustomed
-haunts, and for years his family and
-friends be ignorant of his condition, or even of his
-very existence, until one day he might appear at an
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>. What went on within the walls was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
-mystery. Seldom did any hint of the proceedings
-leak out. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, and the
-arm of the Inquisition was long, if the luckless witness
-or attendant failed to heed his instructions.</p>
-
-<p>These prisons were almost invariably a part of
-the building occupied by the tribunal. In Valencia,
-it was the archbishop's palace; in Saragossa, the
-royal castle; in Seville, the Triana; in Cordova, the
-Alcázar, and so on. In some, there were cells and
-dungeons already prepared, in others, they were constructed.
-There was no common standard of convenience
-or sanitation. In many cases, generally,
-perhaps, they were superior to the common jails in
-which ordinary prisoners were confined. Yet we
-know that some were entirely dark and very damp.
-Others were so small that a cramped position was
-necessary, and were hardly ventilated at all. Sometimes
-they were poorly cared for, and loathsome filth
-and vermin made them unendurable. Many places
-were used for prisons during the three hundred
-years of the Inquisition, and no statement is broad
-enough to cover them all. The mortality was high,
-yet not so high as in the prisons generally. Since
-many were unsuitable and often unsafe, the wearing
-of fetters was common. Prisoners often, incidentally,
-speak of their chains.</p>
-
-<p>Occasionally more than one prisoner occupied the
-same room, and much evidence was secured in this
-way, as each hoped to lighten his own punishment
-by inculpating others. Writing materials were per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>mitted,
-though every sheet of paper must be accounted
-for and delivered into an official's hands.
-Lights were not permitted however.</p>
-
-<p>Yet entire secrecy was not always secured. Attendants
-were sometimes bribed, and by various
-ingenious methods, communications occasionally
-found their way in or out. Again in cases of severe
-sickness, the prisoner might be transferred to a hospital,
-which however must account for him if he
-recovered. Cardinal Adrian, the inquisitor-general,
-reminded the tribunals that the prison was for detention,
-not for punishment, that prisoners must not
-be defrauded of their food, and that the cells must
-be carefully inspected.</p>
-
-<p>These and similar instructions issued at intervals
-were not always obeyed, for inquisitors were often
-negligent. According to Lea, "no general judgment
-can be formed as to the condition of so many
-prisons during three centuries, except that their
-average standard was considerably higher than that
-in other jurisdictions, and that, if there were abodes
-of horror, such as have been described by imaginative
-writers they were wholly exceptional."<a name="Anchor-5" id="Anchor-5"></a><a href="#Footnote-5" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 5.">[5]</a> Again
-the same author quotes instances where prisoners
-speak of improved health, due to better food in
-prison than they were accustomed to at home, and
-in summing up declares that the general management
-was more humane than could be found elsewhere,
-either in or out of Spain.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
-<p>We may briefly recapitulate the various processes
-of the Inquisition in order, as they obtained. First
-came the denunciation, followed by seizure and the
-commencement of an inquiry. The several offences
-imputed were next submitted to those logical experts
-named "qualifiers" who decided, so to speak,
-"whether there was a true bill," in which case the
-procurator fiscal committed the accused to durance.
-Three audiences were given him, and the time was
-fully taken up with cautions and monitions. The
-charges were next formulated but with much prolixity
-and reduplication. They were not reduced to
-writing and delivered to the accused for slow perusal
-and reply, but were only read over to him,
-hurriedly. On arraignment he was called upon to
-reply, then and there, to each article, to state at once
-whether it was true or false. The charges were
-usually originated by an informer and resort was
-had, if necessary, to "inquiry," the hunting up of
-suspicious or damaging facts on which evidence was
-sought, in any quarter and from any one good or
-bad. If the accused persisted in denial he was allowed
-counsel, but later the counsel became an official
-of the Inquisition and naturally made only a
-perfunctory defence. An appeal to torture was had
-if the prisoner persisted in denying his guilt, in the
-face of plausible testimony, or if he confessed only
-partially to the charges against him, or if he refused
-to name his accomplices. A witness who had retracted
-his testimony or had contradicted himself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
-might be tortured in order that the truth might be
-made known.</p>
-
-<p>It was admitted, however, that torture was by no
-means an infallible method for bringing out the
-truth. "Weak-hearted men, impatient of the first
-pain, will confess crimes they never committed and
-criminate others at the same time. Bold and strong
-ones will bear the most severe torments. Those
-who have been already on the rack are likely to bear
-it with greater courage, for they know how to adapt
-their limbs to it and can resist more powerfully."
-It may be admitted that the system was so far
-humane that the torture was not applied until every
-other effort had been tried and had failed. The
-instruments of torture were first exhibited with
-threats, but when once in use, it might be repeated
-day after day, "in continuation," as it was called,
-and if any "irregularity" occurred, such as the
-death of a victim, the inquisitors were empowered
-to absolve one another. Nobles were supposedly
-exempted from torture, and it was not permissible
-by the civil laws in Aragon, but the Holy Office was
-nevertheless authorised to torture without restriction
-all persons of all classes.</p>
-
-<p>Torture was not inflicted as a punishment by the
-Inquisition, nor was it peculiar to its trials. Until
-a comparatively recent date it was a recognised
-method of securing testimony, accepted in nearly all
-courts of Europe as a matter of course. The Inquisition
-seems to have invented no new methods, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
-seldom used the extreme forms commonly practised.
-In fact in nearly every case, torture was inflicted by
-the regular public executioner who was called in for
-the purpose and sworn to secrecy. The list of tortures
-practised on civil prisoners was long, and they
-seem to us now fiendish in their ingenuity. A complete
-course would require many hours, and included
-apparently the infliction of pain to every organ or
-limb and to almost every separate muscle and nerve.
-The records of the Inquisition show almost invariably
-the infliction of a few well known sorts.</p>
-
-<p>Some sorts were abandoned because of the danger
-of permanent harm, and others less violent, but
-probably no less painful, were substituted. Often
-the record states that the prisoner "overcame the
-torture," <em>i. e.</em> was not moved to confess. Evidently,
-though the whole idea is abhorrent to us to-day,
-torture as inflicted was less awful than some writers
-would have us believe.<a name="Anchor-6" id="Anchor-6"></a><a href="#Footnote-6" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 6.">[6]</a></p>
-
-<p>A curious memento of the methods employed by
-the Holy Office has been preserved in an ancient
-"Manual of the Inquisition of Seville," a thin
-quarto volume bound in vellum, with pages partly
-printed, partly in manuscript. It bears the date
-1628, and purports to be compiled from ancient and
-modern instructions for the order of procedure. It
-was found in the Palace of the Inquisition at Seville,
-when it was sacked in the year 1820. One part of
-this manual details the steps to be taken, "when
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>torture has to be performed." The criminal having
-been brought into the audience, was warned that
-he had not told the entire truth, and as he was believed
-to have kept back and hidden many things,
-he was about to be "tormented" to compel him to
-speak out. Formal sentence to the torture chamber
-was then passed, after "invoking the name of
-Christ." It was announced that the "question"
-would be administered. The method of infliction
-was detailed whether by pulleys or by water or
-cords, or by all, to be continued for "as long a time
-as may appear well," with the proviso that if in the
-said torment, "he (or she) should die or be
-wounded, or if there be any effusion of blood or
-mutilation of member, the blame should be his (or
-hers) not ours."</p>
-
-<p>Here follows in manuscript the description of the
-torments applied to one unfortunate female whose
-name is not given.</p>
-
-<p>"On this she was ordered to be taken to the
-chamber of Torment whither went the Lords Inquisitors,
-and when they were there she was admonished
-to tell the truth and not to let herself be
-brought into such great trouble.</p>
-
-<p>"Her answer is not recorded.</p>
-
-<p>"Carlos Felipe, the executor of Justice, was
-called and his oath taken that he would do his business
-well and faithfully and that he would keep the
-secret. All of which he promised.</p>
-
-<p>"She was told to tell the truth or orders would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
-be given to strip her. She was commanded to be
-stripped naked.</p>
-
-<p>"She was told to tell the truth or orders would
-be given to cut off her hair. It was taken off and
-she was examined by the doctor and surgeon who
-certified that there was no reason why she should
-not be put to the torture.</p>
-
-<p>"She was commanded to mount the rack and to
-tell the truth or her body should be bound; and she
-was bound. She was commanded to tell the truth,
-or they would order her right foot to be made fast
-to the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">trampazo</i>."<a name="Anchor-7" id="Anchor-7"></a><a href="#Footnote-7" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 7.">[7]</a></p>
-
-<p>After the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">trampazo</i> of the right foot that of the
-left followed. Then came the binding and stretching
-of the right arm, then that of the left. After
-that the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> or the compression of the fleshy
-parts of the arms and thighs with fine cords, a plan
-used to revive any person who had fainted under the
-torture. Last of all the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">mancuerda</i> was inflicted,
-a simultaneous tension of all the cords on all the
-limbs and parts.</p>
-
-<p>The water torture was used to extort confession.
-The patient was tightly bound to the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">potro</i>, or ladder,
-the rungs of which were sharp-edged. The
-head was immovably fastened lower than the body,
-and the mouth was held open by an iron prong. A
-strip of linen slowly conducted water into the mouth,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>causing the victim to strangle and choke. Sometimes
-six or eight jars, each holding about a quart,
-were necessary to bring the desired result. This
-is the "water-cure" found in the Philippines by
-American soldiers when the islands were captured.</p>
-
-<p>If these persuasions still failed of effect, or if the
-hour was late, or "for other considerations" the
-torment might be suspended with the explanation
-that it had been insufficiently tried and the victim
-was taken back to his prison to be brought out again
-after a respite. If, on the other hand, a confession
-was secured, it was written down word for word
-and submitted to the victim for ratification after at
-least twenty-four hours had elapsed. If he revoked
-the confession, he might be tortured again.</p>
-
-<p>When a number of cases had been decided, the
-Suprema appointed a day, usually a Sunday or a
-feast day, for pronouncing sentence. This was an
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, literally an "act of faith." The greater
-festivals, Easter day, Christmas day, or Sundays in
-Advent or Lent were excepted because these holy
-days had their own special musical or dramatic entertainments
-in the churches. The day fixed was announced
-from all the pulpits in the city (Seville or
-Madrid or Cordova as the case might be) and notice
-given that a representative of the Inquisition would
-deliver a "sermon of the faith" and that no other
-preacher might raise his voice. The civil authorities
-were warned to be ready to receive their victims.
-At the same time officials unfurled a banner and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
-made public proclamation to the effect that "no
-person whatever his station or quality from that
-hour until the completion of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> should carry
-arms offensive or defensive, under pain of the
-greater excommunication and the forfeiture of such
-arms; nor during the same period should any one
-ride in coach, or sedan chair, or on horseback,
-through the streets in the route of the procession,
-nor enter the enclosure in which the place of execution
-(<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>) was erected," which was usually
-beyond the walls.</p>
-
-<p>On the eve of the great day a gorgeous procession
-was organised, for which all the communities of
-friars in the city and neighbourhood assembled at
-the Holy House of the Inquisition, together with the
-commissaries and familiars of the Holy Office.
-They sallied forth in triumphal array, followed by
-the "qualifiers" and experts, all carrying large
-white tapers, lighted. In their midst a bier was
-borne covered with a black pall, and, bringing up
-the rear, was a band, instrumental and vocal, performing
-hymns. In this order the procession
-reached the public square, when the pall was removed
-from the bier and a green cross disclosed
-which was carried to the altar on the platform, and
-there erected surrounded by a dozen candles. The
-white cross was carried to the burning place. Now
-a strong body of horse and a number of Dominican
-friars took post to watch through the night and the
-rest of the actors dispersed. At the same time those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
-who were to suffer were prepared for the fatal event.
-All were shaved close, both head and beard, so that
-they might present an appearance of nakedness and
-humiliation suitable to their forlorn condition. At
-sunrise on their last day they were arrayed in the
-prescribed garb and brought from their cells into
-the chapel or great hall. The least heinous offenders
-were in coarse black blouses and pantaloons, and
-were bare-footed and bare-headed. The worst culprits
-were in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential sack of
-yellow canvas, adorned with a St. Andrew's cross
-in bright red paint, and they often carried a halter
-round their necks as a badge of ignominy. Those
-to die at the stake were distinguished by black
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i> with painted flames and wore on their
-heads a conical paper headdress in the shape of a
-bishop's mitre, but also resembling somewhat a
-fool's cap. This was called the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">coroza</i>, a contemptuous
-form of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corona</i> or crown. To make the clothing
-more hideous, it was decorated by coarse pictures
-of devils in flames. The condemned as they
-passed on their way were assailed to the last with
-importunate exhortations to repent, and a promise
-was held out to them that if they yielded they would
-be rewarded by a less painful death, and would be
-strangled before the flames reached them. All the
-penitents were obliged to sit upon the ground in
-profound silence and without so much as moving
-a limb, while the slow hours dragged themselves
-along. In the morning a sumptuous meal was set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
-before them, and they were suffered to eat their fill.
-All the officials and visitors were also regaled before
-the day's business began.</p>
-
-<p>After the sermon, the secretary read to all the
-people the oath pledging them to support the Inquisition.
-Then sentences were pronounced, beginning
-with the lesser offenders and proceeding to the
-graver. The punishments ranged from a reprimand,
-through abjuration, fines, exile, for a longer
-or shorter period, destruction of residence, penance,
-scourging, the galleys, imprisonment, wearing the
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential garment, up to "relaxation
-to the secular arm;" <em>i. e.</em> death by fire. These penalties
-carried with them civil disability, and tainted the
-blood of the descendants of the condemned as well.</p>
-
-<p>Penance might be inflicted in various forms. The
-condemned, perhaps, might be required to fast one
-day in every week, to recite a specified number of
-prayers on appointed days, or to appear at the
-church door with a halter around his neck on successive
-Sundays. When scourging was inflicted, the
-penitent, naked to the waist, was placed astride an
-ass, and paraded through the principal streets preceded
-by the town crier. Meanwhile the executioner,
-accompanied by a clerk to keep tally, plied
-the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">penca</i> or leather strap, but was charged most
-solemnly not to draw blood. Usually two hundred
-lashes was the limit.</p>
-
-<p>Theoretically a heretic who escaped the stake by
-confession was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
-This penalty might be served in a prison, a monastery,
-or in a private house. As a matter of fact,
-comparatively few were kept in prisons as the expense
-of maintenance was a heavy burden, and the
-sentences were usually changed to deportation to
-the colonies, or assignment to the galleys, or else
-the sentence was shortened.</p>
-
-<p>The trial and sentence of the bodies of the dead
-was common, but it was not peculiar to the Inquisition.
-As late as 1600, in Scotland, the bodies of
-the Earl of Gowrie and his brother were brought
-into court, and sentenced to be hanged, quartered
-and gibbeted. Logan of Restalrig, in 1609, three
-years after his death, was tried on the charge of
-being concerned in the same conspiracy, was found
-guilty and his property was confiscated.</p>
-
-<p>In recounting the punishments imposed by the
-Inquisition, we must not forget that it assumed
-jurisdiction over many crimes which to-day are tried
-by the civil courts. Bigamy was punished as, by
-a second marriage, the criminal denied the authority
-of the Church which makes marriage a sacrament.
-Certain forms of blasphemy also were brought before
-it, and perjury as well. Personation of the
-priesthood, or of officials of the Inquisition, was
-punished, and later it gained jurisdiction over unnatural
-crimes. Sorcery and witchcraft, which in
-other states, including the American colonies, were
-considered subjects for the secular courts, were
-within the jurisdiction of the Spanish Inquisition.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Strange as it may appear at first thought, the attitude
-of the Inquisition toward the witchcraft delusion
-was one of skepticism almost from the beginning.
-Individual inquisitors, influenced by the well
-nigh universal belief, were occasionally active, but
-the Suprema moderated their zeal. In 1610 an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i>
-was held at Logroño, which was the centre of wild
-excitement. Twenty-nine witches were punished,
-six of whom were burned, and the bones of five
-others who had died in prison were also consumed.
-The eighteen remaining were "reconciled." In
-1614, however, the Suprema drew up an elaborate
-code of instructions to the tribunals. While not
-denying the existence of witchcraft, these instructions
-treated it as a delusion and practically made
-proof impossible. As a result of this policy the
-victims of the craze in Spain can be counted almost
-by the score, while in almost every other country
-of Europe, they are numbered by the thousand. In
-Great Britain the best estimate fixes the number of
-victims at thirty thousand, and as late as 1775 the
-great legal author, Sir William Blackstone, says that
-to deny "the actual existence of witchcraft and
-sorcery is at once flatly to contradict the revealed
-word of God."<a name="Anchor-8" id="Anchor-8"></a><a href="#Footnote-8" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 8.">[8]</a></p>
-
-<p>Heresy, of course, according to the views not only
-of Catholics but of Protestants, deserved death as
-a form of treason. Tolerance is a modern idea.
-Calvin burned Servetus at Geneva and was ap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>plauded
-for it. Protestants in England persecuted
-other Protestants as well as Catholics. The impenitent
-heretic in Spain was burned alive. That one,
-who after conviction, expressed his repentance, and
-his desire to die in the Church was usually strangled
-before the flames touched him. Before going on to
-describe some famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> and the subsequent
-infliction of the death penalty, a word of explanation
-is in order.</p>
-
-<p>Protestant doctrines were introduced into Spain
-either by foreigners or by natives who travelled or
-studied in foreign lands, but made slow headway.
-In 1557 a secret organisation, comprising about one
-hundred and twenty members, was discovered in
-Seville. The next year another little band of about
-sixty was found in Valladolid.</p>
-
-<p>The almost simultaneous exposure of these two
-heretical organisations, both of which included some
-prominent people, created great commotion. Charles
-V, then living at San Yuste, whither he had retired
-after his abdication, wrote to his daughter Juana,
-who was acting as regent in the absence of Philip II,
-urging the most stringent measures and advocating
-that the heretics be pursued mercilessly. Little
-stimulation of the Inquisition was necessary, and the
-two little congregations were destroyed.</p>
-
-<p>A part of those condemned at Valladolid were
-sentenced at a great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> held on Trinity Sunday,
-May 21st, 1559, in Valladolid, not before
-Philip II, who was abroad, but his sister, Princess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
-Juana, presided and with her was the unhappy
-Prince, Don Carlos. It was a brilliant gathering, a
-great number of grandees of Spain, titled noblemen
-and gentlemen untitled, ladies of high rank in gorgeous
-apparel, all seated in great state to watch the
-arrival of the penitential procession. Fourteen heretics
-were to die, sixteen more to be "reconciled"
-but to be branded with infamy and suffer lesser
-punishments. Among the sufferers were many persons
-of rank and consideration such as the two
-brothers Cazalla and their sister, children of the
-king's comptroller, one of them a canon of the
-Church, the other a presbyter, and all three members
-of the little Lutheran congregation. Their mother
-had died in heresy and on this occasion her effigy,
-clad in her widow's weeds and wearing a mitre with
-flames, was paraded through the streets and then
-burned publicly. Her house, where Lutherans had
-met for prayer, was razed to the ground and a pillar
-erected with an inscription setting forth her offence
-and sentence. Another victim was the licentiate,
-Antonio Herrezuelo, an impenitent Lutheran, the
-only one who went to the stake unmoved, singing
-psalms by the way, and reciting passages of scripture.
-They gagged him at last and a soldier in his
-zeal stabbed him with his halberd, but the wound
-was not mortal and bleeding and burning, he
-slowly expired.</p>
-
-<p>The sixteen who survived the horrors of the day
-were haled back to the prison of the Inquisition to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
-spend one more night in the cells. Next morning
-they were again taken before the inquisitors who
-exhorted them afresh, and their sentences were
-finally read to them. Some destined to the galleys
-were transferred first to the civil prison to await removal,
-after they had been flogged through the
-streets and market places. Others clad in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i>
-and carrying ropes were exposed to the hoots
-and indignities of the ribald crowd. All who passed
-through the hands of the Holy Office were sworn
-to seal up in everlasting silence whatever they had
-seen, heard or suffered, on peril of a renewed prosecution.</p>
-
-<p>Philip II was present at the second great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> in
-Valladolid in October of the same year, when the
-remainder of the Protestants were sentenced. His
-wife, Queen Mary of England, was dead, and he
-returned to Spain by way of the Netherlands, embarking
-at Flushing for Laredo. Rough weather
-and bad seamanship all but wrecked his fleet in sight
-of port, and Philip vowed if he were permitted to set
-foot on shore, to prosecute the heretics of Spain
-unceasingly. He was saved from drowning and
-went at once to Valladolid to carry out his
-vow.</p>
-
-<p>The ceremony was organised with unprecedented
-pomp and splendour. The king came in state,
-rejoicing that several notable heretics had been
-reserved to die in torments, for his especial delectation.
-His heir, Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
-also present but under compulsion; he was, at that
-time, no more than fourteen years of age and had
-writhed with agony at the sight of the suffering at
-the former <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i>. Moreover, when called upon to
-swear fidelity to the Inquisition, he had taken the
-oath with great reluctance. Not so King Philip,
-who when called upon to take the same oath at the
-second <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, rose in his place, drew his sword
-and brandished it as he swore to show every favour
-to the Holy Office and support its ministers against
-whomsoever might directly or indirectly impede its
-efforts or affairs. "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Asi lo juro</i>," he said with deep
-feeling. "Thus I swear."</p>
-
-<p>The victims at this great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> were many
-and illustrious. One was Don Carlos de Seso, an
-Italian of noble family, the son of a bishop, a
-scholar who had long been in the service of the
-Emperor Charles V, and was chief magistrate of
-Toro. He had married a Spanish lady and resided
-at Logroño, where he became an object of suspicion
-as a professor of Lutheranism, and was arrested.
-They took him to the prison of Valladolid, where
-he was charged, tortured and condemned to die.
-When called upon to make confession, he wrote two
-full sheets denouncing the Catholic teaching, claiming
-that it was at variance with the true faith of
-the gospel. The priests argued with him in vain,
-and he was brought into church next morning,
-gagged, and so taken to the burning place, "lest
-he should speak heresy in the hearing of the peo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>ple."
-At the stake the gag was removed and he was
-again exhorted to recant but he stoutly refused and
-bade them light up the fire speedily so that he might
-die in his belief.</p>
-
-<p>Much grief was felt by the Dominicans at the
-lapse of one of their order, Fray Domingo de Rojas,
-who was undoubtedly a Lutheran. On his way to
-the stake he strove to appeal to the king who drove
-him away and ordered him to be gagged. More
-than a hundred monks of his order followed him
-close entreating him to recant, but he persisted in
-a determined although inarticulate refusal until in
-sight of the flames. He then recanted and was
-strangled before being burned. One Juan Sanchez,
-a native of Valladolid, had fled to Flanders, but was
-pursued, captured and brought back to Spain to die
-on this day. When the cords which had bound him
-snapped in the fire, he bounded into the air with his
-agony but still repelled the priests and called for
-more fire. Nine more were burned in the presence
-of the king, who was no merely passive spectator,
-but visited the various stakes and ordered his personal
-guard to assist in piling up the fuel.</p>
-
-<p>The congregation at Seville were sentenced at
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos</i> held in 1559 and 1560. On December 22d of
-the latter year, there were fourteen burned in the
-flesh and three in effigy. The last were notable
-people. One was Doctor Egidio, who had been a
-leading canon of Seville Cathedral, and who had
-been tried and forced to recant his heresies in 1552.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
-After release he renewed his connection with the
-Lutherans, but soon died and was buried at Seville.
-His corpse was exhumed, brought to trial, and
-burnt with his effigy; all his property was confiscated
-and his memory declared infamous. Another
-was Doctor Ponce de la Fuente, a man of deep
-learning and extraordinary eloquence who had been
-chaplain and preacher to the emperor. He followed
-the Imperial Court into Germany, then returned to
-charm vast congregations in Seville, but his sermons
-were reported by spies to be tainted with the
-Reformed doctrines. He was seized by the Inquisition
-and many incriminating papers were also
-taken. When cast into a secret dungeon and confronted
-with these proofs of his heresy, he would
-make no confession, nor would he betray any of his
-friends. He was transferred to a subterranean cell,
-damp and pestiferous, so narrow he could barely
-move himself, and was deprived of the commonest
-necessaries of life. Existence became impossible
-under such conditions, and he died, proclaiming
-with his last breath that neither Scythians nor
-cannibals could be more cruel and inhuman than the
-barbarians of the Holy Office. The third effigy
-consumed was that of Doctor Juan Pérez de Pineda,
-then a fugitive in Geneva.</p>
-
-<p>Chief among the living victims was Julian Hernandez,
-commonly called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Chico</i>, "the little," from
-his diminutive stature. Yet his heart was of the
-largest and his courage extraordinary. He was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
-deacon in the Reformed Church and dared to penetrate
-the interior of Spain, disguised as a muleteer,
-carrying merchandise in which Lutheran literature
-was concealed. Being exceedingly shrewd and daring
-he travelled far and wide, beyond Castile into
-Andalusia, distributing his books among persons of
-rank and education in all the chief cities. His learning,
-skill in argument, and piety, were not less remarkable
-than the diligence and activity by which
-he baffled all efforts to lay hold of him. At last he
-was caught and imprisoned. Relays of priests were
-told off to controvert his opinions, and he was repeatedly
-tortured to extract the names of those who
-had aided him in his long and dangerous pilgrimage
-through the Peninsula, but he was staunch and silent
-to the last.</p>
-
-<p>A citizen of London, one Nicholas Burton, was
-a shipmaster who traded to Cadiz in his own vessel.
-He was arrested on the information of a "familiar"
-of the Inquisition, charged with having spoken in
-slighting terms of the religion of the country. No
-reason was given him, and when he protested indignantly,
-he was thrown into the common gaol and
-detained there for a fortnight, during which he was
-moved to administer comfort and preach the gospel
-to his fellow-prisoners. This gave a handle to his
-persecutors and he was removed on a further charge
-of heresy to Seville, where he was imprisoned,
-heavily ironed in the secret gaol of the Inquisition
-in the Triana. At the end he was condemned as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
-contumacious Lutheran, and was brought out, clad
-in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> and exposed in the great hall of
-the Holy Office with his tongue forced out of his
-mouth. Last of all, being obdurate in his heresy,
-he was burned and his ship with its cargo was taken
-possession of by his persecutors.</p>
-
-<p>The story does not end here. Another Englishman,
-John Frampton, an attorney of Bristol, was
-sent to Cadiz by a part-owner to demand restoration
-of the ship. He became involved in a tedious law
-suit and was at last obliged to return to England
-for enlarged powers. Bye and bye he went out a
-second time to Spain, and on landing at Cadiz was
-seized by the servants of the Inquisition and carried
-to Seville. He travelled on mule back "tied by a
-chain that came three times under its belly and the
-end whereof was fastened in an iron padlock made
-fast to the saddle bow." Two armed familiars rode
-beside him, and thus escorted and secured, he was
-conveyed to the old prison and lodged in a noisome
-dungeon. The usual interrogatories were put to
-him and it was proved to the satisfaction of the Holy
-Office that he was an English heretic. The same
-evidence sufficed to place him on the rack, and after
-fourteen months, he was taken to be present as a
-penitent at the same <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> which saw Burton,
-the ship's captain, done to death. Frampton went
-back to prison for another year and was forbidden
-to leave Spain. He managed to escape and returned
-to England to make full revelation of his wrongs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
-but the ship was never surrendered and no indemnity
-was obtained.</p>
-
-<p>Other Englishmen fell from time to time into the
-hands of the Inquisition. Hakluyt preserved the
-simple narratives of two English sailors, who were
-brought by their Spanish captors from the Indies
-as a sacrifice to the "Holy House" of Seville,
-though the authenticity of the statement has been
-attacked. One, a happy-go-lucky fellow, Miles
-Phillips, who had been too well acquainted in Mexico
-with the dungeons of the Inquisition, slipped
-over the ship's side at San Lucar, near Cadiz, made
-his way to shore, and boldly went to Seville, where
-he lived a hidden life as a silk-weaver, until he
-found his chance to steal away and board a Devon
-merchantman. The other, Job Hortop, added to his
-two years of Mexican imprisonment, two more years
-in Seville. Then "they brought us out in procession,"
-as he tells us, "every one of us having a
-candle in his hand and the coat with S. Andrew's
-cross on our backs; they brought us up on an high
-scaffold, that was set up in the place of S. Francis,
-which is in the chief street in Seville; there they
-set us down upon benches, every one in his degree
-and against us on another scaffold sate all the
-Judges and the Clergy on their benches. The people
-wondered and gazed on us, some pitying our case,
-others said, 'Burn those heretics.' When we had
-sat there two hours, we had a sermon made to us,
-after which one called Bresina, secretary to the In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>quisition,
-went up into the pulpit with the process
-and called on Robert Barret, shipmaster, and John
-Gilbert, whom two familiars of the Inquisition
-brought from the scaffold in front of the Judges,
-and the secretary read the sentence, which was that
-they should be burnt, and so they returned to the
-scaffold and were burnt.</p>
-
-<p>"Then, I, Job Hortop and John Bone, were
-called and brought to the same place, as the others
-and likewise heard our sentence, which was, that
-we should go to the galleys there to row at the
-oar's end ten years and then to be brought back
-to the Inquisition House, to have the coat with St.
-Andrew's cross put on our backs and from thence
-to go to the everlasting prison remediless.</p>
-
-<p>"I, with the rest were sent to the Galleys, where
-we were chained four and four together....
-Hunger, thirst, cold and stripes we lacked none, till
-our several times expired; and after the time of
-twelve years, for I served two years above my sentence,
-I was sent back to the Inquisition House in
-Seville and there having put on the above mentioned
-coat with St. Andrew's cross, I was sent to the everlasting
-prison remediless, where I wore the coat
-four years and then, upon great suit, I had it taken
-off for fifty duckets, which Hernandez de Soria,
-treasurer of the king's mint, lent me, whom I was
-to serve for it as a drudge seven years." This victim,
-too, escaped in a fly-boat at last and reached
-England.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The records of the Inquisition of this period contain
-the name of an eminent Spanish ecclesiastic
-who offended the Holy Office and felt the weight of
-its arm. This was Bartolome de Carranza, Archbishop
-of Toledo, Primate of Spain, a Dominican,—whose
-rise had been rapid and who was charged
-with leanings toward Lutheranism. In early life
-he had passed through the hands of the Inquisition
-and was censured for expressing approval of the
-writings of Erasmus, but no other action was taken.
-His profound theological knowledge indeed commended
-him to the Councils of the Church, for
-which he often acted as examiner of suspected
-books.</p>
-
-<p>Carranza's connection with English history is interesting.
-At the time of Queen Mary's marriage
-with Philip II, he came to London to arrange, in
-conjunction with Cardinal Pole, for the reconciliation
-of England to Rome. He laboured incessantly
-to win over British Protestants, "preached continually,
-convinced and converted heretics without number,
-... guided the Queen and Councils and assisted
-in framing rules for the governance of the
-English Universities." He was particularly anxious
-for the persecution of obstinate heretics, and
-was in a measure responsible for the burning of
-Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. His
-zeal and his great merits marked him down as the
-natural successor to the archbishopric of Toledo,
-when it became vacant, and he was esteemed as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
-chief pillar of the Catholic Church, destined in due
-course to the very highest preferment. He might
-indeed become cardinal and even supreme pontiff
-before he died.</p>
-
-<p>Yet when nearing the topmost pinnacle he was on
-the verge of falling to the lowest depths. He had
-many enemies. His stern views on Church discipline,
-enunciated before the Council of Trent, alienated
-many of the bishops, who planned his ruin and
-secretly watched his discourses and writings for
-symptoms of unsoundness. Valdés, the chief inquisitor,
-was a leading opponent and industriously
-collected a mass of evidence tending to inculpate
-Carranza. He had used "perilous language" when
-preaching in England, especially in the hearing of
-heretics, and one witness deposed that some of his
-sermons might have been delivered by Melancthon
-himself. He had affirmed that mercy might be
-shown to Lutherans who abjured their errors, and
-had frequently manifested scandalous indulgence to
-heretics. Valdés easily framed a case against Carranza,
-strong enough to back up an application to
-the pope to authorise the Inquisition to arrest and
-imprison the primate of Spain. Paul IV, the new
-pope, permitted the arrest. Great circumspection
-was shown in making it because of the prisoner's
-rank. Carranza was invited to come to Valladolid
-to have an interview with the king, and, with some
-misgivings, the archbishop set out. A considerable
-force of men was gathered together by the way—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>all
-loyal to the Inquisition—and at the town of
-Torrelaguna, the arrest was made with great formality
-and respect.</p>
-
-<p>On reaching Valladolid the prisoner begged he
-might be lodged in the house of a friend. The Holy
-Office consented but hired the building. The trial
-presented many serious difficulties. Here was no
-ordinary prisoner; Carranza was widely popular,
-and the Supreme Council of the Kingdom was divided
-as to the evidences of his guilt. Nearly a
-hundred witnesses were examined, but proof was
-not easily to be secured. Besides, Carranza had appealed
-to the Supreme Pontiff. Year after year was
-spent in tiresome litigation and a fierce contest ensued
-between Rome and the Spanish court which
-backed up the Inquisition. At length, after eight
-years' confinement, the primate was sent to Cartagena
-to take ship for Rome, accompanied by several
-inquisitors and the Duke of Alva, that most notorious
-nobleman, the scourge and oppressor of the
-Netherlands. All landed at Civita Vecchia and the
-party proceeded to the Holy City, when Carranza
-was at once lodged in the Castle of St. Angelo, the
-well known State prison. He was detained there
-nine years, until released by Pope Gregory XIII. He
-was censured for his errors, and required to abjure
-the Lutheran principles found in his writings, and
-was relieved from his functions as archbishop, to
-which, however, his strength, impaired by age and
-suffering, was no longer equal. While visiting the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
-seven churches as a penance, he was taken ill, April
-23d, 1576, and soon died. Before his death, however,
-the pope gave him full indulgence.</p>
-
-<p>Those who saw him in his last days record that
-he bore his trials with dignity and patience. But
-this learned priest who had been called to the highest
-rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, only to be himself
-assailed and thrown down, was the same who
-had sat in cruel judgment upon Thomas Cranmer
-and compassed his martyrdom.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION ABROAD</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Fresh field for the Inquisition in Spanish America—Operations
-begun by Ximenes and more firmly established by
-Charles V—Spanish Viceroys' complaints—Zeal of the
-Inquisitors checked for a while—Revived under Philip II—Royal
-Edict forbidding heretics to emigrate to Spanish
-America—Inquisition extended to the Low Countries—Dutch
-rebellion proceedings—The Inquisition of the Galleys
-instituted by Philip—Growing dislike of the Inquisition—Experiences
-of Carcel, a goldsmith—His account of
-an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>—Decline of the powers of the Inquisition.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>The acquisition of Spanish America opened a
-fresh field for the activity of the Inquisition. Besides
-the natives there were the New Christians who
-had fled across the seas seeking refuge from intolerance
-in the old country. Although the emigration
-of heretics was forbidden after a time, lest they
-should spread the hateful doctrines, Cardinal
-Ximenes, when inquisitor-general, resolved that the
-New World should have its own Holy Office, and
-appointed Fray Juan de Quevedo, then Bishop of
-Cuba, as inquisitor-general of the "Tierra Firma"
-as the Spanish mainland was commonly called. The
-Inquisition was more broadly established by Charles
-V, who empowered Cardinal Adrian to organise it
-and appoint new chiefs. The Dominicans were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
-supreme, as in the old country, and proceeded with
-their usual fiery vigour, wandering at large through
-the new territories and spreading dismay among the
-native population. The Indians retreated in crowds
-into the interior, abandoned the Christianity they
-had never really embraced, and joined the other
-native tribes still unsubdued. The Spanish viceroys
-alarmed at the general desertion complained to
-the king at home and the excessive zeal of the
-inquisitors was checked for a time. But when
-Philip II came into power he would not agree with
-this milder policy, and although the inquisitors were
-no longer permitted to perambulate the country districts
-hunting up heretics, the Holy Office was established
-with its palaces and prisons in the principal
-cities and acted with great vigour. Three great
-central tribunals were created at Panama, Lima, and
-at Cartagena de las Indias, and persecution raged
-unceasingly, chiefly directed against Jews and
-Moors. In the city of Mexico also there was an
-inquisitor-general. A royal edict proclaimed that
-"no one newly converted to our Holy Faith from
-being Moor or Jew nor his child shall pass over into
-our Indies without our express license." At the
-same time the prohibition was extended to any who
-had been "reconciled," and to the child or grandchild
-of anyone who had worn the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or of
-any person burnt or condemned as a heretic ...
-"all, under penalty of loss of goods and peril of his
-person, shall be perpetually banished from the Indies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
-and if he have no property let them give him a hundred
-lashes, publicly."</p>
-
-<p>The emperor, Charles V, is responsible for the
-extension of the Inquisition from Spain to the Low
-Countries, by which he repaid the loyal service and
-devotion the Dutch people had long rendered him.
-This Inquisition was headed at first however by a
-layman, and then four inquisitors chosen from the
-secular clergy were named. The Netherlanders resisted
-stoutly its establishment and its operation, and
-in 1646 it was provided that no sentence should go
-into effect unless approved by some member of the
-provincial council. Heretics were condemned of
-course, but the number was not large, though in
-some way grossly exaggerated reports of the numbers
-of victims have gained credence. Finally, on
-the application of the people of Brabant, who declared
-that the name would injure commercial prosperity
-in their district, the name was dropped altogether.
-At best it was a faint and feeble copy of
-the Spanish institution, and during the reign of
-Charles was little feared. In proof we may cite the
-fact that eleven successive edicts were necessary to
-keep the Inquisition at work between 1620 and 1650.</p>
-
-<p>Philip II, on his accession, attempted to increase
-the power of the institution, with the hope of uprooting
-the reformed doctrines. The assertion,
-often made, however, that the Inquisition is responsible
-for the revolt of the Netherlands is entirely
-too broad. Other factors than religious differences<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
-entered into the complex situation. The terrible war
-which finally resulted in the independence of the
-Protestant Netherlands, falls outside the plan of this
-volume.</p>
-
-<p>Philip wished to extend the sway of the Inquisition
-and planned a naval tribunal to take cognisance
-of heresy afloat. He created the Inquisition of the
-Galleys, or, as it was afterwards styled, of the Army
-and Navy. In every sea port a commissary general
-visited the shipping to search for prohibited books
-and make sure of the orthodoxy of crews and passengers.
-Even cargoes and bales of merchandise
-were examined, lest the taint of heresy should infect
-them. This marine inspection was most active in
-Cadiz, at that time the great centre of traffic with the
-far West. A visitor from the Holy Office with a
-staff of assistants and familiars boarded every ship
-on arrival and departure and claimed that their authority
-should be respected, so that nothing might
-be landed or embarked without their certificate.
-The merchants resented this system which brought
-substantial commercial disadvantages, and the ships'
-captains disliked priestly interference with their
-crews, whose regular duties were neglected. The
-men were kept below under examination, when they
-were wanted on deck to make or shorten sail or take
-advantage of a change in the wind or a turn in the
-tide. By degrees the marine Inquisition was
-thought to impede business on the High Seas and
-fell into disuse.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Under succeeding sovereigns the Holy Office was
-still favoured and supported, but the reign of Philip
-III witnessed loud and frequent remonstrances
-against its operation. The Cortes of Castile implored
-the king to put some restraint upon the too
-zealous inquisitors, but they still wielded their arbitrary
-powers unchecked, and Philip sought further
-encouragement for them from Rome. The accession
-of Philip IV to the throne was celebrated by
-an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, but no victim was put to death, and
-the only corporal punishment inflicted was the flogging
-of an immoral nun who professed to have
-made a compact with the devil. She was led out
-gagged, and, wearing the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i>, received two
-hundred lashes followed by perpetual imprisonment.
-Philip IV strove for a time to check the activity of
-the Inquisition, but he was too weak and wavering
-to make permanent headway against an institution,
-the leaders of which knew precisely what they were
-striving for, and pertinaciously pursued it.</p>
-
-<p>A graphic account of what purport to have been
-the painful experiences of a poor soul who fell at
-a later date into the clutches of the inquisitors is
-related by himself in a curious pamphlet printed in
-Seville, by one Carcel, who was a goldsmith in that
-city. Evidently there is the work of another hand
-in it, however, as it is written with too much regard
-for the dramatic to have been his own composition.
-The description of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> is also unusual,
-and not according to the usual procedure.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>He says that he was arrested on the 2nd of April,
-1680, at ten o'clock in the evening, as he was finishing
-a gold necklace for one of the queen's maids of
-honour. A week after his first arrest Carcel was
-examined. We will quote his own words:—</p>
-
-<p>"In an ante-room," he says, "a smith frees me
-of my irons and I pass from the ante-chamber to
-the 'Inquisitor's table,' as the small inner room is
-called. It is hung with blue and citron-coloured
-taffety. At one end, between the two grated windows,
-is a gigantic crucifix and on the central estrade
-(a table fifteen feet long surrounded by arm-chairs),
-with his back to the crucifix, sits the secretary,
-and on my right, Francisco Delgado Ganados,
-the Grand Inquisitor, who is a secular priest. The
-other inquisitors had just left, but the ink was still
-wet in their quills, and I saw on papers before their
-chairs some names marked with red ink. I am
-seated on a low stool opposite the secretary. The
-inquisitor asks my name and profession and why
-I come there, exhorting me to confess as the only
-means of quickly regaining my liberty. He hears
-me, but when I fling myself weeping at his knees,
-he says coolly there is no hurry about my case; that
-he has more pressing business than mine waiting,
-(the secretary smiles), and he rings a little silver
-bell which stands beside him on the black cloth,
-for the alcaide who leads me off down a long gallery,
-where my chest is brought in and an inventory
-taken by the secretary. They cut my hair off and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
-strip me of everything, even to my ring and gold
-buttons; but they leave me my beads, my handkerchief
-and some money I had fortunately sewn in
-my garters. I am then led bareheaded into a cell,
-and left to think and despair till evening when they
-bring me supper.</p>
-
-<p>"The prisoners are seldom put together. Silence
-perpetual and strict is maintained in all the cells.
-If any prisoner should moan, complain or even pray
-too loud, the gaolers who watch the corridors night
-and day warn them through the grating. If the
-offence is repeated, they storm in and load you with
-blows to intimidate the other prisoners, who, in the
-deep grave-like silence, hear your every cry and
-every blow.</p>
-
-<p>"Once every two months the inquisitor, accompanied
-by his secretary and interpreter, visits the
-prisoners and asks them if their food is brought
-them at regular hours, or if they have any complaint
-to make against the gaolers. But this is only
-a parade of justice, for if a prisoner dares to utter
-a complaint, it is treated as mere fanciful ravings
-and never attended to.</p>
-
-<p>"After two months' imprisonment," goes on Carcel,
-"one Saturday, when, after my meagre prison
-dinner, I give my linen, as usual, to the gaolers to
-send to the wash, they will not take it and a great
-cold breath whispers at my heart—to-morrow is
-the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>. When, immediately after the vespers
-at the cathedral, they ring for matins, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
-they never do but when rejoicing on the eve of a
-great feast, I know that my horrid suspicions are
-right. Was I glad at my escape from this living
-tomb, or was I paralysed by fear, at the pile perhaps
-already hewn and stacked for my wretched body?
-I know not. I was torn in pieces by the devils that
-rack the brains of unhappy men. I refused my next
-meal, but, contrary to their wont, they pressed it
-more than usual. Was it to give me strength to
-bear my torture? Do God's eyes not reach to the
-prisons of the Inquisition?</p>
-
-<p>"I am just falling into a sickly, fitful sleep, worn
-out with conjecturing, when, about eleven o'clock at
-night, the great bolts of my cell grind and jolt back
-and a party of gaolers in black, in a flood of light,
-so that they looked like demons on the borders of
-heaven, come in.</p>
-
-<p>"The alcaide throws down by my pallet a heap
-of clothes, tells me to put them on and hold myself
-ready for a second summons. I have no tongue to
-answer, as they light my lamp, leave me and lock
-the door behind them. Such a trembling seizes me
-for half an hour, that I cannot rise and look at the
-clothes which seem to me shrouds and winding
-sheets. I rise at last, throw myself down before the
-black cross I had smeared with charcoal on the wall,
-and commit myself, as a miserable sinner, into God's
-hands. I then put on the dress, which consists of
-a tunic with long, loose sleeves and hose drawers,
-all of black serge, striped with white.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>"At two o'clock in the morning the wretches
-came and led me into a long gallery where nearly
-two hundred men, brought from their various cells,
-all dressed in black, stood in a long silent line
-against the wall of the long, plain vaulted, cold corridor
-where, over every two dozen heads, swung
-a high brass lamp. We stood silent as a funeral
-train. The women, also in black, were in a neighbouring
-gallery, far out of our sight. By sad
-glimpses down a neighbouring dormitory I could
-see more men dressed in black, who, from time to
-time, paced backwards and forwards. These I afterwards
-found were men doomed also to be burnt,
-not for murder—no, but for having a creed unlike
-that of the Jesuits. Whether I was to be burnt
-or not I did not know, but I took courage, because
-my dress was like that of the rest and the monsters
-could not dare to put two hundred men at once into
-one fire, though they did hate all who love doll-idols
-and lying miracles.</p>
-
-<p>"Presently, as we waited sad and silent, gaolers
-came round and handed us each a long yellow taper
-and a yellow scapular, or tabard, crossed behind and
-before with red crosses of Saint Andrew. These
-are the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i> that Jews, Turks, sorcerers,
-witches, heathen or perverts from the Roman Catholic
-Church are compelled to wear. Now came the
-gradation of our ranks—those who have relapsed,
-or who were obstinate during their accusations,
-wear the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">zamarra</i>, which is gray, with a man's head<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
-burning on red faggots painted at the bottom and
-all round reversed flames and winged and armed
-black devils horrible to behold. I, and seventy
-others, wear these, and I lose all hope. My blood
-turns to ice; I can scarcely keep myself from
-swooning. After this distribution they bring us,
-with hard, mechanical regularity, pasteboard conical
-mitres (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corozas</i>) painted with flames and devils
-with the words '<em>sorcerer</em>' and '<em>heretic</em>' written
-round the rim. Our feet are all bare. The
-condemned men, pale as death, now begin to weep
-and keep their faces covered with their hands, round
-which the beads are twisted. God only—by speaking
-from heaven—could save them. A rough,
-hard voice now tells us we may sit on the ground
-till our next orders come. The old men and boys
-smile as they eagerly sit down, for this small relief
-comes to them with the refreshment of a pleasure.</p>
-
-<p>"At four o'clock they bring us bread and figs,
-which some drop by their sides and others languidly
-eat. I refuse mine, but a guard prays me to put it
-in my pocket for I may yet need it. It is as if an
-angel had comforted me. At five o'clock, at daybreak,
-it was a ghastly sight to see shame, fear,
-grief, despair, written on our pale livid faces. Yet
-not one but felt an undercurrent of joy at the prospect
-of any release, even by death.</p>
-
-<p>"Suddenly, as we look at each other with ghastly
-eyes, the great bell of the Giralda begins to boom
-with a funeral knell, long and slow. It was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
-signal of the gala day of the Holy Office, it was the
-signal for the people to come to the show. We are
-filed out one by one. As I pass the gallery in the
-great hall, I see the inquisitor, solemn and stern,
-in his black robes, throned at the gate. Beneath
-him is his secretary, with a list of the citizens of
-Seville in his wiry twitching hands. The room is
-full of the anxious frightened burghers, who, as
-their names are called and a prisoner passes through,
-move to his trembling side to serve as his godfather
-in the Act of Faith. The honest men shudder
-as they take their place in the horrible death procession.
-The time-serving smile at the inquisitor,
-and bustle forward. This is thought an honourable
-office and is sought after by hypocrites and suspected
-men afraid of the Church's sword.</p>
-
-<p>"The procession commences with the Dominicans.
-Before them flaunts the banner of the order
-in glistening embroidery that burns in the sun and
-shines like a mirror, the frocked saint, holding a
-threatening sword in one hand, and in the other, an
-olive branch with the motto, 'Justitia et misericordia'
-(Justice and mercy). Behind the banner
-come the prisoners in their yellow scapulars, holding
-their lighted torches, their feet bleeding with the
-stones and their less frightened godfathers, gay in
-cloak and sword and ruff tripping along by their
-side, holding their plumed hats in their hands. The
-street and windows are crowded with careless eyes,
-and children are held up to execrate us as we pass<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
-to our torturing death. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> was always
-a holiday sight to the craftsmen and apprentices;
-it drew more than even a bull fight, because of the
-touch of tragedy about it. Our procession, like a
-long black snake, winds on, with its banners and
-crosses, its shaven monks and mitred bare-footed
-prisoners, through street after street, heralded by
-soldiers who run before to clear a way for us—to
-stop mules and clear away fruit-stalls, street-performers
-and their laughing audiences. We at last
-reach the Church of All the Saints, where, tired,
-dusty, bleeding and faint we are to hear mass.</p>
-
-<p>"The church has a grave-vault aspect and is
-dreadfully like a charnel house. The great altar is
-veiled in black, and is lit with six silver candlesticks,
-whose flames shine like yellow stars with clear
-twinkle and a soft halo round each black, fire-tipped
-wick. On each side of the altar, that seems to bar
-out God and his mercy from us and to wrap the very
-sun in a grave cloak, are two thrones, one for the
-grand-inquisitor and his counsel, another for the
-king and his court. The one is filled with sexton-like
-lawyers, the other with jewelled and feathered
-men.</p>
-
-<p>"In front of the great altar and near the door
-where the blessed daylight shines with hope and
-joy, but not for us, is another altar, on which six
-gilded and illuminated missals lie open; those books
-of the Gospels, too, in which I had once read such
-texts as—God is love; Forgive as ye would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
-forgiven; Faith, hope, charity: these three, but the
-greatest of these is charity. Near this lesser altar
-the monks had raised a balustraded gallery, with
-bare benches, on which sat the criminals in their
-yellow and flame-striped tabards with their godfathers.
-The doomed ones came last, the more innocent
-first. Those who entered the black-hung
-church first, passing up nearest to the altar sat there,
-either praying or in a frightened trance of horrid
-expectancy. The trembling living corpses wearing
-the mitres, yellow and red, came last, preceded by a
-gigantic crucifix, the face turned from them.</p>
-
-<p>"Immediately following these poor mitred men
-came servitors of the Inquisition, carrying four
-human effigies fastened to long staves, and four
-chests containing the bones of those men who had
-died before the fire could be got ready. The coffers
-were painted with flames and demons and the effigies
-wore the dreadful mitre and the crimson and
-yellow shirt all a-flame with paint. The effigies
-sometimes represented men tried for heresy since
-their death and whose estates had since been confiscated
-and their effigies doomed to be burnt as a
-warning; for no one within their reach may escape
-if they differ in opinion with the Inquisition.</p>
-
-<p>"Every prisoner being now in his place—godfathers,
-torchmen, pikemen, musketeers, inquisitors,
-and flaunting court—the Provincial of the Augustins
-mounted the pulpit, followed by his ministrant
-and preached a stormy, denouncing, exulting ser<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>mon,
-half an hour long (it seemed a month of anguish),
-in which he compared the Church with
-burning eloquence to Noah's ark; but with this difference,
-that those animals who entered it before
-the deluge came out of it unaltered, but the blessed
-Inquisition had, by God's blessing, the power of
-changing those whom its walls once enclosed, turning
-them out meek as the lambs he saw around him
-so tranquil and devout, all of whom had once been
-cruel as wolves and savage and daring as lions.</p>
-
-<p>"This sermon over, two readers mounted the pulpit
-to shout the list of names of the condemned,
-their crimes (now, for the first time, known to
-them) and their sentences. We grew all ears and
-trembled as each name was read.</p>
-
-<p>"As each name was called the alcaide led out
-the prisoner from his pen to the middle of the gallery
-opposite the pulpit, where he remained standing,
-taper in hand. After the sentence he was led
-to the altar where he had to put his hand on one
-of the missals and to remain there on his knees.</p>
-
-<p>"At the end of each sentence, the reader stopped
-to pronounce in a loud, angry voice, a full confession
-of faith, which he exhorted us, the guilty, to
-join with heart and voice. Then we all returned
-to our places. My offence, I found, was having
-spoken bitterly of the Inquisition, and having called
-a crucifix a mere bit of cut ivory. I was therefore
-declared excommunicated, my goods confiscated to
-the king, I was banished Spain and condemned to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
-the Havana galleys for five years with the following
-penances: I must renounce all friendship with heretics
-and suspected persons; I must, for three years,
-confess and communicate three times a month; I
-must recite five times a day, for three years, the
-Pater and Ave Maria in honour of the Five
-Wounds; I must hear mass and sermon every Sunday
-and feast day; and above all, I must guard
-carefully the secret of all I had said, heard, or seen
-in the Holy Office (which oath, as the reader will
-observe, I have carefully kept).</p>
-
-<p>"The inquisitor then quitted his seat, resumed
-his robes and followed by twenty priests, each with
-a staff in his hand, passed into the middle of the
-church and with divers prayers some of us were
-relieved from excommunication, each of us receiving
-a blow from a priest. Once, such an insult
-would have sent the blood in a rush to my head, and
-I had died but I had given a return buffet; now, so
-weak and broken-spirited was I, I burst into tears.</p>
-
-<p>"Now, one by one, those condemned to the stake,
-faint and staggering, were brought in to hear their
-sentences, which they did with a frightened vacancy,
-inconceivably touching, but the inquisitors
-were gossiping among themselves and scarcely
-looked at them. Every sentence ended with the
-same cold mechanical formula: That the Holy Office
-being unhappily unable to pardon the prisoners
-present, on account of their relapse and impenitence,
-found itself obliged to punish them with all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
-rigour of earthly law, and therefore delivered them
-with regret to the hands of secular justice, praying
-it to use clemency and mercy towards the wretched
-men, saving their souls by the punishment of their
-bodies and recommending death, but not effusion
-of blood. Cruel hypocrites!</p>
-
-<p>"At the word blood the hangmen stepped forward
-and took possession of the bodies, the alcaide
-first striking each of them on the chest to show that
-they were now abandoned to the rope and fire."
-Then he goes on to describe the scene at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>,
-which, however, included nothing of importance
-not already mentioned elsewhere.</p>
-
-<p>After the death of Philip IV, and during the
-minority of his son, Charles II, Father Nithard, a
-Jesuit, who combined the two forces long in opposition,
-the disciples of Loyola and the descendants
-of Torquemada, was for a time inquisitor-general.
-The Holy Office was hotly opposed by Don John of
-Austria, a natural son of Philip IV, who rose to
-political power and would have fallen a victim to
-the Inquisition had not popular indignation sided
-with him against Nithard, who fled from Spain to
-Rome. He was stripped of all his offices but still
-kept the favour of the queen-mother who finally
-secured for him from Pope Clement X the coveted
-cardinal's hat. Don John was unequal to the task
-of curbing the power of the Inquisition, however,
-and the institution claimed wider and wider jurisdiction.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Growing dissatisfaction prevailed, and in 1696,
-the king, Charles II, summoned a conference or
-Grand Junta to enquire into the complaints that
-poured in from all quarters against the Inquisition.
-It was composed of two councillors of state from
-Castile, Aragon, the Indies, and the Spanish provinces
-in Italy, with two members of the religious
-orders. It reported that the Holy Office exercised
-illegal powers, still arrogated the right to throw persons
-of rank into prison and cover their families
-with disgrace. It punished with merciless severity
-the slightest opposition or disrespect shown to dependents
-or familiars who had come to enjoy extensive
-and exorbitant privileges. They claimed secular
-jurisdiction in matters nowise appertaining to
-religion, and set aside restrictions contained in their
-own canon law. The Junta strongly recommended
-that these restrictions should be rigidly enforced,
-and that no one should be thrown into the prisons
-of the Inquisition, save on charges of an heretical
-nature. It urged the right of appeal to the throne,
-and the removal of all causes to the royal courts
-for trial. It detailed the privileges granted to the
-servants of the Holy Office. Even a coachman or
-a lackey demanded reverence and might conduct
-himself with unbounded insolence. If a servant girl
-were not treated obsequiously in a shop she might
-complain and the offender was liable to be cast into
-the dungeons of the Inquisition. So great was the
-discontent, so many tumults arose, that the Junta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
-would have all such unrighteous privileges curtailed,
-and would authorise the civil courts to keep
-the encroachments of the Holy Office in check.</p>
-
-<p>With the eighteenth century the authority of the
-Holy Office visibly waned. Philip V, a French
-prince, and a grandson of Louis XIV, whose succession
-produced the long protracted war of the
-Spanish Succession, declined to be honoured with
-an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> at his coronation, but he maintained
-the Inquisition as an instrument of despotic government,
-and actually used it to punish as heretics those
-who had any doubt concerning his title to the crown.
-Yet he rather used the Inquisition than supported
-it; for he deprived of his office an inquisitor-general
-who had presumed to proceed for heresy against
-a high officer. The Cortes of Castile again, (1714),
-recorded their condemnation, but without any
-further benefit than that which must eventually result
-from the disclosure of a truth. The same body
-reiterated their disapproval a few years afterwards,
-(1720). But while Philip V used the Inquisition
-for his own service, and the heretical doctrine which
-had prevailed two centuries before no longer left
-a trace behind, there were multitudes of persons
-accused of attempting to revive Judaism and others
-gave offence by their efforts to promote Freemasonry.
-This gave the inquisitors abundant pretext
-for the discharge of their political mission.</p>
-
-<p>During the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV,
-a revival of literature and an advance in political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
-science guided the attention of the clergy and the
-government to the position of the court of Rome,
-as well as to the proceedings of the inquisitors.
-The former of these monarchs nearly yielded to the
-advice of his councillors to suppress the Inquisition,
-as well as to expel the Jesuits. He banished the
-Society, but, in regard to the Inquisition, said:
-"The Spaniards want it and it gives me no trouble."</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile death sentences nearly ceased, and
-once when a good man was sentenced to be delivered
-to the secular arm, in compliance with the letter of
-the law, the inquisitors let him go free. By this
-contrivance Don Miguel Solano, priest of Esco, a
-town in Aragon, walked out of the prison of the
-Inquisition in Saragossa, as a maniac, forgiven his
-heresy, and lived on as a maniac, exempted from
-priestly ministrations, while every one knew him to
-be a reasonable man and treated him accordingly.
-In the end he died, refusing Extreme Unction, and
-was buried in unconsecrated ground within the walls
-of the Inquisition on the banks of the Ebro.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>The Inquisition in Spain abolished by Napoleon's invasion—Its
-revival—Persecution of the Freemasons—The "Tribunal
-of Faith" established—Inquisition in Portugal—The
-case of an Englishman who is arrested, tortured and burnt
-alive—Difference between the Inquisitions of Spain and
-Portugal—The supreme power of the Holy Office in Portugal
-in the eighteenth century—The terrible earthquake at
-Lisbon—Establishment of the Holy Office in India at Goa—Description
-of the Inquisition prison at Goa by M. Dellon—Case
-of Father Ephrem—His arrest and rescue by the
-English from the hands of the inquisitors.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the removal
-of the young king, Ferdinand VII, to France, put
-an end to the Inquisition. When the Emperor took
-possession of Madrid, he called upon all public
-bodies to submit to his authority, but the Holy
-Office refused. Whereupon he issued an order to
-arrest the inquisitors, abolish the Inquisition, and
-sequestrate its revenues. All Spain did not readily
-yield to the French conqueror, and when the Cortes
-met in Cadiz they empowered one of the inquisitors,
-who had escaped, to reconstitute the tribunal, but it
-was never really restored. At the same time, the
-governing powers appointed a special commission<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
-to enquire into the legal status of the ancient body,
-and to decide whether the Inquisition had any legal
-right to exist. A report was published in 1812, reviewing
-its whole history and condemning it as
-incompatible with the liberties of the country. The
-indictment against it was couched in very vigorous
-language. It was held to have been guilty of the
-most harsh and oppressive measures; to have inflicted
-the most cruel and illegal punishments; "in
-the darkness of the night it had dragged the husband
-from the side of his wife, the father from the
-children, the children from their parents, and none
-may see the other again until they are absolved or
-condemned without having had the means of contributing
-to their defence or knowing whether they
-had been fairly tried." The result was a law passed
-by the Cortes to suppress the Inquisition in Spain.</p>
-
-<p>The restoration of Ferdinand VII, at the termination
-of the war in 1814, gave the Inquisition
-fresh life. He resented the action taken by the
-Cortes, arrested its members, and cast them into
-prison, declaring them to be infidels and rebels, and
-forthwith issued a decree reviving the tribunal of
-the Holy Office. Its supreme council met in Seville
-and persecution was renewed under the new inquisitor-general,
-Xavier Mier y Campillo, who put out
-a fresh list of prohibited books, tried to raise
-revenues and issued a new Edict of Faith. There
-might have been another <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> even in the nineteenth
-century, but informers would not come for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>ward
-and latter-day victims could not be found.
-Dread, nevertheless, prevailed, and numbers fled for
-refuge into foreign lands. Fierce energy was directed
-against the Freemasons, for during the
-French occupation, the palace of the Inquisition at
-Seville had been used, partly as a common gaol and
-partly as a Freemasons' lodge. The members of
-the craft who were found in Spain were dealt with
-as heretics, and all Freemasons were excommunicated.</p>
-
-<p>For a time the Inquisition languished, although
-favoured by the arbitrary régime introduced by
-Ferdinand VII, who sought to reinstate it on its
-former lines. It was destroyed or at least suspended
-by the Revolution of 1820, and on his restoration,
-the king did not reëstablish it, though the
-officials still hoped for a better day and continued
-to draw their salaries. Some of the bishops established
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">juntas de fé</i>, which took up much the same
-work, and July 26th, 1826, a poor schoolmaster
-Cayetano Ripoll, was hanged for heresy—the last
-execution for this crime in Spain. Finally, January
-4th, 1834, the Inquisition was definitely abolished,
-and the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">juntas de fé</i> were abolished the next year.</p>
-
-<p>The Inquisition extended its influence into the
-neighbouring country of Portugal, which was an independent
-kingdom until conquered by Philip II in
-1580. Here persecution prevailed from the fifteenth
-century, chiefly of the Jews and new Christians, who
-flocked into the country from Spain, and were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
-treated with great severity. The Holy Office was
-set up in Lisbon under an inquisitor-general, Diego
-de Silva, and Portugal was divided into inquisitional
-districts. <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Autos da fé</i> were frequent, and on
-a scale hardly known in Spain, though the records
-are fragmentary.</p>
-
-<p>From among the cases reported, we may quote
-that of an Englishman, a native of Bristol, engaged
-in commerce in Lisbon, who boldly assaulted the
-cardinal archbishop in the act of performing mass.
-Gardiner, as fiercely intolerant as those of the dominant
-religion who were worshipping according to
-their own rites, attacked the priest when he elevated
-the host, "snatched away the cake with one hand,
-trod it under his feet, and with the other overthrew
-the chalice." The congregation, at first utterly
-astounded, raised one great cry and fell bodily upon
-the sacrilegious wretch, who was promptly stabbed
-in the shoulder and haled before the king, who was
-present in the cathedral, and forthwith interrogated.
-It was thought that he had been instigated by the
-English Protestants to this outrageous insult, but
-he declared that he had been solely moved by his
-abhorrence of the idolatry he had witnessed. He
-was imprisoned and with him all the English in
-Lisbon. So soon as his wound was healed, he was
-examined by the Holy Office, tortured and condemned.
-Then he was carried to the market place
-on an ass and his left hand was cut off; thence he
-was taken to the river side and by a rope and pulley<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
-hoisted over a pile of wood which was set on fire.
-"In spite of the great torment he continued in a
-constant spirit and the more terribly he burned the
-more vehemently he prayed." He was in the act of
-reciting a psalm, when by the use of exceeding violence,
-the burning rope broke and he was precipitated
-into the devouring flames.</p>
-
-<p>A fellow lodger of Gardiner was detained in the
-Inquisition for two years, and was frequently tortured
-to elicit evidence against other Englishmen,
-but without avail. A Scotch professor of Greek in
-the university of Coimbra was charged with Lutheranism,
-and imprisoned for a year and a half, after
-which he was committed to a monastery so that he
-might be instructed by the monks in the true religion.
-They did not change his views and he was
-presently set free. Another, an English shipmaster,
-was less fortunate and was burned alive as a heretic
-at Lisbon.</p>
-
-<p>It has been observed that, on comparison of the
-Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal, a certain
-marked difference was disclosed between them.
-The same precise rigour of the Spanish inquisitors
-was not exhibited by the Portuguese. In Portugal
-the discipline was more savage yet more feeble. Yet
-in the latter country there was a brutal and more
-wanton excess in inflicting pain at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>.
-When convicts were about to suffer they were taken
-before the Lord Chief Justice to answer the enquiry
-as to what religion they intended to die in. If the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
-answer was "in the Roman Catholic Apostolic," the
-order was given that they should be strangled before
-burning. If in the Protestant, or in any other religion,
-death in the flames was decreed. At Lisbon
-the place of execution, as has been said, was at the
-waterside. A thick stake was erected for each person
-condemned, with a wide crosspiece at the top
-against which a crosspiece was nailed to receive the
-tops of two ladders. In the centre the victim was
-secured by a chain, with a Jesuit priest on either
-side, seated on a ladder, who proceeded to exhort
-him to repentance. If they failed they declared they
-left him to the devil and the mob roared, "Let the
-dog's beard be trimmed," in other words, "his face
-scorched." This was effected by applying an ignited
-furze bush at the end of a long pole till his
-face was burned and blackened. The record of the
-Portuguese Inquisition to 1794 shows a total of one
-thousand, one hundred and seventy-five relaxed in
-person, <em>i. e.</em> executed, six hundred and thirty-three
-relaxed in effigy, and twenty-nine thousand, five
-hundred and ninety penanced.</p>
-
-<p>The Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade
-with the Far East and, after Vasco de Gama had
-discovered India, Albuquerque annexed and occupied
-Goa, which might have become the seat and
-centre of the great empire which fell at length into
-British hands.</p>
-
-<p>Portugal sacrificed all power and prosperity to
-the extirpation of heresy in its new possessions and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
-was chiefly concerned in the establishment of the
-Holy Office in India. The early Portuguese settlers
-in the East clamoured loudly for the Inquisition;
-the Jesuit fathers who were zealous in their propaganda
-in India declared that the tribunal was most
-necessary in Goa, owing to the prevailing licentiousness
-and the medley of all nations and superstitions.
-It was accordingly established in 1560, and soon
-commenced its active operations with terrific vigour.
-General baptisms were frequent in this the ecclesiastical
-metropolis of India, and so were <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>
-conducted with great pomp with many victims.</p>
-
-<p>A light upon the proceedings of the Holy Office
-in Goa is afforded by the story told by a French
-traveller, M. Dellon, who was arrested at the instance
-of the Portuguese governor at Damaum, and
-imprisoned at Goa in the private prison of the archbishop.
-"The most filthy," says Dellon, "the darkest
-and most horrible of any I had ever seen....
-It is a kind of cave wherein there is no day seen but
-by a very little hole. The most subtle rays of the
-sun cannot enter it and there is never any true light
-in it. The stench is extreme...." M. Dellon was
-dragged before the Board of the Holy Office, seated
-in the Holy House, which is described as a great
-and magnificent building, "one side of a great space
-before the church of St. Catherine." There were
-three gates. The prisoners entered by the central
-or largest, and ascending a stately flight of steps,
-reached the great hall. Behind the principal build<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>ing
-was another very spacious, two stories high and
-consisting of a double row of cells. Those on the
-ground floor were the smallest, due to the greater
-thickness of the walls, and had no apertures for
-light or air. The upper cells were vaulted and whitewashed,
-and each had a small strongly grated window
-without glass. The cells had double doors, the
-outer of which was kept constantly open, an indispensable
-plan in this climate or the occupant must
-have died of suffocation.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_116fp.jpg" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p><cite>Peint par D. F. Laugée</cite> <cite>Photogravure Goupil & C<sup>ie</sup>.</cite></p>
-
-<p><em>The Question</em></p>
-
-<p>One of the forms of torture before a tribunal of the Inquisition,
-used in the examination of the accused. Lighted charcoal
-was placed under the victim's feet, which were greased
-over with lard, so that the heat of the fire might more quickly
-become effective.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The régime was, to some extent, humane. Water
-for ablutions was provided and for drinking purposes,
-food was given sparingly in three daily meals,
-but was wholesome in quality. Physicians were at
-hand to attend the sick and confessors to wait on
-the dying, but they administered no unction, gave
-no viaticum, said no mass. If any died, as many
-did, his death was unknown to all without. He was
-buried within the walls with no sacred ceremony,
-and if it was decided that he had died in heresy,
-his bones were exhumed to be burnt at the next
-act of Faith. While alive he lived apart in all the
-strictness of the modern solitary cell. Alone and
-silent, for the prisoner was forbidden to speak, he
-was not allowed even to groan or sob or sigh aloud.</p>
-
-<p>The Holy Office in Goa was worked on the same
-lines as that of Spain as already described and by
-the same officers. There was the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Inquisidor Mor</i>
-or grand-inquisitor, a secular priest, a second or
-assistant inquisitor, a Dominican monk, with many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
-deputies; "qualifiers," to examine books and writings;
-a fiscal and a procurator; notaries and
-familiars. The authority of the tribunal was absolute
-in Goa except that the great officials, archbishop
-and his grand-vicar, the viceroy and the
-governor, could not be arrested without the sanction
-of the supreme council in Lisbon. The procedure,
-the examination and use of torture was exactly
-as in other places.</p>
-
-<p>M. Dellon was taxed with having spoken ill of
-the Inquisition, and was called upon to confess his
-sins, being constantly brought out and again relegated
-to his cell and continually harassed to make
-him accuse himself, until in a frenzy of despair he
-resolved to commit suicide by refusing food. The
-physician bled him and treated him for fever, but
-he tore off the bandages hoping to bleed to death.
-He was taken up insensible, restored by cordials,
-and carried before the inquisitor, where he lay on
-the floor and was assailed with bitter reproaches,
-heavily ironed and sent back to languish in his cell
-in a wild access of fury approaching madness.</p>
-
-<p>At last the great day of the Act of Faith approached,
-and Dellon heard on every side the agonised
-cries of both men and women. During the
-night the alcaide and warders came into his cell with
-lights bringing a suit of clothes, linen, best trousers,
-black striped with white. He was marched to join
-a couple of hundred other penitents squatted on the
-floor along the sides of a spacious gallery, all mo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>tionless
-but in an agony of apprehension, for none
-knew his doom. A large company of women were
-collected in a neighbouring chamber and a third
-lot in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i>, among whom the priests moved
-seeking confessions and if made the boon of strangulation
-was conceded before "tasting the fire."</p>
-
-<p>Shortly before sunrise the great bell of the Cathedral
-tolled and roused the city into life. People
-filled the chief streets, lined the thoroughfares and
-crowded into places whence they might best see the
-procession. With daylight Dellon saw from the
-faces of his companions that they were mostly Indians
-with but a dozen white men among them.
-M. Dellon went barefoot with the rest over the
-loose flints of the badly paved streets, and, at
-length, cut and bleeding, entered the church of St.
-Francisco, for the ceremony could not be performed
-under the fierce sky of this torrid climate. Dellon's
-punishment was confiscation of all his property, and
-banishment from India, with five years' service in
-the galleys of Portugal.</p>
-
-<p>The rest of his sad adventures may be told
-briefly. He was brought back to Lisbon and worked
-at the oar with other convicts for some years, when
-at the intercession of friends in France the Portuguese
-government consented to release him. There
-is no record that the French authorities made any
-claim or reclamation for the ill-usage of a French
-subject.</p>
-
-<p>It was otherwise with their neighbours, the Eng<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>lish,
-who even before their power in India was established,
-would not suffer the Portuguese authorities
-in Goa to ill-treat a person who could claim
-British protection. A French Capuchin, named
-Father Ephrem, had visited Madras when on his
-way to join the Catholic mission in Pegu. He was
-invited to remain in Madras and was promised entire
-liberty with respect to his religion, and permitted
-to minister to the Catholics already settled in
-the factory. In the course of his preaching he laid
-down a dogma offensive, as it was asserted, to the
-Mother of God, and information thereof was laid
-with the inquisitors at Goa, who made their plans
-to kidnap Father Ephrem and carry him off to Goa,
-some six hundred miles distant from Madras. The
-plot succeeded and the French Capuchin was lodged
-in the prison of the Holy Office at Goa. This was
-not to be brooked by the English in Madras. An
-English ship forthwith proceeded to Goa and a
-party of ten determined men, well-armed, landed
-and appeared at the gates of the Inquisition and
-demanded admittance. Leaving a couple of men on
-guard at the gate, the rest entered the gaol and insisted
-at the point of the sword that Father Ephrem
-should be forthwith surrendered to them. An order
-thus enforced was irresistible, and the prisoner was
-released, taken down to the ship's boat, reëmbarked
-and carried back in safety to Madras.</p>
-
-<p>The aims of the Inquisition are no longer those
-of modern communities. So widely has the idea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
-toleration extended, that we often forget how recent
-it is. The relations of Church and State are so
-changed in the last two centuries, that it is difficult
-to understand the times of the Spanish Inquisition.
-Then it was universally believed that orthodoxy in
-faith was intimately connected with loyalty to the
-state. As a matter of fact, nearly all the earlier
-heretical movements were also social or political revolts.
-It is, therefore, easy to see how heresy and
-high treason came to appear identical.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the inquisitors were corrupt, others were
-naturally cruel, others, drunk with power, were more
-zealous in exerting that power than they were in
-deciding between guilt and innocence. On the other
-hand many were zealous because of their honesty.
-If a man believes that he knows the only hope of
-salvation, it is perfectly logical to compel another by
-force, if necessary, to follow that hope. Any physical
-punishment is slight compared with the great
-reward which reconciliation brings. On the other
-hand, if he is firm in his heresy, he is as dangerous
-as a wild beast. We are more tolerant now, less
-certain, perhaps, of our ground, but three or four
-hundred years ago these points were a stern reality.</p>
-
-<p>That many inquisitors were more concerned with
-the Church as an institution than as a means of
-salvation is also true. They punished disrespect to
-an officer or to a law more severely than they did
-a doctrinal error, but that was, perhaps, inevitable.
-The Spanish Inquisition, which, as has been said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
-was to some extent a state affair, punished many
-for what we might call trifling offences, or, indeed,
-no offence at all, but it was an intolerant age, in and
-out of Spain.</p>
-
-<p>The number punished has been grossly exaggerated,
-but it was enough to injure Spain permanently,
-to crush out freedom of thought and action to an unwarrantable
-extent. The historian must attribute
-much of Spain's decadence to the work of the mistaken
-advocate of absolute uniformity.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Slow development of Prison Reform in Spain—Description
-of the old Saladero—George Borrow's account of his arrest
-and imprisonment there—Balseiro's escape and subsequent
-escapades—He seizes the two sons of a wealthy
-Basque and holds them for ransom—His capture and execution—The
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">valientes</i> or bullies—The cruelties they practised
-upon their weaker fellow prisoners—Don Rafael
-Salillas' description of the Seville prison.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>The prisons in Spain have been generally divided
-into three categories: First, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">depositos correcionales</i>,
-the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles</i> or common gaols, one in the capital
-of each province, to which were sent accused persons
-and all sentenced to two years or less; second,
-the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidios</i> of the Peninsula for convicts between
-two years and eight years; and third, the
-African penal settlements for terms beyond eight
-years. The character and condition of the bulk of
-these places of durance long continued most unsatisfactory.
-In 1888 in an official report, the Minister
-of Grace and Justice said, "The present state of
-the Spanish prisons is not enchanting. They are
-neither safe nor wholesome, nor adapted to the ends
-in view." This criticism was fully borne out by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
-result of a general inquiry instituted. It was found
-that of a total of four hundred and fifty-six of the
-correctional prisons only one hundred and sixty-six
-were really fit for the purpose intended and the remainder
-were installed in any buildings available.
-Some were very ancient, dating back to the 16th
-century; and had once been palaces, religious
-houses, castles or fortresses.</p>
-
-<p>Many of these buildings were ancient monuments
-which suffered much injury from the ignoble rôle
-to which they were put. A protest was published
-by a learned society of Madrid against the misuse
-of the superb ex-convents of San Gregorio in Valladolid
-and San Isidro del Campo near Seville, and
-the mutilation by its convict lodgers of the very
-beautiful gateway of the Templo de la Piedad in
-Guadalajara. The installation of the prison at
-Palma de Mallorca all but hopelessly impaired the
-magnificent cloisters of the convent of San Francisco,
-a thirteenth century architectural masterpiece,
-and a perfect specimen of the ogival form, like nothing
-else in Spain. Within a short period of ten
-years several of these interesting old buildings were
-ruined. The entire convent prison at Coruña sank,
-causing many casualties, loss of life and serious
-wounds.</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes the authorities hired private dwellings
-to serve as prisons, or laid hands on whatever they
-could find. At Granada a slice of the Court House
-was used, a dark triangle to which air came only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
-from the interior yard. The prison of Allariz at
-Orense was on the ground floor of a house in the
-street, having two windows looking directly on to
-it, guarded by a grating with bars so far apart that
-a reasonably thin man could slip through. One of
-the worst features of many of these ancient prisons
-was their location in the very heart of the towns
-with communication to the street. Friends gathered
-at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">rejas</i> outside, and the well known picture
-of flirtation at the prison window was drawn
-from life. A common sight also was the outstretched
-hand of the starving prisoner imploring
-alms from the charitable, for there was no regular
-or sufficient supply of provisions within. Free access
-was also possible when the domestic needs of
-the interior took the prisoners to the public well in
-the street.</p>
-
-<p>The Carmona gaol in Seville was for years half
-in ruins; no sunlight reached any part of it with
-the exception of two of the yards; the dungeons
-had no ventilation except by a hole in their doors;
-an open sewer ran through the gaol, the floors were
-always wet, fleas abounded, as also rats, beetles and
-cockroaches; cooking was done in one corner of the
-exercising yard and clothes were washed in the
-other. The removal of the gaol was ordered and
-plans for a new building prepared in 1864, but they
-were pigeon-holed until 1883, then sent back to be
-revised, and the project is still delayed. The Colmenar
-prison of Malaga was always under water<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
-in heavy rain, and although simple repairs would
-have rectified this, nothing was done. The prison
-of Leon was condemned in 1878 as unfit for human
-habitation, and its alcalde (governor) stated that
-it had been reported for a century or more that it
-wanted light, air and sanitary arrangements; typhoid
-was endemic and three alcaldes had died of
-zymotic disease in a few years. It was generally
-denounced as "a poisonous pesthouse, a judicial
-burial ground." The Totana prison of Murcia was
-not properly a prison, but only a range of warehouses
-and shops fit for the storage of grain and
-herbs, but wholly unsuitable to lodge human beings.
-The district governor speaking of the Infiesto
-prison at Oviedo in 1853 wrote: "Humanity shudders
-at the horrible aspect of this detestable place."</p>
-
-<p>At Cartagena the common gaol was on the
-ground floor of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> or convict prison.
-Here the innocent, still untried prisoners occupied
-a dark, damp den, enduring torments of discomfort,
-speedily losing health and strength, and exposed
-by its ruinous condition to the extremes of heat and
-cold in the varying seasons. Females were lodged
-on a lower floor, darker and closer and even exposed
-to the worst temptations. The convicts of
-the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> had free access to their prison and immorality
-could not be prevented; no amount of
-supervision (and there was really none) could have
-checked the moral contamination more easily conveyed
-than the physical. These painful facts may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
-be read in an official report dated October, 1877,
-and are practically the same as those detailed in the
-famous indictment of John Howard just a century
-earlier.<a name="Anchor-9" id="Anchor-9"></a><a href="#Footnote-9" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 9.">[9]</a></p>
-
-<p>Many of the makeshift prisons mentioned above
-were located in the very heart of towns and were
-without boundary walls or means of separation
-from the public, and two hundred and sixty-four had
-windows giving upon the streets. It was impossible
-to ensure safe custody so limited was the supervision,
-so insecure and ruinous the state of these
-imperfect prisons. Escapes had been of very frequent
-occurrence, but the total number could not
-be stated owing to the absence of accurate records
-from year to year. One authority gave the annual
-average of escapes as thirty-four, ranging over
-five successive years. They were greatly facilitated
-by the slack, slipshod system of discipline and the
-careless guard kept at the gates through which
-crowds constantly passed in and out. Friends admitted
-wholesale to visit prisoners brought in disguises
-and easily helped them to evade the vigilance
-of warders and keepers. Escapes were most numerous
-in the small gaols,—about three to one when
-compared to those from the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidios</i>,—and were
-often effected on the way to gaol through the neglect
-or connivance of the escort, especially when the
-journey was made on foot and officers in charge
-willingly consented to linger on the road in order
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>to enjoy themselves in the taverns and drinking
-shops. They even allowed their prisoners to pay
-lengthened visits to their own homes if situated anywhere
-near.</p>
-
-<p>A famous escape took place, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en masse</i>, in one of
-the prisons on the occasion of a theatrical performance
-given by the prisoners in honour of the governor's
-birthday. Permission had been duly accorded
-and the function was organised on an imposing
-scale. The stage was erected in an open
-space, scenery provided and a fine curtain or act
-drop behind which the usual preparations were
-made. These had not gone beyond rehearsal, however.
-All was ready to "ring up," the prison audience
-all seated, enduring with increased impatience
-and dissatisfaction the long wait which seemed and
-was actually endless. At last the authorities interposed
-and the governor sent a messenger behind
-the curtain with a peremptory order to begin.
-There was no company. Every single soul, manager
-and actors had disappeared under cover of the
-curtain. A great hole or gap had been made in the
-outer wall, through which all of the performers had
-passed out to freedom.</p>
-
-<p>Numerous as are the escapes, recaptures are also
-frequent. That fine corps, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>,
-which constitutes the rural police of Spain, always
-so active in the prevention and suppression of crime,
-has been highly successful in the pursuit of fugitives,
-few of whom remain at large for any length<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
-of time. Travellers in Spain, especially in the country
-districts, must have been struck with the fine
-appearance of these stalwart champions of the law.
-They are all old soldiers, well trained and disciplined,
-ever on the side of order, never mixing in
-politics, and conspicuous for their loyalty to the existing
-régime.</p>
-
-<p>The most disgraceful of the old prisons were in
-Madrid. The Saladero which survived until very
-recently had been once an abattoir and salting place
-of pigs. But it replaced one more ancient and even
-worse in every aspect. The earlier construction is
-described by a Spanish writer, Don Francisco Lastres,
-as the most meagre, the darkest, dirtiest place
-imaginable. It had yet a deeper depth, an underground
-dungeon, commonly called "el Infierno,"
-hell itself, in which light was so scarce that when
-new comers arrived, the old occupants could only
-make out their faces by striking matches, manufactured
-from scraps of linen steeped in grease
-saved from their soup or salad oil. When the gaol
-was emptied it was so encrusted with abominable
-filth that to clean it was out of the question and the
-whole place was swept bodily out of existence.</p>
-
-<p>This must have been the prison in which George
-Borrow was confined when that enterprising Englishman
-was arrested for endeavouring to circulate
-the Bible in Spain, as the agent and representative
-of the British Bible Society in 1835 and the following
-years. His experiences as told by himself con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>stitute
-one of the most thrilling books of adventure
-in the English language, and his strangely interesting
-personality will long be remembered and admired.
-He had led a very varied life, had wandered
-the world over as the friend and associate of those
-curious people, the gipsies, whose "crabbed" language
-he spoke with fluency and to whose ways
-and customs he readily conformed. Readers whom
-his "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" have
-delighted will bear witness to the daring and intrepid
-character which carried him safely through
-many difficult and dangerous situations. He was
-a man of great stature, well trained in the art of
-self defence, as he proved by his successful contest
-with the "Flaming Tinker" described in "Lavengro."
-The bigoted Spanish authorities caught a
-Tartar in Borrow. It was easy to arrest him as he
-was nothing loth to go to gaol; he had long been
-thinking, as he tells us, "of paying a visit to the
-prison, partly in the hope of being able to say a
-few words of Christian instruction to the criminals
-and partly with a view to making certain investigations
-in the robber language of Spain." But, once
-in, he refused to come out. He took high ground;
-his arrest had been unlawful; he had never been
-tried or condemned and nothing would satisfy him
-but a full and complete apology from the Spanish
-government. He was strongly backed up by the
-British Ambassador and he was gratified in the end
-by the almost abject surrender of the authorities.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
-But he spent three weeks within the walls and we
-have to thank his indomitable spirit for a glimpse
-into the gloomy recesses of the Carcel de la Corte,
-the chief prison, at that time, of the capital of
-Spain.</p>
-
-<p>The arrest was made openly in one of the principal
-streets of Madrid by a couple of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">alguazils</i> who
-carried their prisoner to the office of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corregidor</i>,
-or chief magistrate, where he was abruptly informed
-that he was to be forthwith committed to
-gaol. He was led across the Plaza Mayor, the great
-square so often the scene in times past of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos
-da fé</i>. Borrow, as he went, cast his eyes at the balcony
-of the city hall where, on one occasion, "the
-last of the Austrian line in Spain (Philip II) sat,
-and, after some thirty heretics of both sexes had
-been burnt by fours and fives, wiped his face perspiring
-with heat and black with smoke and calmly
-inquired, '<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">No hay mas?</i>'" (No more to come?) for
-which exemplary proof of patience he was much
-applauded by his priests and confessors, who subsequently
-poisoned him.</p>
-
-<p>"We arrived at the prison," Borrow goes on,
-"which stands in a narrow street not far from the
-great square. We entered a dusty passage at the
-end of which was a wicket. There was an exchange
-of words and in a few moments I found
-myself within the prison of Madrid, in a kind of
-corridor which overlooked at a considerable altitude
-what appeared to be a court from which arose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
-a hubbub of voices and occasional wild shouts and
-cries...." Several people sat here, one of whom
-received the warrant of committal, perused it with
-attention and, rising, advanced towards Borrow.</p>
-
-<p>"What a figure! He was about forty years of
-age and ... in height might have been some six
-feet two inches had his body not been curved much
-after the fashion of the letter S. No weasel ever
-appeared lanker; his face might have been called
-handsome, had it not been for his extraordinary
-and portentous meagreness; his nose was like an
-eagle's bill, his teeth white as ivory, his eyes black
-(oh, how black!) and fraught with a strange expression;
-his skin was dark and the hair of his
-head like the plumage of a raven. A deep quiet
-smile dwelt continually on his features, but with all
-the quiet it was a cruel smile, such a one as would
-have graced the countenance of a Nero.</p>
-
-<p>"'<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Caballero</i>,' he said, 'allow me to introduce
-myself as the alcaide of this prison.... I am to
-have the honour of your company for a time, a
-short time doubtless, beneath this roof; I hope you
-will banish every apprehension from your mind. I
-am charged to treat you with all respect, a needless
-charge and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Caballero</i>, you will rather consider yourself
-here as a guest than as a prisoner. Pray issue
-whatever commands you may think fit to the turnkeys
-and officials as if they were your own servants.
-I will now conduct you to your apartment. We
-invariably reserve it for cavaliers of distinction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
-No charge will be made for it although the daily
-hire is not unfrequently an ounce of gold.'</p>
-
-<p>"This speech was delivered in pure sonorous
-Castilian with calmness, gravity and almost dignity
-and would have done honour to a gentleman of
-high birth. Now, who in the name of wonder, was
-this alcaide? One of the greatest rascals in all
-Spain. A fellow who more than once by his grasping
-cupidity and his curtailment of the miserable
-rations of the prisoners caused an insurrection in
-the court below only to be repressed by bloodshed
-and the summoning of military aid; a fellow of low
-birth who five years previously had been a drummer
-to a band of Royalist volunteers."</p>
-
-<p>The room allotted to Borrow was large and lofty,
-but totally destitute of any kind of furniture except
-a huge wooden pitcher containing the day's allowance
-of water. But no objection was made to
-Borrow's providing for himself and a messenger
-was forthwith despatched to his lodgings to fetch
-bed and bedding and all necessaries, with which
-came a supply of food, and the new prisoner soon
-made himself fairly comfortable. He ate heartily,
-slept soundly and rejoiced next day to hear that
-this illegal arrest and confinement of a British subject
-was already causing the high-handed minister
-who had ordered it, much uneasiness and embarrassment.
-Borrow steadfastly refused to go free
-without full and ample reparation for the violence
-and injustice done to him. "Take notice," he de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>clared,
-"that I will not quit this prison till I have
-received full satisfaction for having been sent
-hither uncondemned. You may expel me if you
-please, but any attempt to do so shall be resisted
-with all the bodily strength of which I am possessed."
-In the end the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">amende</i> was made in an
-official document admitting that he had been imprisoned
-on insufficient grounds, and Borrow went
-out after three weeks' incarceration, during which
-he learned much concerning the prison and the people
-it contained.</p>
-
-<p>He refrains from a particular description of the
-place. "It would be impossible," he says, "to
-describe so irregular and rambling an edifice. Its
-principal features consisted of two courts, the one
-behind the other, in which the great body of the
-prisoners took air and recreation. Three large
-vaulted dungeons or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozos</i> occupied the three
-sides of the (first) court ... roomy enough to
-contain respectively from one hundred to one hundred
-and fifty prisoners who were at night secured
-with lock and bar, but during the day were permitted
-to roam about the courts as they thought fit.
-The second court was considerably larger than the
-first, though it contained but two dungeons, horribly
-filthy and disgusting, used for the reception of the
-lower grades of thieves. Of the two dungeons one
-was if possible yet more horrible than the other.
-It was called the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">gallinería</i> or 'chicken coop' because
-within it every night were pent up the young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
-fry of the prison, wretched boys from seven to fifteen
-years of age, the greater part almost in a state
-of nudity. The common bed of all the inmates of
-these dungeons was the ground, between which and
-their bodies nothing intervened save occasionally a
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">manta</i> or horse cloth or perhaps a small mattress;
-this latter luxury was however of exceedingly rare
-occurrence.</p>
-
-<p>"Besides the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozos</i> connected with the courts
-were other dungeons in various parts of the prison,
-some of them quite dark, intended for the reception
-of those whom it might be deemed expedient to treat
-with peculiar severity. There was likewise a ward
-set apart for females. Connected with the principal
-corridor were many small apartments where resided
-prisoners confined for debt or for political offences,
-and, lastly, there was a small <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i> or chapel in
-which prisoners cast for death passed the last three
-days of their existence in the company of their
-ghostly advisers.</p>
-
-<p>"I shall not forget my first Sunday in prison.
-Sunday is the gala day ... and whatever robber
-finery is to be found in it is sure to be exhibited on
-that day of holiness. There is not a set of people
-in the world more vain than robbers in general,
-more fond of cutting a figure whenever they have
-an opportunity. The famous Jack Sheppard delighted
-in sporting a suit of Genoese velvet and
-when he appeared in public generally wore a silver
-hilted sword by his side.... Many of the Italian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
-bandits go splendidly decorated, the cap alone of
-the Haram Pacha, the head of the cannibal gipsy
-band which infested Hungary at the conclusion of
-the 18th century, was adorned with gold and jewels
-to the value of several thousand guilders....
-The Spanish robbers are as fond of display as their
-brethren of other lands, and whether in prison or
-out are never so happy as when decked out in a
-profusion of white linen in which they can loll in
-the sun or walk jauntily up and down."</p>
-
-<p>To this day, snow-white linen is an especial mark
-of foppery in the Spanish peasant. To put on a
-clean shirt is considered a sufficient and satisfactory
-substitute for a bath and in the humblest house a
-white table cloth is provided for meals and clean
-sheets for the beds. Borrow gives a graphic picture
-of the "tip-top thieves" he came across. "Neither
-coat nor jacket was worn over the shirt, the sleeves
-of which were wide and flowing, only a waistcoat
-of green or blue silk with an abundance of silver
-buttons which are intended more for show than
-use, as the waistcoat is seldom buttoned. Then
-there are wide trousers something after the Turkish
-fashion; around the waist is a crimson <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">faja</i> or
-girdle and about the head is tied a gaudily coloured
-handkerchief from the loom of Barcelona. Light
-pumps and silk stockings complete the robber's
-array.</p>
-
-<p>"Amongst those who particularly attracted my
-attention were a father and son; the former a tall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
-athletic figure, of about thirty, by profession a
-housebreaker and celebrated through Madrid for
-the peculiar dexterity he exhibited in his calling.
-He was in prison for an atrocious murder committed
-in the dead of night in a house in Carabanchel
-(a suburb of Madrid), in which his only accomplice
-was his son, a child under seven years of
-age. The imp was in every respect the counterpart
-of his father though in miniature. He too wore
-the robber shirt sleeves, the robber waistcoat with
-the silver buttons, the robber kerchief round his
-brow and, ridiculously enough, a long Manchegan
-knife in the crimson faja. He was evidently the
-pride of the ruffian father who took all imaginable
-care of him, would dandle him on his knee, and
-would occasionally take the cigar from his own
-mustachioed lips and insert it in the urchin's
-mouth. The boy was the pet of the court, for the
-father was one of the 'bullies' of the prison and
-those who feared his prowess and wished to pay
-their court to him were always fondling the child."</p>
-
-<p>Borrow when in the "Carcel de la Corte" renewed
-his acquaintance with one, Balseiro, whom
-he had met in a low tavern frequented by thieves
-and bull fighters on a previous visit to Madrid.
-One of these, Sevilla by name, professed deep admiration
-for the Englishman and backed him to
-know more than most people of the "crabbed"
-Gitano language. A match was made with this
-Balseiro who claimed to have been in prison half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
-his life and to be on most intimate terms with the
-gipsies. When Borrow came across him for the
-second time he was confined in an upper story of
-the prison in a strong room with other malefactors.
-There was no mistaking this champion criminal
-with his small, slight, active figure and his handsome
-features, "but they were those of a demon."
-He had recently been found guilty of aiding and
-abetting a celebrated thief, Pepe Candelas, in a desperate
-robbery perpetrated in open daylight on no
-less a person than the Queen's milliner, a Frenchwoman,
-whom they bound in her own shop, from
-which they took goods to the amount of five or six
-thousand dollars. Candelas had already suffered
-for his crime, but Balseiro, whose reputation was
-the worse of the two, had saved his life by the plentiful
-use of money, and the capital sentence had in
-his case been commuted to twenty years' hard labour
-in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> of Malaga.</p>
-
-<p>When Borrow condoled with him, Balseiro
-laughed it off, saying that within a few weeks he
-would be transferred and could at any time escape
-by bribing his guards. But he was not content to
-wait and joined with several fellow convicts who
-succeeded in breaking through the roof of the prison
-and getting away. He returned forthwith to his
-evil courses and soon committed a number of fresh
-and very daring robberies in and around Madrid.
-At length dissatisfied with the meagre results and
-the smallness of the plunder he secured, Balseiro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
-planned a great stroke to provide himself with sufficient
-funds to leave the country and live elsewhere
-in luxurious idleness.</p>
-
-<p>A Basque named Gabira, a man of great wealth,
-held the post of comptroller of the Queen's household.
-He had two sons, handsome boys of twelve
-and fourteen years of age respectively, who were
-being educated at a school in Madrid. Balseiro, well
-aware of the father's strong affection for his children,
-resolved to make it subservient to his rapacity.
-He planned to carry off the boys and hold them for
-ransom at an enormous price. Two of his confederates,
-well-dressed and of respectable appearance,
-drove up to the school and presenting a forged
-letter, purporting to be written by the father, persuaded
-the schoolmaster to let them go out for a
-jaunt in the country. They were carried off to a
-hiding place of Balseiro's in a cave some five miles
-from Madrid in a wild unfrequented spot between
-the Escorial and the village of Torre Lodones.
-Here the two children were sequestered in the safekeeping
-of their captors, while Balseiro remained in
-Madrid to conduct negotiations with the bereaved
-father. But Gabira was a man of great energy and
-determination and altogether declined to agree to
-the terms proposed. He invoked the power of the
-authorities instead, and, at his request, parties of
-horse and foot soldiers were sent to scour the country
-and the cave was soon discovered, with the
-children, who had been deserted by their guards in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
-terror at the news of the rigorous search instituted.
-Further search secured the capture of the accomplices
-and they were identified by their young victims.
-Balseiro, when his part in the plot became
-known, fled from the capital but was speedily
-caught, tried, and with his associates suffered death
-on the scaffold. Gabira with his two children was
-present at the execution.</p>
-
-<p>A brief description of the old Saladero, which has
-at last disappeared off the face of the earth, may be
-of interest. It stood at the top of the Santa Barbara
-hill on the left hand side, in external aspect a half-ruined
-edifice tottering to its fall, propped and buttressed,
-at one corner quite past mending, at another
-showing rotten cement and plaster with its
-aged weather-worn walls stained with great black
-patches of moisture and decay. A poor and
-wretched place outside with no architectural pretensions,
-its interior was infinitely worse. It was
-entered by a wide entrance not unlike that of an
-ancient country inn or hostelry with a broken-down
-wooden staircase, leading to a battered doorway of
-rotten timbers. The portals passed, the prison itself
-was reached, a series of underground cellars with
-vaulted roofs purposely constructed, as it seemed, to
-exclude light and prevent ventilation, permeated
-constantly with fetid odours and abominable foul
-exhalations from the perpetual want of change of
-atmosphere or circulation of fresh air. Yet human
-beings were left to rot in these nauseous and pestif<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>erous
-holes for two or three years continuously.
-At times the detention lasted five years on account
-of the disgracefully slow procedure in the law courts
-and this although trials often ended in acquittal or
-a verdict of non-responsibility for the criminal act
-charged. Many of the unfortunate wretches subjected
-to these interminable delays and waiting
-judgment, therefore still innocent in the eyes of
-the law, were yet herded with those already convicted
-of the most heinous offences.</p>
-
-<p>This neglect of the rules, generally accepted as
-binding upon civilised governments in the treatment
-of those whom the law lays by the heels, produced
-deplorable results. The gaol fever, that ancient
-scourge which once ravaged ill-kept prisons and
-swept away thousands, but long ago eliminated
-from proper places of durance, survived in the Saladero
-of Madrid until quite a recent date. Forty
-cases occurred as late as 1876 and zymotic disease
-was endemic in the prison. It was also a hotbed of
-vice, where indiscriminate association of all categories,
-good, bad and indifferent—the worst always
-in the ascendent, fostered and developed criminal
-instincts and multiplied criminals of the most
-daring and accomplished kind. When, with a storm
-of indignant eloquence, an eminent Spanish deputy,
-Don Manuel Silvela, denounced the Saladero in
-the Cortes and took the lead in insisting upon its
-demolition, he pointed out its many shortcomings.
-It was in the last degree unhealthy; it was nearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
-useless as a place of detention, for the bold or ingenious
-prisoner laughed at its restraints and escapes
-took place daily to the number of fourteen
-and sixteen at a time. If, however, with increased
-precautions it was possible to keep prisoners secure
-within the walls, nothing could save them from one
-another. Contamination was widespread and unceasing
-in a mass of men left entirely to themselves
-without regular occupation, without industrial labour
-or improving education and with no outlet for
-their energies but demoralising talk and vicious
-practices. Not strangely the Saladero became a
-great criminal centre, a workshop and manufactory
-of false money, where strange frauds were devised,
-such as the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i><a name="Anchor-10" id="Anchor-10"></a><a href="#Footnote-10" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 10.">[10]</a> or suggested revelation of
-hidden treasure, the well known Spanish swindle
-which has had ramifications almost all over the
-world.</p>
-
-<p>An independent witness, nevertheless, speaking
-from experience, the same George Borrow already
-quoted, has a good word to say for the inmates of
-Spanish gaols. He was greatly surprised at their
-orderly conduct and quiet demeanour. "They had
-their occasional bursts of wild gaiety; their occasional
-quarrels which they were in the habit of settling
-in a corner of the interior court with their long
-knives, the result not infrequently being death or a
-dreadful gash in the face or abdomen; but upon
-the whole their conduct was infinitely superior to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>what might have been expected from the inmates
-of such a place. Yet this was not the result of coercion
-or any particular care which was exercised
-over them; for perhaps in no part of the world are
-prisoners so left to themselves and so utterly neglected
-as in Spain, the authorities having no further
-anxiety about them than to prevent their escape,
-not the slightest attention being paid to their moral
-conduct,—not a thought bestowed on their health,
-comfort or mental improvement whilst within the
-walls. Yet in this prison of Madrid, and I may say
-in Spanish prisons in general (for I have been an
-inmate of more than one), the ears of the visitor
-are never shocked with horrid blasphemy and obscenity
-as in those of some other countries and
-more particularly in civilised France, nor are his
-eyes outraged or himself insulted as he would assuredly
-be were he to look down upon the courts
-from the galleries of the Bicêtre (in Paris)." And
-yet in this prison of Madrid were some of the most
-desperate characters in Spain; ruffians who had
-committed acts of cruelty and atrocity sufficient to
-make one shudder with horror. Gravity and sedateness
-are the leading characteristics of the Spaniards,
-and the worst robber, except in those moments
-when he is engaged in his occupation, (and then no
-one is more sanguinary, pitiless and wolfishly eager
-for booty), is a being who can be courteous and affable
-and who takes pleasure in conducting himself
-with sobriety and decorum. Borrow thought so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
-well of these fellow-prisoners that he was willing
-to entertain them at dinner in his own private apartment
-in the gaol, and the governor made no objection
-to knocking off their irons temporarily so that
-they might enjoy the meal in comfort and convenience.</p>
-
-<p>A more intimate acquaintance with the inner life
-of the Spanish gaols has been accorded by a modern
-writer, Don Rafael Salillas. He summarises all its
-evils in the single word "money." All disorders
-and shortcomings, the corruption, the absence of
-discipline, the cruelties perpetrated, the prevailing
-license, the shameful immorality constantly winked
-at or openly permitted, have had one and the same
-origin, the use and misuse of the private funds the
-prisoners have at their disposal. Until quite a recent
-date, everything, even temporary liberty, had
-its price in Spanish prisons. This vicious system
-dated from the times when the "alcaide" or head
-of an establishment, the primary purpose of which
-was the safe custody of offenders, bought his place
-and was permitted to recoup himself as best he
-could out of his charges. The same abominable
-practice was at one time almost a world-wide practice,
-but nowhere has it flourished so largely as in
-Spain. No attempt was made to check it; it was
-acknowledged and practically deemed lawful.</p>
-
-<p>In an ancient work on the prison of Seville, dating
-from the sixteenth century, the writer, Christobal
-de Chaves, classifies the interior under three heads;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
-the spaces entered respectively by three doors of
-gold, silver or copper, each metal corresponding to
-the profits drawn from each. Imprisonment might
-be made more tolerable by payment regulated according
-to a fixed tariff. For a certain sum any
-prisoner might go home to sleep, he might purchase
-food where little, if any, was provided, he might
-escape fetters or purchase "easement of irons," as
-in the old English prisons. To enhance the value
-of the relief afforded worse hardships were inflicted
-at the outset. Restraint was made most irksome in
-the beginning of imprisonment. The fetters were
-then the heaviest and most varied, the deepest and
-vilest dungeons were the first quarters allotted. A
-plain hint of relaxation and alleviation was given,
-to be obtained at a price and the converse made
-equally certain. Increased pain and discomfort
-were the penalty for those who would not, or, worse
-still, who could not produce the extortionate sums
-demanded. Tasks imposed were rendered more
-difficult; it was a common practice to oil or grease
-the rope by which water was raised from a well, so
-that it should slip through the fingers and intensify
-the labour.</p>
-
-<p>When authority had sold its good will or wrung
-the life blood from its victims they were handed
-over to the tender mercies of their fellow prisoners,
-the self-constituted masters and irresponsible tyrants
-in the place. The most brutal and overbearing ruled
-supreme within the walls and levied taxes by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
-right of the strongest. The "garnish" of the old
-British prisons, the enforced payments to gain a first
-footing, was exacted to the last in Spain from all
-new arrivals and was called "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cobrar el patente</i>," <em>i. e.</em>
-collecting the dues. To hesitate or refuse payment
-was promptly punished by cruel blows; the defaulters
-were flogged; they got the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">culebrazo</i> (whipping)
-with a rope kept for the purpose. The quite
-penniless were despoiled of their clothing and consoled
-with the remark that it was better for them
-to take to their beds because they were naked, than
-on account of injuries and wounds, or they wrapped
-themselves up in some ragged cloak infested with
-fleas. The bullies or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">valientes</i> were not interfered
-with by the authorities but rather supported by
-them. In fact they played into each other's hands.
-Both worked their wicked will upon their victims
-and in their own way,—the authorities by right of
-the legal powers they wielded, the master-prisoners
-by force of character and the strength of their
-muscles. Both squeezed out money like juice from
-a lemon, robbed, swindled or stole all that came in
-their way.</p>
-
-<p>Guzman de Alfarache, the typical thief of the
-time of Philip II, whose life and adventures are told
-by the author of the most famous of the picaresque
-novels, describes his journey from Seville to Cadiz
-to embark upon one of the galleys which made up
-the naval power of Spain. "As we started on the
-road, we came upon a swine-herd with a number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
-young pigs, which we surrounded and captured, each
-of us taking one. The man howled to our commissary
-that he should make us restore them, but he
-turned a deaf ear and we stuck to our plunder. At
-the first halt we laid hands on other goods and concealed
-them inside one of the pigs when the commissary
-interposed, discovered the things and took possession
-of them himself."</p>
-
-<p>The alcaide of the prison turned everything to
-profit. He sold the Government stores, bedding
-and clothing to the prison bullies who retailed the
-pieces to individual prisoners. He trafficked in the
-disciplinary processes, accepting bribes to overlook
-misconduct, and pandered to the worst vices of the
-inmates by allowing visitors of both sexes to have
-free access to them and to bring in all manner of
-prohibited articles, unlimited drink, and dangerous
-weapons, knives and daggers and other arms for
-use in attack and defence in the quarrels and murderous
-conflicts continually occurring.</p>
-
-<p>A fruitful source of profit was the sale of privileged
-offices, permits to hawk goods and to trade
-within the precincts of the prison. Salillas when he
-visited the Seville prison not many years ago, saw
-numbers of prisoners selling cigars and cigarettes in
-the yards, various articles of food, such as <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">gazpacho</i>,
-the popular salad of Andalusia, compounded
-of oil and bread soaked in water, and drinks including
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>, that powerful Spanish spirit akin
-to Hollands. Some kept gaming tables and paid a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
-tax on each game and its profits and especially
-when the "King" was turned up at "Monte."</p>
-
-<p>Salillas publishes a list of prices that ruled for
-places, privileges and boons conceded to the prisoners.
-To become a "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i>," a "corporal carrying
-the stick" or wand of office, cost from eight
-to sixteen dollars. "Who and what was the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Cabo
-de Vara</i>?" he asks and answers the question. "A
-hybrid creature the offspring of such diverse parents
-as the law and crime; half murderer, half
-robber, who after living in defiance of the law is at
-least prevented from doing further harm in freedom,
-is locked up and entrusted with executive authority
-over companions who have passed through the same
-evil conditions and are now at his mercy. He is
-half galley-slave chained to the oar, half public
-functionary wearing the badge of officialdom and
-armed with a stick to enforce his authority. He
-represents two very opposite sets of ideas; on the
-one hand that of good order and the maintenance
-of penal discipline, on the other that of a natural
-inclination towards the wrong doing in which he has
-been a practitioner and for which he is, in a way,
-enduring the penalty. To succeed he must possess
-some strongly marked personal qualities; he should
-be able to bully and impose his will upon those
-subjected to his influence, overbearing, masterful,
-swaggering, ready to take the law into his own
-hands and insist upon its observance as he chooses
-to interpret its dictates."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The post of hospital orderly or cook or laundry-man
-could be secured for about the same price, while
-a small fee to the prison surgeon gained a perfectly
-sound man admission to hospital for treatment he
-did not need, but in which he was much more comfortable
-than in the ordinary prison. The place of
-prison barber was to be bought for four dollars;
-employment as a shoemaker two dollars; relief
-from a punishment ordered three dollars; permission
-to pay a visit home, four dollars. These prices
-were not definitely settled and unchangeable.
-Where a certain profit could be extracted from a
-particular post such as the charge of the canteen it
-was put up to auction and knocked down to the
-highest bidder.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>The presidio or convict prison—Stations at home and in
-Northern Africa—Convict labour—Cruelties inflicted on
-the presidiarios employed in road making—Severity of the
-régime at Valladolid—Evils of overcrowding—Ceuta—Its
-fortifications—Early history—The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> or "Spanish
-swindle"—Several interesting instances—Monsignor
-X—Armand Carron—M. Elked—Credulity of the victims—Boldness
-of the swindlers—Attempt to dupe a
-Yorkshire squire—Discovery of the fraud.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>The Spanish "presidios" or penal establishments
-for offenders sentenced to long terms are the counterpart
-of the English convict prisons. They are of
-two classes, those at home in provincial capitals or
-in fortresses and strongholds, and those abroad installed
-in North Africa, as the alternative or substitute
-for the penal colonies beyond the sea established
-by Italy and France. Home presidios are at Burgos,
-Cartagena, Granada, Ocana, Santona, Valladolid
-and Saragossa. There are two at Valencia, one at
-Tarragona and two more at Alcalá de Henares. Of
-the foregoing that of Cartagena was especially constructed
-to meet the needs of the arsenal and dockyard
-and is spoken of as deplorably deficient by
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>those who visited it. Four hundred convicts were
-lodged miserably in one dormitory; their bedding
-consisted of a rough mattress and one brown rug;
-clothing was issued only every two years; the dietaries
-were supplied by a thievish contractor who
-supplied a soup consisting of beans boiled in water,
-abstracting the ration of oil and bacon. A presidio
-of ancient date was installed in the arsenal of La
-Carraca near Cadiz, a survival really of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">galera</i>
-or galleys planted on shore when human motive
-power ceased to be used in propelling warships.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/i_150fp.jpg" alt="" />
-<div class="caption"><p><cite>Castel dell' Ovo</cite></p>
-
-<p>Situated on a high rocky island near the shore of Naples,
-it was a place of great security. A number of the islands
-in the bay of Naples have been utilised as prisons and as
-penal settlements.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>A terrible story is preserved of the cruelties inflicted
-on a number of these <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidiarios</i> employed
-to make the road between San Lucar de Barrameda
-and Puerto Santa Maria. Their labour was leased
-to an inhuman contractor who worked them literally
-to death. They were half-starved, over-burthened
-with chains and continually flogged so that
-within one year half their whole number of one
-thousand had disappeared; they had died "of privation,
-of blows, hunger, cold, insufficient clothing
-and continuous neglect." The contractor cleared a
-large profit, but lost it and died in extreme poverty
-after having been arraigned and tried for his life
-as a murderer.</p>
-
-<p>The presidio of Valladolid was also condemned
-for the severity of its régime. The climate alternated
-between great summer heat and extreme cold
-in winter, but the convicts worked in the quarries
-in all weathers. The death record rose in this prison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
-to such a high figure that a third of the average
-total population of three thousand perished within
-eighteen months. The general average of the presidios
-was low but as a rule the death rate was not
-high. Even when twenty per cent. of males and
-twenty-five per cent. of the females were sick and
-hospital accommodation was scarce and imperfect,
-the deaths did not exceed two and a half per cent.
-per annum and this included the fatal results of
-quarrels ending in duels to the death. One of the
-most serious evils was overcrowding. Official figures
-give the prison population as about nineteen
-thousand and the available house-room was for not
-more than twelve thousand. Salillas puts it at a
-much lower total, asserting there was barely room
-for three thousand.</p>
-
-<p>While the prisons of Cuba are not strictly within
-the scope of this work, one of historic and particular
-interest may be mentioned. This is Morro Castle,
-which still guards the Harbour of Havana. It was
-begun in 1589, soon after the unsuccessful attack on
-Havana by Drake, and was finished in 1597. In
-1862 it was partly destroyed by the English who
-captured it and remained in possession of the city
-for a year. The arms of the city, granted by royal
-decree, were appropriately three castles of silver on
-a blue field, and a golden key. The castles were
-La Fuerza, El Morro and La Punta, guarding the
-harbour.</p>
-
-<p>The ancient fortress has been described as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
-"great mass of dun coloured rock and tower and
-battlement and steep, of which the various parts
-seem to have grown into one another." It contains
-cells as damp, dark and unwholesome as those in
-the notorious dungeons of the old world. This is
-testified to by a California journalist, Charles
-Michelson, who was arrested by mistake and
-thrown into a cell in the castle just before the
-Spanish-American War. Although he was liberated
-in two days, his experience was not soon forgotten.
-The cell was an arch of heavy masonry, damp with
-the moisture of years. The only window was high
-up in the arch, and there was no furniture—no
-bed, blanket or chair. He was not without company
-of a kind, however, for the place was full of
-cockroaches and rats. When he clambered up and
-tried to look out of the window, which commands
-a fine view of the harbour, a guard outside poked
-at him with a bayonet. The soup brought him was,
-he said, "strong and scummy, and the can had been
-so recently emptied of its original contents that there
-was a film of oil over the top of it." His interpreter,
-who was arrested at the same time, fared worse, for
-he was bound and kept in even a fouler cell.</p>
-
-<p>In the days of Spanish sovereignty, many Cuban
-prisoners were shot and their bodies were hurled
-from the outer wall of the castle to the sharks of
-the so-called "shark's nest," forty feet below, on
-the gulf side.</p>
-
-<p>There are said to be many caverns in the castle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
-through which the rush and noise of the waves
-make music, but this is probably due to the winds
-rather than the tides.</p>
-
-<p>Spain maintains several presidios beyond sea,
-chiefly on the North African coast, and there is one
-also at Palma de Mallorca, one of the Balearic
-islands. Those in Africa are Alhucemas, Melilla,
-Peñon de Velez de la Gomera, Chaferinas and
-Ceuta, immediately opposite Gibraltar, which is no
-doubt the first and original of all Spanish presidios.
-The expression when first used was taken to convey
-the meaning of a penal settlement, established
-within a fortress under military rule and guardianship,
-with its personnel constantly employed on the
-fortifications, constructing, repairing and making
-good wear and tear, and answering, if need be, the
-call to arms in reinforcement of the regular garrison.
-The early records of Ceuta prove this. This
-stronghold, on one side rising out of the sea, with
-its landward defences ever confronting a fierce hostile
-power, was exposed at all times to siege and
-incursion. When the Moorish warriors became too
-bold the Spanish general sallied forth to beat up
-their quarters, destroy their batteries and drive them
-back into the mountains. Working parties of
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidiarios</i>, armed, accompanied the troops and
-did excellent service, eager, as the old chronicler
-puts it, to clear their characters by their heroism,
-"always supposing that blood may wash out crime."</p>
-
-<p>Ceuta was a type of the military colony beyond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
-sea, held by a strong garrison against warlike natives
-who resisted the invasion and would have
-driven out the intruders. The settlement was secured
-by continual fortification in which the abundant
-penal labour was constantly employed. Its
-social conditions were precisely similar to those
-which obtained in the early days of Australian transportation
-and such as prevail to-day in the French
-penal colony of New Caledonia. The population is
-made up of two principal classes, bond and free.
-The first are convicts serving their sentences and the
-second the officials who guard them. Ordinary
-colonists have not settled to any large extent in
-these North African possessions. A few traders
-and agriculturists have come seeking such fortune
-as offers and the number of residents is increased by
-released convicts, the counterpart of the emancipist
-class in the Antipodes, who remain with the prospect
-of earning a livelihood honestly, instead of
-lapsing into evil courses on their return to the
-mother country.</p>
-
-<p>Ceuta is essentially a convict city, not exactly
-founded by penal labour but enlarged and improved
-by it and served by it in all the needs of daily domestic
-life. The first period of close confinement on
-arrival is comparatively brief and is spent in the
-prison proper outside the city at hard labour in
-association on the fortifications, in the workshops
-and quarries. In the second period the convicts are
-permitted to enter the city and are employed under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
-supervision in warehouses, offices and in water
-carrying. In the third period, commonly called
-from "gun to gun," extending daily from the morning
-gun fire until the evening, the convicts are allowed
-to go freely into the city and work there
-on their own account. The fourth and last, entered
-when two thirds of the whole sentence has been
-completed, is called "under conditions," that is to
-say, in conditional freedom, and the convicts are
-let out to private employers precisely as they were
-"assigned" in old Australian days. They may
-live with their masters, sleep out, and are only
-obliged to report at the prison once a month for
-muster. More than a third of the total number are
-thus employed.</p>
-
-<p>The result is that Ceuta offers the singular spectacle
-that it is nominally a prison, but the bulk of
-the prisoners live beyond the walls, quite unguarded
-and really in the streets forming part of the ordinary
-population. Convicts are to be met with at every
-corner, they go in and out through the front doors
-of houses, no one looks at them in surprise, no one
-draws aside to let them pass. The situation is
-described graphically by Salillas. "Who is the
-coachman on the box? A convict. Who is the
-man who waits at table? A convict. The cook in
-the kitchen? A convict. The nursemaid in charge
-of the children? A convict (male). Are their employers
-afraid of being robbed or murdered? Not
-in the least."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Another eye witness<a name="Anchor-11" id="Anchor-11"></a><a href="#Footnote-11" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 11.">[11]</a> writes:—</p>
-
-<p>"Could this happen in any other city in Spain?
-If the inhabitants found themselves rubbing shoulders
-with the scum of the earth, with the worst
-malefactors, with criminals guilty of the most
-heinous offences, would they have enjoyed one
-moment's peace? Could they overcome the natural
-repugnance felt by honest and respectable people for
-those whom the law has condemned to live apart?
-The fact is that at Ceuta no one objects. The existing
-state of things is deemed the most natural thing
-in the world. It has been too long the rule and it
-is claimed seriously that no evil consequences have
-resulted. The utmost confidence is reposed in these
-ex-criminals whose nature has been seemingly quite
-changed by relegation to the African presidio. They
-wash and get up linen without losing more pieces
-than a first class washerwoman, they wait on the
-children with the tenderest concern, they perform
-all sorts of household service, go to market, run
-messages, polish the floors and the furniture with
-all the zeal and industry of the best servants in the
-world. The most cordial relations exist between
-employers and their convict attendants and cases
-have been known where the former have carried
-the latter back to Spain to continue their service.
-One was a Chinese cook who was excused ten years'
-supervision to go back with his master."</p>
-
-<p>It is claimed by the champions of Ceuta that</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p>
-<p>despite the freedom accorded to the convicts their
-conduct is exemplary. "I can certify," says Relosillas<a name="Anchor-12" id="Anchor-12"></a><a href="#Footnote-12" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 12.">[12]</a>
-"that during a whole year there were but
-three or four instances of crime amongst the convicts
-employed in domestic service." Others however
-are not so laudatory. An independent witness,
-Doña Concepcion Arenal, has little good to say of
-the prisons. "In them justice is punished or rather
-crucified," she wrote, "and with it hygiene, morality,
-decency, humanity, all, in a word, which every
-one who is not himself hateful and contemptible,
-respects. It is impossible to give any idea of the
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cuartel principal</i> or chief convict barrack in the
-place. We can only refer to its terrible and revolting
-demoralisation." Yet she is inclined to contradict
-herself and argues that the convict when trusted
-will behave well. His life on the whole is light and
-easy; he has sufficient food, congenial company, and
-can better his position by steady industry; he wears
-no chains, performs no rude or laborious tasks and
-is driven neither into insubordination nor crime.</p>
-
-<p>The statements just quoted are hardly credible
-and cannot be reconciled with the reports of others,
-from personal experience. Mr. Cook, an English
-evangelist, who has devoted himself to extensive
-prison visitation, has drawn a dark picture of this
-ideal penal settlement as he saw it in 1892. At that
-date general idleness was the rule. Hundreds hung
-about with no work to do. Criminals with the</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
-<p>worst antecedents were included in the prison population.
-One had been a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">bandido</i> or brigand who had
-been guilty of seven murders; another had four
-murders to his credit and one assassin was in a
-totally dark cell, confined hand and foot, condemned
-to death and daily expecting to be shot. No fewer
-than one hundred and twelve slept in one large room
-without more supervision than that exercised by
-their fellows discharging the functions of warders.
-Mr. Cook expresses his wonder that they did not
-break out oftener into rebellion. As a matter of fact
-and as against the statement given above, outbreaks
-were not uncommon with fierce attacks upon officers
-and murderous affrays among the prisoners.
-Crime and misconduct are certainly not unknown
-in Ceuta.</p>
-
-<p>A gruesome description was given by a correspondent
-writing to the <cite>London Times</cite> in the year
-1876. When he visited the citadel prison he found
-from eight hundred to one thousand convicts lodged
-there in a wretched condition, clad only in tattered
-rags, the cast off uniforms of soldiers, generally insufficient
-for decency. They tottered in and out
-of the ruinous sheds supposed to shelter them, quarrelled
-like hyenas over their meagre and repulsive
-rations, which were always short through the dishonesty
-of the thieving contractor, and fought to
-the death with the knives which every one carried.
-Each shed contained from one to two hundred where
-they lay like beasts upon the ground. Vermin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
-crept up the wall and dirt abounded on all sides.
-"No words of mine," said this outspoken eye-witness,
-"can paint the darkness, the filth, the seething
-corruption of these dens of convicts, dens into which
-no streak of sunlight, divine or human, ever finds
-its way, and where nothing is seen or heard but outrage
-and cruelty on the one hand, misery and starvation
-and obscenity on the other." There was a
-worse place, the "Presidio del Campo," or field
-prison in which the hard labour gangs<a name="Anchor-13" id="Anchor-13"></a><a href="#Footnote-13" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 13.">[13]</a> employed
-on the fortifications were housed in still filthier
-hovels, with less food and more demoralisation.
-This same correspondent when he enquired his way
-to the presidio was told by a Spanish officer: "They
-are not presidios but the haunts of wild beasts and
-nurseries of thieves." Obviously there is much discrepancy
-in the various accounts published.</p>
-
-<p>The true state of the case may best be judged by
-examining and setting forth the conditions prevailing.
-On the surface the convicts may seem to abstain
-from serious misconduct, but even this may be
-doubted from the facts in evidence. "It is a wild
-beasts' cage," writes one well informed authority.
-It may be to some extent a cage without bars, or in
-which the wild beasts are so tamed that they may
-be allowed to go at large and do but little harm, but</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
-<p>evil instincts are at times in the ascendancy as
-shown in the quarrels and disorders that occur, but
-to no greater extent says the apologist than in any
-of the prisons on the Spanish mainland. It may be
-that the régime is so mild that the convicts yield
-willingly to it without a murmur and seldom rise
-against it. But the very atmosphere of the place is
-criminal. There may be few prison offences where
-rules are easy but if serious offences against discipline
-are but rarely committed within the limits,
-others against society are constantly prepared for
-execution beyond. Ceuta is a hot bed of crime, the
-seed is sown there, nourished and developed to bear
-baleful fruit afterwards. It is a first class school for
-the education of thieves, swindlers, coiners, and forgers
-who graduate and take honours in the open
-world of evil doing. It is the original home, some
-say, of the famous fraud, peculiarly Spanish, called
-the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, which still flourishes and draws profit
-as ever, not from Spain alone, but from far and
-wide in nearly all civilised countries.</p>
-
-<p>The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, or the "burial" literally translated,
-means an artful and specious proposal to reveal
-the whereabouts of a buried treasure. It is another
-form of the well known "confidence trick" or, as the
-French call it, the "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">vol à l'americaine</i>," and we cannot
-but admire the ingenuity and inventiveness so
-often displayed in its practice, while expressing surprise
-at the credulity and gullibility of those who are
-deluded by it. It originates as a rule in a letter ad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>dressed
-from the prison to some prominent person
-in Spain or elsewhere, for the astute practitioner is
-well provided with lists of names likely to be useful
-to him in his business. It is on record that a seizure
-was made in the presidio of Granada of a whole
-stock in trade, a great mass of information secretly
-collected from all parts of the world to serve in
-carrying out the fraud of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, and with it a
-number of forms of letters in various European
-languages. The invitation is marked "very private
-and confidential" and conveys with extreme
-caution and mystery the suggestion that for a sufficient
-consideration the secret hiding place of a very
-valuable treasure will be confided to the person addressed.
-Colour is given to the proposal by some
-plausible but not always probable story on which it
-is based.</p>
-
-<p>In one case the writer pretended to be a Spanish
-officer who had received from the hands of Napoleon
-III himself, when flying to England in September,
-1870, a casket of jewels which he was charged
-to convey to the Countess of Montijo, mother of the
-Empress Eugenie, in Madrid. The messenger had
-however become involved in a Carlist or revolutionary
-movement and was now in prison, but he had
-succeeded before arrest in burying the jewels in a
-remote spot so cleverly concealed that he alone possessed
-the secret. The liberal offer was made to the
-person addressed of a fourth share of the total value
-provided he would transmit to the prisoner corre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>spondent
-through a sure hand, indicated, the sum
-of three hundred pounds in cash by means of which
-he could secure release and proceed to unearth the
-treasure.</p>
-
-<p>Another story is as follows:</p>
-
-<p>One day the regular mail boat brought to Ceuta
-an Italian ecclesiastic, a high dignitary of the
-Church, of grave and venerable appearance, who
-proceeded at once to make a formal call upon the
-commandant or general commanding for the time
-being. He was in search of certain information and
-he more particularly desired to be directed to an address
-he sought, that of a small house in a retired
-spot in one of the small little-frequented streets in
-the hilly town. He carried with him a heavy and
-rather bulky handbag which when he started from
-the general's he begged he might leave in his charge
-on the plea that its contents were valuable.</p>
-
-<p>After the lapse of two or three hours the Monsignor
-returned with terrified aspect and evidently
-in the greatest distress of mind. He entreated that
-a priest might be summoned to whom he might confess,
-and his wish was forthwith gratified. The
-moment he had unbosomed himself to his ghostly
-adviser, he seized his handbag and ran down to the
-port just in time to catch the return mail boat to
-Algeciras. The priest who had heard his confession
-was to be released from the secret confided to him
-and reveal it to the authorities as soon as the safe
-arrival of the mail boat at the mainland was sig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>nalled
-across to Ceuta. Then the whole story came
-out.</p>
-
-<p>Monsignor X was one of the most trusted and
-confidential chaplains of his Holiness the Pope and
-he had gone to Ceuta in the interests of an ex-Carlist
-general who had the misfortune to be detained there
-as a political prisoner. A sum of money was needed
-to compass his escape from the presidio and help
-him to reach in safety the burying place of a vast
-treasure, to disinter it and apply it to the furtherance
-of the civil war in progress. This general seems to
-have satisfied the papal dignitaries of his identity
-and good faith; his communication was endorsed
-with plans and statements pointing to the whereabouts
-of the hidden treasure, and the method by
-which the money he needed for his enterprise was
-to be used, was minutely described. He said he was
-too closely watched to allow any messenger to reach
-him direct, but he had friends in Ceuta, two titled
-ladies, near relatives who had been permitted to live
-in the prison town and to visit him from time to
-time and who would pass the money to him when it
-was brought to Ceuta.</p>
-
-<p>Monsignor X landed as we have seen and learned
-where he was to go, but with commendable caution
-he hesitated to take his money with him. He would
-hand it over when he had made the personal acquaintance
-of the general's aristocratic friends.
-They did not prove very desirable acquaintances.
-He found the house he was to visit, was admitted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
-without question, but then the door was shut behind
-him and he was murderously assailed by half a dozen
-convicts, knife in hand. He was ordered to give up
-the money he had brought, and when on searching
-him it was found missing, he was rifled of everything
-he carried in his pockets, both his watch and
-a considerable sum in cash. His life was spared
-because it was certain that his prolonged absence
-would lead to a hue and cry, but he was obliged to
-swear that he would not attempt to leave the house
-for one clear hour so that the robbers might make
-good their escape. Moreover he was warned if he
-gave the alarm he would certainly be assassinated.
-Hence his desire to pass beyond the Straits of Gibraltar
-before the outrage became known. When
-the house was visited it was found empty and unfurnished
-with not a sign of life on the premises.
-The most interesting feature in the story is that the
-swindlers should fly at such high game, but it is
-founded on undoubted fact. The Carlist insurrection
-was often used to father the attempt to defraud.</p>
-
-<p>In another case a letter conveyed to the proprietor
-of a vineyard at Maestrazgo the alluring news that
-a large sum in gold was hidden on his ground, the
-accumulated contributions of Carlist supporters in
-the neighbourhood. The exact position would be
-revealed and a plan forwarded in exchange for a
-sum of four thousand dollars in hard cash, which
-was to be forwarded to Ceuta according to certain
-precise instructions. The money was sent but no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
-reply came. Days and weeks passed and at last,
-weary of waiting and a little unhappy, the easily
-duped victim made up his mind to cross to Ceuta
-in person and bring his disappointing correspondent
-to book. The wine grower unhappily landed in the
-presidio on the day they were baiting a bull in the
-streets, a game constantly played and with more
-danger to the passers-by than the players. The bull
-goaded into a state of fury attacked the new comer
-and tossed him so that he fell to the ground with
-both legs broken. The poor man got no plan and
-no news of his dollars. All he gained was two
-months in bed lying between life and death.</p>
-
-<p>The writer Relosillas, who filled the place of an
-inspector or surveyor of works at Ceuta, has given
-some of his personal experiences in that convict
-prison.<a name="Anchor-14" id="Anchor-14"></a><a href="#Footnote-14" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 14.">[14]</a> He describes how on one occasion he was
-present at a free fight among the convicts in the
-barracks which had been originally a Franciscan
-convent. He was in his own office at a late hour,
-hard by, when he heard a terrible uproar in the great
-dormitory and ran over to exercise his authority and
-prevent bloodshed. Knives were out and being
-freely used by combatants ranged on two sides, one
-lot backing up a friend who had been robbed of a
-photograph of his sister, the other lot defending the
-thief, who had stolen the portrait for use in a buried
-treasure swindle. He had created her a marchioness
-and intended to forward it as a bait to show his in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>timacy
-with the aristocracy and prepare the way for
-the fraud. The case may be quoted to show how
-minutely the practitioners in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> studied
-their ground and acquired the means of operating.
-In all Spanish prisons and notably in Ceuta, cunning
-convicts are to be found, men of ability and experience,
-who have travelled far and wide, who are conversant
-with many languages and well acquainted
-with prominent people in other countries and the
-leading facts and particulars of their lives.</p>
-
-<p>A few additional stories of swindles akin to the
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> are of much interest.</p>
-
-<p>A French landowner by name Armand Carron,
-a resident of a small town in the Department of
-Finistère, received, some time ago, a letter from
-Ceuta, signed Santiago (or James) Carron. The
-writer explained that he was a native of Finistère
-where the Frenchman resided; that he was a namesake
-and a member of the landowner's family, son
-of a first cousin of his who had left France many
-years before and settled in Spain with wife and three
-sons, of whom he, Santiago Carron, now alone survived.
-This Santiago, the letter went on, had been
-placed by his father in the military college at
-Segovia, had served through all the subaltern grades
-as an artillery officer, had risen to the rank of brigadier
-and in that capacity had been sent out in command
-of the district of the Cinco Villas in Cuba,
-where he had married the daughter of Don Diego
-Calderon, a wealthy Havana merchant, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
-owner of vast sugar plantations. His wife had
-brought him a dowry of four million reales (£40,000)
-and had died leaving him a daughter called
-after her mother, Juanita, now about 17 years old.
-This girl, the only object of her father's love and
-care, had been by him sent to Europe and placed for
-her education at the convent of the Sacre Cœur at
-Chamartin near Madrid.</p>
-
-<p>His career in the army had been for many years
-very fortunate and his wedded life in Cuba exceedingly
-happy. He had been laden with honours by
-a grateful Government and received many proofs of
-his country's trust, but lately the officer in charge
-of the chest of the military district at Cinco Villas
-had absconded and run away to New York with
-a sum of two million reales. As he, the brigadier,
-was answerable for his subaltern's conduct and was
-not willing to sacrifice one half of his wife's—now
-his daughter's—fortune to pay for the defaulter,
-he had been summoned to Spain and then relegated,
-or sent as a prisoner on parole to the fortress at
-Ceuta to take his trial before a court martial, which
-owing to the dilatoriness of all things in Spain
-might sit till doomsday.</p>
-
-<p>After thus giving an account of himself and his
-belongings the brigadier proceeded to explain the
-reasons which induced him to address himself to his
-unknown French relative. Having suffered much
-from long exposure to the heat of a tropical climate
-he felt old before his time, and his hereditary enemy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
-the gout, had by several sharp twinges made him
-aware of the precariousness of his tenure of life.
-He had only that one daughter in the world, the
-sole heiress of a considerable patrimony who might
-at any moment be deprived of her natural protector
-and for whose final education and introduction into
-society it was his duty to provide. The girl had
-great natural gifts, had inherited her mother's Creole
-beauty, and the accounts of her proficiency, given
-by the nuns at Chamartin were most flattering to
-his paternal pride. He was anxious to appoint a
-guardian to his daughter and he could think of no
-one fitter in every respect for that charge than his
-only relative, M. Armand Carron.</p>
-
-<p>He (the brigadier) had lately been diligently
-looking over his father's papers; had found among
-them very numerous and interesting family documents—ample
-evidence that a hearty and loving
-correspondence had for many years been kept up
-between his father, Vincent Carron, and the father
-of M. Armand Carron, also called Armand, and he
-followed up the narrative with frequent allusions to
-several incidents occurring in the early youth of the
-two cousins, with descriptions of localities, common
-acquaintances and the usual joys and sorrows alternating
-in their domestic circles. Altogether it was
-a well contrived, plausible story verging so closely
-upon probability as to avoid shipwreck upon the
-rock of truth.</p>
-
-<p>M. Armand Carron of Finistère did not think<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
-it right or expedient to cast doubt on the genuineness
-of the communication. He answered the brigadier's
-appeal by calling him "My dear cousin," saying he
-had a perfect recollection of his father's frequent
-allusions to Vincent Carron, the cousin who had
-grown up with him in their own home and only left
-their native town on arriving at man's estate. After
-heartily congratulating the brigadier on his conspicuous
-career which reflected so much lustre on their
-own name, and condoling with him about the momentary
-cloud that had now—undeservedly he felt
-sure—settled upon it, he assured his newly found
-relative of his sympathy and of his readiness to look
-upon the brigadier's daughter as his own child, to
-receive her into the bosom of his family and take
-that care of her which so precious a jewel as she was
-described to be, must fully deserve.</p>
-
-<p>So the matter was settled. The correspondence
-between the two newly found relatives continued for
-six or seven months and became very affectionate
-and confidential. The brigadier sent the Frenchman
-his photograph and that of his daughter, both taken
-in Havana and bearing the name and trade mark
-of the artist. The one represented a middle-aged
-officer of high rank in full uniform and with the
-Grand Cross of San Hermengeldo on his breast, a
-fine manly countenance with long grey silky moustache;
-the other exhibiting the arch, pretty countenance
-of a brunette in her teens, with smooth bands
-of raven hair on either side of her low forehead and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
-the shade of a moonlit night in her dark eyes; a
-bright blooming creature with dimples and pouting
-lips and a look of humour and frolic and sense in
-every feature. Together with the photographs
-came a letter of Juanita Carron to the brigadier, her
-father, from the convent, and bearing the Chamartin
-postmark, in which the girl congratulated her father
-on his discovery of his Finistère relative, expressed
-a firm confidence that her loving father would long
-be spared to her and concluded that she would for
-her part, in the worst event, willingly acknowledge
-her relative as a second father and acquiesce in
-every arrangement that might be made for her welfare.</p>
-
-<p>Seven months passed and the post one morning
-brought M. Armand Carron a letter with the Ceuta
-postmark, but no longer in his cousin's handwriting.
-The writer who signed himself Don Francisco
-Muñoz, parish priest of San Pedro in Ceuta, announced
-the death of Brigadier Santiago Carron,
-which had occurred seven days before the date of
-the letter. He stated that the brigadier, brought
-to the last extremity by a sudden attack of gout, had
-been attended, by him, Don Francisco, as priest in
-his last hours, and been instructed to wind up all
-his earthly affairs both in Ceuta and in Madrid. He
-was further empowered to remove the Señorita
-Juanita, the brigadier's daughter, from the Chamartin
-convent and take charge of her during her journey
-to Finistère where she should be delivered into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
-the hands of her appointed guardian. The priest's
-letter enclosed the printed obituary handbill announcing
-the brigadier's decease, according to Spanish
-custom, the last will and testament of the deceased
-appointing M. Armand Carron sole executor,
-guardian and trustee of his only daughter Juanita,
-and entrusting to him the management of her fortune
-of one million francs, (£40,000), mentioning
-the banks in Paris and Amsterdam in which that
-sum lay in good state securities. The whole document
-was duly drawn up by a notary, with witnesses'
-signatures, seals, etc., and even with certificates of
-the brigadier's burial, the signatures and stamps of
-the civil and military authorities at Ceuta and those
-of the governor in command of the place.</p>
-
-<p>At the close of this minute statement the priest
-expressed his readiness to comply with the brigadier's
-instructions by travelling to Madrid, receiving
-the young Juanita from the hands of the Sacre
-Cœur nuns and continuing with her the journey to
-Finistère, immediately upon hearing from M. Armand
-Carron that he was prepared to receive his
-lovely ward. M. Armand Carron answered by
-return of post that his house and arms were open
-to welcome his relative's orphan child. Where there
-came after some time another letter from Don
-Francisco Muñoz explaining that the brigadier, although
-the most methodical and careful of men, had
-left some trifling debts at Ceuta and there were the
-doctors' and undertakers' bills to be settled: also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
-the travelling expenses for himself and the young
-lady which he, the priest, was not able to defray.
-Besides all this the papers, deeds, books and other
-portable property left by the brigadier, some of it
-very valuable, but also bulky—among which were
-the certificates of the state securities deposited in the
-French and Dutch banks—which at the express
-desire of the deceased would have at once to be conveyed
-to Finistère. He, the priest, would have to
-be responsible for all this, so that, what with the
-boarding money and fees due to the nuns, and the
-clothes, linen and other necessaries the young lady
-might require to fit herself for appearance in the
-world, an expense would have to be incurred of
-which it was difficult to calculate the exact amount.
-The conclusion was that he could not undertake the
-journey unless M. Armand Carron supplied him
-with a round sum of money, say four thousand
-francs, which he could forward in French bank notes
-and in a registered letter addressed not to him but
-to a Doña Dolores Mazaredo, a pious woman, whom
-her reduced fortunes had compelled to take service
-as a washerwoman of the Ceuta state prison.</p>
-
-<p>The reason alleged by the priest for receiving the
-money in this roundabout way was that as the brigadier
-had died in debt to the state and the government
-might suspect that property belonging to the deceased
-had come into his, the priest's charge and
-be subject to the law of embargo on the brigadier's
-effects, it was desirable that every precaution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
-should be taken to disarm suspicion and prevent
-injury.</p>
-
-<p>The fraud was entirely successful and in due
-course the letter from Finistère enclosing bank
-notes for four thousand francs was delivered to the
-washerwoman and from her passed into the hands
-of the sharpers whose deep laid plan and transcendent
-inventive powers were thus crowned with full
-success. M. Armand Carron heard no more of
-his orphaned relative.</p>
-
-<p>The most astonishing feature in the "Spanish
-Swindle," as it is commonly and almost universally
-known, is the extent to which it is practised and in
-countries far remote from those in which the trick
-originates. In one case a resident in the Argentine
-Republic received a letter from Madrid which he
-communicated to the press stating that he could not
-conceive how his name and address had become
-known. But it was clear that the Argentine and
-many other directories were possessed by the swindler,
-for similar letters all conveying the usual rosy
-stories of hidden treasure had come into the country
-wholesale. The fraudulent agent had long discovered
-that the credulity and cupidity on which he
-trades are universal weaknesses and that he is likely
-to find victims in every civilised part of the world.
-At another time Germany was inundated with typewritten
-letters from the Spanish prisoner, and the
-correspondent cleverly accounted for his use of the
-machine by stating that he was employed as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
-convict clerk in the office of the governor of the
-prison.</p>
-
-<p>An attempt of the same kind was tried on a Swiss
-gentleman of Geneva, but it failed signally. The
-swindler in Barcelona thought he had beguiled his
-correspondent into purchasing certain papers at the
-price of twelve thousand francs by which a treasure
-was to be found, and sent a young woman to Geneva
-to receive the cash. But the Swiss police, having
-been informed of the transaction, were on the alert,
-and when she kept her appointment with the proposed
-dupe she was taken into custody. An individual
-staying at the same hotel and said to have
-been in communication with her was also arrested.
-The emissary denied all complicity in the intended
-fraud protesting that she had been commissioned
-by a stranger she met in Barcelona to convey a letter
-to Geneva and bring back another in return.</p>
-
-<p>The ubiquity of the swindle is proved by the adventures
-of a certain M. Elked, a restaurateur of
-Buda-Pest, who was lured into making a journey to
-Madrid, carrying with him a sum of ten thousand
-francs in cash. The money was to be used in securing
-possession of a fortune of three hundred thousand
-francs, part of which was lying in a trunk
-deposited in the cloak room of a French railway
-station and part in the strong room of a Berlin bank.
-Elked was to get the half in return for his advance.
-On arrival in Madrid he met the representative
-of his correspondent and was shown bogus re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>ceipts
-from the railway and bank. To remove all
-possible doubt it was suggested that telegrams
-should be sent to the railway station and to the bank
-and in due course what purported to be replies were
-brought to Elked by a pretended telegraph messenger.
-The sham telegrams finally convinced him of
-the genuineness of the business and he arranged to
-meet the swindler in a certain café to hand over the
-ten thousand francs.</p>
-
-<p>All this time an eye was kept upon Elked by a
-brother Hungarian named Isray, a commercial traveller,
-who had come to Madrid by the same train and
-who on hearing the purpose of the restaurateur's
-visit had vainly tried to persuade him that the affair
-was a fraud. Isray followed his infatuated
-compatriot to the café in a very low quarter of Madrid
-and arrived just in time to see three men attempting
-to hustle Elked into a carriage. He had
-apparently hesitated to hand over the money at the
-last moment and the ruffians were attempting to get
-him away to a spot where he could be conveniently
-searched and robbed. Isray drew his revolver and
-fired two or three shots at Elked's assailants, but did
-not succeed in hitting any one. He contrived however
-to injure the horse and the struggle ended in
-the three bandits running away, leaving Elked still
-in possession of his money. No passers-by offered
-the Hungarians any assistance during the fight, nor
-did any police appear on the scene. When Elked
-subsequently complained to the police authorities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
-they simply laughed at him for displaying so much
-credulity. The victims of the "Spanish Swindle"
-are certainly not entitled to much sympathy. Although
-arrests are occasionally made, the Spanish
-police have never been able to cope very successfully
-with the ancient and ever flourishing fraud.</p>
-
-<p>Some of the Spanish prisoner's lies are the crudest
-and most transparent attempts at fraud, but a few
-are really very fine works of art. An English country
-gentleman once received the following letter:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir and Relative</span>: Not having the honour
-to know you but for the reference which my dead
-wife, Mary—your relative—gave me, who in detailing
-the various individuals of our family warmly
-praised the honest and good qualities which distinguished
-you, I now address myself to you for the
-first time and perhaps for the last one considering
-the grave state of my health, explaining my sad position
-and requesting your protection for my only
-daughter, a child of fourteen years old whom I keep
-as a pensioner in a college—"</p></div>
-
-<p>This is the prelude to a really clever and picturesque
-story of the writer's adventures in Cuba,
-where, after having been secretary and treasurer to
-Martinez Campos, he had subsequently been driven
-by General Weyler to join the insurgents, and was
-eventually forced to flee the country taking with him
-his fortune of thirty-seven thousand pounds. Subse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>quently
-being summoned to Spain by the illness of
-his "only daughter child" he deposited the money
-in a London bank under the form of "security document."
-After this we are introduced to the old
-mechanism of this venerable swindle. The deposited
-note was concealed in a secret drawer of the
-prisoner's portmanteau. The prisoner had been arrested
-on his arrival in Spain, but a trusty friend
-at large was willing to assist him in recovering the
-money for the benefit of his child, if only the dear
-relative in England "would advance the necessary
-funds for expenses." It is possible to imagine that
-anyone who had never heard of these ingenious
-frauds might be taken in by such a plausible narrative,
-but it is difficult to understand such ignorance.
-A letter was received from the Castle of Montjuich
-in Barcelona by a man in Dublin, who showed it to
-several friends in the city explaining the process.
-It was new to them all, and arrests of persons who
-had all but succeeded in completing this well-worn
-confidence trick are constantly made in London.
-The boldness of these attempts may be seen in the
-case of the swindlers who despatched three letters
-identically the same, to three persons who were near
-neighbours, residing at North Berwick near Edinburgh.
-The letter dated from Madrid and said:—</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>, Detained here as a bankrupt, I ask if you
-would help me to withdraw the sum of fr. 925,000
-(£37,000) at present lodged in a secure place in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
-France. It would be necessary for you to visit
-Madrid and obtain possession of my baggage by
-paying a lien on it. In one valise concealed in a
-secret niche is the document which must be produced
-as a warrant for the delivery of the above
-mentioned sum. I propose to hand you over a third
-of the whole in return for your outlay and trouble."</p></div>
-
-<p>The rest of the letter simply contained instructions
-as to telegraphing an answer to Madrid. The whole
-was a very stupid and clumsy attempt to deceive,
-lacking all the emotional appeals, the motherless
-child, the persecuted political adherent of a failing
-cause. Worse yet it openly invited co-operation
-with a bankrupt seeking to defraud his creditors.
-Nor is there any effort to explain the selection of
-these three particular persons in the same small town
-as parties to the fraud, and the only conclusion is
-that dupes had been found even under such circumstances
-who were afterward reluctant to reveal their
-own foolishness.</p>
-
-<p>A more elaborate fraud was perpetrated soon
-after the fall of Cartagena; the story ran as follows:
-Two of the well known leaders of the hare-brained
-republican movement that led to that catastrophe,—General
-Contreras and Señor Galdez,—both
-deputies of the Constituent Cortes, came as fugitives
-to England and lodged in the Bank of England
-a sum amounting to several millions of reales
-in state securities, obtaining for them of course the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
-regular certificates and receipt from the bank.
-These two Spanish gentlemen afterwards lived for
-some time on the continent. General Contreras
-took up his quarters as a political exile in France
-and Señor Galdez ventured under a disguise into
-Spain, where he had the misfortune to be recognised,
-arrested and shut up in the Saladero. The certificates
-had been left in England in trusty hands, in a
-trunk belonging to Señor Galdez, who from his
-prison sent directions that the box should be sent by
-rail to Madrid addressed to a person enjoying his
-full confidence. This person however had some
-claim upon Señor Galdez for an old debt of six
-thousand francs or about two hundred and forty
-pounds and insisted upon payment of this sum before
-he would either part with the trunk or allow it to
-be opened and the precious certificates to be taken
-from it.</p>
-
-<p>The matter required delicate handling, for Señor
-Galdez was a prisoner, General Contreras an exile,
-both beyond reach, and about the money they had
-placed in the bank there might lie some mystery into
-which it was not desirable that enquiry should be
-made. An easy way of getting at the contents of
-the trunk could be found if any one would think it
-worth while to supply two hundred and forty
-pounds, settle the claims of Señor Galdez's creditor,
-and laying hold of the certificates, convey them to
-England and withdraw the securities from the bank.
-A man whose name was given and whose address<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
-was in the Calle de la Abada or Rhinoceros Street,
-Madrid, would undertake to carry through the negotiations
-if any one would call upon him with the
-needful two hundred and forty pounds and allow
-him half an hour to rescue the trunk and deliver the
-certificates. The worthy Yorkshire squire to whom
-intimation had been conveyed of the coup there was
-to be made, looked upon the story as extremely
-probable. He fancied it was corroborated by a good
-deal of circumstantial evidence and thought he
-might venture on the speculation. A professional
-adviser whom he consulted undertook to do the job
-for him and carry the two hundred and forty pounds
-to the Calle de la Abada, taking a revolver with him,
-as a precaution, and intending to deliver the money
-in Bank of England notes, the numbers of which
-should be stopped the moment he found out that any
-trick was being played on his good faith.</p>
-
-<p>Further enquiries were made, however, before
-any decided steps were taken, and it was ascertained
-beyond doubt that Señor Galdez was no longer a
-prisoner, that General Contreras had come back
-from banishment, that the house in the Calle de la
-Abada was a notorious haunt of malefactors and
-den of thieves, and the whole scheme was another
-instance of the criminal ingenuity of the Spanish
-swindler.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">LIFE IN CEUTA</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Dangerous weapons manufactured within the prison walls—Frequent
-quarrels—Murderous assaults on warders of constant
-occurrence—Disorders and lack of discipline owing
-to the employment of prisoners as warders—The "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos
-de vara</i>"—These posts sold to the highest bidder—Salillas'
-description of these convict warders—Worst criminals
-often promoted to exercise authority over their fellows—Terrible
-evils arising from such a state of affairs—Description
-of Ceuta—Life at Ceuta no deterrent to crime by
-reason of the pleasant conditions under which the convicts
-lived—Popularity of the theatre in Spanish prisons—Escapes
-from Ceuta—The case of El Niño de Brenes—The
-different characteristics of the Andalusians and Aragonese—Foreigners
-from Spanish colonies imprisoned at Ceuta—Chinamen
-and negroes—Dolores, the negro convict—His
-assassination by two fellow convicts—Political prisoners—Carlists—Different
-types of murderers.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>Life is held cheap in Ceuta and indeed in all
-Spanish presidios and gaols. The saying "a word
-and a blow," may be expanded into "a word and a
-knife thrust." The possession of a lethal weapon
-is common to all prisoners and prevails despite prohibiting
-regulations. Fatal affrays are of constant
-occurrence. At Valladolid five men were wounded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
-in a fight over cards, which were openly permitted.
-An official enquiry followed, with the result that on
-a search instituted through the prison, numbers of
-large knives were discovered and many smaller
-daggers.</p>
-
-<p>It is pretended by the authorities that the introduction
-of such weapons as well as of spirits
-and packs of cards cannot be prevented. The gate
-keepers however exercise no vigilance or are readily
-bribed to shut their eyes. The ruinous condition
-of many gaols with their numerous cracks and openings
-and holes in the walls is partially responsible.
-As a natural consequence blood flowed freely when
-rage and unbridled passion were so easily inflamed
-and the means of seeking murderous satisfaction
-were always ready to hand. Quarrels grew at once
-into fierce fights which could not be prevented and
-must be fought out then and there even to the death.
-Chains and stone walls and iron bars were ineffective
-in imposing order. There could be no semblance
-of discipline where the two essentials were absolutely
-wanting, supervision and honest service in the
-keepers.</p>
-
-<p>Knives were often provided by the ingenious
-adaptation of all kinds of material within the walls,
-such as one-half of a pair of scissors firmly fixed in
-a handle bound round with cloth; or a piece of tin
-doubled to form a blade and stiffened by two pieces
-of wood to keep the point sharp; or the handle of
-a wooden spoon sharpened and as formidable as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
-an inflexible fish bone.<a name="Anchor-15" id="Anchor-15"></a><a href="#Footnote-15" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 15.">[15]</a> Other arms carried and
-used on occasion for premeditated or unexpected
-attack or in set, formal encounters were a razor, a
-file, a carpenter's adze, a hammer, a cobbler's awl.</p>
-
-<p>Some surprising figures have been collected by
-Salillas to show how frequent was the appeal to violence
-and how fatal the consequences of the bloodthirsty
-strife so constantly breaking out among the
-more reckless members of this hot-tempered Latin
-race. They had often their origin in drunken quarrels,
-for <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>, the Spanish equivalent to whiskey
-or gin, was always plentiful, introduced almost
-openly by the warders. Ancient feuds were revived
-when the opportunity of settling them was offered
-by the chance meeting in the gaol. Occasionally a
-homicidal lunatic ran loose about the yards and
-struck blindly at any inoffensive person he met when
-the furious fit was on him. Salillas tells us that in
-one year sixteen murderous assaults were committed
-upon warders,<a name="Anchor-16" id="Anchor-16"></a><a href="#Footnote-16" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 16.">[16]</a> and twenty-four free fights occurred
-among the prisoners, eleven of whom were killed
-outright and forty-two seriously wounded. One
-truculent ruffian fell upon an aged wardsman (a
-convict also), struck him with a shoemaker's knife</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>and then, brandishing his weapon, defied interference
-or the rescue of his victim whom he "finished"
-with repeated blows. A Valencian newspaper describes
-an encounter between two inmates of the
-Torres Serranos prison in that city. "Without
-warning or suggesting the cause of difference the
-two silently hurried to a large empty room, rushed
-at each other with their knives, and the only sounds
-heard were those of blows struck and warded off
-and of shuffling feet as they circled round each other.
-Warders headed by the governor (alcaide) strove to
-separate the combatants and succeeded at last in doing
-so but at peril of their lives. Both the antagonists
-were wounded, one had his cheek laid open
-and the other's face was horribly gashed. At Saragossa
-an old man who complained that one of his
-blankets had been stolen was fiercely attacked in the
-shoemaker's shop by the thief, who had been cutting
-out sole leather with a heavy iron tool. Deadly
-wounds were inflicted on the victim, but the infuriated
-aggressor stood over him, keeping those who
-would have interposed at bay until it was clearly
-evident that death had supervened.</p>
-
-<p>The primary cause of the chronic discreditable,
-disgraceful disorder that reigned in the Spanish
-prisons was the prevailing custom of employing
-prisoners in the service and discipline of the prisons.
-This practice is now universally condemned as reprehensible
-and it has been abolished in most civilised
-countries and even in Spain. The excuse offered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
-which long passed current in Spain was the expense
-entailed by employing a proper staff of officers, a
-necessity in every well ordered prison administration.
-But till quite a recent date the control and
-supervision of prisoners in Spanish gaols was practically
-their own affair. There were the usual superior
-officials, assisted by a few free overseers (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capataces</i>)
-but the bulk of the work was entrusted to
-the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos de vara</i>.</p>
-
-<p>The vicious system was the more objectionable
-from the uncertainty which prevailed in its working.
-If the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i> had been carefully selected from
-the best and most exemplary prisoners some of the
-worst evils might have been avoided. But it was
-all a matter of chance. Not only was there no selection
-of the best but there was no rejection or elimination
-of the worst candidates. In some conspicuous
-cases the office of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i> was suffered to
-fall into the hands of men altogether unfit to hold
-it. Two in particular may be quoted, those of
-Pelufo and Carrillo, who having first committed
-atrocious crimes, escaped punishment and were actually
-promoted. One, Pelufo, was a convict in the
-presidio of Cartagena who murdered a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> and cut
-his way out of the St. Augustin prison, knife in
-hand; the other, Carrillo, slew a comrade in a duel
-in the presidio of San Miguel de los Reyes (Valencia)
-and both were subsequently appointed <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>,
-"a reward," as a witty official said, "which they had
-earned by their services to penitentiary methods."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>With such examples and under such authorities
-serious crimes were naturally numerous. A few
-may be mentioned. A <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> named Casalta killed a
-fellow <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> in St. Augustin prison of Valencia with
-five cruel thrusts and afterwards stabbed an officer
-to the heart. When the military guard came up he
-seriously injured one of the soldiers and wounded
-two convicts, one in the head, the other in the back.
-Casalta was however condemned to a fresh sentence
-of twelve years. One Ferreiro Volta cut a comrade's
-throat for having given evidence against the
-man, Pelufo, already mentioned. Many more cases
-of the same heinous character where the homicidal
-instinct had full play may be picked out of the published
-lists. In one prison thirteen already guilty of
-murder or attempted murder repeated their crimes
-as prisoners; in another nine convicted of maliciously
-wounding, pursued the practice or were
-guilty of awful threats to murder in the gaols. The
-cases might be multiplied almost indefinitely but it
-will suffice to indicate the terrible conditions constantly
-prevailing. No doubt murderous attacks
-were often stimulated by the tyranny of the prisoner
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>, against whom their fellows, goaded to desperation,
-rose and wreaked vengeance.</p>
-
-<p>The discipline exercised by these prisoner warders
-was naturally not worth much. It was their duty
-to correct and restrain their comrades, to assist in
-their pursuit when they escaped after having originally
-most probably facilitated the evasion, to side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
-with the authority in cases of serious insubordination
-and disturbance. But they were weak vessels
-yielding readily to temptation, accepting bribes hungrily,
-swallowing drink greedily when offered,
-quickly cowed by the threats of prison bullies and
-surrendering at discretion when opposed. But even
-although there were good and trusty men to be
-found at times among them, no real reliance could
-be placed in them. They generally represented fifty
-per cent. of the staff and the necessity for the substitution
-of the non-convicted, properly paid, fairly
-honourable warders has been very wisely decided
-upon. The chief danger lay in their close and intimate
-association with the rest, day and night constantly
-alone when no official supervision was possible.
-Their value depended entirely upon their personal
-qualifications. If they were weak-kneed and
-invertebrate, they could apply no check upon the
-ill-conditioned, could neither intimidate nor repress:
-if on the other hand they were of masterful character
-with arrogant, overbearing tempers, they might
-do immense mischief by tyrannising over their
-charges and leading them astray. Men of this class
-often claimed an equality with the recognised officials,
-treated them with off-hand familiarity, spoke
-without saluting or removing their caps, while insolently
-puffing the smoke of a half-consumed cigarette
-in faces of the officers. Salillas sums up the
-type as "semi-functionary, semi-convict and all
-hangman."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The external aspect of Ceuta is not unpleasing.
-It is built on seven hills, the highest of which is
-topped by the fortress, and in the word "septem"
-we may trace the name Ceuta. It still possesses a
-few Moorish remains, for it was once an important
-Moorish city. Some of the streets show a tesselated
-pavement of red, white and green tiles, and house
-fronts are to be seen in white, black and serpentine
-marble with decorated scroll work running in a pattern
-below the gutter. It has some claims to be
-picturesque and possesses certain artistic architectural
-features. An imposing barrack, that called
-Del Valle, built by prison labour, is considered one
-of the finest Spanish military edifices. It has also
-a cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of Africa, engineering
-and artillery yards, a military hospital, another
-church, public offices, and above all a palace
-of the governor and general commanding. The
-latter in particular, with its extensive grounds, handsome
-façade, and suites of fine rooms, the whole
-well mounted and served by a large staff of convict
-attendants, is the envy of all other government officials.
-One wide street traverses the city from west
-to east crossed by a network of smaller ways, all
-airy and well ventilated by sea breezes and constantly
-illuminated by a brilliant sun. From time
-to time convicts in their distinctive dress pass along,
-but scarcely cast a shadow upon the scene, showing
-few signs of their thraldom and passing along with
-light-hearted freedom, smoking excellent tobacco or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
-singing a gay song. No beggars offend the eye, for
-to solicit public charity is strictly forbidden. Generally
-a contented well-to-do air is worn by the
-crowd, and even the convicts are decently dressed.
-Other inhabitants, Moors from the mainland, and
-Jews long established in commerce seem prosperous
-and evidently possess ample means gained by their
-industry and thrift.</p>
-
-<p>The presidio or prison proper of Ceuta covers a
-large part of the peninsula or promontory and embraces
-four distinct districts; the first is situated in
-the new or modern town; the second lies just outside
-it; the third is within the old town and the
-fourth is beyond the outer line of walls. The first
-part is connected with the third by a drawbridge
-called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">boquete de la sardina</i> or the "sardine's entrance";
-the second with the third by a portcullis;
-the third with the fourth and last by the outer gate
-of the city.</p>
-
-<p>In the first are the artisans' quarters, situated in
-the cloisters of an ancient monastery, that of San
-Francisco, and but for the patching and whitewashing
-would look quite ruinous. It is neither secure
-nor of sufficient size. The night guards are posted
-in the old mortuary house, the bars to many windows
-are of wood. The building contains offices,
-schoolhouse, store for clothing and the workshops,
-these being in a sort of patio or courtyard, or in
-hollow spaces in the cloisters, and are simply dens
-and rookeries, in part exactly over the old burial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
-ground. The handicrafts pursued when I visited
-it were various: men were making shoes; fourteen
-tailors were at work; a blacksmith with a life sentence
-constantly hammered out the red hot iron;
-a tinsmith produced many useful articles; a turner
-at his lathe worked admirably in the old meat bones
-and fashioned handles for walking sticks and umbrellas.
-This turner earned much money and was
-comfortably lodged. Convicts at Ceuta are not deprived
-of their profits and spend their money buying
-better food, superior clothing and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> and
-using it to bribe their overseers, or they cleverly
-conceal it, adding constantly to their store. Industry
-is a chief source of wealth, but many political prisoners
-bring large sums in with them, or it is smuggled
-in to them, and a successful hit with the "buried
-treasure fraud" will supply plenty of cash.</p>
-
-<p>Other industries followed are carpentering and
-the construction of trunks and boxes which sell well.
-A number of looms are engaged in weaving canvas
-for the manufacture of sails for the local shipping,
-rough material for sacking and clothing of the convicts,
-all in large quantities and to a really valuable
-extent. These workshops are filled by the prisoners
-in the first stage of their detention. The water-carriers
-and clerks in the government office are in
-the second period, and on reaching the third the convicts
-obtain the privilege of going at large to accept
-employment in the town "from gun to gun."</p>
-
-<p>The prison hospital is situated in this first district,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
-an ancient edifice erected with part of the funds
-subscribed in times past to purchase freedom for
-Christian captives enslaved by the Barbary Moors.
-The building is of good size, well ventilated, and enjoys
-good hygienic conditions. But the defects and
-shortcomings in Spanish administration extend even
-to Ceuta and the prison hospital, which a local authority
-says "is detestably organised and mounted
-miserably." The roof is so slight that it affords
-no proper protection in summer and the intense heat
-of the blazing sun striking through is very injurious
-to the patients. The medical resources are
-small and inferior; the beds few and unclean; the
-whole of the interior arrangements, furniture fittings
-and appliances, insufficient and worn out.
-There is no mortuary and to add a small detail in
-proof of the imperfections, autopsies were performed
-in a small den, part of the hospital proper,
-without disinfectants and the essential appliances for
-carrying out post mortems. Patients seldom made
-a long stay in the hospital, for they were rarely admitted
-until they had reached the last stages of an
-illness and came in as a rule only to die.</p>
-
-<p>The second district contains the principal quarters
-for convicts. One is in the chief barrack called
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cuartel principal</i> and another in the fortress <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el
-Hacho</i>.<a name="Anchor-17" id="Anchor-17"></a><a href="#Footnote-17" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 17.">[17]</a> Some further evidence of their evil condition
-may be extracted from an account given by
-Salillas. "It is impossible to conceive," he writes,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>"a more unsuitable, unsavoury place for a prison.
-The rooms and dormitories occupied by the convicts
-are dark and gloomy, always damp, full of pestilential
-odours and dirty beyond description. The floors
-are of beaten earth, ever secure hiding places for all
-forbidden articles, weapons, tools for compassing
-escape, jars of drink, the fiery and poisonous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>.
-It seems to me extraordinary," he goes on
-to say, "that life under such conditions is possible.
-A thousand and odd men who seldom if ever wash,
-who never change their clothes, are crowded together
-promiscuously in small, unclean, ill-ventilated,
-noisome dens and must surely engender and propagate
-loathsome epidemic disease." The fetid air is
-foul with the noisome exhalations of many generations
-of pestiferous people. It is one sink of concentrated
-malaria—a reeking hot bed of infection.
-The services of supply are carried out with abominable
-carelessness: the kitchen is an abode of nastiness:
-the cooking is performed by repulsive looking
-convicts in greasy rags who plunge their dirty arms
-deep into the seething mess of soup which they bail
-out into buckets, a malodorous compound of the
-colour and consistency of the mortar used in building
-a wall.</p>
-
-<p>Close by is another quarter in which convicts are
-lodged, <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i>, or the hilly ground or topmost
-point of Ceuta on which is placed the citadel which
-crowns the fortifications. It takes the overflow from
-the principal barrack and is moreover generally oc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>cupied
-by the worst characters, the most insubordinate
-and incorrigible members of the prison population.
-The rooms, as in the barrack below, are
-dirty, overcrowded and insecure, but a few windows
-of the upper story open on to the Mediterranean and
-are not always protected by either wooden or iron
-bars. <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El Hacho</i> contains within its limits a certain
-number of solitary cells, well known and much
-dreaded by the habitual criminals of Spain. They
-are essentially punishment cells used in the coercion
-of the incorrigible and are just as dark, damp and
-wretched as the larger rooms. But the solitary inmate
-in each cell is generally kept chained to the
-wall or is as it is styled <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">amarrado en blanca</i>, nearly
-naked and heavily ironed. The treatment is exemplary
-in its cruelty, but does not necessarily cure
-the subject. There was one irreclaimable upon
-whom several years of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozo</i> had had no effect.
-He had been sentenced to be thus chained up
-as the penalty for murderously wounding an overseer
-in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i>, but he did not mend his manners.
-On one occasion on the arrival of a new governor
-all under punishment were pardoned. This convict
-when sent out forthwith furiously attacked the first
-warder he met and was again condemned to be
-locked up as a ceaseless danger to the presidio. He
-is remembered as little more than a youth, but with
-a diabolical countenance and indomitable air.</p>
-
-<p>The district of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Barcas</i> does not contain a barrack
-properly speaking, but there is a space cut in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
-the thickness of the line wall entering a patio or
-courtyard which gives upon seven rooms, some high,
-some low; of these three and part of the yard were
-filled with munitions of war, and a battery of artillery
-was placed over the dormitories on their upper
-floor. Many of the convicts are employed as boatmen
-and watchmen in the port, others have charge
-of the walls and carry water up to the guardhouses
-on the higher level. They also attend to the service
-of the drawbridge between the old and new town.
-One who was employed as gatekeeper at the drawbridge
-was well remembered. He was trusted to
-call on all convicts who passed to produce their permits
-of free circulation or to enter and leave the
-fortress. He had a pleasant rubicund face, was one
-armed, a little deaf, but with very sharp eyes, not
-easily hoodwinked. He was a confirmed gossip who
-picked up all the news which he retailed to all who
-passed in and out. Escapes were of constant occurrence
-at Ceuta, but few occurred by the drawbridge
-of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Barcas</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Half way up the road from the town to the citadel
-and the fort of the Seraglio was the Jadu barrack
-which was occupied by the convicts who were
-engaged in agricultural work, in making tiles and
-burning charcoal. Many of these were foreigners
-and negroes. The bulk of the residents was made
-up of those who had completed three fourths of their
-sentences and lived "under conditions," or in a
-state of conditional or semi-freedom. There was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
-little wrong-doing in Jadu, thefts were rare, fights
-and quarrels seldom took place. The Seraglio was
-a fortified barrack of rectangular shape occupied by
-troops of the garrison and lodging an odd hundred
-convicts labouring on adjacent farms in private
-hands.</p>
-
-<p>It will be observed that the convicts established in
-these last-named quarters beyond the walls do not
-appear to exhibit all the unpleasant features attributed
-to them by some writers in recording their
-experiences of Ceuta.<a name="Anchor-18" id="Anchor-18"></a><a href="#Footnote-18" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 18.">[18]</a> No doubt the truth lies
-somewhere between the two extremes but it is certain
-that the chief penal colony of Spain shares to
-a marked extent the drawbacks inseparable from all
-forms of penal colonisation. We may see, beyond
-all question, that at Ceuta no beneficial results are
-achieved by the system. Criminals who undergo
-the penalty are not improved by it; their reformation,
-too generally a will-o'-the-wisp under the very
-best auspices, is not even attempted, much less assured.
-On the other hand, it is perfectly clear that
-evil is perpetually in the ascendent, that criminal
-tendencies are largely encouraged by the facilities
-given in the education and practice of wrong doing;
-that the presidio itself is a criminal centre where the
-seeds of crime are sown and their growth fostered
-despite the difficulties of distance and inconvenience.
-The fear of penal exile is no deterrent to crime for
-the simple reason that life in Ceuta is not particu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>larly
-irksome and that the convict finds many compensations
-there. The obligation to hard labour is
-not strictly enforced. Man must work, but not hard
-and chiefly for his own advantage, to gain the
-means of softening and bettering his lot. He passes
-his time very much as he pleases. Though he rises
-with the sun, as is the universal custom of his country,
-he turns out of bed without giving a thought to
-personal cleanliness and proceeds to his appointed
-labour leisurely, after disposing of his breakfast,
-adding perhaps more toothsome articles of food, including
-a morning drink of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> bought
-from the hawkers and hucksters awaiting him at the
-prison gates. He is dressed in prison uniform, but
-it is sufficient and suitably varied with the season.
-He is not hampered by fetters, as the ancient practice
-of chaining convicts together in couplets has
-long since ceased. The wearing of irons fell into
-disuse years ago at the building of the great barrack
-del Valle, when several deplorable accidents occurred
-and it was found that chains interfered with
-the free movement of workmen on scaffolding and
-so forth. The idea was that irons should again be
-imposed at the conclusion of the building; "but all
-who thought so did not know Spanish ways, nor
-the despotism of custom when once established."<a name="Anchor-19" id="Anchor-19"></a><a href="#Footnote-19" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 19.">[19]</a>
-"To-day (1873)," says same writer, "there are
-not fifty suits of chains in the storehouse and not
-more than twenty are worn by special penalty and</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>by no means as a general practice." The convict
-loafs about the rooms or courtyard or idly handles
-the tools of his trade, gossiping freely with his comrades,
-or taking a hand at <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">monte</i> or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">chapas</i> with the
-full permission of warders not indisposed to have
-a "little on the games"; he finds easy means to
-issue into the streets to carry on some delectable
-flirtation; there may be a bull baiting afoot, a
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">novillos</i> in which all may join, or a theatrical performance
-is being given by a convict company in
-one of the penal establishments.</p>
-
-<p>The theatre is a passion with the average Spaniard
-and the taste extends to those in durance.
-Cases constantly occur in which popular plays have
-been reproduced in prisons situated in the principal
-cities. Salillas<a name="Anchor-20" id="Anchor-20"></a><a href="#Footnote-20" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 20.">[20]</a> states that almost all the prisons
-of Spain had their theatre and he gives the names of
-Burgos, Ceuta, Ocana, Valladolid, Saladero (Madrid)
-and Alcalá de Henares. One writer who visited
-the prison performance at Seville of a musical
-piece, the "Viejas Ricas de Cadiz," said it was given
-well and that the vocal talent was considerable in
-that and other prisons. At the presidio of San
-Miguel de los Reyes the convicts were heard singing
-a chorus on Christmas Eve which was perfectly
-executed and with great feeling.</p>
-
-<p>In the Valladolid gaol the theatre was regularly
-installed by a company of forty convicts who had
-contributed substantial sums for the purpose. It</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
-<p>had working committees with rules and regulations
-formally sanctioned by the governor of the province.
-The theatre with seats for an audience of four hundred,
-and four private boxes holding twelve persons
-each, was constructed in a building which afterwards
-became the blacksmith shops. A refreshment room
-was provided in which a contractor dispensed sweets
-and pastry and strong drink; real actresses were
-engaged from outside at a salary of a dollar for each
-performance; invitations were issued to the free
-residents and the convicts paid two reales for admission.
-Well known, high class plays were produced,
-comedies, dramas and comic operas.</p>
-
-<p>The whole proceeding was a caricature upon
-prison discipline and the authorities who permitted
-it were very properly sharply and severely condemned.
-They exposed themselves to reproof and
-worse for flagrant contempt of the most ordinary
-restrictions in allowing women to pass in constantly,
-and in permitting the sale of alcoholic liquors. That
-a place of durance, primarily intended for the restraint
-and punishment of evil doers should be converted
-into a show and spectacle was an intolerable
-misuse of power and a disgraceful travesty of the
-fitness of things. The positive evil engendered was
-seen in the wholesale escape of the theatrical company,
-while the audience patiently waited in front
-of the curtain which "went up" eventually on a
-wholly unexpected performance.<a name="Anchor-21" id="Anchor-21"></a><a href="#Footnote-21" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 21.">[21]</a></p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p>
-<p>In the matter of escapes Ceuta was famous. It
-was not difficult to get away from that imperfectly
-guarded stronghold when the convict had means to
-bribe officers or buy a boat and had the courage to
-make the voyage across the Straits of Gibraltar.
-The story of one veteran convict who escaped from
-Ceuta is interesting because he was driven to take
-himself off by what he no doubt deemed the ill-judged
-severity of his injudicious keepers. This
-was an old brigand known as "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El Niño de Brenes</i>,"
-(the lad of Brenes), a name he must have earned
-some time back for he was a man aged seventy when
-he "withdrew" (the word is exact) from Ceuta.
-He was a well-behaved, well-to-do convict of affable
-address who had gained many staunch friends
-among the officials and his own comrades. The
-position he had created for himself was one of practical
-ease and comfort; he lived in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i> pursuing
-various industries, usury among the rest, and
-gradually grew so rich that he gained possession of
-a strip of land which he cultivated profitably and
-kept a fine poultry yard as well as many sheep and
-goats.</p>
-
-<p>El Niño was a tall well built old man, dark-skinned,
-with abundant white hair. He was of
-highly respectable appearance, very stout and sleek,
-and, being on the best of terms with his masters,
-he took upon himself to discard the prison uniform
-and dress himself as an Andalusian peasant with
-gaiters and red sash and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sombrero calañes</i> (round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
-hard hat). Not strangely this presumption displeased
-the authorities and he was told that he must
-conform to the rules and appear in the proper convict
-clothing and cease to act as a money lender to
-his poorer brethren. He received this intimation
-with a smiling protest; he pointed out that he used
-his influence in pacifying ill-conditioned convicts, in
-staving off disturbances and preventing quarrels.
-If his services were not better appreciated and he
-was tied down to the strict observance of the ordinary
-rules he would move further away; his remaining
-in the presidio was quite a matter of favour
-and he had always at his disposal the means to make
-his escape, and if he were interfered with he would
-take his departure. This impudent reply quite exasperated
-the authorities, who thereupon resolved to
-employ sharp measures. The facts as he had stated
-them were more or less true and the blame lay really
-with the faulty and inefficient régime in force. But
-the authorities would not tamely submit to be defied
-and a peremptory order was issued that he should
-dispose of his private property by a certain date,
-wind up his financial affairs and renounce all idea of
-exceptional treatment. El Niño took this as a
-threat to which there could be but one reply. He
-gathered together his cash and portable property
-and quietly disappeared. A hue and cry was raised;
-the usual signals flew at the signal staff; all gates
-and exits were closely watched; the police were unceasingly
-active in pursuit, but the fugitive had laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
-his plans astutely and was never recaptured. Having
-the command of ample means he doubtless used
-them freely to purchase freedom by taking some
-sure road past the frontier or across the sea.</p>
-
-<p>Allies and auxiliaries were never wanting to the
-enterprising fugitive willing to pay liberally for assistance.
-In one case a convict had the courage to
-allow himself to be shut up in a chest half full of
-tobacco and to be thus conveyed to Gibraltar, to
-which it was returned as containing damaged goods.
-Gibraltar is a free port and the chest was landed
-without question. Then the consignee opened it
-without delay and extracted the fugitive convict uninjured.
-The last part of the story is somewhat incredible
-and we may wonder why the fugitive did
-not succumb to the discomforts of his narrow receptacle,
-want of air, the exhalations of the tobacco and
-the shakings and bumping of the box as it made its
-voyage, albeit a short one, from Ceuta to the Rock.</p>
-
-<p>An escape on a large scale was effected from the
-principal barrack when eighteen convicts descended
-into the drains, and finding their progress unimpeded
-threaded them safely and passing under the
-outer wall reached the outlet to the sea. It happened
-that the water was high and that there was
-a great conflict of currents in which that setting
-inward had most force and the exit was blocked by
-the stormy waves. Some of the convicts committed
-themselves to the waters but were washed back with
-violence against the rocky fortifications and all of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
-them in terror for their lives raised loud cries, calling
-for help. The sentries gave the alarm, the
-guards ran down and recaptured all the fugitives
-but one, a fine swimmer who persisted in his attempt
-and was swept seaward clear of the rough water till
-he was able to regain the shore on the far side of
-the Moorish sentries.</p>
-
-<p>The prison population of Ceuta is made up of a
-number of motley, polyglot types of the many diverse
-families that compose the Spanish race and of
-other distinct nationalities. The Spaniards are generally
-classified under two principal heads: the
-Aragonese and the Andalusians. The first named
-comprises all from the northern provinces who are
-generally coarse, quarrelsome and brutal, sentenced
-chiefly for crimes of violence, murders premeditated
-and committed under aggravated circumstances, the
-outcome of furious and ungovernable passion. The
-Andalusian is of more generous character, lively and
-light-hearted, but of unsettled disposition and much
-impelled to attempt escapes. He is a chronic grumbler
-constantly moved to complain, dissatisfied with
-his rations and clamorous for special privileges.
-The Aragonese on the other hand suffers long in
-silence which leads eventually, after long brooding,
-into mutinous combination. The Andalusian makes
-his grievances heard by word of mouth, the Aragonese
-rushes without notice into overt action and
-organised attack. Another distinct section of the
-Spanish race is the Galician and the native of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
-Asturias, a sober, quiet and well-conducted people
-at home, who exhibit great ferocity as convicts.
-Sanguinary encounters are little known in these
-provinces, but when an Asturian or Galician takes
-the life of his enemy, he uses artifice and waylays
-him, decoying him into an ambush and murdering
-him often with horrible mutilation. A criminal
-feature, peculiar to the women of these provinces, is
-their addiction to the use of poison. Other Spanish
-females will use violence and inflict lethal wounds
-openly, but the Galician woman administers poison
-secretly, deliberately choosing her victims among
-her nearest relatives.</p>
-
-<p>The colonial empire of Spain, now a thing of the
-past, contributed in its time a substantial contingent
-of yellow and black convicts, Chinamen from the
-Philippines and negroes from Cuba. It was a reprehensible
-practice to associate these foreigners with
-the European convicts and it produced many evils.
-The Chinaman was often shamefully ill-treated. He
-bore it patiently, but at times when goaded beyond
-endurance, retaliated with bloodthirsty violence.
-The story of one negro convict, a rather remarkable
-person, is still remembered at Ceuta. He rejoiced
-in the somewhat inappropriate feminine name of
-Dolores, and despite his colour was a singularly
-handsome man. He had a slight, active figure, a
-highly intelligent face and a clear, penetrating eye.
-His mental faculties were of a high order, although
-he had received only an indifferent education. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
-had the fondness of his race for fine clothes and although
-conforming to the prison uniform wore it
-with a certain distinction, improving and adding to
-it where possible and having quite a gentlemanly
-appearance. He had been guilty of a hideous murder
-in Havana for which he had received a nearly
-interminable sentence. His behaviour in gaol was
-orderly and submissive and he always displayed the
-utmost loyalty to his masters, who in return lightened
-his lot as far as was possible.</p>
-
-<p>Dolores, as a rule, was of a patient disposition,
-although he was easily roused into fits of violent
-temper and could be at times, according to his treatment,
-either a lion or a lamb. It seemed almost incomprehensible
-that the mild eyes so calm and peaceable,
-when he was unmoved, could blaze with sudden
-fury or that his small delicately shaped hands
-could fasten murderously on a fellow creature's
-throat. Tyranny and oppression were intolerable
-to him and he altogether declined to submit to be
-domineered over by the chief bully in the prison.
-His defiance led to an embittered conflict—a duel
-fought out with knives—in which the black champion
-conquered after inflicting many deep wounds
-upon his antagonist. With his victory Dolores
-gained also the implacable ill-will of his fellows.
-They put him on his trial, in a corner of the principal
-barrack and condemned him to death, which
-would certainly have been inflicted had not the authorities
-interposed to give him their protection.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
-He was removed to <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i> and placed in one of
-the separate cells used generally for the punishment
-of the incorrigible.<a name="Anchor-22" id="Anchor-22"></a><a href="#Footnote-22" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 22.">[22]</a> This was fatal to him. Two
-water-carriers belonging to the hostile faction entered
-the cell when Dolores was engaged in writing
-with his back to the door, and throwing themselves
-upon him gave him two mortal wounds under the
-left shoulder. In this supreme moment Dolores put
-forth his tremendous strength, caught his assailants
-by their necks and broke them before the warders
-could interfere on either side. Dolores died but he
-is still remembered in the prison annals as one of
-the most valiant and indomitable convicts who had
-ever been detained in the presidio.</p>
-
-<p>Another alien convict to whom Relosillas pays a
-high tribute was his own Chinese servant, a convict
-known as "Juan de la Cruz, the Asiatic." He
-seems to have been unceasingly loyal and devoted
-in his service, an admirable cook, an indefatigable
-nurse, a faithful watchman who guarded his effects
-and secured his privacy. Juan had many accomplishments;
-he could weave shade hats of the finest
-palm fibre, he was as clever as any seamstress with
-his needle; he was a first-class housemaid and laundress;
-he could make a dollar go further in the
-market than the most economical housewife. He
-drove the most astonishing bargains with the hucksters
-and purveyors of food, fish and game, with
-which Ceuta was plentifully supplied. He had been</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p>
-<p>condemned to a long term for a murder committed
-in Havana at a hotel, of which he was the chief
-cook. In appearance he was younger than his years,
-tall, thin, anæmic looking, shortsighted, with jet
-black hair and oblique eyes. He was a man of great
-intelligence, a dramatic author in Chinese and was
-released before his time to accompany the Director
-General of Prisons to Madrid as his cook. In the
-end he started a fruit shop in the capital and prospered
-greatly.</p>
-
-<p>An entirely different class of prisoners came to
-Ceuta in considerable numbers from time to time,—those
-exiled for political misdeeds. A whole discipline
-battalion was composed of military offenders,
-among them a number of artillerymen condemned
-for the rising in Barcelona and crowds of Carlists
-and those concerned in the so-called cantonal risings.
-One or two politicals were strange characters, such
-as the old soldier named "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Cojo</i>" (the lame man)
-of Cariñena, a conceited veteran very proud of his
-many campaigns in which he had served, and who
-went everywhere on donkey back, being infirm and
-crippled. Another was the ex-curé of Berraonda, a
-Biscayan priest of ferocious aspect, tall, corpulent,
-dark-skinned, with an abundant snow white bushy
-beard, which grew to his waist and which was left
-untouched by the prison barber.</p>
-
-<p>Speaking in general terms of the whole body all
-types of character were represented. Some when in
-funds liked to pose as dandies with fine linen, smart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
-shoes or rope sandals tied with ribbons and coloured
-sashes (fajas); others, the larger number, were
-coarse and brutal ruffians, without private means,
-or too idle to acquire them by the labour of their
-hands, much given to drunkenness and very quarrelsome
-in their cups. The attitude of most convicts
-is mute irritation against everyone, but they
-especially hate their warders and superiors; they
-are surly and forbidding in manner, silent as to their
-past, little disposed to talk of their criminal adventures.
-Yet they display the most contradictory
-traits. Even when they have been guilty of the most
-horrible misdeeds they often show a calm, innocent
-face and are little vexed by conscience. One who
-was noted for his submissive demeanour and who
-in any trouble always sided with authority, was a
-parricide who had killed his father under the most
-revolting conditions.</p>
-
-<p>This youth, barely of age at the time of his crime,
-had sought his father's consent to his marriage with
-an unworthy character, and when refused, he retaliated
-by beating in his parent's brain with a pickaxe.
-The fit of homicidal fury which possessed him drove
-him to kill his father's donkey also and the dog
-which had been at his heels. Then, having satiated
-his rage, he went home seemingly undisturbed, and
-made some paltry excuse for his father's absence.
-When the corpse was found he was arrested on suspicion,
-but for want of more than circumstantial
-evidence escaped the garrote, and was sent to Ceuta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
-for life. Yet this miscreant betrayed no outward
-sign of the horrible passions that sometimes dominated
-him, but was always placid and of an engaging
-countenance. He was lamblike in his demeanour,
-most attentive to his religious duties, never
-missed a mass or failed to confess. He was devoted
-to children and his greatest pleasure was to fondle
-the baby child of one of the warders which he carried
-about in his arms in the streets of Ceuta. He
-seemed absolutely callous and insensible to the prickings
-of conscience, but he showed in two ways that
-he was consumed with remorse. When any reference
-was made to his crime, at the slightest hint or
-the vaguest question, a fierce look came into his eyes,
-his mouth closed, his hand sought his knife and he
-was ready to attempt some fresh act of violence. The
-other sign of his mental distress was that he seldom
-slept and never soundly or for long, and his nights
-were disturbed with groans, deep sighs, even yells of
-despair. Yet his general health was good, he ate
-with appetite, maintained his strength well, and
-there was no apparent mental failure. But he was
-no doubt mad and under a more intelligent system
-of jurisprudence he would have been relegated to a
-criminal lunatic asylum. There is no record however
-that at Ceuta he had been seized again by homicidal
-mania.</p>
-
-<p>There were many other types of murderers in
-Ceuta. The husbands who had killed their wives
-formed a distinct group. Jealousy because of real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
-or fancied injury led to the vindictive thirst for
-revenge and this was more frequently found in the
-peasant than in the higher and better educated
-classes. Death had been inflicted in most cases by
-violence, but one aggrieved Othello chose poison, rejoicing
-in the acute suffering produced by arsenic.
-Another, who was half a Frenchman, adopted the
-French method of dismemberment, and to dispose of
-the damning evidence of the corpse, cut it up into
-small pieces and distributed them far and wide, but
-could not hide them effectually. Extenuating circumstances
-were allowed him and he went to Ceuta,
-where he is said to have lived quite contentedly,
-never regretting the savage act that had avenged his
-dishonour and made him a widower.</p>
-
-<p>Ceuta made its own murderers. Duels to the
-death were of constant occurrence as elsewhere, and
-the authorities rarely interfered even when fatal
-consequences ensued. On this point Relosillas
-says: "During my stay of fourteen months in Ceuta
-hardly an hour passed without a serious quarrel, not
-a day when some one was not wounded, not a week
-without a violent death in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Cuartel Principal</i>.
-These troubles were due invariably to the same
-causes, the admission of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> and the facility
-with which knives and lethal weapons could be obtained—points
-already noted and discussed at the
-beginning of this chapter. The drink was always
-on tap, as it could be introduced without difficulty
-through the dishonesty of the warders and the un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>limited
-traffic with the townspeople. The weapons
-were never wanting, as it was impossible to check
-their presence, for no convict would be without his
-long sharp knife ready for instant use.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Disordered state of Spain at the accession of Isabella—Brigandage
-raised into an organised system by lawless nobility
-and rebels—The revival of the Santa Hermandad or Holy
-Brotherhood—This institution revived again in the 19th
-century under the name of "Migueletes"—Attack on the
-mail coach outside Madrid—The famous brigand José
-Maria—His daring robberies in the Serrania—His early
-life—English officers from Gibraltar captured and held to
-ransom—Beloved and venerated by the peasants—In 1833
-appointed an officer of the Migueletes—Brigandage not
-extinct in Spain—Don Julian de Zugasti appointed governor
-of Cordova—Methods of procedure—The famous
-robber Vizco el Borje—His seizure of Don Pedro de M.—Enormous
-ransom extorted—Agua Dulce.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>Brigandage, the form of organised highway robbery
-practised by bands of thieves in countries where
-roads are long and lonely and imperfectly guarded,
-has been always popular with the Latin races. It
-suited the tastes and temperament of reckless people
-who defied the law and laughed at the attempt to
-protect defenceless wayfarers. Their activity was
-stimulated by the long wastes of rugged country that
-separated the towns, giving harbourage and security
-to the robbers who issued forth to prey upon travel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>lers
-and easily retired to their rocky fastnesses and
-escaped pursuit. These Ishmaelites have been especially
-active in Spain and Italy and the aggressive
-spirit that moved them is not yet entirely extinct.
-More settled government has produced a more effective
-police in these latter days, but acts of brigandage
-in its latest development, that of "holding
-up" modern means of conveyance, express trains,
-bicycles and motor cars, have occurred, and may be
-reasonably expected to increase.</p>
-
-<p>Brigandage is as old as the hills in Spain and
-some of its earliest phases are well worth describing
-before they are forgotten or replaced by newer processes.
-We may look back and gather some idea of
-those early days in Spain.</p>
-
-<p>When Isabella, the Catholic, ascended the throne
-of Castile, she was called upon to govern a country
-profoundly demoralised, infested with evil doers and
-dominated by a turbulent and vicious nobility. The
-throne was an object of contempt, the treasury
-empty, the people poverty stricken, and the princes
-of the Church rebellious and rejoicing in large
-revenues. A lawless aristocracy hungry for independent
-authority were fighting for their own lands
-or conspiring secretly to overawe the Crown. Titled
-alcaldes, traitors and rebels, openly raised brigandage
-into a system, exacted tribute by blackmail from
-the lower classes, and made unceasing war upon the
-higher. Within the kingdom a rival pretender
-aimed at the Crown. One near neighbour, Al<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>fonso
-V of Portugal, menaced the peace of the country
-and kept an army on the frontier; another,
-Louis XI of France, crafty and unscrupulous, constantly
-threatened war and held his army in Guipuscoa.</p>
-
-<p>In a few short years the whole aspect of the country
-was changed. Isabella brought her rebellious
-nobles to their knees, all of them asking pardon and
-promising allegiance; the French army withdrew
-hastily to France; the Portuguese was defeated and
-expelled; the claimant to the throne was imprisoned
-and numbers of high-born criminals suffered on the
-scaffold. The great ecclesiastics disgorged much of
-their wealth to buy forgiveness, the robber haunts
-were attacked and destroyed, the high-roads became
-perfectly safe, thieves and highwaymen took to honest
-labour. Now the revenue was largely improved,
-the law was respected, crime was actively pursued
-and rigorously punished. But for the terrors and
-cruelties practised by the Inquisition, Spain would
-have enjoyed unbroken domestic peace and all the
-benefits accruing from general good government.
-These satisfactory results were largely achieved by
-the excellent police organised by Isabella and her
-husband, Ferdinand. The revival and consolidation
-of the "Santa Hermandad" or Holy Brotherhood
-which had always existed in the country districts to
-secure peace and tranquillity, but heretofore wielding
-smaller powers, worked wonders. A comprehensive
-system was now introduced by which all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
-parts were patrolled by well-armed guardians of the
-law, mounted and on foot, who checked, prevented
-or punished misdeeds. In every collection of thirty
-houses or more two officials were appointed to deal
-with all offenders according to a strict code. Every
-thief when taken was punished with fine, flogging
-and exile, in penalties proportioned to the amount
-stolen. For more heinous offences his ears were cut
-off and he got a hundred lashes, or yet again one of
-his feet was amputated and he was peremptorily forbidden
-to ride on a horse or mule at peril of his life.
-A sentence of death was carried out by shooting
-with arrows.</p>
-
-<p>This ancient Hermandad was at one time revived
-in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i>, a body of men organised early
-in the nineteenth century to act as escorts to private
-travellers, as the regular mails and diligences were
-under the protection of troops provided by the Government.
-The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i> were a semi-military force
-composed of picked youths of courageous conduct,
-wearing uniform and armed with a short gun, with
-a sword, a single pistol and carrying a cord by
-which to secure their prisoners. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i>
-took their name from one Miguel de Pratz, who had
-been a lieutenant of Caesar Borgia. They were
-often recruited from the robbers who were offered
-service as a condition of pardon when captured, and
-afterwards behaved admirably. No one with an
-escort of ten or twelve <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i> need fear attack.</p>
-
-<p>The mail coach was sometimes attacked, and on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
-one occasion was stopped at Almuwadiel outside
-Madrid. It carried several passengers, among
-others an Englishman, a German artist and a Spaniard.
-At the first appearance of the brigands, the
-guard threw himself on the ground with his face in
-the mud and the postillions did the same. When
-summoned to deliver up their possessions, the Englishman
-gave up his well filled purse and was warmly
-thanked; the German artist would have been ill-treated
-as a punishment for his empty pockets, but
-was spared when his poverty was explained; the
-Spaniard was caught attempting to conceal his valuables
-in the carriage lining and narrowly escaped a
-beating. The coach was at last permitted to proceed
-and at parting the leader of the band shook hands
-with the Englishman and said he was a real gentleman,
-the German was ignored and the Spaniard was
-sharply taken to task for his attempted "fraud."</p>
-
-<p>To this period (1825-35) belongs the famous
-brigand, José Maria, the Spanish Fra Diavolo,
-whose name is still remembered in the "Serrania"
-or mountain country of Ronda and throughout
-Southern Andalusia, for his daring robberies and
-continual defiance of the authorities. A "pass" or
-safe conduct granted by him was a better protection
-than any official escort. So great was his power
-that he was known by the proud title of "El Señor
-del Campo" (the lord of the country), and he ruled
-more absolutely in Andalusia than King Ferdinand
-in Spain. Travellers paid him a head tax, black<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>mail
-was levied on all public conveyances and, as
-has been said, he issued passports at a price to all
-who chose to pay for his protection. Strong bodies
-of troops were sent against him, but he managed
-always to elude or oppose them successfully.</p>
-
-<p>José Maria started in life as a small cultivator in a
-village near Antequera, but, unable to earn a decent
-living, he took to the more profitable business of
-smuggling, a profession greatly honoured and esteemed
-in Spain. In one of his operations he was
-drawn into an affray with the soldiers and unfortunately
-shot and killed one of them. He at once
-fled to the mountains, where he was soon surrounded
-by other no less reckless companions, all of them
-outlaws like himself, and became the chief and
-centre of the band which soon spread terror throughout
-Southern Spain. His headquarters were in the
-rugged and lofty mountain district of Ronda near
-the little town of Grazalema, but he was ubiquitous
-in his rapid movements and traversed the whole of
-Andalusia. A story is preserved of an English
-nobleman who travelled to Spain for the express
-purpose of making his acquaintance but long sought
-him in vain in his favourite haunts and much disappointed
-retraced his steps to Madrid. But on the
-road between Carmona and Ecija<a name="Anchor-23" id="Anchor-23"></a><a href="#Footnote-23" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 23.">[23]</a> he had the ques<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>tionable
-good fortune to meet José Maria in person,
-who thanked him courteously for the compliment he
-had paid him in seeking an interview, in return for
-which he proceeded to relieve his lordship of his
-valuables and his baggage so that he might continue
-his journey without encumbrance. He had many
-ways of levying contributions. One was to send
-a messenger to some landed proprietor, demanding
-a large sum of money, and declaring that if it was
-not paid he would swoop down to lay waste his
-lands and burn his house over his head. Another
-plan was to take post with his gang, all of them well
-mounted and fully armed, on the highroad just outside
-some populous city, and "hold up" every one
-who passed in or out, seizing all ready money and
-carrying off to some secret fastness all persons
-known to possess means.</p>
-
-<p>English officers, part of the garrison of the Rock
-of Gibraltar, did not escape the exactions of José
-Maria. Once a shooting party in the woods near
-Gibraltar was suddenly attacked and captured, but
-after the first surprise they showed fight and a brigand
-was wounded. The lives of all of them were in
-danger but were saved on the persuasion of José
-Maria that they would be more valuable as prisoners
-for whom a large ransom would be obtained
-than as corpses. One of the party was accordingly
-sent to the Rock to procure the money while the
-rest were detained as hostages for his return at a
-certain hour the next day. The messenger was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
-warned that if a rescue was attempted, the whole of
-the prisoners would be instantly massacred. He
-reached the Rock after gunfire, but the gates were
-presently especially opened to admit him, the money
-was collected, not without difficulty, and was conveyed
-to the brigands in sufficient time to secure the
-release of the captives. For some time later English
-officers were forbidden to go into Spain except
-in sufficient numbers to set the brigands at defiance.
-In quite recent years (1871) two gentlemen, natives
-of the Rock, were carried off and detained until a
-large ransom was paid.</p>
-
-<p>José Maria dominated the country for nearly ten
-years. The secret of his long continued impunity
-may be traced to the fact that many of the local
-authorities, influenced either by fear or interest,
-were in collusion with him, and that the peasantry
-all wished him success; for, as he never oppressed
-them, but assisted and protected their smuggling
-transactions in which they are nearly all, in one way
-or other, engaged by opposing the regular troops,
-he was greatly beloved and venerated. He was in
-fact regarded as a hero; for such a life, wild and
-adventurous, where there is plenty of plunder and
-no laborious duty, has wondrous charms in the eyes
-of the lower Andalusians, by whom the laws of
-<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">meum</i> and <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">tuum</i> have never been well understood.
-How long José might have continued in power it is
-impossible to say, but like some other great personages
-he chose to abdicate. In 1833, he made his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
-terms with the Queen's government, agreeing to
-break up his band on condition of receiving an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">indulto</i>,
-or pardon for all past offences, and a salaried
-appointment as an officer of Migueletes, or "police."
-He did not long exercise this honest calling, for
-soon after, when attempting to secure some of his
-former comrades who had taken refuge in a farmhouse,
-he was shot dead as he burst open the door.</p>
-
-<p>With all his bad qualities, José had some of a
-redeeming character. Among these were his kindness
-to his female prisoners, his generosity to the
-poor, and his forbearance, for he frequently restrained
-his troop from acts of violence, and displayed
-on occasions a certain chivalrous nobility of
-character, hardly to be expected from a robber. In
-person he was very small, scarcely more than five
-feet in height, with bowed legs; but he was stout,
-strong and active and made amends in boldness, determination
-and talent for his physical deficiencies.
-His success and the long continued control which he
-exercised over the lawless fellows who composed his
-band proved that he possessed the difficult art of
-command. His courage indeed was proverbial. As
-an instance of it, it is reported that he once ventured
-into the presence of the Prime Minister at Madrid
-and dared to beard him in his own house.</p>
-
-<p>Brigandage has not wholly disappeared in Spain
-although it no longer exists on the grand scale of
-former days when the mountain passes and lesser
-highways were infested by robber bands led by dar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>ing
-and unscrupulous chiefs who stopped travellers,
-blackmailed landed proprietors and carried off country
-folk whom they held to ransom often for considerable
-sums. To-day, if the knights of the road
-are still to be met with occasionally, they are for the
-most part paltry pilferers bent on stealing small
-sums from the poorer folk returning from market,
-or in rare cases holding up some solitary vehicle and
-its defenceless passengers. These are of the type of
-the old fashioned <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">salteadores</i> or "jumpers," so
-named because they jumped out from behind a rock
-and dropped suddenly on their prey with the old
-peremptory summons of "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca abajo!</i>" "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca
-à tierra!</i>" "Faces down! Mouth to the ground!"
-The cry may still be heard, and it means mischief
-when backed as of old by the muzzle of a gun protruding
-from the bushes in some narrow pass or
-defile. They are courageous too, these Spanish road
-agents, ready to fight at need as well as to rob, to
-overbear resistance and to meet the officers of the
-law with their own weapons. A story is told of one
-daring ruffian, Rullo de Zancayro, who, in 1859,
-murdered the alcalde of his village and was followed
-by two <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>. At the end of a long
-chase they went too near some brushwood, when one
-was shot dead and the fugitive made good his escape.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1870 brigandage was general throughout
-Spain, but the heart and centre of it was the
-province of Andalusia, with branches and rami<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>fications
-everywhere, spreading dismay and apprehension
-among all peaceable people. This was in
-the interregnum that followed the revolution which
-drove Queen Isabella from the throne. There was
-safety for no one. Respectable landowners dared
-not visit nor reside upon their estates for fear of
-attack, dreading robbery with violence or seizure of
-their persons, and they constantly received threatening
-letters demanding the purchase of immunity on
-the payment of considerable sums. The roads were
-more than ever insecure, trains and diligences were
-repeatedly held up, and small parties of travellers or
-solitary wayfarers were certain to be laid under contribution.
-It was claimed that the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>,
-the fine rural police, were no longer active but were
-diverted from their legitimate duties by political
-party leaders in power. So many bitter complaints,
-so many indignant demands for protection, reached
-the central government in Madrid, that the authorities
-resolved to put down brigandage with a strong
-hand. A new governor of Cordova was appointed,
-a man of vigour and determination, armed with full
-powers to purge the province of its desperadoes.</p>
-
-<p>The choice fell upon Don Julian de Zugasti y
-Saenz, who had been a member of the Cortes and
-employed as civil administrator, first as governor of
-Teruel, where he had restored order in a period of
-grave disorder, and at Burgos, where he had laid
-bare a formidable conspiracy against the government.
-When Zugasti undertook the task, it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
-high time to adopt energetic measures. There was
-no security for life or property as robberies on a
-large scale were perpetrated both in town and country.
-Well-to-do citizens were seized in the public
-streets and carried off to sequestration; farmers
-and cultivators were compelled to share their produce,
-their harvests, and their herds with the brigands
-who swooped down on them; the police were
-impotent or too much overawed to interfere in the
-interest of honest folk. The prevailing anarchy
-and widespread lawlessness were a disgrace to any
-country that called itself civilised. Zugasti did a
-great work in restoring order and giving security
-to the disturbed districts. The whole story is told
-at some length in his book on "Bandolerismo,"<a name="Anchor-24" id="Anchor-24"></a><a href="#Footnote-24" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 24.">[24]</a>
-which deals with brigandage in Spain from its very
-beginnings, describing the principal feats of the banditti.</p>
-
-<p>At the outset he was faced with a most difficult
-situation. Crimes in great number had been committed
-with impunity. Many of their perpetrators
-were wholly hidden from the authorities, while
-others were perfectly well known. A crowd of spies
-were ever on the watch and ready, whether from
-greed or to curry favour, with abundant information
-of openings that offered for attempts at crime.
-On the other hand the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i> were greatly
-discouraged and far too weak in numbers for the</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
-<p>onerous duties they were expected to perform.
-Judges were dishonest and had been known to accept
-bribes, the ordinary police were torpid, nearly
-useless and generally despised. A complete reform
-in the administration of justice was a crying need,
-as the power and authority of the law were completely
-broken down.</p>
-
-<p>The new governor was helpless and handicapped
-on every side. His representations to the government
-for support were but coldly received and he
-had to rely on such scanty means as he had at hand.
-He looked carefully into the character of all police
-employés and dismissed all of doubtful reputation.
-He established a system of supplying the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias
-civiles</i> at all stations with photographs of criminals
-at large whom they could identify and arrest, and
-insisted on strictly revising the permits issued to
-carry arms, allowing none but respectable persons
-to do so. The prohibition was extended to all kinds
-of knives, many of them murderous weapons of the
-well known type. The quarters of all evil doers
-he heard of were broken up, including the farm
-which had come to be called Ceuta because it harboured
-a mob of ex-convicts, escaped prisoners who
-were eager to resume their depredations by joining
-themselves to the plans and projects of others.</p>
-
-<p>These active measures were bitterly resented and
-vigorously resisted by all evil doers, who went so
-far as to seek the removal of the governor, and it
-was falsely announced in more than one newspaper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
-that he had sent in his resignation. The disastrous
-consequence was the immediate revival of brigandage
-in various forms. Horses and cattle were once
-more stolen in the open country and a house in the
-town of Estado was broken into and a large amount
-in cash and securities with much valuable jewelry
-was seized. At the same time ten prisoners escaped
-in a body from the gaol of that city. On the highroad
-between Posadas and Villaviciosa, seven armed
-men robbed nineteen travellers, and a party had the
-audacity to carry off a child of nine and hold him to
-ransom. The police and well-disposed people were
-greatly disheartened, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>, which had
-done excellent service in capturing more than a hundred
-prisoners in a short time, slackened in their
-endeavours, while the municipal police, which had
-forty captures to its credit, also held their hand.
-The whole situation was greatly aggravated and
-crime gained the ascendancy. But Zugasti rose to
-the occasion, publicly denied the report of his resignation;
-the government published a complimentary
-decree commending his conduct, and his pursuit of
-wrong doers was continued with renewed energy.
-Naturally he incurred the bitterest hostility and went
-constantly in danger of his life. He received anonymous
-letters containing the most bloodthirsty
-threats and was warned by his friends that they
-could not possibly support or protect him. Undeterred
-he held his way, bravely and wisely organised
-an association akin to the "Regulators" of the wild<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
-days in the Western States of the United States to
-patrol the country and insure the general safety, and
-employed a large force of secret police agents to
-perambulate the country, keeping close watch upon
-suspicious persons, travelling by all trains, patrolling
-all roads, visiting taverns in low quarters, entering
-the prisons in disguise and gaining the confidence of
-the fellow prisoners. Zugasti himself spent long
-periods in the various gaols, observing, investigating
-and interviewing notable offenders.</p>
-
-<p>The thoroughness of his proceedings might be
-gathered from the choice he made of his agents.
-One of the most useful was an idiot boy, whose
-weak-mindedness was relieved by some glimmerings
-of sense and who passed entirely unsuspected
-by those upon whom he spied. His foolish talk and
-silly ways gained him ready admission into cafés
-and clubs, where he was laughed at and treated as
-a butt upon whom food, drink and unlimited cigars
-were generously bestowed. He had the gift of remaining
-wide awake while seeming to be sound
-asleep, his ears ever on the stretch to pick up compromising
-facts which were openly mentioned before
-him. He had also a prodigious memory and
-seldom forgot what he heard, storing up everything
-to be produced later when he attended upon the
-governor. In this way Zugasti often heard of
-crimes almost as soon as they were planned, and
-could hunt up their perpetrators without delay. On
-one occasion a mysterious crime was unravelled by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
-placing the idiot in the same cell with two of the
-suspected actors, who entirely believed in the imbecility
-of their cell companion and unguardedly revealed
-the true inwardness of the whole affair.</p>
-
-<p>The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">ladron en grande</i>, the "robber chief" at the
-head of a numerous band, is still to be met with,
-although rarely representing the type of the famous
-José Maria. These leaders rose to the command of
-their lawless fellows by force of superior will, and
-they were unhesitatingly obeyed and followed with
-reckless devotion in the constant commission of
-crime. One or two noted specimens have survived
-till to-day and some account of them may be extracted
-from recent records.</p>
-
-<p>Vizco el Borje was long a terror to the peaceable
-people in northern Andalusia. He was originally
-an officer of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">carabineros</i>, the "custom house" regiment
-of Spain, but had been, in his own judgment,
-unjustly dismissed and found himself deprived of
-the means of subsistence. Falling lower and lower,
-step by step he became an outcast, an Ishmaelite
-consumed with an intense hatred of all social arrangements,
-with his hand against every man. He
-began business as a smuggler and soon took to
-worse, following the Spanish proverb:—</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">"De contrabandista e ladron</div>
-<div class="verse">No haymas que un escalon."</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<p>"There is only one short step from smuggler to
-thief," and Vizco quickly crossed the narrow space<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
-and became a notorious criminal. He carried on
-the war against law and order with constantly increasing
-recklessness and more and more daring
-outrages. His strong personal character, his iron
-will, his unbounded courage and boldness gave him
-a great ascendancy over the men who collected
-around him and who served him with the greatest
-loyalty and unstinting effort. One of his exploits
-may be quoted at some length as exhibiting his
-methods and the success that generally attended
-them.</p>
-
-<p>A certain landowner, Don Pedro de M——, whose
-estates were in the neighbourhood of the mountain
-village of Zahrita, was in the habit of providing bulls
-free of charge for the amusement of the villagers,
-at the annual festival of their patron saint. Amateur
-bull fighters are always to be found to take part
-in the performance of a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">novillos</i>, or game with
-young bulls. Don Pedro like many of his class was
-also an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aficionado</i>, an amateur devoted to bull fighting,
-and he loved to pick out himself the animals
-he gave from his herds, trying first their temper and
-their aptitude for the so-called sport of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">tauromaquia</i>.
-He was thus engaged, assisted by his steward and a
-herdsman, and had dismounted with the steward to
-walk round the herd, when the ominous cry was
-raised, "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca abajo!</i>" and they found themselves
-covered by the rifles of three brigands who had
-crept upon them unobserved. Resistance was hopeless,
-though they also were armed, for their guns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
-hung at the saddles of their horses, which they led
-at the full length of their reins, and to have made
-any hostile move would have drawn down a murderous
-fire. The chance soon passed, for one of the
-robbers quickly took possession of both horses and
-guns. The seizure was complete and the captors
-proceeded to carry off their prize.</p>
-
-<p>All remounted by order of the chief of the band,
-who took the lead, and the party started in single
-file along the narrow mountain path, an armed escort
-bringing up the rear. They made straight for
-the upper sierra, avoiding the frequented track until
-they reached a dense thicket, where a halt was
-called and a scout sent on ahead. After an interchange
-of whistled signals, nine other horsemen
-rode up, the two prisoners were ordered to dismount,
-their eyes closely bandaged, and they were warned
-that their lives depended upon their implicit obedience
-to the orders they received. Then the march
-was resumed. The road led constantly upward,
-becoming more and more rugged and precipitous
-till from the utter absence of brushwood and the
-stumbling of their horses they knew that they were
-climbing through a mountainous region. Another
-halt was called, all again dismounted, and the prisoners
-were led on foot along a narrow passage, that
-from the echoing sounds and the closeness of the
-air evidently penetrated far into the hill. It opened
-presently into an extensive cavern, probably the
-long-abandoned workings of some ancient Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
-mine. Here their bandages were removed and Don
-Pedro saw that he was in the presence of the three
-bandits who had first made him prisoner. The
-cave contained nothing but a few empty boxes, on
-one of which was a light, a flickering wick in a saucerful
-of oil. Another box was offered Don Pedro
-as a seat, writing materials were produced and he
-was desired to write from dictation as follows:—</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Father</span>, I am in the power of the 'Sequestradores,'
-who make good plans and bind fast.
-It is madness to put the government on their track—they
-will escape and you will lose your son. Your
-secrecy and your money can at once free me. You
-can send the silver by Diego our steward, who is
-the bearer of this. Let him appear on the mountain
-between Grazalema and El Bosque, riding a
-white donkey and bringing ten thousand dollars."</p></div>
-
-<p>Here the prisoner stopped short and point blank
-refused to demand so large a sum, declaring that
-to pay it his brothers would be robbed of their patrimony
-and that he had no right to ask even when
-his life was at stake for more than his individual
-share as one member of a large family. It was a
-fair argument and he held out so staunchly that the
-brigand was pleased to reduce the demand to six
-thousand dollars. The letter conveying these terms
-was then completed, signed and delivered to Diego,
-who was told to make the best of his way to Xeres,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
-and as dawn had now broken he had no difficulty in
-finding the road.</p>
-
-<p>Don Pedro was hospitably entertained. A wine
-skin (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">borracha</i>) was broached and a plentiful supper
-laid out. The day was spent in sleep, but at
-nightfall the march was resumed. The prisoner was
-once more blindfolded, the weary pilgrimage, halting
-by day, travelling by night for three nights in
-succession, was resumed. On one occasion he
-seemed near rescue. A cry of "Civiles! Civiles!"
-was raised, an alarm of the near approach of the
-much dreaded <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>. Orders were
-promptly issued to prepare for action. The brigands
-closed their ranks, sent their prisoner to the
-rear and took post to open fire. In the confusion
-Don Pedro, keenly alert for the deliverance that
-seemed so near, managed to lift the bandage over his
-eyes sufficiently to peep around. The party stood
-on a narrow ledge of the mountain side, straight
-cliff above, sheer drop below: movement forward
-or back was alone feasible. Meanwhile the increasing
-clatter of hoofs betrayed the enemy's approach,
-nearer and nearer, and the brigands barring the
-narrow road hoped to take them at a disadvantage
-and, after shooting them down, make good their
-retreat. But the sight of the first horse showed that
-it had been a false alarm. These were not "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Civiles</i>"
-but "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Contrabandistas</i>," smugglers not policemen,
-friends not foes. A long train of animals, heavily
-laden with goods that had paid no duty, were being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
-guided across the mountains. Don Pedro's hopes
-were crushed out of him when he heard the interchange
-of friendly greetings: "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Muy buenas
-noches!</i>" on one side and "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Vayan ustedes con
-Dios</i>," on the other; "Good night!" and "Go in
-God's keeping," and room was made by the robbers
-for the safe passage of the smuggling train.</p>
-
-<p>On the third day news came that the authorities
-were on the alert and it would be unsafe to meet
-the messenger returning on his white donkey. Another
-tryst was therefore appointed. Don Pedro's
-father was desired to send half the whole sum demanded
-to Grazalema and the other half was carried
-by a man on the white donkey to a lonely spot
-among the hills. The father started in person on
-the long ride from Xeres to Grazalema weighted
-with three thousand dollars in cash, reached his destination
-safely but remained there for a couple of
-days tortured with suspense. On the third morning
-he was approached by a man leading a pony
-laden with rolls of the rough brown cloth manufactured
-in Grazalema, who said under his breath as
-he passed, "Follow me." The peddler led the way
-to a small draper's shop where the same cloth was
-exposed for sale and, dismounting, passed into the
-back premises, where another man, also a peddler,
-was seated waiting. This was Vizco el Borje himself,
-who at once asked for the money, producing
-Don Pedro's pencil case as his credentials. The dollars
-had been sewn for security into the pack saddle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
-of the pony which had brought the old man, and
-they were extracted, counted and handed over.
-Vizco forthwith climbed on top of the pile of cloth
-carried by his own mount and rode boldly out of
-the town.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile Diego, the steward on the white donkey,
-with the remaining three thousand dollars patiently
-hung about the mountain lair to which he
-had been directed, and at last encountered a goatherd
-at the entrance of the village, who told him to
-ride on till he met a woman dressed in black seated
-by the side of a well. "She will ask you the time,
-and you will answer twelve o'clock, at which she
-will guide you to the spot where you are expected."
-It was a cavern in the hill and he was met there by
-his young master Don Pedro safe and sound. The
-money was handed over, but no release was permitted
-until news came of the delivery of the other
-half, when the prisoners were guided to a path familiar
-to them and they were free to return home.
-Next evening they rode into Xeres after a captivity
-of fifteen days.</p>
-
-<p>The end of Vizco el Borje was such as might be
-expected. He was shot down by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias
-civiles</i>. For a long time he carried his life in his
-hands and had many hairbreadth escapes, saved
-always by his fine pluck and resourcefulness. At
-last the authorities had positive information of his
-whereabouts, gained through treachery, and he was
-surrendered. He made a gallant defence, but his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
-retreat was cut off and he was soon overpowered.
-When he fell his body had been pierced by five rifle
-bullets.</p>
-
-<p>Another type of brigand was Agua Dulce, who
-worked on a much smaller scale, but was long a
-terror in the neighbourhood of Xeres. He was a
-mean, contemptible ruffian who preyed upon charcoal
-burners, poor travellers, carriers and workmen
-returning home with their hard earned wages. He
-had one narrow escape. After securing an unusually
-large sum, the equivalent of £600, all in small
-coins, he was caught dividing these with two accomplices
-in a wine shop. His arrest and imprisonment
-followed. When called upon to account for his possession
-of the gold, Agua Dulce explained that he
-had got it in the course of a business transaction in
-Seville and was removed to that city for trial, where
-he was acquitted, although little doubt was entertained
-of his guilt.</p>
-
-<p>For years he continued his depredations, committing
-for the most part small thefts and petty larcenies.
-Now and again he made bold coups, as when,
-under threat of damaging a herd of valuable mares,
-he extorted three thousand dollars from a lady who
-raised horses. He levied a thousand dollars on another
-landowner by using the same menace and a
-third gentleman, who had stoutly refused to be
-blackmailed and who owned a large drove of donkeys,
-found them all with their throats cut lying
-by the high road. When his misdeeds became too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
-numerous to be borne the municipal guard of Gorez
-swore to put an end to him. A hot pursuit was
-organised and he was found at a ford near a wood
-belonging to the Duke of San Lorenzo, where he
-was caught hiding among the trees. Two guards
-opened fire, which was returned, with the result that
-one guard was killed and one robber. Agua Dulce,
-who was still alive, got into the covert, and shots
-were again and again exchanged, ending in the
-destruction of the brigand.</p>
-
-<p>A later affair with brigands occurred at Gibraltar
-in 1870, when two gentlemen, natives of the Rock,
-much given to hunting and taking long rides in the
-neighbourhood, were waylaid and made prisoners.
-They were carried off to a lonely house in the hills
-near Ronda and detained for ransom, which was
-advanced by the British government through the
-governor of the fortress of Gibraltar, and eventually
-repaid by the Spanish authorities. After the money
-had been paid over the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i> intercepted
-the robbers and shot them down.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class="ph3">A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Wonderful results achieved by Colonel Montesinos in the
-presidio at Valencia—Montesinos repairs and reconstructs
-the prison with convict labour—His system of
-treatment—Period—Marvellous success in reforming
-criminals—Convicts entrusted with confidential despatches
-in civil war—Armed to resist attack on the prison by insurgents—Employed
-to hunt down brigands—Movement
-towards prison reform in 1844—Three new model prisons
-planned for Madrid—Executions—The "garrote"—Account
-of the trial and execution of José de Rojas—The
-condemned cell at the Saladero—An Englishman's description
-of a Spanish execution.</p></div>
-
-
-<p>The reader who has followed this detailed description
-of Spanish penal methods has realised the
-hideous shortcomings of Spanish prisons, the horrible
-practices so constantly prevailing within the
-walls, the apparently incurable nature of the criminals
-who regularly fill them, and he might reasonably
-doubt that definite and substantial amendment was
-possible. Yet the contrary is true and to the most
-marked and astonishing degree if we are to believe
-the facts on record. In one instance the personal
-character of one man, backed by his unshaken determination
-and the exercise of a resolute and inflex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>ible
-will, brought a large mass of convicts into an
-admirable condition of self-control and good behaviour.
-The story reads like a fairy tale, as set
-forth in contemporary chronicles. One of the most
-interesting accounts is to be found in a book of
-travels entitled "Spain as It Is," by a Mr. Hoskins,
-in which he gives his personal observations of the
-results achieved in the prison at Valencia by the enlightened
-administration of its Governor, Colonel
-Montesinos. A brief account of the man himself
-should precede our appreciation of his work.</p>
-
-<p>Montesinos was a soldier, trained to arms, whose
-education and experience were entirely military.
-He had no previous acquaintance with or insight
-into prison systems, although he had travelled far
-and wide in many countries. He had never visited
-or inspected their penal establishments nor had he
-penetrated into any single prison in his native Spain.
-He served in the Spanish army, beginning as a cadet
-at fourteen, was actively engaged in the war of Independence,
-and was carried off as a prisoner into
-France. When set free at the conclusion of peace,
-he accepted a post in the secretariat of the War
-Office at Madrid, where he remained for five years.
-Then came the political troubles which ended in the
-fall of the constitutional government in 1823 and
-the surrender of Cadiz. With many other soldiers
-and citizens, he left Spain and wandered through
-Europe and America, with no very definite idea of
-examining into the laws and customs of other coun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>tries,
-but gaining knowledge and breadth of views.
-On his return to Spain when close on forty years
-of age he was appointed governor of the convict
-prison in Valencia.</p>
-
-<p>Montesinos entered upon his duties with a firm
-conviction of the paramount importance of military
-discipline, of that passive and unquestioning obedience
-to authority, the absolute surrender of individual
-volition, the complete subjection of the many to
-the single will of one superior master, which he
-believed to be the essence of all personal government
-and more particularly in a prison. To enforce
-such discipline was the only effectual method of securing
-good order and the due subordination of the
-rough and possibly recalcitrant elements under his
-command. In this he entirely succeeded and established
-an extraordinary influence over his charges.
-He became an autocrat but in the best sense; his
-prisoners resigned themselves submissively and unhesitatingly
-to his control, anxious to gain his good
-will by their exemplary demeanour and their unvarying
-desire to behave well. What he actually
-made of his charges, how he succeeded in changing
-their very natures, in transforming lawbreakers and
-evil doers into honest, trustworthy persons, successfully
-restraining their evil instincts, will be best
-realised by a few strange facts which, if not positively
-vouched for, would be considered beyond belief.
-But before relating these marvellous results
-it will be well to describe in some detail the processes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
-adopted by him and the principles on which he
-acted.</p>
-
-<p>When Colonel Montesinos was appointed governor
-of the Valencian convent prison, it was located
-in an ancient mediæval edifice known as the
-"<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Torres de Cuarte</i>," two towers flanking the great
-gate which gave upon the suburb known as "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El
-Cuarte</i>." This semi-ruinous building, dating from
-the fifteenth century, lodged about a thousand prisoners,
-herded together in a number of dark, dirty,
-ill-kept and insecure chambers, wholly unfit for
-human habitation. They were on several floors
-communicating by narrow passages and tortuous
-staircases, below which were deep underground cellars
-divided up into obscure foul dungeons, which
-were always humid from the infiltration from the
-city ditch and into which neither sunlight nor fresh
-air came to dry up the damp pavement and the
-streaming walls. Montesinos saw at once that it
-would be impossible to introduce reforms in such a
-building and he laboured hard to move into better
-quarters, securing at length, after a long correspondence,
-new quarters in the monastery of St. Augustine,
-which indeed was but little better. Here also
-the buildings had fallen into disrepair. A large part
-was without roof, there was little flooring, and
-many broken windows and decayed walls offered
-numerous facilities for escape. Extensive repairs
-were indispensable, yet funds were wanting, for the
-Spanish government was sorely taxed to meet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
-expenses of the civil war (Carlist) now in full
-swing. Nevertheless Montesinos, strenuous and
-indefatigable, a host in himself, transferred his
-people, a thousand convicts of dangerous character,
-into their new abode and set them to work to repair
-and reconstruct the old building. He meant to succeed,
-by drawing upon his own limitless energies,
-creating means from his own native resources, and
-was backed by the ready response of those he
-brought under the dominion of an indomitable will.</p>
-
-<p>All difficulties yielded before his intense spirit.
-He was the very incarnation of activity and it was
-enough to look at him to be spurred on to assiduous
-effort. His personal traits and their effect upon his
-surroundings are thus described by his biographer,
-Vincente Boix,—"There can be no doubt that his
-martial air, his tall figure and the look in his face,
-a mixture of imperious command with great kindliness
-and shrewd appreciation of willing effort, had
-a marked effect upon his people, and convicts who
-had been once coerced and driven by the fear of
-punishment yielded much more readily to his moral
-force. His obvious determination and strength of
-character got more out of them than threats or penalties,
-although, if needs were, he was ready enough
-to appeal to the strong arm. They acknowledged
-his superiority, and rough undisciplined men, quite
-capable of rising against authority when unchecked
-or weakly held, succumbed to his lightest word like
-children to their father. They yielded even against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
-the grain absolute compliance to his lightest wish
-without needing a sharp look or a cross word."</p>
-
-<p>It will be interesting to follow Montesinos'
-procedure. Under his system the treatment was
-progressive and divided into three periods; first,
-that of chains; second, that of labour; and third,
-that of conditional liberation. This arrangement is
-in some respects akin to that generally known as
-the "Irish" system as practised many years ago
-with conspicuous success.</p>
-
-<p>(1) The wearing of irons at that time was general
-in Spain, although now the practice has fallen
-into disuse. With Montesinos the rule was to impose
-irons of varying weight graduated to the length
-of sentence. A two years' man carried them of
-four pounds' weight; a four years' man of six
-pounds, while between six and eight years they were
-of eight pounds. They consisted of a single chain
-fastened to a fetter on the right ankle, while the
-other end was attached to a waist belt, a method
-supposed to cause no great inconvenience. With
-Montesinos the period of wearing them was of short
-duration. It terminated on the day that the convict
-petitioned for regular employment, for on first reception,
-after having entered the first courtyard,
-which was kept bright with garden flowers and the
-songs of many birds in cages hanging around, the
-new arrival was given no work. He remained at
-the depot idle and silent, for no conversation was
-permitted, although he was associated with others,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
-and if he put a question to a neighbour he got no
-reply. Weariness and boredom soon supervened in
-this period of first probation and the convict was
-keen to pass on. He appealed to his officer, who
-told him to seek employment at some trade. "I
-know none." "Then learn one, you cannot get
-quit of your irons in any other way." If the convict
-hesitated he was left studiously to himself, unhappy
-and ashamed, for his condition was deemed
-disgraceful. He could not hold his head up, for a
-wide gulf separated him from others who had escaped
-the chain. He was a marked man, shunned
-and sneered at, and was required to work from the
-second day at ignominious and humiliating labour,
-such as sweeping, cleaning, and so forth. They
-were the helots and scavengers of the prison. Their
-lot was the more unbearable because they were debarred
-from many privileges conferred on those
-who were at regular labour, and who were earning
-wages to spend in part upon themselves. These
-regular labourers might buy toothsome food and
-cigars, the delight of every Spaniard's heart.
-Meanwhile the governor had been watching him
-closely, noting his disposition and whether or not
-he was desirous of taking up work which was so
-much to his advantage and of which he would be
-speedily deprived unless he applied himself to it
-with zeal and unflagging industry.</p>
-
-<p>(2) A wide choice of labour obtained in Valencia.
-Trades and handicrafts were varied and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
-numerous. Carpenters, turners, saddlers, shoemakers,
-fanmakers, workers with esparto grass,
-weavers of palm straw hats, silk spinners, tailors,
-basket makers, were all represented, and the total
-was some forty trades, with seven hundred artisans.
-To-day there would be nothing remarkable in this
-industrial activity, which may be seen in well governed
-prisons, but in Valencia at that date
-(1835-40) it was a novelty due very largely to
-Montesinos' initiative, and he could boast that out
-of three thousand convicts, barely a fourth left
-prison without having acquired some smattering of
-a trade. Stress must not be laid upon the exact
-amount of skill possessed by these prison taught
-artisans, and it is to be feared that it was no more
-thorough than in these latter days of ours, when the
-same principles as those of Montesinos have actuated
-prison administration. This is the crux of the
-system of prison instruction. It cannot be expected
-to turn out workmen sufficiently well trained and
-expert to go out into the open labour market, so
-generally overcrowded, and compete for wages
-against the free labourer who has had the benefit
-of full apprenticeship. Adults cannot easily acquire
-knowledge and dexterity in the use of tools, and
-inevitable waste of materials accompanies the experiments
-made by unskilled hands. We have no
-record of how far these drawbacks affected Montesinos'
-well-meant practice.</p>
-
-<p>(3) We have no facts to show how far the third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
-period, that of conditional liberation, was successful
-at Valencia. There is no possibility of knowing
-definitely whether it was really tried or went beyond
-the enunciation of the theory so long in advance
-of our modern practice. It is little likely,
-however, that the effective and elaborate method of
-police supervision on which it is absolutely dependent
-was in existence or even understood in Spain
-in the days of Montesinos.</p>
-
-<p>No permanent results seemed to have been
-achieved by the Montesinos system. There is no
-record that it survived the man who created it or
-that the government sought to extend the admirable
-principles on which it rested. It was essentially a
-one man system, depending entirely for success on
-the personal qualities of the individual called upon
-to carry it out. Montesinos was not, however, singular
-in his remarkable achievement. The German
-Obermaier did much the same in the prison of Kaiserslautern,
-and Captain Maconochie in Norfolk
-Island exercised a notable mastery over the Australian
-convicts. The effects produced by Montesinos
-were little less than phenomenal. He so developed
-the probity of his convicts that he could
-rely implicitly upon their honesty and good faith.
-During the civil war he sent them with confidential
-despatches to commanders in the field and never had
-cause to regret the trust placed in them. They were
-sent out as scouts seeking information of the
-enemy's movements and brought in news with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
-punctuality and despatch. A message was brought
-one day to the governor directing him to send a
-clerk to fetch a thousand dollars from the provincial
-Treasury. Montesinos forthwith summoned one of
-his convicts and despatched him, carrying with him
-the receipt for the money. Within half an hour the
-man returned with the dollars. Whenever a convict
-escaped from the presidio, a rare occurrence
-indeed, other convicts were despatched in pursuit
-and seldom failed to bring in the fugitive.</p>
-
-<p>At one time the Spanish government decided to
-build a new prison in the capital and to employ convict
-labour in the construction. The Governor of
-the presidio of Valencia was ordered to send up a
-number of prisoners, and next day at daylight they
-marched, taking with them a quantity of material,
-the whole escorted by a small body of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>, "prisoner
-warders," and commanded by a veteran overseer.
-The journey was safely made to Madrid
-without the smallest mishap, not a sign or symptom
-of misbehaviour shown on the road, and the alcaldes
-of the towns on the route, after anticipating the
-worst evils, were agreeably surprised and were satisfied
-to lodge the travellers at night in private
-houses if there was no prison accommodation. A
-second experiment of the kind was made in the
-same year.</p>
-
-<p>On a previous occasion Valencia was threatened
-by a strong force of Carlists under that distinguished
-Carlist general, Cabrera, and it was feared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
-that he would capture a large body of convicts at
-that time employed on a new road, Las Cabrillas, a
-little distance from the city. There were hardly
-any troops in the capital except the city militia only
-recently organised and barely equal to the duties
-and dangers imposed upon them. Great fears were
-entertained that Cabrera would seize the convicts
-and incorporate with his own force. Montesinos
-was desired to prevent this, and he turned up in person
-one evening at Las Cabrillas, where he assumed
-command and drew off the greater number, happily
-escaping without attack or interference by the
-enemy. So loyal was the demeanour of the Valencian
-prisoners that under the direction of Montesinos
-at another time they were armed and resisted an
-attack made upon the gates of their convent prison
-by the insurgents in a rising in Valencia. The following
-extraordinary story is related in an official
-publication by the well known poet Don Ramon de
-Campoamor, at that time governor of the province
-of Valencia. A formidable band of brigands was
-devastating the neighbourhood of Valencia and a
-reign of terror prevailed. The governor sent for
-Colonel Montesinos and inquired whether there
-were any old brigands among the convicts in custody
-and who were willing to atone for past misdeeds
-by coming to the assistance of the authorities.
-Montesinos, who made it a rule to know all his prisoners
-by heart, their present dispositions, and indeed
-their inmost thoughts, spoke confidently of one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
-as quite a reformed character, and at the governor's
-request entrusted him with the special mission of
-clearing out the country. The convict, after receiving
-his instructions, went out with a sufficient escort,
-hunted down the brigands, broke up their bands,
-killing or capturing the whole. Here the commanding
-influence of Montesinos was paramount even
-beyond the walls of the presidio. By the power of
-his strong will he called out fine qualities and exacted
-loyal service from the worst materials whom
-he had won to a high sense of discipline.</p>
-
-<p>A minor and more sentimental instance is recorded
-of the confidence he could repose in his
-reformed criminals. The mother of one of the convicts
-was at the point of death. The man was
-summoned to the governor's office and informed of
-her desperate condition. "Do you wish to see her
-in her last moments?" asked the governor. "Can
-I trust you to return if I give you permission to
-leave the prison for a time?" The man much
-moved solemnly promised not to misuse his liberty.
-He was allowed to exchange his prison uniform for
-a peasant's dress; he went without escort to his
-mother's cottage, received her blessing, and went
-back to durance as had been agreed.</p>
-
-<p>The experience of Valencia was unique and short-lived.
-A commendable effort was made to extend
-the principles on which Montesinos had acted, and
-decrees embodying them and recommending them
-for general adoption were issued but soon became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
-a dead letter. Excellent in theory, their success depended
-entirely on the man to give them effect. A
-second Montesinos did not appear and Spanish
-prisons continued to exhibit the worst features down
-to the present day.</p>
-
-<p>A movement towards prison reform had been
-commenced as early as 1844, when three new
-"model" prisons were planned for Madrid, but
-their construction was long delayed. About the
-same date a model convict prison was planned at
-Valladolid, but slow progress was made with this
-and with other new prisons, including that of Saragossa,
-and at the Casa de Galera of Alcalá de
-Henares. A penitentiary was also projected on the
-island of Cabrera, opposite Cadiz. The chief effort
-was concentrated on the model prison of Madrid,
-which was undertaken in 1876 after much debate
-and discussion. It was to be an entirely new building,
-to which were devoted all the funds that might
-have been expended upon the impossible reform and
-repair of the hideous old Saladero. Several years
-passed before the building began, and not until 1884
-did the tenants of the dismantled Saladero move
-into the new prison. It is for the most part on the
-cellular or separate system, by which each individual
-is held strictly apart from his fellows, according to
-the most modern ideas, which have claimed to have
-exerted a potent effect in the reformation of offenders
-and the diminution of crime. Nevertheless the
-system is still in its trial and its beneficial results are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
-by no means universally conceded. The new prison
-is a very distinct improvement on the old, and the
-former horrors and atrocities are fast disappearing,
-but the secluded solitary life has its own peculiar
-terrors which press hardly on transgressors, with
-results that are very distinctly deterrent if not very
-largely reformatory.</p>
-
-<p>What those actually subjected to the treatment
-feel we may read in their own effusions. The literary
-quality of prison writers does not rank high
-but they sometimes put their views forcibly. One
-says of the "model":—"If I leave this trying
-place alive I can at least declare that I have been
-buried underground and had made the acquaintance
-of the grave diggers." Another writer:—"If you
-wish to know what life is like here, come and take
-your lodging inside. They are handsome, but curious,
-well provided with means to drive you out of
-your mind. There is a water tap which overflows
-in drought and runs dry in wet weather; a pocket
-handkerchief and a towel; a plate, a basin and a
-wooden spoon, a broom, a dust box, one blanket and
-a mattress with four straws that gives you pain in
-every limb: many things more, but one alone much
-needed is absent, a rope by which you commit suicide."</p>
-
-<p>It has been said that the worst use to which a
-man may be put is to shut him up in a prison. A
-still more wasteful extravagance is to put him out
-of the world. The penalties known to Spanish law<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
-have been very various; there have been many
-forms of imprisonment, perpetual imprisonment,
-greater or less detention, exile, the application of
-fetters of several sorts, handcuffs, shackles, the
-<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guarda amigo</i> or "holdfriend," the "persuader" or
-"come along with me"; the leg irons and waist
-chains of varying weights. Penal labour was enforced
-in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">maniobras infimas</i> by convicts chained together
-on public works, fortifications, harbours and
-mines. All forms of secondary punishment have
-been inflicted, winding up with capital, the death
-sentence inflicting the extreme penalty of the law.
-This last irrevocable act does not find favour with
-all Spanish legists, whose chief objection is the familiar
-one that when a judicial error has been committed,
-rectification is altogether impossible. Spain
-can add one to the many well known cases such as
-those of Callas and Lesurques, and it may be quoted
-here as it is probably little known.</p>
-
-<p>The case occurred in Seville and grew out of a
-sudden quarrel in a tavern followed by a fight to the
-death with knives. The combatants went on the
-ground and attacked each other in the regular
-fashion when one dropped to the ground mortally
-wounded and the other with his second ran away.
-The wounded man's second went up to see whether
-his principal was dying or already dead, when he
-got up and declared that he was entirely unhurt.
-He had slipped upon a stone and fallen with the obviously
-cowardly desire to escape from his antag<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>onist's
-attack. The second was furiously angry and
-rated his man soundly. He retorted fiercely and
-another quarrel and another encounter ensued, also
-with knives, in which the first man again fell and
-this time was killed outright, by his own second,
-who at once made off. The body lay where it had
-fallen until next morning, when the police found it.
-The story of the original quarrel but nothing of the
-second had become known, and it was naturally concluded
-that death had been inflicted by the first
-combatant. On the face of it the evidence was conclusive
-against him, and he did not attempt to deny
-the facts as they appeared when arrested and put
-upon his trial. At that time the law treated homicide
-in a duel as murder and the victim suffered the
-extreme penalty without protest, believing himself
-to be guilty. The truth was never known, until the
-real offender, years after, confessed the part he had
-played, but too late of course to prevent the judicial
-murder of the innocent man. This case has naturally
-been added to give weight to the many powerful
-arguments against capital punishment.</p>
-
-<p>The extreme penalty of the law is nowadays inflicted
-in Spain by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>, a method of strangulation
-by the tightening of an iron collar, the substitute
-for hanging introduced by King Ferdinand
-VII (1820). Till then the hanging was carried
-out in the clumsiest and most brutal manner. The
-culprits were dragged by the executioner up the
-steps of a ladder leaning against the scaffold. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
-a certain height he mounted on the victim's
-shoulders and thus seated flung himself off with
-his victim underneath. As they swung to and
-fro the hangman's fingers were busily engaged in
-choking the convict so as to complete the strangulation.
-The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> is a very simple contrivance.
-The condemned man sits on a stool or low seat, leaning
-his back against a strong, firm upright post to
-which an iron collar is fixed. This, when opened,
-encircles his neck, and is closed and tightened by a
-powerful screw, worked by a lever from behind.
-Death is instantaneous.</p>
-
-<p>Public executions must prove very popular performances
-with a people who still revel in a bull
-fight and flock to look at the hairbreadth escapes of
-human beings from hardly undeserved death by the
-horns of a fierce beast tortured into madness. De
-Foresta, an Italian traveller,<a name="Anchor-25" id="Anchor-25"></a><a href="#Footnote-25" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 25.">[25]</a> tells us that never was
-a greater concourse seen in Madrid than that which
-collected in 1877 to witness the execution of two
-murderers, Mollo and Agullar, when it was estimated
-that 80,000 people were present. Ford describes
-an execution in Seville in 1845 when the
-crowd was enormous and composed largely of the
-lower orders, of the humbler ranks, "who hold the
-conventions of society very cheap and give loose
-rein to their morbid curiosity to behold scenes of
-terror, which operates powerfully on the women,</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p>
-<p>who seem irresistibly impelled to witness sights the
-most repugnant to their nature and to behold sufferings
-which they would most dread to undergo,"
-and many of whom "brought in their arms young
-children at the beginning of life to witness its conclusion."
-"They desire to see how the criminal
-will conduct himself, they sympathise with him if
-he displays coolness and courage, and despise him
-on the least symptom of unmanliness."</p>
-
-<p>Ford in his "Gatherings from Spain" gives a
-graphic account of the execution of a highway robber,
-one of the band of the famous José Maria already
-mentioned. The culprit, José de Rojas, was
-nicknamed "Veneno," poison, from his venomous
-qualities and had made a desperate resistance before
-he was finally overcome by the troops who captured
-him. He fell wounded with a bullet in his leg, but
-killed the soldier who ran forward to secure him.
-When in custody he turned traitor and volunteered
-to betray his old associates and give such information
-as would lead to their arrest if his own life was
-spared. The offer was accepted and he was sent
-out with a sufficient force to seize them. Such was
-the terror of his name that all surrendered, but not
-to him. On this quibble the indemnity promised
-him was withdrawn, he was brought to trial, condemned,
-and in due course executed on the Plaza
-San Francisco, which adjoins the prison in Seville
-and is commonly used for public executions.</p>
-
-<p>Ford was admitted within the walls and describes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
-Veneno "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">en capilla</i>," a small room set apart as a
-condemned cell, the approach to which was
-thronged with officers, portly Franciscan friars and
-"members of a charitable brotherhood collecting
-alms from the visitors to be expended in masses for
-the eternal repose of the soul of the criminal. The
-levity of those assembled without, formed a heartless
-contrast with the gloom and horror of the melancholy
-interior of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i>. At the head of the
-cell was placed a table with a crucifix, an image of
-the Virgin and two wax tapers, near which stood
-a silent sentinel with a drawn sword. Another
-soldier was stationed at the door with a fixed bayonet.
-In a corner of this darkened compartment lay
-Veneno curled up like a snake, with a striped coverlet
-drawn closely over his mouth, leaving visible
-only a head of matted locks, and a glistening dark
-eye rolling restlessly out of its deep socket. On being
-approached he sprang up and seated himself on a
-stool. He was almost naked, but a chaplet of beads
-hung across his exposed breast and contrasted with
-the iron chains around his limbs.... The expression
-of his face though low and vulgar was one
-which, once seen, was not easily forgotten. His
-sallow complexion appeared more cadaverous in the
-uncertain light and was heightened by a black unshorn
-beard, growing vigorously on a half-dead
-countenance. He appeared to be reconciled to his
-fate and repeated a few sentences, the teaching of
-the monks, as by rote. His situation was probably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
-more painful to the spectator than himself, an indifference
-to death arising rather from an ignorance
-of its dreadful import than from high moral courage."</p>
-
-<p>When Veneno came out to die he was clad in a
-coarse yellow baize gown, the colour which in Spain
-denotes the crime of murder and appropriated always
-to Judas Iscariot in Spanish paintings, the
-colour, too, of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential cloak
-worn by the victims of the Inquisition at an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto
-da fé</i>. He walked slowly, stopping often to kiss the
-crucifix held to his lips by the attendant confessor,
-a monk of the Franciscan order, whom it was the
-convict's privilege to choose for himself to accompany
-him to the scaffold. He was met there by the
-executioner, a young man dressed in black who proceeded
-to bind his naked legs and arms so tightly
-that they swelled and turned black: a necessary precaution,
-as this very executioner's father had been
-killed when struggling with a convict unwilling to
-die. Veneno made no resistance, but he spoke with
-supreme contempt of this degraded functionary,
-saying, "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Mi delito me mata no ese hombre</i>" (My
-crime kills me and not this creature). He uttered
-many pious ejaculations, and his dying cry was,
-"Viva la Virgen Santisima." The last scene was
-ghastly in the extreme. While the priest stood by,
-"a bloated corpulent man more occupied in shading
-the sun from his face than in his ghostly office," the
-robber sat with a writhing look of agony, grinding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
-his clenched teeth. The executioner took the lever
-of the screw in both hands, gathered himself up for
-a strong muscular effort, drew the iron collar tight
-while an attendant threw a black handkerchief over
-the face. A convulsive pressure of the hands and
-a heaving of the chest were the only visible signs
-of the passing of the convict's spirit.</p>
-
-<p>"After a pause of a few moments the executioner
-cautiously peeped under the handkerchief and,
-after having given another turn of the screw, lifted
-it off, carefully put it in his pocket and proceeded to
-light a cigar. The face of the dead man was
-slightly convulsed, the mouth open, the eye balls
-turned into their sockets from the wrench. A black
-bier with two lanterns fixed on staves was now set
-down before the scaffold. A small table and a dish
-into which alms were again collected to be paid to
-the priests who sang masses for his soul was also
-brought forward.... The body remained on the
-scaffold till after noon. It was then thrown into
-a scavenger's cart and led by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">pregonero</i> or common
-crier beyond the jurisdiction of the city to a
-square platform called the "mesa del Rey," the
-king's table, where it was to be quartered and cut
-up. Here the carcass was hewed and hacked into
-pieces by the bungling executioner and his assistants."</p>
-
-<p>The condemned cell at the Saladero was a part
-of the prison chapel in which the Spanish convict
-spent the last twenty-four hours of life and was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
-horrible and painfully gruesome hole. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i>
-is described by de Foresta, who saw it when it was
-on the eve of abolition. It was of narrow dimensions,
-damp, dark, windowless and lighted only with
-one or two small candles burning upon the altar
-which occupied a large space filling all one wall.
-In a corner cut off by a black iron railing from the
-rest of the chapel was a small space fitted with a bed
-or stone shelf with rings to which the convict's
-chains were fastened and where he knelt close to
-the bars to converse with or confess to the ministering
-priests. The chapel was dimly lighted by a
-hanging lamp and one or two wax candles. Its
-walls and floor were damp and it received light and
-air only through the door. This gruesome den rejoiced
-in the name <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el confortador</i>, or the "place of
-comfort."</p>
-
-<p>Another traveller gives the following graphic account
-of a Spanish execution:—</p>
-
-<p>"At seven we find ourselves in the crowd immediately
-beneath the prison walls. Large bodies of
-troops are drawn up on either side of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">plaza</i> and
-there is a tolerably large concourse of male spectators
-present. In a few minutes the mournful cortége
-appears upon the wall. First comes the executioner,
-the Spanish Calcraft, a wiry looking fellow,
-carrying a coil of rope; next comes a very stout
-padre armed with a baton, and bawling out prayers
-at the top of his voice; he is followed by the convict,
-who walks on in prison uniform, with his neck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
-bare and arms pinioned, clasping the cross in his
-hands and looking literally in a blue fright; a couple
-more priests and two armed sentries complete the
-group, who range themselves along the wall, the
-criminal in the centre. The terrible scene is long
-protracted. The fat padre roars out <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Ave Marias</i>,
-exhortations and prayers, waving his baton frantically
-in the air and making the miserable wretch
-repeat after him. He then clasps him in his arms,
-and sitting down on chairs opposite each other, they
-are covered with a large black pall held by the supernumerary
-priests; under this they remain for some
-time perfectly motionless, while the poor creature
-is unburdening his soul and pouring forth his load
-of crimes into the ear of his confessor.</p>
-
-<p>"The nerves of the spectators are strained to an
-intense pitch during the awful pause, as is evident
-from the oppressive silence which prevails and the
-anxious looks directed at the scaffold. At length
-the pall is removed and the executioner proceeds to
-business. The culprit is made to sit against an upright
-post to which he is firmly lashed; the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>,
-a machine consisting of an iron collar worked back
-by a powerful screw and a long lever, is carefully
-adjusted round his neck, a small handkerchief
-thrown over his face and all is ready. The priest
-recommences shouting while the executioner, preparing
-himself for a mighty effort, suddenly turns
-the handle two or three times as quick as lightning;
-the head of the victim drops, the knees and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
-arms quiver for a few seconds and all is over.
-Priests and sentries retire, Calcraft peeps under
-the handkerchief and, whipping it off with a jerk,
-immediately disappears, leaving the ghastly corpse
-exposed to open view. It is a sickening and disgusting
-sight: the face is of a livid hue, the tongue
-protruding, and shedding saliva on the breast; the
-bystanders shudder, the troops march off with
-drums gaily beating and the crowd slowly disperses.
-I make a rapid sketch of the body and return to the
-hotel fully satisfied that, were it not for the cruel
-state of suspense in which the criminal is kept before
-the execution, the punishment of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> is far
-more merciful and expeditious than the less speedy
-death by hanging in this country."</p>
-
-<p>The profession of hangman does not entitle those
-who practise it to the very highest honour, although
-in France in the case of the Sansons it was an hereditary
-office in which son succeeded father for
-many generations and the family took considerable
-pride in their functions. In Spain the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">verdugo</i> is
-by no means a popular person. De Foresta, the
-Italian traveller already quoted, tells us that in several
-towns he saw a person of forbidding aspect
-who was walking about with a camp stool under his
-arm and generally shunned. On enquiry he was
-informed that this was the gentleman who administered
-the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>. He was strictly forbidden to
-take a seat at a café or in any place of public resort,
-hence the camp stool on which he rested himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
-when tired. No one recognised or addressed to him
-a single word. De Foresta's comment on this is
-a story of the French executioner who, when called
-to Nice to guillotine a criminal, was unable to find
-anywhere to lay his head. He was turned away
-from every door, was refused a mouthful of food
-and was obliged to dine on what he could find at
-the railway station restaurant, and he spent the night
-in walking up and down the platform. It may not
-be generally known that in England the executioner
-is provided with board and lodging in the
-gaol where his victim is waiting to be "finished."</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="footnotes">
- <h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-<ol>
- <li class="footnote">
- <p><a name="Footnote-1" id="Footnote-1"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-1">1</a>]</span>
- Lea. History of the Inquisition. Vol. I. p. 299.</p>
-</li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-2" id="Footnote-2"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-2">2</a>]</span> History of the Inquisition.</p>
- </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-3" id="Footnote-3"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-3">3</a>]</span>The counts of San Lucar were hereditary alcaldes of
- Triana, and in return for surrendering the castle, they were
- granted the dignity of Alguazil Mayor of the Inquisition. It
- was worth 150,000 maravedis a year and the holder of the
- office provided a deputy. The maravedi, once a gold coin of
- some value, latterly represented only 3/8 of a cent.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-4" id="Footnote-4"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-4">4</a>]</span> Langlois, L'Inquisition d'après des tableaux recénts (1902),
- quoted by Vancandard (Conway's translation, 1908).</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-5" id="Footnote-5"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-5">5</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. II. p. 526.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-6" id="Footnote-6"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-6">6</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. III.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-7" id="Footnote-7"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-7">7</a>]</span> <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Trampazo</i> means, exactly, an "extreme tightening of
- cords": <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">La ultima de las vueltas que se dan en el tormento de
- las cuerdas</i>.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-8" id="Footnote-8"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-8">8</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. IV.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-9" id="Footnote-9"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-9">9</a>]</span> "Vida Penal en Espana," by Rafael Salillas, Madrid, 1888.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-10" id="Footnote-10"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-10">10</a>]</span> See <em>post</em>, p. 161.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-11" id="Footnote-11"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-11">11</a>]</span> Relosillas, "Four Months in Ceuta."</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-12" id="Footnote-12"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-12">12</a>]</span> "Four Months in Ceuta."</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-13" id="Footnote-13"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-13">13</a>]</span> Irons are not carried by the convicts, not even by those
- sentenced to imprisonment "in chains," <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">con la cadena</i>. They
- were considered an interference with the efforts and strength
- of the labourer.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-14" id="Footnote-14"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-14">14</a>]</span> <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Catorce Meses en Ceuta</i>, Malaga, 1886.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-15" id="Footnote-15"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-15">15</a>]</span> I have seen a precisely similar weapon in an English convict
- prison, the product of an evil-minded prisoner who used
- it in an assault upon his officer.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-16" id="Footnote-16"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-16">16</a>]</span> An official report dated 1888 gives a total of 221 prisoners
- in the whole of the establishments admitted into hospital suffering
- from wounds, fractures and contusions received in the
- gaols.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-17" id="Footnote-17"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-17">17</a>]</span> See ante, pp. 159 sqq.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-18" id="Footnote-18"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-18">18</a>]</span> See ante, p. 159.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-19" id="Footnote-19"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-19">19</a>]</span> Relosillas.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-20" id="Footnote-20"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-20">20</a>]</span> "Vida Penal en Espana."</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-21" id="Footnote-21"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-21">21</a>]</span> See ante, p. 128.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-22" id="Footnote-22"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-22">22</a>]</span> See ante, p. 194.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-23" id="Footnote-23"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-23">23</a>]</span> This town of Ecija is renowned in the history of Spanish
- brigandage as the home of the "Seven Sons of Ecija," a
- very daring and dangerous band whose achievements have
- been told by the Spanish novelist, Fernandez y Gonzalez.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-24" id="Footnote-24"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-24">24</a>]</span> "Bandolerismo estudo social y memorias historicas," by
- Don Julian de Zugasti. Madrid, 1876.</p> </li>
-
- <li class="footnote">
-
- <p><a name="Footnote-25" id="Footnote-25"></a>
- <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-25">25</a>]</span> La Spagna; Da Irun a Malaga, by Adolfo de Foresta,
- Bologna, 1879.</p> </li>
-</ol>
-</div>
-
-<div class='transnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
- <p>Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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+} + +.pagenum { + visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +/* text formatting */ + +.center {text-align: center;} +.u {text-decoration: underline;} +.red {color: red;} +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} +.oldeng {font-family: "Old English Text MT", serif;} + +/* Images */ + +img {max-width: 100%; height: auto;} + +.figcenter { + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; + margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px; + text-align: center; + clear: both; + border: 1px solid black; + padding: 3px; +} +.figemblem { + margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; + margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + text-align: center; + clear: both; + border: none; + padding: 3px; +} +.caption p +{ + text-indent: 0; + text-align: center; + font-size: smaller; +} + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px gray; /* comment out if not wanted */ + background-color: #EEE; /* comment out if not wanted */ + padding: 0 1em 1em 1em;} +.footnotes ol { + list-style-type:none; } +.footnote { + font-size: 90%; } +.footnote .label { + float: left; + text-align: left; + width:2em; } +.footnote a { /* take underline off the footnote label link */ + text-decoration: none;} +.fnanchor {vertical-align:baseline; + position:relative; bottom:0.4em; + font-size: .8em; } + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container + { + text-align: center; + margin: -1em 0; + } + +.poetry + { + display: inline-block; + text-align: left; + } + +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poetry .verse + { + text-indent: -3em; + padding-left: 3em; + } + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:smaller; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; } + +/* ePub stylings */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +@media screen +{ + .half-title + { + margin: 6em 0; + } +} + +@media handheld +{ + body + { + margin: 0; + padding: 0; + width: 95%; + } + + .poetry + { + display: block; + margin-left: 1.5em; + } + + .front-matter + { + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; + margin: 0; + padding-top: 6em; + } +} + +@media print +{ + .front-matter + { + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; + margin: 0; + padding-top: 6em; + } +} + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 52114 ***</div> + +<div class="half-title front-matter"> + + <p class="ph1 oldeng red">The History and + Romance of + Crime</p> + + <p class="center">FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES<br /> + TO THE PRESENT DAY</p> + + <div class="figemblem"> + <img src="images/title-emblem.jpg" alt="Lock Emblem" /> + </div> + + + <p class="ph3">THE GROLIER SOCIETY<br /> + LONDON</p> +</div> + +<div class="front-matter"> + <hr class="chap" /> + + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece">[Frontispiece]</a></span></p> + + <div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/i_frontis.jpg" alt="Frontispiece" /> + </div> + <hr class="chap" /> +</div> + +<p class="ph1 oldeng red mt2"> +Spanish Prisons</p> + +<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD<br /> +PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT</p> + +<p class="ph3"><em>by</em></p> + +<p class="ph2">MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS</p> +<p class="ph3"><em>Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain</em><br /> +<br /> +<cite>Author of<br /> +"The Mysteries of Police and Crime<br /> +"Fifty Years of Public Service," etc.</cite></p> + +<p class="ph2"><em>The Inquisitor-General and the Catholic Sovereigns</em></p> + +<p>The mandate of expulsion of the Jews from Spain was +issued by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. This edict no doubt +originated with Torquemada, who was very bitter against the +Jews. When he learned that a number of their leaders were +in conference with the King and Queen, and offering an immense +ransom, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing +a crucifix on high and crying in stentorian tones that the +sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas Iscariot. +"Here He is!" he exclaimed. "Sell Him again, not for +thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging +the crucifix on the table he ran out in a frenzy. This turned +the tables and the decree for expulsion was confirmed.</p> + + +<p class="ph3 mb2">THE GROLIER SOCIETY</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + + +<div class="front-matter"> + <h1 class="oldeng mt2"> + Spanish Prisons + </h1> + + <p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD + PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT + </p> + + <p class="ph3"><em>by</em></p> + + <p class="ph2">MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS</p> + <p class="ph4"><em>Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain</em></p> + + <p class="ph4"><cite>Author of<br /> + "The Mysteries of Police and Crime<br /> + "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc.</cite></p> + + + <div class="figemblem"> + <img src="images/title-emblem.jpg" alt="Lock Emblem" /> + </div> + + + <p class="ph3 mb2">THE GROLIER SOCIETY</p> + + + <hr class="chap" /> + </div> + + <div class="front-matter"> + <p class="ph2">EDITION NATIONALE</p> + + <p class="ph3">Limited to one thousand registered and numbered sets.</p> + + <p class="ph2">NUMBER <span class="u">307</span></p> + + <hr class="chap" /> +</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> +</div> + + +<p>A considerable portion of this volume is devoted +to the Spanish Inquisition, which was, for +three centuries, the most important force in Spain. +Thousands were condemned by its tribunals, and its +prisons and punishments make up a large part of the +penal history of that country. Much exaggeration +has crept into the popular accounts, but the simple +truth must cause a shudder, when read to-day.</p> + +<p>The institution was created to deal with heresy, +that is, with a departure from the accepted canons. +The idea that there can be unity in diversity was +not understood. The spiritual and the temporal +powers were closely related, and bishop and king, +pope and emperor, all believed that uniformity was +necessary. Hence, heresy was everywhere treated +as high treason not only to the Church but to the +State as well. The Spanish Inquisition was a state +affair as well as an ecclesiastical court.</p> + +<p>We shall see that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition +was not confined to the suppression of heresy. +Many crimes which to-day are purely state concerns, +were then punished by it, including bigamy, blasphemy, +perjury, unnatural crimes, and witchcraft.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +The Spanish Inquisition deserves credit for discouraging +persecution of the last named offence, and +thereby saved the lives of thousands, who, in any +other state would have been executed.</p> + +<p>The adaptation to penal purposes of ancient buildings, +to be found throughout the length and breadth +of Spain, was very common, as these were immediately +available although generally unsuitable. Chief +among them are the many monastic buildings vacated +when the laws broke up religious houses in +Spain and which were mostly converted into prisons, +but little deserving the name. Some of these houses +have been utilised as gaols pure and simple; some +have served two or more purposes as at Huelva, +where the convent-prison was also a barrack.</p> + +<p>Spain has been slow in conforming to the movements +towards prison reform. She could not afford +to spend money on new constructions along modern +lines, and the introduction of the cellular system is +only of recent date. The model prison of Madrid, +which has replaced the hideous Saladero, was only +begun in 1887. But a few separate prisons had already +been created, such as those of Loja, Pontevedra, +Barcelona, Vittoria and Naval Carnero. These +establishments are new to Spain but their methods +and aims are too well known to call for fresh description. +More interest attaches to the older forms +that have so long served as places of durance.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class="toc" summary="Contents"> + <tr> + <th class="tdl" colspan='2'>CHAPTER</th> + <th class="tdr">PAGE</th> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom"> </td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">I.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition in Spain</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">II.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Persecution of Jews and Moors</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">III.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Prisons and Punishments</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">IV.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition Abroad</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">V.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition in Portugal and India</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">VI.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Early Prisons and Prisoners</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">VII.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Presidios at Home and Abroad</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">VIII.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Life in Ceuta</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">IX.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Brigands and Brigandage</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">X.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">A Bright Page in Prison History</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a><br /> +<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>List of Illustrations</h2> +</div> + +<table class="toc" summary="Illustrations"> +<tr> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Grand Inquisitor and the Catholic Sovereigns</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Frontispiece"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td> +</tr><tr> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Alhambra Palace, Granada</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_52"><em>Page</em> 52</a></td> +</tr><tr> + <td class="cht">The Question</td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> +</tr><tr> + <td class="cht">Castel dell' Ovo</td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a><br /> +<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="ph1">SPANISH PRISONS</p> +<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Beginning and growth of religious persecution—Temporal +power of the Papacy—Pope Innocent III creates the first +"Inquisitors"—Domingo de Guzman founder of the Inquisition—Founder +of the Dominican Order of Friars—The +"ancient" Inquisition—Penances inflicted—Persecution +of the Jews in Spain—Institution of the "modern" +Inquisition under Ferdinand and Isabella—Headquarters +at Seville—Frequent <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>—Thomas de Torquemada +the first Inquisitor-General—The privileges of the +office—Torquemada's life and character—Sufferings of +accused persons.</p></div> + + +<p>The record of religious persecution furnishes +some of the saddest pages in the world's history. +It began with the immediate successors of Constantine +the Great, the first Christian prince. They promulgated +severe edicts against heretics with such +penalties as confiscation, banishment and death +against breaches of Catholic unity. In this present +tolerant age when every one may worship God after +his own fashion, it is difficult to realise how recent +a growth is toleration. For more than six centuries +the flames of persecution burned fiercely throughout<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +Christendom, lighted by the strong arm of the law, +and soldiers were constantly engaged to extirpate +dissent from the accepted dogmas with fire and +sword. The growth of the papacy and the assumption +of the temporal power exalted heresy into treason; +independence of thought was deemed opposition +to authority and resistance to the universal supremacy +of the Church. The popes fighting in self-defence +stimulated the zeal of their followers unceasingly +to stamp out heresy. Alexander III in +the 12th century solemnly declared that every secular +prince who spared heretics should be classed as +a heretic himself and involved in the one common +curse.</p> + +<p>When the temporal power of the popes was +fully established and acknowledged, the papacy +claimed universal sovereignty over all countries and +peoples and was in a position to enforce it by systematic +procedure against its foes. Pope Innocent +III, consumed with the fervour of his intolerant +faith, determined to crush heresy. His first step +was to appoint two "inquisitors" (the first use of +the name) and two learned and devout friars, who +were really travelling commissioners, were sent to +perambulate Christendom to discover heresy. They +were commended to all bishops, who were strictly +charged to receive them with kindness, treat them +with affection, and "help them to turn heretics from +the error of their way or else drive them out of the +country." The same assistance was expected from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +the rulers of states who were to aid the inquisitors +with equal kindness.</p> + +<p>The mission began in the south of France and a +crusade was undertaken against the Albigensians +and Waldensians, those early dissidents from the +Church of Rome, who drew down on themselves the +unappeasable animosity of the orthodox. The campaign +against these original heretics raged fiercely, +but persecution slackened and might have died out +but for the appearance of one devoted zealot whose +intense hatred of heresy, backed by his uncompromising +energy, revived the illiberal spirit and organised +fresh methods of attack. This was Domingo +de Guzman, a Spanish monk who accompanied +Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse, when he left +his desolated diocese to take part in the fourth +Lateran Council, assembled at Rome in 1215. This +Domingo, historically known as St. Dominic, was +the founder of the Dominican order of friars.</p> + +<p>Though generally accepted as such by Church +historians, it is now argued that St. Dominic was +not really the founder of the Inquisition<a name="Anchor-1" id="Anchor-1"></a><a href="#Footnote-1" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 1.">[1]</a> and that +although he spent the best years of his life in combating +heresy he took no more prominent part in +persecution than hundreds of others. His eulogistic +biographer describes him as "a man of earnest, +resolute purpose, of deep and unalterable convictions, +full of burning zeal for the propagation of the +faith, yet kindly in heart, cheerful in temper and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>winning in manner.... He was as severe with +himself as with his fellows.... His endless +scourgings, his tireless vigils, his almost uninterrupted +prayer, his superhuman fasts, are probably +only harmless exaggerations of the truth." The +Dominicans boasted that their founder exhaled "an +odour of sanctity" and, when his tomb was opened, +a delicious scent issued forth, so penetrating that it +permeated the whole land, and so persistent that +those who touched the holy relics had their hands +perfumed for years.</p> + +<p>Whatever the personal character of Dominic and +whether or no he laboured to carry out the work +himself, there can be no doubt that his Order was +closely identified with the Inquisition from the first. +Its members were appointed inquisitors, they served +in the prisons as confessors, they assisted the tribunals +as "qualificators," or persons appointed to +seek out proof of guilt, or estimate the extent or +quality of the heretical opinions charged against the +accused; the great ceremonials and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> were +organised by them; they worked the "censure" +and prepared the "Index" of prohibited books. +The Dominicans were undoubtedly the most active +agents in the Inquisition and they owed their existence +to him, even if he did not personally take part +in its proceedings.</p> + +<p>The following quotation from Prescott's "History +of Ferdinand and Isabella" may well be inserted +here. "Some Catholic writers would fain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +excuse St. Dominic from the imputation of having +founded the Inquisition. It is true he died some +years before the perfect organisation of that tribunal; +but as he established the principles on which, +and the monkish militia by whom it was administered, +it is doing him no injustice to regard him as +its real author." The Sicilian writer, Paramo, indeed, +in his heavy quarto, traces it up to a much +more remote antiquity. According to him God was +the first inquisitor and his condemnation of Adam +and Eve furnished the models of the judicial forms +observed in the trials of the Holy Office. The sentence +of Adam was the type of the Inquisitional +"reconciliation," his subsequent raiment of skins of +animals was the type of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i>, and the expulsion +from Paradise, the precedent for the confiscation +of the goods of heretics. This learned personage +deduces a succession of inquisitors through +the patriarchs, Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, and King +David, down to John the Baptist, and he even includes +our Saviour in whose precepts and conduct +he finds abundant authority for the tribunal.</p> + +<p>The "Ancient Inquisition," as that first established +in Spain is generally called, had many of the +features of the "modern" which dates from the +reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and which will +presently be described at some length. Its proceedings +were shrouded in the same impenetrable secrecy, +it used the same insidious modes of accusation, +supported them by similar tortures, and pun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>ished +them with similar penalties. A manual drawn +up in the fourteenth century for the guidance of +judges of the Holy Office prescribes the familiar +forms of artful interrogation employed to catch the +unwary, and sometimes innocent victim. The ancient +Inquisition worked on principles less repugnant +to justice than the better known, but equally +cruel modern institution, but was less extensive in +its operations because in the earlier days there were +fewer heretics to persecute.</p> + +<p>The ancient Inquisition was so unsparing in its +actions that it almost extirpated the Albigensian +heresy. The punishments it inflicted were even +more severe than in the modern. Upon such as escaped +the stake and were "reconciled," as it was +styled, a terrible "penance" was imposed. One is +cited by Llorente<a name="Anchor-2" id="Anchor-2"></a><a href="#Footnote-2" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 2.">[2]</a> as laid down in the ordinances +of St. Dominic. The penitent, it was commanded, +should be stripped of his clothes and beaten by a +priest three Sundays in succession from the gate of +the city to the door of the church; he must not eat +any kind of meat during his whole life; must abstain +from fish, oil and wine three days in the week +during life, except in case of sickness or excessive +labour; must wear a religious dress with a small +cross embroidered on each breast; must attend mass +every day, if he has the means of doing so, and +vespers on Sundays and festivals; must recite the +service for the day and night and repeat the paternoster +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>seven times in the day, ten times in the evening, +and twenty times at midnight. If he failed in +any of these requirements, he was to be burned as a +"relapsed heretic."</p> + +<p>Chief among the causes that produced the new +or "modern" Inquisition was the envy and hatred +of the Jews in Spain. Fresh material was supplied +by the unfortunate race of Israel, long established +in the country, and greatly prosperous. They had +come in great numbers after the Saracenic invasion, +which indeed they are said to have facilitated, and +were accepted by some of the Moorish rulers on +nearly equal terms, and were treated with a tolerance +seldom seen among Mahometans, though occasional +outbursts of fanaticism rendered their position +not quite secure. Under these generally favourable +auspices the Jews developed in numbers +and importance. Their remarkable instinct for +money making and their unstinting diligence +brought them great wealth. Their love of letters +and high intelligence gave them preëminence in the +schools of the Moorish cities of Cordova, Toledo +and Granada, where they helped to keep the flame +of learning bright and shining through the darkest +ages. They became noted mathematicians, learned +astronomers, devoted labourers in the fields of practical +and experimental science. Their shrewdness +in public affairs and their financial abilities commended +them to the service of the state, and many +rose to the highest civic dignities at both Christian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +and Moorish courts. Often, despite prohibitory +laws, they collected the revenues and supervised the +treasuries of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, +while in private life they had nearly unlimited control +of commerce and owned most of the capital in +use.</p> + +<p>After the Christian conquest, their success drew +down upon them the envy and hatred of their less +flourishing fellow subjects, who resented also that +profuse ostentation of apparel and equipage to +which the Jewish character has always inclined. +Their widespread practice of usury was a still more +fruitful cause for detestation. Often large sums +were loaned, for which exorbitant rates of interest +were charged, owing to the scarcity of specie and +the great risk of loss inherent to the business. As +much as twenty, thirty-three, and even forty per +cent. per annum was exacted and paid. The general +animosity was such that a fanatical populace, smarting +under a sense of wrong, and urged on by a no +less fanatical clergy broke out at times into violence, +and fiercely attacked the Jews in the principal cities. +The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">JuderÃas</i>, or Jewish quarters, were sacked, the +houses robbed of their valuable contents, precious +collections, jewels and furniture were scattered +abroad, and the wretched proprietors were massacred +wholesale, irrespective of sex and age. According +to the historian, Mariana, fifty thousand +Jews were sacrificed to the popular fury in one year, +1391, alone.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was the turning point in Spanish history. +Fanaticism once aroused, did not die until all Jews +were driven out of Spain. It brought into being +another class also, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Conversos</i>, or "New Christians," +<em>i. e.</em> Jews who accepted Christian baptism, +though generally without any spiritual change. At +heart and in habits they remained Jews.</p> + +<p>The law was invoked, too, to aggravate their condition. +Legislative enactments of a cruel and oppressive +kind were passed. Jews were forbidden to +mix freely with Christians, their residence restricted +to certain limited quarters, they were subject to irksome, +sumptuary regulations, debarred from all display +in dress, forbidden to carry valuable ornaments +or wear expensive clothes, and they were held up to +public scorn by being compelled to appear in a distinctive, +unbecoming garb, the badge or emblem of +their social inferiority. They were also interdicted +from following certain professions and callings. +They might not study or practise medicine, might +not be apothecaries, nurses, vintners, grocers or +tavern keepers, were forbidden to act as stewards +to the nobility or as farmers or collectors of the +public revenues, although judging from repeated re-enactments, +these laws were evidently not strictly +enforced, and often in some districts were not enforced +at all.</p> + +<p>Fresh fuel was added to the fiery passions vented +on the Jews by the unceasing denunciation of their +heresy and dangerous irreligion, and public feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +was further inflamed by grossly exaggerated stories +of their hideous and unchristian malpractices. The +curate of Los Palacios has detailed some of these in +his "Chronicle," and they will serve, when quoted, +to show what charges were brought against the Jew +in his time. "This accursed race (the Israelites)," +he says, speaking of the proceedings taken to bring +about their conversion, "were either unwilling to +bring their children to be baptised, or if they did, +they washed away the stain on the way home. They +dressed their stews and other dishes with oil instead +of lard, abstained from pork, kept the passover, ate +meat in Lent, and sent oil to replenish the lamps of +their synagogues, with many other abominable ceremonies +of their religion. They entertained no respect +for monastic life, and frequently profaned the +sanctity of religious houses by the violation or seduction +of their inmates. They were an exceedingly +politic and ambitious people, engrossing the most +lucrative municipal offices, and preferring to gain +their livelihood by traffic, in which they made exorbitant +gains, rather than by manual labour or mechanical +arts. They considered themselves in the +hands of the Egyptians whom it was a merit to deceive +and rob. By their wicked contrivances they +amassed great wealth, and thus were able often to +ally themselves by marriage with noble Christian +families."</p> + +<p>The outcry against the Jews steadily increased in +volume. The clergy were the loudest in their pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>tests +against the alleged abominations, and one +Dominican priest, Alonso de Hojeda, prior of the +monastery of San Pablo in Seville, with another +priest, Diego de Merlo, vigorously denounced the +"Jewish leprosy" so alarmingly on the increase and +besought the Catholic sovereigns to revive the Holy +Office with extended powers as the only effective +means of healing it. The appeal was strongly supported +by the papal nuncio at the Court of Castile. +Ferdinand and Isabella, as devout Catholics, deplored +the prevalence of heresy, which they acknowledged +to be rampant, and yet they hesitated to surrender +any of their independence. No other state +in Europe was so free from papal control or interference. +Some of the Conversos held high places +about the court and they, of course, used every effort +to strengthen the reluctance of the queen, particularly. +On the other hand, the Dominican monk, +Thomas de Torquemada, her confessor in her youth, +strove to instil the same spirit of unyielding fanaticism +that possessed himself, and earnestly entreated +her to devote herself to the "extirpation of heresy +for the glory of God and the glorification of the +Catholic faith." She long resisted but yielded at +last to the unceasing importunities of the priests +around her, and consented to solicit a bull from the +pope, Sixtus IV, to introduce the Modern Inquisition +into Castile. It was issued, under the date of +November 1st, 1478, and authorised the appointment +of two or three ecclesiastical inquisitors for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +the detection and suppression of heresy throughout +Spain.</p> + +<p>One difference from the usual form establishing +such tribunals was the location of the power of appointment +of inquisitors, which was vested in the +king and queen instead of in Provincials of the +Dominican or Franciscan Orders. Heretofore the +appointment of inquisitors had been considered a +delegation of the authority of the Holy See, something +entirely independent of the secular power. +But so jealous of outside interference were the +Spanish rulers and the Spanish people, that the pope +was forced to give way. Though he and his successors +vainly strove to recover the power thus +granted, they were never entirely successful, and the +Spanish Inquisition remained to a large extent a +state affair, and this fact explains much which otherwise +is inexplicable. For example the confiscations +passed into the royal instead of into the papal treasury.</p> + +<p>At first mild measures were to be tried. Cardinal +Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville, had drawn up a +catechism instructing his clergy to spare no pains in +illuminating the benighted Israelites by a candid +exposition of the true principles of Christianity. +Progress was slow, and after two years the results +were so meagre that it was thought necessary to +proceed to the nomination of inquisitors, and two +Dominican monks, Fra Miguel de Morillo, and Juan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +de San Martin, were appointed with full powers, +assisted by an assessor and a procurator fiscal.</p> + +<p>The Jews played into the hands of their tormentors. +Great numbers had been terrified into apostasy +by the unrelenting hostility of the people. Their +only escape from the furious attacks made upon +them had been conversion to Christianity, often +quite feigned and unreal. The proselytising priests, +however, claimed to have done wonders; one, St. +Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican of Valencia, had by +means of his eloquence and the miraculous power +vouchsafed him, "changed the hearts of no less +than thirty-five thousand of house of Judah." These +numerous converts were of course unlikely to be +very tenacious in their profession of the new faith, +and not strangely laid themselves open to constant +suspicion. Many were denounced and charged with +backsliding, many more boldly reverted to Judaism, +or secretly performed their old rites. Now uncompromising +war was to be waged against the backsliding +"new Christians" or Conversos.</p> + +<p>The inquisitors installed themselves in Seville, +and made the Dominican convent of San Pablo their +first headquarters, but this soon proved quite insufficient +in size and they were allowed to occupy +the fortress of the Triana, the great fortress of +Seville, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, the +immense size and gloomy dungeons of which were +especially suitable. This part of the city was much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +exposed to inundations, and when, in 1626, it was +threatened with destruction by an unusually high +flood, the seat of the tribunal was removed to the +palace of the Caballeros Tellos Taveros in the parish +of San Marco. In 1639 it returned to the Triana +which had been repaired, and remained there till +1789, when further encroachments of the river +caused it to be finally transferred to the College of +Las Beccas. The Triana is now a low suburb, inhabited +principally by gipsies and the lower classes. +It was at one time the potters' quarter where the +famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">azulejo</i> tiles were made, and its factories +to-day produce the well known majolica vases and +plates with surface of metallic lustre.</p> + +<p>One of the first steps of the Inquisition was to put +a summary check to the exodus of the Jews who had +been fast deserting the country. All the magnates +of Castile, dukes, counts, hidalgos and persons in +authority, were commanded to arrest all fugitives, +to sequestrate their property and send them prisoners +to Seville. Any who disobeyed or failed to execute +this order were to be excommunicated as abettors +of heresy, to be deposed from their dignities +and deprived of their estates. Such orders were +strange to the ears of the turbulent nobles who had +been accustomed to pay little heed to pope or king. +A new force had arisen in the land.</p> + +<p>On the Castle of the Triana,<a name="Anchor-3" id="Anchor-3"></a><a href="#Footnote-3" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 3.">[3]</a> already described, a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>tablet was erected over the portals with an inscription, +celebrating the inauguration of the first "modern +Inquisition" in Western Europe. The concluding +words were:—"God grant that for the protection +and augmentation of the faith it may abide +unto the end of time. Arise oh Lord, judge Thy +cause! Catch yet the foxes (heretics)!"</p> + +<p>Just now, by an ill-advised move, the Conversos +lost the sympathy of all. Diego de Susan, one of +the richest citizens of Seville, called a meeting of +the "New Christians" in the church of San Salvador. +It was attended by many high officials, and +even ecclesiastics of Jewish blood. Susan suggested +that they collect a store of arms, and that at the first +arrest, they rise and slay the inquisitors. The plan +was adopted but was betrayed by a daughter of +Susan, who had a Christian lover. The plotters +were arrested at once, and on February sixth, 1481, +six men and women were burned and others were +severely punished.</p> + +<p>The hunt was cunningly organised. An "Edict +of Grace" was published promising pardon to all +backsliders if they would come voluntarily and confess +their sins. Many sought indulgence and were +plied with questions by the inquisitors to extract +evidence against others. On the information thus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>obtained the suspected were marked down, seized +and carried off to the prisons. Any adherence to +Jewish customs gave opportunity for denunciation, +and the severe measures rapidly reduced the numbers +of the backsliding Jewish-Christians. In Seville +alone, according to Llorente, two hundred and +ninety-eight persons were burnt in less than a year, +and seventy-nine were condemned to perpetual imprisonment. +Great sums ought to have passed into +the treasury, then and afterwards, from the confiscated +property of rich people who perished at the +stake or were subjected to fine and forfeiture. But +the great engine of the Inquisition was excessively +costly. The pageants at the frequent <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> +were lavishly expensive, a great staff of officials, +experts, familiars and guards was maintained, and, +in addition, the outlay on the place of execution, the +"<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>" or burning place, a great pavement +on a raised platform adorned with fine pillars and +statues of the prophets, was very considerable, while +the yearly bill for fuel, for faggots and brush wood +rose to a high figure. Undoubtedly there was considerable +embezzlement also.</p> + +<p>There was evidently too much work for two men, +so in February, 1482, seven additional inquisitors +were commissioned by the pope on the nomination +of the sovereigns, and some of these were exceedingly +zealous. There was, however, much confusion +because of the lack of a unifying authority. The +sovereigns were determined that the institution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +must be kept under the control of the state, and so +a council of administration usually called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">la Suprema</i> +was added to those already existing, and was +charged with jurisdiction over all measures concerning +the faith. At the head was placed a new +officer, later called the inquisitor-general. The inquisitor-general +was hardly a subject. He had +direct access to the sovereign and exercised absolute +and unlimited power over the whole population +and was superior to all human law. No rank, high +or low escaped his jurisdiction. Royal personages +were not exempt from his control, for the Holy +Office invaded the prince's palace as well as the +pauper's hovel. There was no sanctity in the grave, +for corpses of heretics were ruthlessly disinterred, +mutilated and burned.</p> + +<p>The first inquisitor-general under the new organisation +was Thomas de Torquemada, who has won +for himself dreadful immortality from the signal +part he played in the great tragedy of the Inquisition. +He was a Dominican monk, a native of old +Castile, who had been confessor and keeper of the +Queen's conscience to Isabella in her early days and +constantly sought to instil his fiery spirit into her +youthful mind. "This man," says Prescott, "who +concealed more pride under his monastic weeds +than might have furnished forth a convent of his +order, was one of that class with whom zeal passes +for religion and who testify their zeal by a fiery +persecution of those whose creed differs from their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +own; who compensate for their abstinence from +sensual indulgence by giving scope to those deadlier +vices of the heart, pride, bigotry and intolerance +which are no less opposed to virtue and are far more +extensively mischievous to society." The cruelties +which he perpetrated grew out of a pitiless fanaticism, +more cruel than the grave. He was rigid and +unbending and knew no compromise. Absolutely +fearless, he directed his terrible engine against the +suspect no matter how high-born or influential.</p> + +<p>Torquemada was appointed in 1483 and was authorised +from Rome to frame a new constitution +for the Holy Office. He had been empowered to +create permanent provincial tribunals under chief +inquisitors which sat at Toledo, Valladolid, Madrid +and other important cities, and his first act was to +summon some of these to Seville to assist him in +drawing up rules for the governance of the great +and terrible engine that was to terrorise all Spain +for centuries to come. The principles of action, the +methods of procedure, the steps taken to hunt up +victims and bring them under the jurisdiction of +the court, secure conviction and enforce penalties, +are all set out at length in the record of the times. +"A bloody page of history," says the historian, +"attests the fact that fanaticism armed with power +is the sorest evil that can befall a nation." For +generations the Spanish people, first the Jews, then +the Moriscos, lastly the whole native born community +lay helpless in the grip of this irresponsible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +despotism. Few, once accused, escaped without +censure of some sort. Llorente declares with his +usual exaggeration that out of a couple of thousand +cases, hardly one ended in acquittal and the saying +became proverbial that people if not actually roasted +by the Inquisition were at least singed.</p> + +<p>In order to appreciate fully the harshness of the +Spanish Inquisition and the cruelties perpetrated for +several centuries, under the guise of religion, we +must trace the steps taken by the Holy Office, its +guiding principles and its methods of procedure.</p> + +<p>The great aim at the outset was to hunt up heretics +and encourage the denunciation of presumed +offenders. Good Catholics were commanded by +edicts published from the pulpits of all churches to +give information against every person they knew +or suspected of being guilty of heresy, and priests +were ordered to withhold absolution from any one +who hesitated to speak, even when the suspected +person was a near relation, parent, child, husband +or wife. All accusations whether signed or anonymous +were accepted, but the names of witnesses +were also required. On this sometimes meagre inculpation +victims might be at once arrested, though +in some cases, censors must first pass upon the evidence. +Often not a whisper of trouble reached the +accused until the blow actually fell.</p> + +<p>Kept thus in solitary imprisonment, cut off entirely +from his friends outside, denied the sympathy +or support he might derive from their visits or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +communications, he was left to brood despairingly, +a prey to agonised doubts, in ignorance even of the +charges brought against him. A few brief extracts +from the depositions of witnesses might be read to +him, but the statements were so garbled that he +could get no clue to names or identities. If there +were any facts favourable to him in the testimony +they were withheld from him. If he could, however, +name as mortal enemies some of the witnesses, +their testimony was much weakened. Facts of +time, place and circumstance in the charges preferred +were withheld from him and he was so confused +and embarrassed that unless a man of acuteness +and presence of mind he might become involved +in inextricable contradictions when he attempted to +explain himself.</p> + +<p>On the other hand judges were guided and supported +by the most minute instructions. "It is the +high and peculiar privilege of the tribunal that its +officers are not required to act with formality; they +need observe no strict forensic rules and therefore +the omission of what ordinary justice might exact +does not invalidate its actions, provided only that +nothing essential to the proof be wanting." The +first essential of justice, as we understand it, was +ignored. An accused person arraigned for heresy +was expected to incriminate himself, to furnish all +necessary particulars for conviction. Testimony +could be received from persons of any class or character. +"They might be excommunicate, infamous,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +actual accomplices, or previously convicted of any +crime." The evidence of Jews and infidels might +be taken also, even in a question of heretical doctrine. +Wife, children, relatives, servants, might depose +against a heretic. "A brother may declare +against a brother and a son against a father." The +witnesses met with no mercy. If any one did not +say all he could, or seemed reluctant to speak, the +examiners occasionally ruled that torture should be +applied.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Increased persecution of the Jews—Accusations made against +them—Ferdinand introduces the modern Inquisition into +the Kingdom of Aragon in 1484—Fray Gaspar Juglar and +Pedro Arbués appointed Inquisitors—Assassination of +Pedro Arbués—Punishment of his murderers—Increased +opposition against the Holy Office—Arrest of the Infante +Don Jaime for sheltering a heretic—Expulsion of the +Jews from Spain—Appeal to the King to revoke this edict—Ferdinand +inclined to yield, but Torquemada over-rules +him—Sufferings of the Jews on the journey—Death of +Torquemada—Hernando de Talavera appointed archbishop +of Granada—His success with the Moors—Don Diego +Deza new Inquisitor-General—Succeeded by Ximenes de +Cisneros—His character and life—Appointed Primate of +all Spain—His severity with the Moors—University of Alcalá +founded by Ximenes—Accession of Charles V—Persecution +of Moors—Expulsion.</p></div> + + +<p>The fires of the modern Inquisition, it was said, +had been lighted exclusively for the Jews. The +fiery zeal of Torquemada and his coadjutors was +first directed against the Spanish children of Israel. +The Jews constantly offered themselves to be harassed +and despoiled. They were always fair game +for avaricious greed. The inquisitors availed +themselves of both lines of attack. Jewish wealth +steadily increased as their financial operations and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +their industrial activities extended and flourished. +When the Catholic Kings embarked upon the conquest +of Granada, the Jews found the sinews of +war; Jewish victuallers purveyed rations to the +armies in the field; Jewish brokers advanced the +cash needed for the payments of troops; Jewish +armourers repaired the weapons used and furnished +new tools and warlike implements.</p> + +<p>At the same time the passions of the populace +were more and more inflamed against the Jews by +the dissemination of scandalous stories of their +blasphemous proceedings. It was seriously asserted +by certain monks that some Jews had stolen a consecrated +wafer with the intention of working it into +a paste with the warm blood of a newly killed +Christian child and so produce a deadly poison to +be administered to the hated chief inquisitor. Another +report was to the effect that crumbs from the +holy wafer had been detected between the leaves of +a Hebrew prayer book in a synagogue. One witness +declared that this substance emitted a bright +effulgence which gave clear proof of its sanctity +and betrayed the act of sacrilege committed. Other +tales were circulated of the diabolical practices of +these wicked Jewish heretics.</p> + +<p>Ferdinand in 1484 proceeded to give the modern +Inquisition to the Kingdom of Aragon, where the +"ancient" had once existed but had lost much of +its rigour. It was a comparatively free country and +the Holy Office had become little more than an or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>dinary +ecclesiastical court. But King Ferdinand +was resolved to reëstablish it on the wider basis it +had assumed in Castile and imposed it upon his +people by a royal order which directed all constituted +authorities to support it in carrying out its +new extended functions. A Dominican monk, Fray +Gaspar Juglar, and a canon of the church, Pedro +Arbués, were appointed by Torquemada to be inquisitors +for the diocese of Saragossa. The new +institution was most distasteful to the Aragonese, +a hardy and independent people. Among the higher +orders were numbers of Jewish descent, filling important +offices and likely to come under the ban of +the Inquisition. The result was a deputation to the +pope and another to the king representing the general +repugnance of the Aragonese to the institution +and praying that its action might be suspended. +Neither pope nor king would listen to the appeal +and the Holy Office began its work. Two <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da +fé</i> were celebrated in Saragossa, the capital, in 1484, +when two men were executed.</p> + +<p>Horror and consternation seized the Conversos +and a fierce desire for reprisals developed. They +were resolved to intimidate their oppressors by some +appalling act of retaliation and a plot was hatched +to make away with one of the inquisitors. The +conspirators included many of the principal "New +Christians," some of whom were persons of note in +the district. A considerable sum was subscribed to +meet expenses and pay the assassins. Pedro Arbués<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +was marked down for destruction but, conscious of +his danger, continually managed to evade his enemies. +He wore always a coat of mail beneath his +robes when he attended mass in the Cathedral, and +every avenue by which he could be approached in +his house was also carefully guarded.</p> + +<p>At length he was taken by surprise when at his +devotions. He was on his knees before the high +altar saying his prayers at midnight, when two men +crept up behind him unobserved and attacked him. +One struck him with a dagger in the left arm, the +other felled him with a violent blow on the back of +the neck by which he was laid prostrate and carried +off dying. With his last breath he thanked God for +being selected to seal so good a cause with his blood. +His death was deemed a martyrdom and caused a +reaction in favour of the Inquisition as a general +rising of the New Christians was feared. The storm +was appeased by the archbishop of Saragossa who +gave out publicly that the murderers should be +rigorously pursued and should suffer condign punishment. +The promise was abundantly fulfilled. A +stern recompense was exacted from all who were +identified with the conspiracy. The scent was followed +up with unrelenting pertinacity, several persons +were taken and put to death, and a larger number +perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. All +the perpetrators of the murder were hanged after +their right hands had been amputated. The sentence +of one who had given evidence against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +rest was commuted in that his hand was not cut off +till after his death.</p> + +<p>A native of Saragossa had taken refuge in Tudela +where he found shelter and concealment in the +house of the Infante, Don Jaime, the illegitimate +son of the Queen of Navarre, and nephew of King +Ferdinand himself. The generous young prince +could not reject the claims of hospitality and helped +the fugitive to escape into France. But the Infante +was himself arrested by the inquisitors and imprisoned +as an "impeder" of the Holy Office. His trial +took place in Saragossa, although Navarre was outside +its jurisdiction, and he was sentenced to do open +penance in the cathedral in the presence of a great +congregation at High Mass. The ceremony was +carried out before the Archbishop of Saragossa, a +boy of seventeen, the illegitimate son of King Ferdinand, +and this callow stripling in his primate's +robes ordered his father's nephew to be flogged +round the church with rods.</p> + +<p>The second story is much more horrible. One +Gaspar de Santa Cruz of Saragossa had been concerned +in the rebellion, but escaped to Toulouse +where he died. He had been aided in his flight by +a son who remained in Saragossa, and who was +arrested as an "impeder" of the Holy Office. He +was tried and condemned to appear at an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da +fé</i>, where he was made to read an act which held +up his father to public ignominy. Then the son was +transferred to the custody of the inquisitor of Tou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>louse +who took him to his father's grave, forced him +to exhume the corpse and burn it with his own +hands.</p> + +<p>The bitter hatred of the Jews culminated in the +determination of the king and queen, urged on by +Torquemada, to expel them entirely from Spain. +The germ of this idea may be found in the capitulation +of Granada by the Moors, when it was agreed +that every Jew found in the city was to be shipped +off forthwith to Barbary. It was now argued that +since all attempts to convert them had failed, Spain +should be altogether rid of them. The Catholic +King and Queen were induced to sign an edict +dated March 30th, 1492, by which it was decreed +that every Jew should be banished from Spain +within three months, save and except those who +chose to apostasise and who, on surrendering the +faith of their fathers, might be suffered to remain +in the land of their adoption, with leave to enjoy the +goods they had inherited or earned. No doubt this +edict originated with Torquemada.</p> + +<p>Dismay and deep sorrow fell upon the Spanish +Jews. The whole country was filled with tribulation. +All alike cried for mercy and offered to submit +to any laws and ordinances however oppressive, +to accept any terms, to pay any penalties if only they +might escape this cruel exile. Leading Jews appeared +before King Ferdinand and pleaded abjectly +for mercy for their co-religionists, offering an immediate +ransom of six hundred thousand crowns in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +gold. The king was inclined to clemency, but the +queen was firm. He saw the present advantage, the +ready money, and doubted whether he would get +as much from the fines and confiscations promised +by the inquisitors. But at that moment, so the story +goes, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing +a crucifix on high and cried in stentorian tones that +the sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas +Iscariot. "Here he is! Sell Him again, not for +thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and +flinging the crucifix on to the table, he ran out in +a frenzy. This turned the tables, and the decree for +expulsion was confirmed.</p> + +<p>The terms of the edict were extremely harsh and +peremptory. As a preamble the crimes of the Jews +were recited and the small effect produced hitherto +by the most severe penalties. It was asserted that +they still conspired to overturn Christianity in Spain +and recourse to the last remedy, the decree of expulsion, +under which all Jews and Jewesses were commanded +to leave Spain and never return, even for +a passing visit, on pain of death, was therefore necessary. +The last day of July, 1492, or four months +later, was fixed for the last day of their sojourn in +Spain. After that date they would remain at the +peril of their lives, while any person of whatever +rank or quality who should presume to receive, shelter, +protect or defend a Jew or Jewess should forfeit +all his property and be discharged from his +office, dignity or calling. During the four months,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +the law allowed the Jews to sell their estates, or +barter them for heavy goods, but they were forbidden +to remove gold or silver or take out of the +kingdom other portable property which was already +prohibited by law from exportation.</p> + +<p>During the preparation for, and execution of this +modern exodus, the condition of the wretched Israelites +was heart-rending. Torquemada had tried hard +to proselytise, had sent out preachers offering baptism +and reconciliation, but at first few listened to +the terms proposed. All owners of property and +valuables suffered the heaviest losses. Enforced +sales were so numerous that purchasers were not to +be easily found. Fine estates were sold for a song. +A house was exchanged for an ass or beast of burden; +a vineyard for a scrap of cloth or linen. Despite +the prohibition much gold and silver were carried +away concealed in the stuffing of saddles and +among horse furniture. Some exiles at the moment +of departure swallowed gold pieces, as many as +twenty and thirty, and thus evaded to some extent +the strict search instituted at the sea ports and frontier +towns.</p> + +<p>At last in the first week of July, all took to +the roads travelling to the coast on foot, on horse +or ass-back or were conveyed in country carts. +According to an eye-witness, "they suffered incredible +misfortunes by the way, some walking feebly, +some struggling manfully, some fainting, many +attacked with illness, some dying, others coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +into the world, so that there was not a Christian who +did not feel for them and entreat them to be baptised." +Here and there under the pressure of accumulated +miseries a few professed to be converted, +but such cases were very rare. The rabbis encouraged +the people as they went and exhorted the young +ones to raise their voices and the women to sing +and play on pipes and timbrels to enliven them and +keep up their spirits.</p> + +<p>Ships were provided by the Spanish authorities +at Cadiz, Gibraltar, Carthagena, Valencia and Barcelona +on which fifteen hundred of the wealthy +families embarked and started for Africa, Italy and +the Levant, taking with them their dialect of the +Spanish language, such as is still talked at the places +where they landed. Of those who joined in the +general exodus some perished at sea, by wreck, disease, +violence or fire, and some by famine, exhaustion +or murder on inhospitable shores. Many were +sold for slaves, many thrown overboard by savage +ship captains, while parents parted with their children +for money to buy food. On board one crowded +ship a pestilence broke out, and the whole company +was landed and marooned on a desert island. Other +infected ships carried disease into the port of Naples, +where it grew into a terrible epidemic, by which +twenty thousand native Neapolitans perished. +Those who reached the city found it in the throes +of famine, but were met in landing by a procession +of priests, led by one who carried a crucifix and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +loaf of bread, and who intimated that only those +who would adore the first would receive the other. +In papal dominions alone was a hospitable reception +accorded. The pope of the time, Alexander VI, was +more tolerant than other rulers.</p> + +<p>The total loss of population is now difficult to +ascertain, but undoubtedly it has been greatly exaggerated. +The most trustworthy estimate fixes the +number of emigrants at one hundred and sixty-five +thousand, and the number dying of hardships and +grief before leaving at about twenty thousand. +Probably fifty thousand more accepted baptism as +a consequence of the edict. The loss entailed in +actual value was incalculable and a vast amount of +potential earnings was sacrificed by the disappearance +of so large a part of the most industrious members +of the population. The king and queen greatly +impoverished Spain in purging it of Hebrew heresy. +Their action however was greeted with applause by +other rulers who did not go to the same lengths on +account of economic considerations. They were +praised because they were willing to sacrifice revenue +for the sake of the faith.</p> + +<p>Open Judaism no longer existed in Spain. There +were left only the apostates, or New Christians. +That many of these were Christians in name and +kept the Mosaic law in every detail is undoubted. +As Jews they were not subject to the Inquisition. +As professing Christians, any departure from the +established faith subjected them to the penalties<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +imposed upon heretics. In spite of the high positions +which many achieved, they were objects of +suspicion, and with the increasing authority of the +Inquisition their lot grew harder.</p> + +<p>Torquemada had been active not only against the +Jews, but against all suspected of any heresy, no +matter how influential. The odium he incurred +raised up constant accusations against him, and he +was obliged on three occasions to send an agent to +Rome to defend his character. Later his arbitrary +power was curtailed by the appointment of four coadjutors, +nominally, to share the burthens of office, +but really to check his action. On the whole he may +be said to take rank among those who have been the +authors of evil to their species. "His zeal was of +such an extravagant character that it may almost +shelter itself under the name of insanity." His later +days were filled with constant dread of assassination, +and when he moved to and fro his person was +protected by a formidable escort, a bodyguard of +fifty familiars of the Holy Office mounted as dragoons +and a body of two hundred infantry soldiers. +Yet he reached a very old age and died quietly in +his bed.</p> + +<p>Estimates of the numbers convicted and punished +during his administration differ widely. Llorente, +who is, however, much given to exaggeration, states +that eight thousand eight hundred were burned +alive, and that the total number condemned was +more than one hundred and five thousand. On the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +other hand Langlois,<a name="Anchor-4" id="Anchor-4"></a><a href="#Footnote-4" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 4.">[4]</a> whose estimate is accepted by +Vancandard, and other Catholic writers, thinks that +the number put to death was about two thousand.</p> + +<p>Death overtook him when a fresh campaign +against heresy was imminent. The conquest of the +Kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella +opened up a new field for the proselytising fervour +of the Inquisition, which was now resolved to convert +all Mahometan subjects to the Christian faith. +A friar of the order of St. Jerome, Hernando de +Talavera, a man of blameless life, a ripe scholar, a +persuasive preacher, deeply read in sacred literature +and moral philosophy, had been one of the confessors +to Royalty, and had been raised to the bishopric +of Avila. But he had begged to be allowed to +resign it and devote himself entirely to the conversion +of the Moors. The pope granted his request +and appointed him archbishop of Granada with a +smaller revenue than that of the diocese he left, but +he was humble minded, had no craving to exhibit +the pomp and display of a great prelate and devoted +himself with all diligence to the duties of his new +charge.</p> + +<p>He soon won the hearts of the Moors who loved +and venerated him. He proceeded with great caution, +made no open show of his desire to convert +them, and strictly refrained from any coercive measures, +trusting rather to reason them out of their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>heterodox belief. He caused a translation to be +made of the Bible into Arabic, distributed it, encouraged +the Moors to attend conferences, and come +to him in private to listen to his arguments. Being +thus busily engaged, he withdrew to a great extent +from the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, who came +more and more under the influence of fiery bigots, +to whom the mild measures of the archbishop became +profoundly displeasing. The inquisitors, with +Don Diego Deza who had succeeded Torquemada, +at their head, incessantly entreated the sovereigns +to proceed with more severity, and went the length +of advising the immediate expulsion of all Moors +who hesitated to accept conversion and baptism +forthwith. They urged that it was for the good of +their souls to draw them into the fold and insisted +that it would be utterly impossible for Christian and +Moslem to live peacefully and happily side by side. +The king and queen demurred, temporising as they +had done with the revival of the Inquisition. It +might be dangerous, they argued, to enforce penalties +that were too harsh. Their supremacy was +hardly as yet consolidated in Granada; the Moors +had not yet entirely laid aside their arms and unwise +oppression might bring about a resumption of +hostilities. They hoped that the Moors, like other +conquered peoples, would in due course freely adopt +the religion of their new masters. Loving kindliness +and gentle persuasion would more surely gain +ground than fierce threats and arbitrary decrees.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>So for seven or more years the conciliatory +methods of Archbishop Talavera prevailed and met +with the approval of Ferdinand and Isabella. But +now a remarkable man of very different character +appeared upon the scene and began to advocate +sterner measures. This was a Franciscan monk, +Ximenes de Cisneros, one of the most notable figures +in Spanish history, who became in due course +inquisitor-general and regent of Spain. A sketch +of his life may well be given to enable us better to +understand the times.</p> + +<p>Ximenes de Cisneros better known, perhaps, under +his first name alone, was the scion of an ancient +but decayed family and destined from his youth for +the Church. He studied at the University of Salamanca +and evinced marked ability. After a stay in +Rome, the best field for preferment, he returned to +Spain with the papal promise of the first vacant +benefice in the See of Toledo. The archbishop had +other views, however, and when Ximenes claimed +the cure of Uceda, he was sent to prison in its fortress +and not to the presbytery. For six years +Ximenes asserted his pretensions unflinchingly and +was at last nominated, when he exchanged to a +chaplaincy in another diocese, that of Siguenza, +where he continued his theological studies and acquired +Hebrew and Chaldee. Here he came under +the observation of the Bishop Mendoza, who afterwards +became Cardinal Primate of Spain, and who +enjoyed the unbounded confidence of Queen Isa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>bella. +Mendoza when invited to recommend to her +a new confessor, in succession to Talavera on +his translation to the See of Granada, fixed upon +Ximenes of whom he had never lost sight since their +first acquaintance at Siguenza.</p> + +<p>Ximenes, meanwhile, had become more and more +devoted to his sacred calling. His marked business +aptitudes had gained for him the post of steward to +a great nobleman, the Conde de Cifuentes, who had +been taken prisoner by the Moors. But secular concerns +were distasteful to him and Ximenes resigned +his charge. His naturally austere and contemplative +disposition had deepened into stern fanatical enthusiasm +and he resolved to devote himself more absolutely +to the service of the Church. He entered the +Franciscan order, threw up all his benefices and employments, +and became a simple novice in the monastery +of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, where +his cloister life was signalised by extreme severity +and self-mortification. He wore haircloth next his +skin, slept on the stone floor with a wooden pillow +under his head, tortured himself with continual fasts +and vigils, and flogged himself perpetually. At +last he became a professed monk, and because of the +fame of his exemplary piety, great crowds were +attracted to his confessional. He shrank now from +the popular favour and retired to a lonely convent +in a far off forest, where he built himself a small +hermitage with his own hands and where he passed +days and nights in solemn abstraction and unceasing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +prayer, living like the ancient anchorites on the +green herbs he gathered and drinking water from +the running streams. Self centred and pondering +deeply on spiritual concerns, constantly in a state of +mental exaltation and ecstasy, he saw visions and +dreamed dreams, believing himself to be in close +communication with celestial agencies and was no +doubt on the eve of going mad, when his superiors +ordered him to reside in the convent of Salceda, +where he became charged with its administration +and management, and was forced to exercise his +powerful mind for the benefit of others.</p> + +<p>It was here that the call to court found him and +he was summoned to Valladolid and unexpectedly +brought into the presence of the queen. Isabella +was greatly prepossessed in his favour by his simple +dignity of manner, his discretion, his unembarrassed +self-possession and above all his fervent piety +in discussing religious questions. Yet he hesitated +to accept the office of her confessor, and only did +so on the condition that he should be allowed to +conform to the rules of his order and remain at his +monastery except when officially on duty at the +court.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards, he was appointed Provincial +of the Franciscans in Castile and set himself to reform +their religious houses, the discipline of which +was greatly relaxed. Sloth, luxury and licentiousness +prevailed and especially in his own order, +which was wealthy and richly endowed with estates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +in the country, and stately dwellings in the towns. +These monks, styled "conventuals," wasted large +sums in prodigal expenditure, and were often guilty +of scandalous misconduct which Ximenes, as an +Observantine, one of a small section pledged to rigid +observance of monastic rules, strongly condemned. +He was encouraged and supported in the work of +reform by Isabella and a special bull from Rome +armed him with full authority. His rigorous and +unsparing action met with fierce opposition, but he +triumphed in the end and won a notable reward. +When the archbishop of Toledo died, in 1495, +Ximenes, unknown to himself, was selected for the +great post of primate of all Spain and Lord High +Chancellor of Castile.</p> + +<p>The right to nominate was vested in the Queen, +and Ferdinand in this instance begged her to appoint +his natural son, Alfonso, already archbishop +of Saragossa, but a child almost in years. She +firmly and unhesitatingly refused and recommended +her confessor to the pope as the most worthy recipient +of the honour. When the bull making the +appointment arrived from Rome, the queen summoned +Ximenes to her presence handed him the +letter and desired him to open it before her. On +reading the address, "To our venerable brother, +Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, Archbishop of +Toledo," he changed colour, dropped the letter, and +crying, "There must be some mistake," ran out of +the room. The queen, in surprise, waited, but he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +did not return and it was found that he had taken +horse and fled to his monastery. Two grandees +were despatched in hot haste to ride after him, overtake +him and bring him back to Madrid. He returned +but still resisted all the entreaties of his +friends and the clearly expressed wishes of his +sovereign. Finally his persistent refusal was overborne, +but only by the direct command of the pope, +who ordered him to accept the post for which his +sovereigns had chosen him. He has been sharply +criticised for his apparent humility, but it is generally +admitted that he was sincere in his refusal. He +was already advanced in years, ambition was dying +in him, he had become habituated to monastic seclusion +and his thoughts were already turned from the +busy turmoil of this world to the life beyond the +grave.</p> + +<p>However reluctant to accept high office, Ximenes +was by no means slow to exercise the power it gave +him. He ruled the Spanish Church with a rod of +iron, bending all his energies to the work of reforming +the practices of the clergy, enforcing discipline +and insisting upon the maintenance of the strictest +morality. He trod heavily, made many enemies, +and stirred so much ill feeling that the malcontents +combined to despatch a messenger to lay their grievances +before the pope. The officious advocate, however, +got no audience but went home to Spain, where +twenty months' imprisonment taught him not to +offend again the masterful archbishop of Toledo.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ximenes in insisting upon a strict observance of +propriety and the adoption of an exemplary life, was +in himself a model to the priesthood. He never relaxed +the personal mortifications which had been his +rule when a simple monk. He kept no state and +made no show, regulating his domestic expenditure +with the strictest and most parsimonious economy, +until reminded by the Holy See that the dignity of +his great office demanded more magnificence. Still, +when he increased his display and the general style +of living in household, equipages and the number +of his retainers, he continued to be as harsh as ever +to himself.</p> + +<p>In spite of all opposition and discontent he pursued +his course with inflexible purpose. His spirit +was unyielding, and his energetic proceedings were +unremittingly directed to the amelioration and improvement +in the morals of the clergy with marked +success. And now he set himself with the same +uncompromising zeal to extirpate heresy. Having +begged Archbishop Talavera to allow him to join in +the good work at Granada, he took immediate advantage +of the consent given and began to attack the +Moorish unbelievers in his own vigorous fashion. +His first step was to call together a great conference +of learned Mussulman doctors, to whom he expounded +with all the eloquence he had at his command, +the true doctrines of the Catholic faith and +their superiority to the law of Mahomet. He accompanied +his teaching with liberal gifts, chiefly of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +costly articles of apparel, a specious though irresistible +bribery, which had the desired effect. +Great numbers of the Moorish doctors came over +at once and their example was speedily followed by +many of their illiterate disciples. So great was the +number of converts that no less than three thousand +presented themselves for baptism in one day, and +as the rite could not be administered individually, +they were christened wholesale by sprinkling them +from a mop or hyssop which had been dipped in +holy water, and from which the drops fell upon the +proselytes as it was twirled over the heads of the +multitude. These early successes stimulated the +primate's zeal and he next adopted more violent +measures by proceeding to imprison and impose +penalties upon all Moors who still stood out against +conversion. He was resolved not merely to exterminate +heresy, but to destroy the basis of belief contained +in the most famous Arabic manuscripts, +large quantities of which were collected into great +piles and burned publicly in the great squares of the +city. Many of these were beautifully executed +copies of the Koran; others, treasured theological +and scientific works, and their indiscriminate destruction +is a blot upon the reputation of the cultivated +prelate who had created the most learned university +in Spain.</p> + +<p>More temperate and cautious people besought +Ximenes to hold his hand. But he proceeded pertinaciously, +declaring that a tamer policy might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +serve in temporal matters, but not where the interests +of the soul were at stake. If the unbeliever +could not be drawn he must be driven into the way +of salvation, and he continued with unflinching resolution +to arrest all recusants, and throw them into +the prisons which were filled to overflowing. Discontent +grew rapidly and soon broke into open violence. +When an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">alguazil</i> in Granada was leading +a woman away as a prisoner, the people rose and +released her from custody. The insurrection became +general in the city and assumed a threatening +aspect. Granada was full of warlike Moors and a +mob besieged Ximenes in his house until he was +rescued by the garrison of the Alhambra.</p> + +<p>The king and queen were much annoyed with +Ximenes and condemned his zealous precipitancy, +but he was clever enough to vindicate his action and +bring the sovereigns to believe that it was imperative +that the rebellious Moors must be sharply repressed. +Now a long conflict began. Forcible conversion +became the order of the day; baptism continued +to be performed in the gross upon thousands, +the alternative being exile, and numbers were actually +deported to Barbary in the royal ships. A fierce +civil conflict broke out in the Alpujarras beyond +Granada, which required a royal army to quell. +The object sought was the welfare of the state by +producing uniformity of faith.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/i_052fp.jpg" alt="" /> + <div class="caption"> + <p><cite>Peint par Benjamin Constant</cite> <cite>Photogravure Goupil & C<sup>ie</sup>.</cite></p> + + <p><cite>The Alhambra Palace, Granada</cite></p> + + <p>The beautiful Moorish stronghold during the time of the + supremacy of the Moors was often made the home of slaves + captured in near-by frontier towns of Andalusia, who endured + hateful bondage under the rule of the Mohammedan monarch. + Granada and its palace were finally captured by Ferdinand + and Isabella, and the Alhambra is to-day the finest example + of Moorish architecture, with its delicate elaboration of detail.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Ximenes found a strenuous supporter in Diego +Deza, the inquisitor-general, who was eager to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>emulate the strictness of his predecessor, Torquemada. +Deza was a Dominican who had been at one +time professor of theology and confessor to the +queen. He was by nature and predilection exactly +fitted for his new office upon which he entered with +extensive powers. A bull from Pope Alexander VI +dated 1499 invested him with the title of "Conservator +of the Faith" in Spain.</p> + +<p>Deza gave a new constitution to the Holy Office +and prescribed that there should be a general "Inquest" +in places not yet visited, and that edicts +should be republished requiring all persons to lay information +against suspected heretics. He stirred up +the zeal of all subordinate inquisitors and was well +served by them, especially by one, Lucero, commonly +called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Tenebroso</i>, "the gloomy," whose savage +and ruthless proceedings terrorised Cordova where +he presided. He made a general attack upon the +most respectable inhabitants and arrested great +numbers, many of whom were condemned and executed. +Informers crowded Lucero's ante-chamber +bringing monstrous tales of heretical conspiracies to +reëstablish Judaism and subvert the Church. His +familiars dragged the accused from their beds to +answer to these charges and the prisons overflowed. +Cordova was up in arms and many would have offered +armed resistance to the Inquisition, but the +more circumspect people, the Bishop and Chapter, +some of the nobility and the municipal council appealed +to Deza praying him to remove Lucero. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +inquisitor-general however turned furiously upon +the complainants and caused them to be arrested +as abettors of heresy. Philip I, acting for his wife +Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was +inclined to listen to the complainants, and suspended +both Deza and Lucero from their functions. But +his sudden death stayed the relief he had promised, +and the tormenting officials returned to renew their +oppression.</p> + +<p>The Cordovese would not tamely submit and appealed +to force. A strong body of men under the +Marques de Priego attacked the "Holy House," +broke open the prison and liberated many of those +detained, shutting up the officers of the Inquisition +in their place. Lucero took to flight upon a swift +mule and escaped. Though for a time Deza continued +to keep his influence, he was shortly forced +to resign and Cordova became tranquil. Deza's +persecution had spared no one. In the eight years +during which he held office, one account, probably +greatly exaggerated, says that 2,592 persons were +burned alive, some nine hundred were burned in effigy, +and thirty-five thousand were punished by +penance, fines and confiscations.</p> + +<p>The fall of Deza and the hostile attitude of the +people warned the authorities that the affairs of the +Inquisition must be managed more adroitly. New +inquisitors must be appointed and choice fell upon +Ximenes de Cisneros, who had already played a +foremost part in proselytising, but who now was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +willing to adopt more moderate measures. The +Pope in giving his approval sent him a cardinal's +hat as a recompense for past services, and as an encouragement +to act wisely in the future. He had a +difficult task. Disaffection, strongly pronounced, +prevailed through the kingdom and the Inquisition +was everywhere cordially detested. Ximenes strove +to appease the bitter feeling by instituting a searching +inquiry into the conduct of his immediate predecessor, +Deza, and promising to hear all complaints +and redress all grievances. He created a "Catholic +Congregation" as a special court to investigate the +actions of Lucero in the proceedings growing out +of the charges against Archbishop Talavera and his +family. This court in due course pronounced a verdict +of acquittal and rehabilitation of the Talaveras. +Ruined houses were rebuilt, the memory of the +dead restored to honour and fame, and this act +of grace was published at Valladolid with great +solemnity in the presence of the kings, bishops and +grandees.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless Ximenes had no desire to remodel +the Holy Office or limit its operations to any considerable +extent. On the contrary, he bent all his +efforts to develop its influence and make it an engine +of government, utilising it as a political as well +as a religious agency. It was as rigorous as ever but +he set his face like a flint against dishonesty. He +systematised the division of the realm into inquisitorial +provinces, each under its own inquisitor with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +headquarters in the principal cities, such as Seville, +Toledo, Valladolid, Murcia, and in Sardinia and +Sicily beyond the seas. His personal ascendancy +became extraordinary. He enjoyed the unbounded +confidence and favour of the sovereign. He had +been created Cardinal of Spain, a title rarely conferred. +As archbishop of Toledo, he was the supreme +head of the Spanish clergy, and as inquisitor-general, +he was the terror of every priest and every +layman within his jurisdiction. He had, in fact, +reached the highest ecclesiastical rank, short of the +papacy and as he rose higher and higher he wielded +powers little short of an independent absolute monarch, +and his zeal in the cause of his religion grew +more and more fervent and far-reaching. No doubt +in an earlier age he would have turned crusader, +but now he sought to crush the fugitive Moors who +had escaped into Northern Africa, whence they +made constant descents upon the south of Spain, +burning to avenge the wrongs of their co-religionists, +and were a constant scourge and source of +grievous trouble.</p> + +<p>The evils centred in the province of Oran, a fortified +stronghold—the most considerable of the +Moslem possessions on the shores of the Mediterranean—whence +issued a swarm of pirate cruisers, +manned by the exiles driven out of Spain, who had +sought and found a welcome refuge in Oran. +Ximenes was resolved to seize and sweep out this +hornets' nest and undertook its conquest on his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +account. Much ridicule was levelled at this "monk +about to fight the battles of Spain," but he went +forth undeterred at the head of a powerful army, +conveyed by a strong fleet from Cartagena, which +he landed at the African port of Mazalquivir, and +after some desperate fighting made himself master +of Oran. After his successful African campaign he +resumed his duties of chief inquisitor, and the Holy +Office under his fierce and vigorous rule became +more than ever oppressive. Ximenes pursued his +unwavering course and encouraged his inquisitors in +their unceasing activity. He desired to extend the +power and influence of the Inquisition, and established +it in the new countries recently added to the +Spanish dominion. A branch was set up in the +newly conquered province of Oran, and another +farther afield in the recently discovered new world +beyond the Atlantic. On the initiative of Ximenes +Fray Juan Quevedo, Bishop of Cuba, was appointed +chief inquisitor in the kingdom of Terrafirma, as +the territories of the new world were styled.</p> + +<p>The energetic pursuit of heresy did not monopolise +the exertions of Ximenes. He founded the +great University of Alcalá, a vast design, a noble +seat of learning richly endowed with magnificent +buildings and a remarkable scheme of education, +which produced the ablest and most eminent scholars. +Another great monument is the well known +polyglot Bible, designed to exhibit the scriptures in +their various ancient languages, a work of singular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +erudition upon which the munificent cardinal expended +vast sums.</p> + +<p>Ximenes lived to the advanced age of eighty-one, +long enough to act as regent of Spain during the +interregnum preceding the arrival of Charles I, +better known as the Emperor Charles V. The immediate +cause of his death was said to have been the +receipt of a letter from the Emperor in which he +was coldly thanked for his services and desired to +retire to his diocese, to "seek from heaven that +reward which heaven alone could adequately bestow." +In his last moments he is reported to have +said, "that he had never intentionally wronged any +man; but had rendered to every one his due, without +being swayed, as far as he was conscious, by +fear or affection."</p> + +<p>He combined a versatility of talent usually found +only in softer and more flexible characters. Though +bred in the cloister, he distinguished himself both +in the cabinet and the camp. For the latter, indeed, +so repugnant to his regular profession, he had a +natural genius, according to the testimony of his +biographer; and he evinced his relish for it by declaring +that "the smell of gunpowder was more +grateful to him than the sweetest perfume of Arabia!" +In every situation, however, he exhibited +the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern +lineaments of the monk were never wholly concealed +under the mask of the statesman or the visor of the +warrior. He had a full measure of the religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had +melancholy scope for displaying it, as chief of that +dread tribunal over which he presided during the +last ten years of his life.</p> + +<p>The accession of the grandson of Ferdinand and +Isabella to the Spanish throne as Charles I (better +known as the Emperor Charles V), seemed to foreshadow +a change in the relations of the Inquisition +and the state. The young sovereign was born in +Ghent and was more Fleming than Spaniard. +Though his grandfather left in his will solemn injunctions +"to labour with all his strength to destroy +and extirpate heresy" and to appoint ministers +"who will conduct the Inquisition justly and properly +for the service of God and the exaltation of the +Catholic faith, and who will also have great zeal +for the destruction of the sect of Mahomet," it was +reported that he sympathised with the critics of the +Inquisition and was disposed to curtail its activity. +The influence of his old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, +whom he commissioned inquisitor-general, first of +Aragon, and, after the death of Ximenes, of Castile +also, changed him however into a strong friend and +staunch supporter of the institution.</p> + +<p>Cardinal Manrique, who followed as inquisitor-general, +was a man of more kindly disposition, +charitable and a benefactor to the poor. He was +inclined to relax the severities of the Holy Office +but it was urged upon him that heresy was on the +increase on account of the appearance of Lutheran<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +opinions and the bitterest persecution was more than +ever essential. Protestants began to appear sporadically +and called for uncompromising repression. +The writings of Luther, Erasmus, Melancthon, +Zwingli, and the rest of the early reformers were +brought into Spain, but the circulation was adjudged +a crime, though Erasmus had once been a favourite +author.</p> + +<p>The Inquisition later prepared an <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Index Expurgandorum</i>, +or list of condemned and prohibited +literature. All books named on it were put +under the ban of the law. Possession of a translation +of the Bible in the vulgar tongues was forbidden +in 1551, and the prohibition was not lifted until +1782. By that time there was no longer such keen +interest in its contents, and the Book was little circulated. +In 1825 the British and Foreign Bible +Society sent one of its agents into Spain to distribute +it, and his adventures are described autobiographically +in that interesting work, George Borrow's +"Bible in Spain."</p> + +<p>In spite of all the efforts to make good Catholics +and good Spaniards of the Moriscos, little real progress +was made. They had accepted baptism under +compulsion, not realising that thereby they were +brought under control of the Church. Little effort +was made to instruct them, moreover, and as a result +thousands, nominally Christians, observed scrupulously +the whole Moslem ritual, used the old language, +and kept their old costume. Some, to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +sure, were hardly to be distinguished from the Spaniards +with whom they had intermarried, but, on the +whole, they seemed an unassimilable element in the +population.</p> + +<p>When Philip II succeeded his father, Charles V, +in 1556, he determined to take strong measures. A +decree proclaimed in Granada in 1566 forbade the +use of the distinctive dress and of the Moorish +names. The old customs were to be abandoned, and +all the baths were to be destroyed. Rebellion followed +this edict, and, for a time, it was doubtful +whether it could be crushed. Finally open resistance +was overcome, and several thousand were transferred +to the mountains of Northern Spain. Meanwhile +the Inquisition was active, and thousands were +brought to trial for pagan practices.</p> + +<p>Prejudice continued to grow, and fanatics declared +that Spain could never prosper until the "evil +seed" was destroyed or expelled from the Christian +land. Jealousy of the prosperity of the Moriscos +led the populace to agree with the bigots, and +finally expulsion was unanimously decreed by the +Council of State, in 1609, during the reign of +Philip III. Valencia was first purged, and next +Murcia, Granada, Andalusia, Old and New Castile +and Aragon. Afterward vigorous attempts to root +out individuals of Moorish blood, who had become +indistinguishable because of their strict conformity, +were made. Great suffering was incurred by the +unfortunate exiles and many died. Those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +reached Africa carried with them a hatred which +persists to the present.</p> + +<p>The number driven out is uncertain. The estimates +vary from three hundred thousand to three +million. Probably the most accurate estimate is +that of six hundred thousand. In this number were +included the most skilful artisans, and the most industrious +and most thrifty portion of the population. +It was a mistake from which Spain has never +recovered.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Prisons, usually, a part of the building occupied by court—Better +than civil prisons—Torture inflicted—No new +methods invented—Description of various kinds—Two +Lutheran congregations broken up—Description of some +famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>—Famous victims—Englishmen punished—Archbishop +Carranza's trial.</p></div> + + +<p>The prisons of the Inquisition fall under two +great heads, the "secret prisons" in which those +awaiting trial were confined, and the "penitential +prisons" where sentences were served. Generally +there were also <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles de familiares</i> where officers +of the institution charged with wrong-doing were +confined. In some tribunals there were others variously +called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles medias</i>, <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles comunes</i>, and +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles públicas</i>, where offenders not charged with +heresy might be confined.</p> + +<p>The secret prisons, however, have most fired the +imagination. A man might disappear from his accustomed +haunts, and for years his family and +friends be ignorant of his condition, or even of his +very existence, until one day he might appear at an +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>. What went on within the walls was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +mystery. Seldom did any hint of the proceedings +leak out. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, and the +arm of the Inquisition was long, if the luckless witness +or attendant failed to heed his instructions.</p> + +<p>These prisons were almost invariably a part of +the building occupied by the tribunal. In Valencia, +it was the archbishop's palace; in Saragossa, the +royal castle; in Seville, the Triana; in Cordova, the +Alcázar, and so on. In some, there were cells and +dungeons already prepared, in others, they were constructed. +There was no common standard of convenience +or sanitation. In many cases, generally, +perhaps, they were superior to the common jails in +which ordinary prisoners were confined. Yet we +know that some were entirely dark and very damp. +Others were so small that a cramped position was +necessary, and were hardly ventilated at all. Sometimes +they were poorly cared for, and loathsome filth +and vermin made them unendurable. Many places +were used for prisons during the three hundred +years of the Inquisition, and no statement is broad +enough to cover them all. The mortality was high, +yet not so high as in the prisons generally. Since +many were unsuitable and often unsafe, the wearing +of fetters was common. Prisoners often, incidentally, +speak of their chains.</p> + +<p>Occasionally more than one prisoner occupied the +same room, and much evidence was secured in this +way, as each hoped to lighten his own punishment +by inculpating others. Writing materials were per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>mitted, +though every sheet of paper must be accounted +for and delivered into an official's hands. +Lights were not permitted however.</p> + +<p>Yet entire secrecy was not always secured. Attendants +were sometimes bribed, and by various +ingenious methods, communications occasionally +found their way in or out. Again in cases of severe +sickness, the prisoner might be transferred to a hospital, +which however must account for him if he +recovered. Cardinal Adrian, the inquisitor-general, +reminded the tribunals that the prison was for detention, +not for punishment, that prisoners must not +be defrauded of their food, and that the cells must +be carefully inspected.</p> + +<p>These and similar instructions issued at intervals +were not always obeyed, for inquisitors were often +negligent. According to Lea, "no general judgment +can be formed as to the condition of so many +prisons during three centuries, except that their +average standard was considerably higher than that +in other jurisdictions, and that, if there were abodes +of horror, such as have been described by imaginative +writers they were wholly exceptional."<a name="Anchor-5" id="Anchor-5"></a><a href="#Footnote-5" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 5.">[5]</a> Again +the same author quotes instances where prisoners +speak of improved health, due to better food in +prison than they were accustomed to at home, and +in summing up declares that the general management +was more humane than could be found elsewhere, +either in or out of Spain.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> +<p>We may briefly recapitulate the various processes +of the Inquisition in order, as they obtained. First +came the denunciation, followed by seizure and the +commencement of an inquiry. The several offences +imputed were next submitted to those logical experts +named "qualifiers" who decided, so to speak, +"whether there was a true bill," in which case the +procurator fiscal committed the accused to durance. +Three audiences were given him, and the time was +fully taken up with cautions and monitions. The +charges were next formulated but with much prolixity +and reduplication. They were not reduced to +writing and delivered to the accused for slow perusal +and reply, but were only read over to him, +hurriedly. On arraignment he was called upon to +reply, then and there, to each article, to state at once +whether it was true or false. The charges were +usually originated by an informer and resort was +had, if necessary, to "inquiry," the hunting up of +suspicious or damaging facts on which evidence was +sought, in any quarter and from any one good or +bad. If the accused persisted in denial he was allowed +counsel, but later the counsel became an official +of the Inquisition and naturally made only a +perfunctory defence. An appeal to torture was had +if the prisoner persisted in denying his guilt, in the +face of plausible testimony, or if he confessed only +partially to the charges against him, or if he refused +to name his accomplices. A witness who had retracted +his testimony or had contradicted himself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +might be tortured in order that the truth might be +made known.</p> + +<p>It was admitted, however, that torture was by no +means an infallible method for bringing out the +truth. "Weak-hearted men, impatient of the first +pain, will confess crimes they never committed and +criminate others at the same time. Bold and strong +ones will bear the most severe torments. Those +who have been already on the rack are likely to bear +it with greater courage, for they know how to adapt +their limbs to it and can resist more powerfully." +It may be admitted that the system was so far +humane that the torture was not applied until every +other effort had been tried and had failed. The +instruments of torture were first exhibited with +threats, but when once in use, it might be repeated +day after day, "in continuation," as it was called, +and if any "irregularity" occurred, such as the +death of a victim, the inquisitors were empowered +to absolve one another. Nobles were supposedly +exempted from torture, and it was not permissible +by the civil laws in Aragon, but the Holy Office was +nevertheless authorised to torture without restriction +all persons of all classes.</p> + +<p>Torture was not inflicted as a punishment by the +Inquisition, nor was it peculiar to its trials. Until +a comparatively recent date it was a recognised +method of securing testimony, accepted in nearly all +courts of Europe as a matter of course. The Inquisition +seems to have invented no new methods, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +seldom used the extreme forms commonly practised. +In fact in nearly every case, torture was inflicted by +the regular public executioner who was called in for +the purpose and sworn to secrecy. The list of tortures +practised on civil prisoners was long, and they +seem to us now fiendish in their ingenuity. A complete +course would require many hours, and included +apparently the infliction of pain to every organ or +limb and to almost every separate muscle and nerve. +The records of the Inquisition show almost invariably +the infliction of a few well known sorts.</p> + +<p>Some sorts were abandoned because of the danger +of permanent harm, and others less violent, but +probably no less painful, were substituted. Often +the record states that the prisoner "overcame the +torture," <em>i. e.</em> was not moved to confess. Evidently, +though the whole idea is abhorrent to us to-day, +torture as inflicted was less awful than some writers +would have us believe.<a name="Anchor-6" id="Anchor-6"></a><a href="#Footnote-6" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 6.">[6]</a></p> + +<p>A curious memento of the methods employed by +the Holy Office has been preserved in an ancient +"Manual of the Inquisition of Seville," a thin +quarto volume bound in vellum, with pages partly +printed, partly in manuscript. It bears the date +1628, and purports to be compiled from ancient and +modern instructions for the order of procedure. It +was found in the Palace of the Inquisition at Seville, +when it was sacked in the year 1820. One part of +this manual details the steps to be taken, "when +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>torture has to be performed." The criminal having +been brought into the audience, was warned that +he had not told the entire truth, and as he was believed +to have kept back and hidden many things, +he was about to be "tormented" to compel him to +speak out. Formal sentence to the torture chamber +was then passed, after "invoking the name of +Christ." It was announced that the "question" +would be administered. The method of infliction +was detailed whether by pulleys or by water or +cords, or by all, to be continued for "as long a time +as may appear well," with the proviso that if in the +said torment, "he (or she) should die or be +wounded, or if there be any effusion of blood or +mutilation of member, the blame should be his (or +hers) not ours."</p> + +<p>Here follows in manuscript the description of the +torments applied to one unfortunate female whose +name is not given.</p> + +<p>"On this she was ordered to be taken to the +chamber of Torment whither went the Lords Inquisitors, +and when they were there she was admonished +to tell the truth and not to let herself be +brought into such great trouble.</p> + +<p>"Her answer is not recorded.</p> + +<p>"Carlos Felipe, the executor of Justice, was +called and his oath taken that he would do his business +well and faithfully and that he would keep the +secret. All of which he promised.</p> + +<p>"She was told to tell the truth or orders would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +be given to strip her. She was commanded to be +stripped naked.</p> + +<p>"She was told to tell the truth or orders would +be given to cut off her hair. It was taken off and +she was examined by the doctor and surgeon who +certified that there was no reason why she should +not be put to the torture.</p> + +<p>"She was commanded to mount the rack and to +tell the truth or her body should be bound; and she +was bound. She was commanded to tell the truth, +or they would order her right foot to be made fast +to the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">trampazo</i>."<a name="Anchor-7" id="Anchor-7"></a><a href="#Footnote-7" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 7.">[7]</a></p> + +<p>After the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">trampazo</i> of the right foot that of the +left followed. Then came the binding and stretching +of the right arm, then that of the left. After +that the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> or the compression of the fleshy +parts of the arms and thighs with fine cords, a plan +used to revive any person who had fainted under the +torture. Last of all the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">mancuerda</i> was inflicted, +a simultaneous tension of all the cords on all the +limbs and parts.</p> + +<p>The water torture was used to extort confession. +The patient was tightly bound to the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">potro</i>, or ladder, +the rungs of which were sharp-edged. The +head was immovably fastened lower than the body, +and the mouth was held open by an iron prong. A +strip of linen slowly conducted water into the mouth, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>causing the victim to strangle and choke. Sometimes +six or eight jars, each holding about a quart, +were necessary to bring the desired result. This +is the "water-cure" found in the Philippines by +American soldiers when the islands were captured.</p> + +<p>If these persuasions still failed of effect, or if the +hour was late, or "for other considerations" the +torment might be suspended with the explanation +that it had been insufficiently tried and the victim +was taken back to his prison to be brought out again +after a respite. If, on the other hand, a confession +was secured, it was written down word for word +and submitted to the victim for ratification after at +least twenty-four hours had elapsed. If he revoked +the confession, he might be tortured again.</p> + +<p>When a number of cases had been decided, the +Suprema appointed a day, usually a Sunday or a +feast day, for pronouncing sentence. This was an +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, literally an "act of faith." The greater +festivals, Easter day, Christmas day, or Sundays in +Advent or Lent were excepted because these holy +days had their own special musical or dramatic entertainments +in the churches. The day fixed was announced +from all the pulpits in the city (Seville or +Madrid or Cordova as the case might be) and notice +given that a representative of the Inquisition would +deliver a "sermon of the faith" and that no other +preacher might raise his voice. The civil authorities +were warned to be ready to receive their victims. +At the same time officials unfurled a banner and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +made public proclamation to the effect that "no +person whatever his station or quality from that +hour until the completion of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> should carry +arms offensive or defensive, under pain of the +greater excommunication and the forfeiture of such +arms; nor during the same period should any one +ride in coach, or sedan chair, or on horseback, +through the streets in the route of the procession, +nor enter the enclosure in which the place of execution +(<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>) was erected," which was usually +beyond the walls.</p> + +<p>On the eve of the great day a gorgeous procession +was organised, for which all the communities of +friars in the city and neighbourhood assembled at +the Holy House of the Inquisition, together with the +commissaries and familiars of the Holy Office. +They sallied forth in triumphal array, followed by +the "qualifiers" and experts, all carrying large +white tapers, lighted. In their midst a bier was +borne covered with a black pall, and, bringing up +the rear, was a band, instrumental and vocal, performing +hymns. In this order the procession +reached the public square, when the pall was removed +from the bier and a green cross disclosed +which was carried to the altar on the platform, and +there erected surrounded by a dozen candles. The +white cross was carried to the burning place. Now +a strong body of horse and a number of Dominican +friars took post to watch through the night and the +rest of the actors dispersed. At the same time those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +who were to suffer were prepared for the fatal event. +All were shaved close, both head and beard, so that +they might present an appearance of nakedness and +humiliation suitable to their forlorn condition. At +sunrise on their last day they were arrayed in the +prescribed garb and brought from their cells into +the chapel or great hall. The least heinous offenders +were in coarse black blouses and pantaloons, and +were bare-footed and bare-headed. The worst culprits +were in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential sack of +yellow canvas, adorned with a St. Andrew's cross +in bright red paint, and they often carried a halter +round their necks as a badge of ignominy. Those +to die at the stake were distinguished by black +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i> with painted flames and wore on their +heads a conical paper headdress in the shape of a +bishop's mitre, but also resembling somewhat a +fool's cap. This was called the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">coroza</i>, a contemptuous +form of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corona</i> or crown. To make the clothing +more hideous, it was decorated by coarse pictures +of devils in flames. The condemned as they +passed on their way were assailed to the last with +importunate exhortations to repent, and a promise +was held out to them that if they yielded they would +be rewarded by a less painful death, and would be +strangled before the flames reached them. All the +penitents were obliged to sit upon the ground in +profound silence and without so much as moving +a limb, while the slow hours dragged themselves +along. In the morning a sumptuous meal was set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +before them, and they were suffered to eat their fill. +All the officials and visitors were also regaled before +the day's business began.</p> + +<p>After the sermon, the secretary read to all the +people the oath pledging them to support the Inquisition. +Then sentences were pronounced, beginning +with the lesser offenders and proceeding to the +graver. The punishments ranged from a reprimand, +through abjuration, fines, exile, for a longer +or shorter period, destruction of residence, penance, +scourging, the galleys, imprisonment, wearing the +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential garment, up to "relaxation +to the secular arm;" <em>i. e.</em> death by fire. These penalties +carried with them civil disability, and tainted the +blood of the descendants of the condemned as well.</p> + +<p>Penance might be inflicted in various forms. The +condemned, perhaps, might be required to fast one +day in every week, to recite a specified number of +prayers on appointed days, or to appear at the +church door with a halter around his neck on successive +Sundays. When scourging was inflicted, the +penitent, naked to the waist, was placed astride an +ass, and paraded through the principal streets preceded +by the town crier. Meanwhile the executioner, +accompanied by a clerk to keep tally, plied +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">penca</i> or leather strap, but was charged most +solemnly not to draw blood. Usually two hundred +lashes was the limit.</p> + +<p>Theoretically a heretic who escaped the stake by +confession was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +This penalty might be served in a prison, a monastery, +or in a private house. As a matter of fact, +comparatively few were kept in prisons as the expense +of maintenance was a heavy burden, and the +sentences were usually changed to deportation to +the colonies, or assignment to the galleys, or else +the sentence was shortened.</p> + +<p>The trial and sentence of the bodies of the dead +was common, but it was not peculiar to the Inquisition. +As late as 1600, in Scotland, the bodies of +the Earl of Gowrie and his brother were brought +into court, and sentenced to be hanged, quartered +and gibbeted. Logan of Restalrig, in 1609, three +years after his death, was tried on the charge of +being concerned in the same conspiracy, was found +guilty and his property was confiscated.</p> + +<p>In recounting the punishments imposed by the +Inquisition, we must not forget that it assumed +jurisdiction over many crimes which to-day are tried +by the civil courts. Bigamy was punished as, by +a second marriage, the criminal denied the authority +of the Church which makes marriage a sacrament. +Certain forms of blasphemy also were brought before +it, and perjury as well. Personation of the +priesthood, or of officials of the Inquisition, was +punished, and later it gained jurisdiction over unnatural +crimes. Sorcery and witchcraft, which in +other states, including the American colonies, were +considered subjects for the secular courts, were +within the jurisdiction of the Spanish Inquisition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<p>Strange as it may appear at first thought, the attitude +of the Inquisition toward the witchcraft delusion +was one of skepticism almost from the beginning. +Individual inquisitors, influenced by the well +nigh universal belief, were occasionally active, but +the Suprema moderated their zeal. In 1610 an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> +was held at Logroño, which was the centre of wild +excitement. Twenty-nine witches were punished, +six of whom were burned, and the bones of five +others who had died in prison were also consumed. +The eighteen remaining were "reconciled." In +1614, however, the Suprema drew up an elaborate +code of instructions to the tribunals. While not +denying the existence of witchcraft, these instructions +treated it as a delusion and practically made +proof impossible. As a result of this policy the +victims of the craze in Spain can be counted almost +by the score, while in almost every other country +of Europe, they are numbered by the thousand. In +Great Britain the best estimate fixes the number of +victims at thirty thousand, and as late as 1775 the +great legal author, Sir William Blackstone, says that +to deny "the actual existence of witchcraft and +sorcery is at once flatly to contradict the revealed +word of God."<a name="Anchor-8" id="Anchor-8"></a><a href="#Footnote-8" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 8.">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Heresy, of course, according to the views not only +of Catholics but of Protestants, deserved death as +a form of treason. Tolerance is a modern idea. +Calvin burned Servetus at Geneva and was ap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>plauded +for it. Protestants in England persecuted +other Protestants as well as Catholics. The impenitent +heretic in Spain was burned alive. That one, +who after conviction, expressed his repentance, and +his desire to die in the Church was usually strangled +before the flames touched him. Before going on to +describe some famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> and the subsequent +infliction of the death penalty, a word of explanation +is in order.</p> + +<p>Protestant doctrines were introduced into Spain +either by foreigners or by natives who travelled or +studied in foreign lands, but made slow headway. +In 1557 a secret organisation, comprising about one +hundred and twenty members, was discovered in +Seville. The next year another little band of about +sixty was found in Valladolid.</p> + +<p>The almost simultaneous exposure of these two +heretical organisations, both of which included some +prominent people, created great commotion. Charles +V, then living at San Yuste, whither he had retired +after his abdication, wrote to his daughter Juana, +who was acting as regent in the absence of Philip II, +urging the most stringent measures and advocating +that the heretics be pursued mercilessly. Little +stimulation of the Inquisition was necessary, and the +two little congregations were destroyed.</p> + +<p>A part of those condemned at Valladolid were +sentenced at a great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> held on Trinity Sunday, +May 21st, 1559, in Valladolid, not before +Philip II, who was abroad, but his sister, Princess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +Juana, presided and with her was the unhappy +Prince, Don Carlos. It was a brilliant gathering, a +great number of grandees of Spain, titled noblemen +and gentlemen untitled, ladies of high rank in gorgeous +apparel, all seated in great state to watch the +arrival of the penitential procession. Fourteen heretics +were to die, sixteen more to be "reconciled" +but to be branded with infamy and suffer lesser +punishments. Among the sufferers were many persons +of rank and consideration such as the two +brothers Cazalla and their sister, children of the +king's comptroller, one of them a canon of the +Church, the other a presbyter, and all three members +of the little Lutheran congregation. Their mother +had died in heresy and on this occasion her effigy, +clad in her widow's weeds and wearing a mitre with +flames, was paraded through the streets and then +burned publicly. Her house, where Lutherans had +met for prayer, was razed to the ground and a pillar +erected with an inscription setting forth her offence +and sentence. Another victim was the licentiate, +Antonio Herrezuelo, an impenitent Lutheran, the +only one who went to the stake unmoved, singing +psalms by the way, and reciting passages of scripture. +They gagged him at last and a soldier in his +zeal stabbed him with his halberd, but the wound +was not mortal and bleeding and burning, he +slowly expired.</p> + +<p>The sixteen who survived the horrors of the day +were haled back to the prison of the Inquisition to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +spend one more night in the cells. Next morning +they were again taken before the inquisitors who +exhorted them afresh, and their sentences were +finally read to them. Some destined to the galleys +were transferred first to the civil prison to await removal, +after they had been flogged through the +streets and market places. Others clad in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> +and carrying ropes were exposed to the hoots +and indignities of the ribald crowd. All who passed +through the hands of the Holy Office were sworn +to seal up in everlasting silence whatever they had +seen, heard or suffered, on peril of a renewed prosecution.</p> + +<p>Philip II was present at the second great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> in +Valladolid in October of the same year, when the +remainder of the Protestants were sentenced. His +wife, Queen Mary of England, was dead, and he +returned to Spain by way of the Netherlands, embarking +at Flushing for Laredo. Rough weather +and bad seamanship all but wrecked his fleet in sight +of port, and Philip vowed if he were permitted to set +foot on shore, to prosecute the heretics of Spain +unceasingly. He was saved from drowning and +went at once to Valladolid to carry out his +vow.</p> + +<p>The ceremony was organised with unprecedented +pomp and splendour. The king came in state, +rejoicing that several notable heretics had been +reserved to die in torments, for his especial delectation. +His heir, Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +also present but under compulsion; he was, at that +time, no more than fourteen years of age and had +writhed with agony at the sight of the suffering at +the former <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i>. Moreover, when called upon to +swear fidelity to the Inquisition, he had taken the +oath with great reluctance. Not so King Philip, +who when called upon to take the same oath at the +second <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, rose in his place, drew his sword +and brandished it as he swore to show every favour +to the Holy Office and support its ministers against +whomsoever might directly or indirectly impede its +efforts or affairs. "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Asi lo juro</i>," he said with deep +feeling. "Thus I swear."</p> + +<p>The victims at this great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> were many +and illustrious. One was Don Carlos de Seso, an +Italian of noble family, the son of a bishop, a +scholar who had long been in the service of the +Emperor Charles V, and was chief magistrate of +Toro. He had married a Spanish lady and resided +at Logroño, where he became an object of suspicion +as a professor of Lutheranism, and was arrested. +They took him to the prison of Valladolid, where +he was charged, tortured and condemned to die. +When called upon to make confession, he wrote two +full sheets denouncing the Catholic teaching, claiming +that it was at variance with the true faith of +the gospel. The priests argued with him in vain, +and he was brought into church next morning, +gagged, and so taken to the burning place, "lest +he should speak heresy in the hearing of the peo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>ple." +At the stake the gag was removed and he was +again exhorted to recant but he stoutly refused and +bade them light up the fire speedily so that he might +die in his belief.</p> + +<p>Much grief was felt by the Dominicans at the +lapse of one of their order, Fray Domingo de Rojas, +who was undoubtedly a Lutheran. On his way to +the stake he strove to appeal to the king who drove +him away and ordered him to be gagged. More +than a hundred monks of his order followed him +close entreating him to recant, but he persisted in +a determined although inarticulate refusal until in +sight of the flames. He then recanted and was +strangled before being burned. One Juan Sanchez, +a native of Valladolid, had fled to Flanders, but was +pursued, captured and brought back to Spain to die +on this day. When the cords which had bound him +snapped in the fire, he bounded into the air with his +agony but still repelled the priests and called for +more fire. Nine more were burned in the presence +of the king, who was no merely passive spectator, +but visited the various stakes and ordered his personal +guard to assist in piling up the fuel.</p> + +<p>The congregation at Seville were sentenced at +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos</i> held in 1559 and 1560. On December 22d of +the latter year, there were fourteen burned in the +flesh and three in effigy. The last were notable +people. One was Doctor Egidio, who had been a +leading canon of Seville Cathedral, and who had +been tried and forced to recant his heresies in 1552.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +After release he renewed his connection with the +Lutherans, but soon died and was buried at Seville. +His corpse was exhumed, brought to trial, and +burnt with his effigy; all his property was confiscated +and his memory declared infamous. Another +was Doctor Ponce de la Fuente, a man of deep +learning and extraordinary eloquence who had been +chaplain and preacher to the emperor. He followed +the Imperial Court into Germany, then returned to +charm vast congregations in Seville, but his sermons +were reported by spies to be tainted with the +Reformed doctrines. He was seized by the Inquisition +and many incriminating papers were also +taken. When cast into a secret dungeon and confronted +with these proofs of his heresy, he would +make no confession, nor would he betray any of his +friends. He was transferred to a subterranean cell, +damp and pestiferous, so narrow he could barely +move himself, and was deprived of the commonest +necessaries of life. Existence became impossible +under such conditions, and he died, proclaiming +with his last breath that neither Scythians nor +cannibals could be more cruel and inhuman than the +barbarians of the Holy Office. The third effigy +consumed was that of Doctor Juan Pérez de Pineda, +then a fugitive in Geneva.</p> + +<p>Chief among the living victims was Julian Hernandez, +commonly called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Chico</i>, "the little," from +his diminutive stature. Yet his heart was of the +largest and his courage extraordinary. He was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +deacon in the Reformed Church and dared to penetrate +the interior of Spain, disguised as a muleteer, +carrying merchandise in which Lutheran literature +was concealed. Being exceedingly shrewd and daring +he travelled far and wide, beyond Castile into +Andalusia, distributing his books among persons of +rank and education in all the chief cities. His learning, +skill in argument, and piety, were not less remarkable +than the diligence and activity by which +he baffled all efforts to lay hold of him. At last he +was caught and imprisoned. Relays of priests were +told off to controvert his opinions, and he was repeatedly +tortured to extract the names of those who +had aided him in his long and dangerous pilgrimage +through the Peninsula, but he was staunch and silent +to the last.</p> + +<p>A citizen of London, one Nicholas Burton, was +a shipmaster who traded to Cadiz in his own vessel. +He was arrested on the information of a "familiar" +of the Inquisition, charged with having spoken in +slighting terms of the religion of the country. No +reason was given him, and when he protested indignantly, +he was thrown into the common gaol and +detained there for a fortnight, during which he was +moved to administer comfort and preach the gospel +to his fellow-prisoners. This gave a handle to his +persecutors and he was removed on a further charge +of heresy to Seville, where he was imprisoned, +heavily ironed in the secret gaol of the Inquisition +in the Triana. At the end he was condemned as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +contumacious Lutheran, and was brought out, clad +in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> and exposed in the great hall of +the Holy Office with his tongue forced out of his +mouth. Last of all, being obdurate in his heresy, +he was burned and his ship with its cargo was taken +possession of by his persecutors.</p> + +<p>The story does not end here. Another Englishman, +John Frampton, an attorney of Bristol, was +sent to Cadiz by a part-owner to demand restoration +of the ship. He became involved in a tedious law +suit and was at last obliged to return to England +for enlarged powers. Bye and bye he went out a +second time to Spain, and on landing at Cadiz was +seized by the servants of the Inquisition and carried +to Seville. He travelled on mule back "tied by a +chain that came three times under its belly and the +end whereof was fastened in an iron padlock made +fast to the saddle bow." Two armed familiars rode +beside him, and thus escorted and secured, he was +conveyed to the old prison and lodged in a noisome +dungeon. The usual interrogatories were put to +him and it was proved to the satisfaction of the Holy +Office that he was an English heretic. The same +evidence sufficed to place him on the rack, and after +fourteen months, he was taken to be present as a +penitent at the same <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> which saw Burton, +the ship's captain, done to death. Frampton went +back to prison for another year and was forbidden +to leave Spain. He managed to escape and returned +to England to make full revelation of his wrongs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +but the ship was never surrendered and no indemnity +was obtained.</p> + +<p>Other Englishmen fell from time to time into the +hands of the Inquisition. Hakluyt preserved the +simple narratives of two English sailors, who were +brought by their Spanish captors from the Indies +as a sacrifice to the "Holy House" of Seville, +though the authenticity of the statement has been +attacked. One, a happy-go-lucky fellow, Miles +Phillips, who had been too well acquainted in Mexico +with the dungeons of the Inquisition, slipped +over the ship's side at San Lucar, near Cadiz, made +his way to shore, and boldly went to Seville, where +he lived a hidden life as a silk-weaver, until he +found his chance to steal away and board a Devon +merchantman. The other, Job Hortop, added to his +two years of Mexican imprisonment, two more years +in Seville. Then "they brought us out in procession," +as he tells us, "every one of us having a +candle in his hand and the coat with S. Andrew's +cross on our backs; they brought us up on an high +scaffold, that was set up in the place of S. Francis, +which is in the chief street in Seville; there they +set us down upon benches, every one in his degree +and against us on another scaffold sate all the +Judges and the Clergy on their benches. The people +wondered and gazed on us, some pitying our case, +others said, 'Burn those heretics.' When we had +sat there two hours, we had a sermon made to us, +after which one called Bresina, secretary to the In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>quisition, +went up into the pulpit with the process +and called on Robert Barret, shipmaster, and John +Gilbert, whom two familiars of the Inquisition +brought from the scaffold in front of the Judges, +and the secretary read the sentence, which was that +they should be burnt, and so they returned to the +scaffold and were burnt.</p> + +<p>"Then, I, Job Hortop and John Bone, were +called and brought to the same place, as the others +and likewise heard our sentence, which was, that +we should go to the galleys there to row at the +oar's end ten years and then to be brought back +to the Inquisition House, to have the coat with St. +Andrew's cross put on our backs and from thence +to go to the everlasting prison remediless.</p> + +<p>"I, with the rest were sent to the Galleys, where +we were chained four and four together.... +Hunger, thirst, cold and stripes we lacked none, till +our several times expired; and after the time of +twelve years, for I served two years above my sentence, +I was sent back to the Inquisition House in +Seville and there having put on the above mentioned +coat with St. Andrew's cross, I was sent to the everlasting +prison remediless, where I wore the coat +four years and then, upon great suit, I had it taken +off for fifty duckets, which Hernandez de Soria, +treasurer of the king's mint, lent me, whom I was +to serve for it as a drudge seven years." This victim, +too, escaped in a fly-boat at last and reached +England.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>The records of the Inquisition of this period contain +the name of an eminent Spanish ecclesiastic +who offended the Holy Office and felt the weight of +its arm. This was Bartolome de Carranza, Archbishop +of Toledo, Primate of Spain, a Dominican,—whose +rise had been rapid and who was charged +with leanings toward Lutheranism. In early life +he had passed through the hands of the Inquisition +and was censured for expressing approval of the +writings of Erasmus, but no other action was taken. +His profound theological knowledge indeed commended +him to the Councils of the Church, for +which he often acted as examiner of suspected +books.</p> + +<p>Carranza's connection with English history is interesting. +At the time of Queen Mary's marriage +with Philip II, he came to London to arrange, in +conjunction with Cardinal Pole, for the reconciliation +of England to Rome. He laboured incessantly +to win over British Protestants, "preached continually, +convinced and converted heretics without number, +... guided the Queen and Councils and assisted +in framing rules for the governance of the +English Universities." He was particularly anxious +for the persecution of obstinate heretics, and +was in a measure responsible for the burning of +Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. His +zeal and his great merits marked him down as the +natural successor to the archbishopric of Toledo, +when it became vacant, and he was esteemed as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +chief pillar of the Catholic Church, destined in due +course to the very highest preferment. He might +indeed become cardinal and even supreme pontiff +before he died.</p> + +<p>Yet when nearing the topmost pinnacle he was on +the verge of falling to the lowest depths. He had +many enemies. His stern views on Church discipline, +enunciated before the Council of Trent, alienated +many of the bishops, who planned his ruin and +secretly watched his discourses and writings for +symptoms of unsoundness. Valdés, the chief inquisitor, +was a leading opponent and industriously +collected a mass of evidence tending to inculpate +Carranza. He had used "perilous language" when +preaching in England, especially in the hearing of +heretics, and one witness deposed that some of his +sermons might have been delivered by Melancthon +himself. He had affirmed that mercy might be +shown to Lutherans who abjured their errors, and +had frequently manifested scandalous indulgence to +heretics. Valdés easily framed a case against Carranza, +strong enough to back up an application to +the pope to authorise the Inquisition to arrest and +imprison the primate of Spain. Paul IV, the new +pope, permitted the arrest. Great circumspection +was shown in making it because of the prisoner's +rank. Carranza was invited to come to Valladolid +to have an interview with the king, and, with some +misgivings, the archbishop set out. A considerable +force of men was gathered together by the way—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>all +loyal to the Inquisition—and at the town of +Torrelaguna, the arrest was made with great formality +and respect.</p> + +<p>On reaching Valladolid the prisoner begged he +might be lodged in the house of a friend. The Holy +Office consented but hired the building. The trial +presented many serious difficulties. Here was no +ordinary prisoner; Carranza was widely popular, +and the Supreme Council of the Kingdom was divided +as to the evidences of his guilt. Nearly a +hundred witnesses were examined, but proof was +not easily to be secured. Besides, Carranza had appealed +to the Supreme Pontiff. Year after year was +spent in tiresome litigation and a fierce contest ensued +between Rome and the Spanish court which +backed up the Inquisition. At length, after eight +years' confinement, the primate was sent to Cartagena +to take ship for Rome, accompanied by several +inquisitors and the Duke of Alva, that most notorious +nobleman, the scourge and oppressor of the +Netherlands. All landed at Civita Vecchia and the +party proceeded to the Holy City, when Carranza +was at once lodged in the Castle of St. Angelo, the +well known State prison. He was detained there +nine years, until released by Pope Gregory XIII. He +was censured for his errors, and required to abjure +the Lutheran principles found in his writings, and +was relieved from his functions as archbishop, to +which, however, his strength, impaired by age and +suffering, was no longer equal. While visiting the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +seven churches as a penance, he was taken ill, April +23d, 1576, and soon died. Before his death, however, +the pope gave him full indulgence.</p> + +<p>Those who saw him in his last days record that +he bore his trials with dignity and patience. But +this learned priest who had been called to the highest +rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, only to be himself +assailed and thrown down, was the same who +had sat in cruel judgment upon Thomas Cranmer +and compassed his martyrdom.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION ABROAD</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Fresh field for the Inquisition in Spanish America—Operations +begun by Ximenes and more firmly established by +Charles V—Spanish Viceroys' complaints—Zeal of the +Inquisitors checked for a while—Revived under Philip II—Royal +Edict forbidding heretics to emigrate to Spanish +America—Inquisition extended to the Low Countries—Dutch +rebellion proceedings—The Inquisition of the Galleys +instituted by Philip—Growing dislike of the Inquisition—Experiences +of Carcel, a goldsmith—His account of +an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>—Decline of the powers of the Inquisition.</p></div> + + +<p>The acquisition of Spanish America opened a +fresh field for the activity of the Inquisition. Besides +the natives there were the New Christians who +had fled across the seas seeking refuge from intolerance +in the old country. Although the emigration +of heretics was forbidden after a time, lest they +should spread the hateful doctrines, Cardinal +Ximenes, when inquisitor-general, resolved that the +New World should have its own Holy Office, and +appointed Fray Juan de Quevedo, then Bishop of +Cuba, as inquisitor-general of the "Tierra Firma" +as the Spanish mainland was commonly called. The +Inquisition was more broadly established by Charles +V, who empowered Cardinal Adrian to organise it +and appoint new chiefs. The Dominicans were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +supreme, as in the old country, and proceeded with +their usual fiery vigour, wandering at large through +the new territories and spreading dismay among the +native population. The Indians retreated in crowds +into the interior, abandoned the Christianity they +had never really embraced, and joined the other +native tribes still unsubdued. The Spanish viceroys +alarmed at the general desertion complained to +the king at home and the excessive zeal of the +inquisitors was checked for a time. But when +Philip II came into power he would not agree with +this milder policy, and although the inquisitors were +no longer permitted to perambulate the country districts +hunting up heretics, the Holy Office was established +with its palaces and prisons in the principal +cities and acted with great vigour. Three great +central tribunals were created at Panama, Lima, and +at Cartagena de las Indias, and persecution raged +unceasingly, chiefly directed against Jews and +Moors. In the city of Mexico also there was an +inquisitor-general. A royal edict proclaimed that +"no one newly converted to our Holy Faith from +being Moor or Jew nor his child shall pass over into +our Indies without our express license." At the +same time the prohibition was extended to any who +had been "reconciled," and to the child or grandchild +of anyone who had worn the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or of +any person burnt or condemned as a heretic ... +"all, under penalty of loss of goods and peril of his +person, shall be perpetually banished from the Indies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +and if he have no property let them give him a hundred +lashes, publicly."</p> + +<p>The emperor, Charles V, is responsible for the +extension of the Inquisition from Spain to the Low +Countries, by which he repaid the loyal service and +devotion the Dutch people had long rendered him. +This Inquisition was headed at first however by a +layman, and then four inquisitors chosen from the +secular clergy were named. The Netherlanders resisted +stoutly its establishment and its operation, and +in 1646 it was provided that no sentence should go +into effect unless approved by some member of the +provincial council. Heretics were condemned of +course, but the number was not large, though in +some way grossly exaggerated reports of the numbers +of victims have gained credence. Finally, on +the application of the people of Brabant, who declared +that the name would injure commercial prosperity +in their district, the name was dropped altogether. +At best it was a faint and feeble copy of +the Spanish institution, and during the reign of +Charles was little feared. In proof we may cite the +fact that eleven successive edicts were necessary to +keep the Inquisition at work between 1620 and 1650.</p> + +<p>Philip II, on his accession, attempted to increase +the power of the institution, with the hope of uprooting +the reformed doctrines. The assertion, +often made, however, that the Inquisition is responsible +for the revolt of the Netherlands is entirely +too broad. Other factors than religious differences<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +entered into the complex situation. The terrible war +which finally resulted in the independence of the +Protestant Netherlands, falls outside the plan of this +volume.</p> + +<p>Philip wished to extend the sway of the Inquisition +and planned a naval tribunal to take cognisance +of heresy afloat. He created the Inquisition of the +Galleys, or, as it was afterwards styled, of the Army +and Navy. In every sea port a commissary general +visited the shipping to search for prohibited books +and make sure of the orthodoxy of crews and passengers. +Even cargoes and bales of merchandise +were examined, lest the taint of heresy should infect +them. This marine inspection was most active in +Cadiz, at that time the great centre of traffic with the +far West. A visitor from the Holy Office with a +staff of assistants and familiars boarded every ship +on arrival and departure and claimed that their authority +should be respected, so that nothing might +be landed or embarked without their certificate. +The merchants resented this system which brought +substantial commercial disadvantages, and the ships' +captains disliked priestly interference with their +crews, whose regular duties were neglected. The +men were kept below under examination, when they +were wanted on deck to make or shorten sail or take +advantage of a change in the wind or a turn in the +tide. By degrees the marine Inquisition was +thought to impede business on the High Seas and +fell into disuse.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> + +<p>Under succeeding sovereigns the Holy Office was +still favoured and supported, but the reign of Philip +III witnessed loud and frequent remonstrances +against its operation. The Cortes of Castile implored +the king to put some restraint upon the too +zealous inquisitors, but they still wielded their arbitrary +powers unchecked, and Philip sought further +encouragement for them from Rome. The accession +of Philip IV to the throne was celebrated by +an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, but no victim was put to death, and +the only corporal punishment inflicted was the flogging +of an immoral nun who professed to have +made a compact with the devil. She was led out +gagged, and, wearing the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i>, received two +hundred lashes followed by perpetual imprisonment. +Philip IV strove for a time to check the activity of +the Inquisition, but he was too weak and wavering +to make permanent headway against an institution, +the leaders of which knew precisely what they were +striving for, and pertinaciously pursued it.</p> + +<p>A graphic account of what purport to have been +the painful experiences of a poor soul who fell at +a later date into the clutches of the inquisitors is +related by himself in a curious pamphlet printed in +Seville, by one Carcel, who was a goldsmith in that +city. Evidently there is the work of another hand +in it, however, as it is written with too much regard +for the dramatic to have been his own composition. +The description of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> is also unusual, +and not according to the usual procedure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + +<p>He says that he was arrested on the 2nd of April, +1680, at ten o'clock in the evening, as he was finishing +a gold necklace for one of the queen's maids of +honour. A week after his first arrest Carcel was +examined. We will quote his own words:—</p> + +<p>"In an ante-room," he says, "a smith frees me +of my irons and I pass from the ante-chamber to +the 'Inquisitor's table,' as the small inner room is +called. It is hung with blue and citron-coloured +taffety. At one end, between the two grated windows, +is a gigantic crucifix and on the central estrade +(a table fifteen feet long surrounded by arm-chairs), +with his back to the crucifix, sits the secretary, +and on my right, Francisco Delgado Ganados, +the Grand Inquisitor, who is a secular priest. The +other inquisitors had just left, but the ink was still +wet in their quills, and I saw on papers before their +chairs some names marked with red ink. I am +seated on a low stool opposite the secretary. The +inquisitor asks my name and profession and why +I come there, exhorting me to confess as the only +means of quickly regaining my liberty. He hears +me, but when I fling myself weeping at his knees, +he says coolly there is no hurry about my case; that +he has more pressing business than mine waiting, +(the secretary smiles), and he rings a little silver +bell which stands beside him on the black cloth, +for the alcaide who leads me off down a long gallery, +where my chest is brought in and an inventory +taken by the secretary. They cut my hair off and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +strip me of everything, even to my ring and gold +buttons; but they leave me my beads, my handkerchief +and some money I had fortunately sewn in +my garters. I am then led bareheaded into a cell, +and left to think and despair till evening when they +bring me supper.</p> + +<p>"The prisoners are seldom put together. Silence +perpetual and strict is maintained in all the cells. +If any prisoner should moan, complain or even pray +too loud, the gaolers who watch the corridors night +and day warn them through the grating. If the +offence is repeated, they storm in and load you with +blows to intimidate the other prisoners, who, in the +deep grave-like silence, hear your every cry and +every blow.</p> + +<p>"Once every two months the inquisitor, accompanied +by his secretary and interpreter, visits the +prisoners and asks them if their food is brought +them at regular hours, or if they have any complaint +to make against the gaolers. But this is only +a parade of justice, for if a prisoner dares to utter +a complaint, it is treated as mere fanciful ravings +and never attended to.</p> + +<p>"After two months' imprisonment," goes on Carcel, +"one Saturday, when, after my meagre prison +dinner, I give my linen, as usual, to the gaolers to +send to the wash, they will not take it and a great +cold breath whispers at my heart—to-morrow is +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>. When, immediately after the vespers +at the cathedral, they ring for matins, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +they never do but when rejoicing on the eve of a +great feast, I know that my horrid suspicions are +right. Was I glad at my escape from this living +tomb, or was I paralysed by fear, at the pile perhaps +already hewn and stacked for my wretched body? +I know not. I was torn in pieces by the devils that +rack the brains of unhappy men. I refused my next +meal, but, contrary to their wont, they pressed it +more than usual. Was it to give me strength to +bear my torture? Do God's eyes not reach to the +prisons of the Inquisition?</p> + +<p>"I am just falling into a sickly, fitful sleep, worn +out with conjecturing, when, about eleven o'clock at +night, the great bolts of my cell grind and jolt back +and a party of gaolers in black, in a flood of light, +so that they looked like demons on the borders of +heaven, come in.</p> + +<p>"The alcaide throws down by my pallet a heap +of clothes, tells me to put them on and hold myself +ready for a second summons. I have no tongue to +answer, as they light my lamp, leave me and lock +the door behind them. Such a trembling seizes me +for half an hour, that I cannot rise and look at the +clothes which seem to me shrouds and winding +sheets. I rise at last, throw myself down before the +black cross I had smeared with charcoal on the wall, +and commit myself, as a miserable sinner, into God's +hands. I then put on the dress, which consists of +a tunic with long, loose sleeves and hose drawers, +all of black serge, striped with white.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> + +<p>"At two o'clock in the morning the wretches +came and led me into a long gallery where nearly +two hundred men, brought from their various cells, +all dressed in black, stood in a long silent line +against the wall of the long, plain vaulted, cold corridor +where, over every two dozen heads, swung +a high brass lamp. We stood silent as a funeral +train. The women, also in black, were in a neighbouring +gallery, far out of our sight. By sad +glimpses down a neighbouring dormitory I could +see more men dressed in black, who, from time to +time, paced backwards and forwards. These I afterwards +found were men doomed also to be burnt, +not for murder—no, but for having a creed unlike +that of the Jesuits. Whether I was to be burnt +or not I did not know, but I took courage, because +my dress was like that of the rest and the monsters +could not dare to put two hundred men at once into +one fire, though they did hate all who love doll-idols +and lying miracles.</p> + +<p>"Presently, as we waited sad and silent, gaolers +came round and handed us each a long yellow taper +and a yellow scapular, or tabard, crossed behind and +before with red crosses of Saint Andrew. These +are the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i> that Jews, Turks, sorcerers, +witches, heathen or perverts from the Roman Catholic +Church are compelled to wear. Now came the +gradation of our ranks—those who have relapsed, +or who were obstinate during their accusations, +wear the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">zamarra</i>, which is gray, with a man's head<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +burning on red faggots painted at the bottom and +all round reversed flames and winged and armed +black devils horrible to behold. I, and seventy +others, wear these, and I lose all hope. My blood +turns to ice; I can scarcely keep myself from +swooning. After this distribution they bring us, +with hard, mechanical regularity, pasteboard conical +mitres (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corozas</i>) painted with flames and devils +with the words '<em>sorcerer</em>' and '<em>heretic</em>' written +round the rim. Our feet are all bare. The +condemned men, pale as death, now begin to weep +and keep their faces covered with their hands, round +which the beads are twisted. God only—by speaking +from heaven—could save them. A rough, +hard voice now tells us we may sit on the ground +till our next orders come. The old men and boys +smile as they eagerly sit down, for this small relief +comes to them with the refreshment of a pleasure.</p> + +<p>"At four o'clock they bring us bread and figs, +which some drop by their sides and others languidly +eat. I refuse mine, but a guard prays me to put it +in my pocket for I may yet need it. It is as if an +angel had comforted me. At five o'clock, at daybreak, +it was a ghastly sight to see shame, fear, +grief, despair, written on our pale livid faces. Yet +not one but felt an undercurrent of joy at the prospect +of any release, even by death.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly, as we look at each other with ghastly +eyes, the great bell of the Giralda begins to boom +with a funeral knell, long and slow. It was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +signal of the gala day of the Holy Office, it was the +signal for the people to come to the show. We are +filed out one by one. As I pass the gallery in the +great hall, I see the inquisitor, solemn and stern, +in his black robes, throned at the gate. Beneath +him is his secretary, with a list of the citizens of +Seville in his wiry twitching hands. The room is +full of the anxious frightened burghers, who, as +their names are called and a prisoner passes through, +move to his trembling side to serve as his godfather +in the Act of Faith. The honest men shudder +as they take their place in the horrible death procession. +The time-serving smile at the inquisitor, +and bustle forward. This is thought an honourable +office and is sought after by hypocrites and suspected +men afraid of the Church's sword.</p> + +<p>"The procession commences with the Dominicans. +Before them flaunts the banner of the order +in glistening embroidery that burns in the sun and +shines like a mirror, the frocked saint, holding a +threatening sword in one hand, and in the other, an +olive branch with the motto, 'Justitia et misericordia' +(Justice and mercy). Behind the banner +come the prisoners in their yellow scapulars, holding +their lighted torches, their feet bleeding with the +stones and their less frightened godfathers, gay in +cloak and sword and ruff tripping along by their +side, holding their plumed hats in their hands. The +street and windows are crowded with careless eyes, +and children are held up to execrate us as we pass<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +to our torturing death. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> was always +a holiday sight to the craftsmen and apprentices; +it drew more than even a bull fight, because of the +touch of tragedy about it. Our procession, like a +long black snake, winds on, with its banners and +crosses, its shaven monks and mitred bare-footed +prisoners, through street after street, heralded by +soldiers who run before to clear a way for us—to +stop mules and clear away fruit-stalls, street-performers +and their laughing audiences. We at last +reach the Church of All the Saints, where, tired, +dusty, bleeding and faint we are to hear mass.</p> + +<p>"The church has a grave-vault aspect and is +dreadfully like a charnel house. The great altar is +veiled in black, and is lit with six silver candlesticks, +whose flames shine like yellow stars with clear +twinkle and a soft halo round each black, fire-tipped +wick. On each side of the altar, that seems to bar +out God and his mercy from us and to wrap the very +sun in a grave cloak, are two thrones, one for the +grand-inquisitor and his counsel, another for the +king and his court. The one is filled with sexton-like +lawyers, the other with jewelled and feathered +men.</p> + +<p>"In front of the great altar and near the door +where the blessed daylight shines with hope and +joy, but not for us, is another altar, on which six +gilded and illuminated missals lie open; those books +of the Gospels, too, in which I had once read such +texts as—God is love; Forgive as ye would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +forgiven; Faith, hope, charity: these three, but the +greatest of these is charity. Near this lesser altar +the monks had raised a balustraded gallery, with +bare benches, on which sat the criminals in their +yellow and flame-striped tabards with their godfathers. +The doomed ones came last, the more innocent +first. Those who entered the black-hung +church first, passing up nearest to the altar sat there, +either praying or in a frightened trance of horrid +expectancy. The trembling living corpses wearing +the mitres, yellow and red, came last, preceded by a +gigantic crucifix, the face turned from them.</p> + +<p>"Immediately following these poor mitred men +came servitors of the Inquisition, carrying four +human effigies fastened to long staves, and four +chests containing the bones of those men who had +died before the fire could be got ready. The coffers +were painted with flames and demons and the effigies +wore the dreadful mitre and the crimson and +yellow shirt all a-flame with paint. The effigies +sometimes represented men tried for heresy since +their death and whose estates had since been confiscated +and their effigies doomed to be burnt as a +warning; for no one within their reach may escape +if they differ in opinion with the Inquisition.</p> + +<p>"Every prisoner being now in his place—godfathers, +torchmen, pikemen, musketeers, inquisitors, +and flaunting court—the Provincial of the Augustins +mounted the pulpit, followed by his ministrant +and preached a stormy, denouncing, exulting ser<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>mon, +half an hour long (it seemed a month of anguish), +in which he compared the Church with +burning eloquence to Noah's ark; but with this difference, +that those animals who entered it before +the deluge came out of it unaltered, but the blessed +Inquisition had, by God's blessing, the power of +changing those whom its walls once enclosed, turning +them out meek as the lambs he saw around him +so tranquil and devout, all of whom had once been +cruel as wolves and savage and daring as lions.</p> + +<p>"This sermon over, two readers mounted the pulpit +to shout the list of names of the condemned, +their crimes (now, for the first time, known to +them) and their sentences. We grew all ears and +trembled as each name was read.</p> + +<p>"As each name was called the alcaide led out +the prisoner from his pen to the middle of the gallery +opposite the pulpit, where he remained standing, +taper in hand. After the sentence he was led +to the altar where he had to put his hand on one +of the missals and to remain there on his knees.</p> + +<p>"At the end of each sentence, the reader stopped +to pronounce in a loud, angry voice, a full confession +of faith, which he exhorted us, the guilty, to +join with heart and voice. Then we all returned +to our places. My offence, I found, was having +spoken bitterly of the Inquisition, and having called +a crucifix a mere bit of cut ivory. I was therefore +declared excommunicated, my goods confiscated to +the king, I was banished Spain and condemned to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +the Havana galleys for five years with the following +penances: I must renounce all friendship with heretics +and suspected persons; I must, for three years, +confess and communicate three times a month; I +must recite five times a day, for three years, the +Pater and Ave Maria in honour of the Five +Wounds; I must hear mass and sermon every Sunday +and feast day; and above all, I must guard +carefully the secret of all I had said, heard, or seen +in the Holy Office (which oath, as the reader will +observe, I have carefully kept).</p> + +<p>"The inquisitor then quitted his seat, resumed +his robes and followed by twenty priests, each with +a staff in his hand, passed into the middle of the +church and with divers prayers some of us were +relieved from excommunication, each of us receiving +a blow from a priest. Once, such an insult +would have sent the blood in a rush to my head, and +I had died but I had given a return buffet; now, so +weak and broken-spirited was I, I burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Now, one by one, those condemned to the stake, +faint and staggering, were brought in to hear their +sentences, which they did with a frightened vacancy, +inconceivably touching, but the inquisitors +were gossiping among themselves and scarcely +looked at them. Every sentence ended with the +same cold mechanical formula: That the Holy Office +being unhappily unable to pardon the prisoners +present, on account of their relapse and impenitence, +found itself obliged to punish them with all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +rigour of earthly law, and therefore delivered them +with regret to the hands of secular justice, praying +it to use clemency and mercy towards the wretched +men, saving their souls by the punishment of their +bodies and recommending death, but not effusion +of blood. Cruel hypocrites!</p> + +<p>"At the word blood the hangmen stepped forward +and took possession of the bodies, the alcaide +first striking each of them on the chest to show that +they were now abandoned to the rope and fire." +Then he goes on to describe the scene at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>, +which, however, included nothing of importance +not already mentioned elsewhere.</p> + +<p>After the death of Philip IV, and during the +minority of his son, Charles II, Father Nithard, a +Jesuit, who combined the two forces long in opposition, +the disciples of Loyola and the descendants +of Torquemada, was for a time inquisitor-general. +The Holy Office was hotly opposed by Don John of +Austria, a natural son of Philip IV, who rose to +political power and would have fallen a victim to +the Inquisition had not popular indignation sided +with him against Nithard, who fled from Spain to +Rome. He was stripped of all his offices but still +kept the favour of the queen-mother who finally +secured for him from Pope Clement X the coveted +cardinal's hat. Don John was unequal to the task +of curbing the power of the Inquisition, however, +and the institution claimed wider and wider jurisdiction.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>Growing dissatisfaction prevailed, and in 1696, +the king, Charles II, summoned a conference or +Grand Junta to enquire into the complaints that +poured in from all quarters against the Inquisition. +It was composed of two councillors of state from +Castile, Aragon, the Indies, and the Spanish provinces +in Italy, with two members of the religious +orders. It reported that the Holy Office exercised +illegal powers, still arrogated the right to throw persons +of rank into prison and cover their families +with disgrace. It punished with merciless severity +the slightest opposition or disrespect shown to dependents +or familiars who had come to enjoy extensive +and exorbitant privileges. They claimed secular +jurisdiction in matters nowise appertaining to +religion, and set aside restrictions contained in their +own canon law. The Junta strongly recommended +that these restrictions should be rigidly enforced, +and that no one should be thrown into the prisons +of the Inquisition, save on charges of an heretical +nature. It urged the right of appeal to the throne, +and the removal of all causes to the royal courts +for trial. It detailed the privileges granted to the +servants of the Holy Office. Even a coachman or +a lackey demanded reverence and might conduct +himself with unbounded insolence. If a servant girl +were not treated obsequiously in a shop she might +complain and the offender was liable to be cast into +the dungeons of the Inquisition. So great was the +discontent, so many tumults arose, that the Junta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +would have all such unrighteous privileges curtailed, +and would authorise the civil courts to keep +the encroachments of the Holy Office in check.</p> + +<p>With the eighteenth century the authority of the +Holy Office visibly waned. Philip V, a French +prince, and a grandson of Louis XIV, whose succession +produced the long protracted war of the +Spanish Succession, declined to be honoured with +an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> at his coronation, but he maintained +the Inquisition as an instrument of despotic government, +and actually used it to punish as heretics those +who had any doubt concerning his title to the crown. +Yet he rather used the Inquisition than supported +it; for he deprived of his office an inquisitor-general +who had presumed to proceed for heresy against +a high officer. The Cortes of Castile again, (1714), +recorded their condemnation, but without any +further benefit than that which must eventually result +from the disclosure of a truth. The same body +reiterated their disapproval a few years afterwards, +(1720). But while Philip V used the Inquisition +for his own service, and the heretical doctrine which +had prevailed two centuries before no longer left +a trace behind, there were multitudes of persons +accused of attempting to revive Judaism and others +gave offence by their efforts to promote Freemasonry. +This gave the inquisitors abundant pretext +for the discharge of their political mission.</p> + +<p>During the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV, +a revival of literature and an advance in political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +science guided the attention of the clergy and the +government to the position of the court of Rome, +as well as to the proceedings of the inquisitors. +The former of these monarchs nearly yielded to the +advice of his councillors to suppress the Inquisition, +as well as to expel the Jesuits. He banished the +Society, but, in regard to the Inquisition, said: +"The Spaniards want it and it gives me no trouble."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile death sentences nearly ceased, and +once when a good man was sentenced to be delivered +to the secular arm, in compliance with the letter of +the law, the inquisitors let him go free. By this +contrivance Don Miguel Solano, priest of Esco, a +town in Aragon, walked out of the prison of the +Inquisition in Saragossa, as a maniac, forgiven his +heresy, and lived on as a maniac, exempted from +priestly ministrations, while every one knew him to +be a reasonable man and treated him accordingly. +In the end he died, refusing Extreme Unction, and +was buried in unconsecrated ground within the walls +of the Inquisition on the banks of the Ebro.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The Inquisition in Spain abolished by Napoleon's invasion—Its +revival—Persecution of the Freemasons—The "Tribunal +of Faith" established—Inquisition in Portugal—The +case of an Englishman who is arrested, tortured and burnt +alive—Difference between the Inquisitions of Spain and +Portugal—The supreme power of the Holy Office in Portugal +in the eighteenth century—The terrible earthquake at +Lisbon—Establishment of the Holy Office in India at Goa—Description +of the Inquisition prison at Goa by M. Dellon—Case +of Father Ephrem—His arrest and rescue by the +English from the hands of the inquisitors.</p></div> + + +<p>Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the removal +of the young king, Ferdinand VII, to France, put +an end to the Inquisition. When the Emperor took +possession of Madrid, he called upon all public +bodies to submit to his authority, but the Holy +Office refused. Whereupon he issued an order to +arrest the inquisitors, abolish the Inquisition, and +sequestrate its revenues. All Spain did not readily +yield to the French conqueror, and when the Cortes +met in Cadiz they empowered one of the inquisitors, +who had escaped, to reconstitute the tribunal, but it +was never really restored. At the same time, the +governing powers appointed a special commission<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +to enquire into the legal status of the ancient body, +and to decide whether the Inquisition had any legal +right to exist. A report was published in 1812, reviewing +its whole history and condemning it as +incompatible with the liberties of the country. The +indictment against it was couched in very vigorous +language. It was held to have been guilty of the +most harsh and oppressive measures; to have inflicted +the most cruel and illegal punishments; "in +the darkness of the night it had dragged the husband +from the side of his wife, the father from the +children, the children from their parents, and none +may see the other again until they are absolved or +condemned without having had the means of contributing +to their defence or knowing whether they +had been fairly tried." The result was a law passed +by the Cortes to suppress the Inquisition in Spain.</p> + +<p>The restoration of Ferdinand VII, at the termination +of the war in 1814, gave the Inquisition +fresh life. He resented the action taken by the +Cortes, arrested its members, and cast them into +prison, declaring them to be infidels and rebels, and +forthwith issued a decree reviving the tribunal of +the Holy Office. Its supreme council met in Seville +and persecution was renewed under the new inquisitor-general, +Xavier Mier y Campillo, who put out +a fresh list of prohibited books, tried to raise +revenues and issued a new Edict of Faith. There +might have been another <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> even in the nineteenth +century, but informers would not come for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>ward +and latter-day victims could not be found. +Dread, nevertheless, prevailed, and numbers fled for +refuge into foreign lands. Fierce energy was directed +against the Freemasons, for during the +French occupation, the palace of the Inquisition at +Seville had been used, partly as a common gaol and +partly as a Freemasons' lodge. The members of +the craft who were found in Spain were dealt with +as heretics, and all Freemasons were excommunicated.</p> + +<p>For a time the Inquisition languished, although +favoured by the arbitrary régime introduced by +Ferdinand VII, who sought to reinstate it on its +former lines. It was destroyed or at least suspended +by the Revolution of 1820, and on his restoration, +the king did not reëstablish it, though the +officials still hoped for a better day and continued +to draw their salaries. Some of the bishops established +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">juntas de fé</i>, which took up much the same +work, and July 26th, 1826, a poor schoolmaster +Cayetano Ripoll, was hanged for heresy—the last +execution for this crime in Spain. Finally, January +4th, 1834, the Inquisition was definitely abolished, +and the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">juntas de fé</i> were abolished the next year.</p> + +<p>The Inquisition extended its influence into the +neighbouring country of Portugal, which was an independent +kingdom until conquered by Philip II in +1580. Here persecution prevailed from the fifteenth +century, chiefly of the Jews and new Christians, who +flocked into the country from Spain, and were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +treated with great severity. The Holy Office was +set up in Lisbon under an inquisitor-general, Diego +de Silva, and Portugal was divided into inquisitional +districts. <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Autos da fé</i> were frequent, and on +a scale hardly known in Spain, though the records +are fragmentary.</p> + +<p>From among the cases reported, we may quote +that of an Englishman, a native of Bristol, engaged +in commerce in Lisbon, who boldly assaulted the +cardinal archbishop in the act of performing mass. +Gardiner, as fiercely intolerant as those of the dominant +religion who were worshipping according to +their own rites, attacked the priest when he elevated +the host, "snatched away the cake with one hand, +trod it under his feet, and with the other overthrew +the chalice." The congregation, at first utterly +astounded, raised one great cry and fell bodily upon +the sacrilegious wretch, who was promptly stabbed +in the shoulder and haled before the king, who was +present in the cathedral, and forthwith interrogated. +It was thought that he had been instigated by the +English Protestants to this outrageous insult, but +he declared that he had been solely moved by his +abhorrence of the idolatry he had witnessed. He +was imprisoned and with him all the English in +Lisbon. So soon as his wound was healed, he was +examined by the Holy Office, tortured and condemned. +Then he was carried to the market place +on an ass and his left hand was cut off; thence he +was taken to the river side and by a rope and pulley<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +hoisted over a pile of wood which was set on fire. +"In spite of the great torment he continued in a +constant spirit and the more terribly he burned the +more vehemently he prayed." He was in the act of +reciting a psalm, when by the use of exceeding violence, +the burning rope broke and he was precipitated +into the devouring flames.</p> + +<p>A fellow lodger of Gardiner was detained in the +Inquisition for two years, and was frequently tortured +to elicit evidence against other Englishmen, +but without avail. A Scotch professor of Greek in +the university of Coimbra was charged with Lutheranism, +and imprisoned for a year and a half, after +which he was committed to a monastery so that he +might be instructed by the monks in the true religion. +They did not change his views and he was +presently set free. Another, an English shipmaster, +was less fortunate and was burned alive as a heretic +at Lisbon.</p> + +<p>It has been observed that, on comparison of the +Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal, a certain +marked difference was disclosed between them. +The same precise rigour of the Spanish inquisitors +was not exhibited by the Portuguese. In Portugal +the discipline was more savage yet more feeble. Yet +in the latter country there was a brutal and more +wanton excess in inflicting pain at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>. +When convicts were about to suffer they were taken +before the Lord Chief Justice to answer the enquiry +as to what religion they intended to die in. If the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +answer was "in the Roman Catholic Apostolic," the +order was given that they should be strangled before +burning. If in the Protestant, or in any other religion, +death in the flames was decreed. At Lisbon +the place of execution, as has been said, was at the +waterside. A thick stake was erected for each person +condemned, with a wide crosspiece at the top +against which a crosspiece was nailed to receive the +tops of two ladders. In the centre the victim was +secured by a chain, with a Jesuit priest on either +side, seated on a ladder, who proceeded to exhort +him to repentance. If they failed they declared they +left him to the devil and the mob roared, "Let the +dog's beard be trimmed," in other words, "his face +scorched." This was effected by applying an ignited +furze bush at the end of a long pole till his +face was burned and blackened. The record of the +Portuguese Inquisition to 1794 shows a total of one +thousand, one hundred and seventy-five relaxed in +person, <em>i. e.</em> executed, six hundred and thirty-three +relaxed in effigy, and twenty-nine thousand, five +hundred and ninety penanced.</p> + +<p>The Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade +with the Far East and, after Vasco de Gama had +discovered India, Albuquerque annexed and occupied +Goa, which might have become the seat and +centre of the great empire which fell at length into +British hands.</p> + +<p>Portugal sacrificed all power and prosperity to +the extirpation of heresy in its new possessions and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +was chiefly concerned in the establishment of the +Holy Office in India. The early Portuguese settlers +in the East clamoured loudly for the Inquisition; +the Jesuit fathers who were zealous in their propaganda +in India declared that the tribunal was most +necessary in Goa, owing to the prevailing licentiousness +and the medley of all nations and superstitions. +It was accordingly established in 1560, and soon +commenced its active operations with terrific vigour. +General baptisms were frequent in this the ecclesiastical +metropolis of India, and so were <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> +conducted with great pomp with many victims.</p> + +<p>A light upon the proceedings of the Holy Office +in Goa is afforded by the story told by a French +traveller, M. Dellon, who was arrested at the instance +of the Portuguese governor at Damaum, and +imprisoned at Goa in the private prison of the archbishop. +"The most filthy," says Dellon, "the darkest +and most horrible of any I had ever seen.... +It is a kind of cave wherein there is no day seen but +by a very little hole. The most subtle rays of the +sun cannot enter it and there is never any true light +in it. The stench is extreme...." M. Dellon was +dragged before the Board of the Holy Office, seated +in the Holy House, which is described as a great +and magnificent building, "one side of a great space +before the church of St. Catherine." There were +three gates. The prisoners entered by the central +or largest, and ascending a stately flight of steps, +reached the great hall. Behind the principal build<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>ing +was another very spacious, two stories high and +consisting of a double row of cells. Those on the +ground floor were the smallest, due to the greater +thickness of the walls, and had no apertures for +light or air. The upper cells were vaulted and whitewashed, +and each had a small strongly grated window +without glass. The cells had double doors, the +outer of which was kept constantly open, an indispensable +plan in this climate or the occupant must +have died of suffocation.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i_116fp.jpg" alt="" /> +<div class="caption"><p><cite>Peint par D. F. Laugée</cite> <cite>Photogravure Goupil & C<sup>ie</sup>.</cite></p> + +<p><em>The Question</em></p> + +<p>One of the forms of torture before a tribunal of the Inquisition, +used in the examination of the accused. Lighted charcoal +was placed under the victim's feet, which were greased +over with lard, so that the heat of the fire might more quickly +become effective.</p></div> +</div> + +<p>The régime was, to some extent, humane. Water +for ablutions was provided and for drinking purposes, +food was given sparingly in three daily meals, +but was wholesome in quality. Physicians were at +hand to attend the sick and confessors to wait on +the dying, but they administered no unction, gave +no viaticum, said no mass. If any died, as many +did, his death was unknown to all without. He was +buried within the walls with no sacred ceremony, +and if it was decided that he had died in heresy, +his bones were exhumed to be burnt at the next +act of Faith. While alive he lived apart in all the +strictness of the modern solitary cell. Alone and +silent, for the prisoner was forbidden to speak, he +was not allowed even to groan or sob or sigh aloud.</p> + +<p>The Holy Office in Goa was worked on the same +lines as that of Spain as already described and by +the same officers. There was the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Inquisidor Mor</i> +or grand-inquisitor, a secular priest, a second or +assistant inquisitor, a Dominican monk, with many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +deputies; "qualifiers," to examine books and writings; +a fiscal and a procurator; notaries and +familiars. The authority of the tribunal was absolute +in Goa except that the great officials, archbishop +and his grand-vicar, the viceroy and the +governor, could not be arrested without the sanction +of the supreme council in Lisbon. The procedure, +the examination and use of torture was exactly +as in other places.</p> + +<p>M. Dellon was taxed with having spoken ill of +the Inquisition, and was called upon to confess his +sins, being constantly brought out and again relegated +to his cell and continually harassed to make +him accuse himself, until in a frenzy of despair he +resolved to commit suicide by refusing food. The +physician bled him and treated him for fever, but +he tore off the bandages hoping to bleed to death. +He was taken up insensible, restored by cordials, +and carried before the inquisitor, where he lay on +the floor and was assailed with bitter reproaches, +heavily ironed and sent back to languish in his cell +in a wild access of fury approaching madness.</p> + +<p>At last the great day of the Act of Faith approached, +and Dellon heard on every side the agonised +cries of both men and women. During the +night the alcaide and warders came into his cell with +lights bringing a suit of clothes, linen, best trousers, +black striped with white. He was marched to join +a couple of hundred other penitents squatted on the +floor along the sides of a spacious gallery, all mo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>tionless +but in an agony of apprehension, for none +knew his doom. A large company of women were +collected in a neighbouring chamber and a third +lot in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i>, among whom the priests moved +seeking confessions and if made the boon of strangulation +was conceded before "tasting the fire."</p> + +<p>Shortly before sunrise the great bell of the Cathedral +tolled and roused the city into life. People +filled the chief streets, lined the thoroughfares and +crowded into places whence they might best see the +procession. With daylight Dellon saw from the +faces of his companions that they were mostly Indians +with but a dozen white men among them. +M. Dellon went barefoot with the rest over the +loose flints of the badly paved streets, and, at +length, cut and bleeding, entered the church of St. +Francisco, for the ceremony could not be performed +under the fierce sky of this torrid climate. Dellon's +punishment was confiscation of all his property, and +banishment from India, with five years' service in +the galleys of Portugal.</p> + +<p>The rest of his sad adventures may be told +briefly. He was brought back to Lisbon and worked +at the oar with other convicts for some years, when +at the intercession of friends in France the Portuguese +government consented to release him. There +is no record that the French authorities made any +claim or reclamation for the ill-usage of a French +subject.</p> + +<p>It was otherwise with their neighbours, the Eng<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>lish, +who even before their power in India was established, +would not suffer the Portuguese authorities +in Goa to ill-treat a person who could claim +British protection. A French Capuchin, named +Father Ephrem, had visited Madras when on his +way to join the Catholic mission in Pegu. He was +invited to remain in Madras and was promised entire +liberty with respect to his religion, and permitted +to minister to the Catholics already settled in +the factory. In the course of his preaching he laid +down a dogma offensive, as it was asserted, to the +Mother of God, and information thereof was laid +with the inquisitors at Goa, who made their plans +to kidnap Father Ephrem and carry him off to Goa, +some six hundred miles distant from Madras. The +plot succeeded and the French Capuchin was lodged +in the prison of the Holy Office at Goa. This was +not to be brooked by the English in Madras. An +English ship forthwith proceeded to Goa and a +party of ten determined men, well-armed, landed +and appeared at the gates of the Inquisition and +demanded admittance. Leaving a couple of men on +guard at the gate, the rest entered the gaol and insisted +at the point of the sword that Father Ephrem +should be forthwith surrendered to them. An order +thus enforced was irresistible, and the prisoner was +released, taken down to the ship's boat, reëmbarked +and carried back in safety to Madras.</p> + +<p>The aims of the Inquisition are no longer those +of modern communities. So widely has the idea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +toleration extended, that we often forget how recent +it is. The relations of Church and State are so +changed in the last two centuries, that it is difficult +to understand the times of the Spanish Inquisition. +Then it was universally believed that orthodoxy in +faith was intimately connected with loyalty to the +state. As a matter of fact, nearly all the earlier +heretical movements were also social or political revolts. +It is, therefore, easy to see how heresy and +high treason came to appear identical.</p> + +<p>Some of the inquisitors were corrupt, others were +naturally cruel, others, drunk with power, were more +zealous in exerting that power than they were in +deciding between guilt and innocence. On the other +hand many were zealous because of their honesty. +If a man believes that he knows the only hope of +salvation, it is perfectly logical to compel another by +force, if necessary, to follow that hope. Any physical +punishment is slight compared with the great +reward which reconciliation brings. On the other +hand, if he is firm in his heresy, he is as dangerous +as a wild beast. We are more tolerant now, less +certain, perhaps, of our ground, but three or four +hundred years ago these points were a stern reality.</p> + +<p>That many inquisitors were more concerned with +the Church as an institution than as a means of +salvation is also true. They punished disrespect to +an officer or to a law more severely than they did +a doctrinal error, but that was, perhaps, inevitable. +The Spanish Inquisition, which, as has been said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +was to some extent a state affair, punished many +for what we might call trifling offences, or, indeed, +no offence at all, but it was an intolerant age, in and +out of Spain.</p> + +<p>The number punished has been grossly exaggerated, +but it was enough to injure Spain permanently, +to crush out freedom of thought and action to an unwarrantable +extent. The historian must attribute +much of Spain's decadence to the work of the mistaken +advocate of absolute uniformity.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Slow development of Prison Reform in Spain—Description +of the old Saladero—George Borrow's account of his arrest +and imprisonment there—Balseiro's escape and subsequent +escapades—He seizes the two sons of a wealthy +Basque and holds them for ransom—His capture and execution—The +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">valientes</i> or bullies—The cruelties they practised +upon their weaker fellow prisoners—Don Rafael +Salillas' description of the Seville prison.</p></div> + + +<p>The prisons in Spain have been generally divided +into three categories: First, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">depositos correcionales</i>, +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles</i> or common gaols, one in the capital +of each province, to which were sent accused persons +and all sentenced to two years or less; second, +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidios</i> of the Peninsula for convicts between +two years and eight years; and third, the +African penal settlements for terms beyond eight +years. The character and condition of the bulk of +these places of durance long continued most unsatisfactory. +In 1888 in an official report, the Minister +of Grace and Justice said, "The present state of +the Spanish prisons is not enchanting. They are +neither safe nor wholesome, nor adapted to the ends +in view." This criticism was fully borne out by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +result of a general inquiry instituted. It was found +that of a total of four hundred and fifty-six of the +correctional prisons only one hundred and sixty-six +were really fit for the purpose intended and the remainder +were installed in any buildings available. +Some were very ancient, dating back to the 16th +century; and had once been palaces, religious +houses, castles or fortresses.</p> + +<p>Many of these buildings were ancient monuments +which suffered much injury from the ignoble rôle +to which they were put. A protest was published +by a learned society of Madrid against the misuse +of the superb ex-convents of San Gregorio in Valladolid +and San Isidro del Campo near Seville, and +the mutilation by its convict lodgers of the very +beautiful gateway of the Templo de la Piedad in +Guadalajara. The installation of the prison at +Palma de Mallorca all but hopelessly impaired the +magnificent cloisters of the convent of San Francisco, +a thirteenth century architectural masterpiece, +and a perfect specimen of the ogival form, like nothing +else in Spain. Within a short period of ten +years several of these interesting old buildings were +ruined. The entire convent prison at Coruña sank, +causing many casualties, loss of life and serious +wounds.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the authorities hired private dwellings +to serve as prisons, or laid hands on whatever they +could find. At Granada a slice of the Court House +was used, a dark triangle to which air came only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +from the interior yard. The prison of Allariz at +Orense was on the ground floor of a house in the +street, having two windows looking directly on to +it, guarded by a grating with bars so far apart that +a reasonably thin man could slip through. One of +the worst features of many of these ancient prisons +was their location in the very heart of the towns +with communication to the street. Friends gathered +at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">rejas</i> outside, and the well known picture +of flirtation at the prison window was drawn +from life. A common sight also was the outstretched +hand of the starving prisoner imploring +alms from the charitable, for there was no regular +or sufficient supply of provisions within. Free access +was also possible when the domestic needs of +the interior took the prisoners to the public well in +the street.</p> + +<p>The Carmona gaol in Seville was for years half +in ruins; no sunlight reached any part of it with +the exception of two of the yards; the dungeons +had no ventilation except by a hole in their doors; +an open sewer ran through the gaol, the floors were +always wet, fleas abounded, as also rats, beetles and +cockroaches; cooking was done in one corner of the +exercising yard and clothes were washed in the +other. The removal of the gaol was ordered and +plans for a new building prepared in 1864, but they +were pigeon-holed until 1883, then sent back to be +revised, and the project is still delayed. The Colmenar +prison of Malaga was always under water<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +in heavy rain, and although simple repairs would +have rectified this, nothing was done. The prison +of Leon was condemned in 1878 as unfit for human +habitation, and its alcalde (governor) stated that +it had been reported for a century or more that it +wanted light, air and sanitary arrangements; typhoid +was endemic and three alcaldes had died of +zymotic disease in a few years. It was generally +denounced as "a poisonous pesthouse, a judicial +burial ground." The Totana prison of Murcia was +not properly a prison, but only a range of warehouses +and shops fit for the storage of grain and +herbs, but wholly unsuitable to lodge human beings. +The district governor speaking of the Infiesto +prison at Oviedo in 1853 wrote: "Humanity shudders +at the horrible aspect of this detestable place."</p> + +<p>At Cartagena the common gaol was on the +ground floor of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> or convict prison. +Here the innocent, still untried prisoners occupied +a dark, damp den, enduring torments of discomfort, +speedily losing health and strength, and exposed +by its ruinous condition to the extremes of heat and +cold in the varying seasons. Females were lodged +on a lower floor, darker and closer and even exposed +to the worst temptations. The convicts of +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> had free access to their prison and immorality +could not be prevented; no amount of +supervision (and there was really none) could have +checked the moral contamination more easily conveyed +than the physical. These painful facts may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +be read in an official report dated October, 1877, +and are practically the same as those detailed in the +famous indictment of John Howard just a century +earlier.<a name="Anchor-9" id="Anchor-9"></a><a href="#Footnote-9" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 9.">[9]</a></p> + +<p>Many of the makeshift prisons mentioned above +were located in the very heart of towns and were +without boundary walls or means of separation +from the public, and two hundred and sixty-four had +windows giving upon the streets. It was impossible +to ensure safe custody so limited was the supervision, +so insecure and ruinous the state of these +imperfect prisons. Escapes had been of very frequent +occurrence, but the total number could not +be stated owing to the absence of accurate records +from year to year. One authority gave the annual +average of escapes as thirty-four, ranging over +five successive years. They were greatly facilitated +by the slack, slipshod system of discipline and the +careless guard kept at the gates through which +crowds constantly passed in and out. Friends admitted +wholesale to visit prisoners brought in disguises +and easily helped them to evade the vigilance +of warders and keepers. Escapes were most numerous +in the small gaols,—about three to one when +compared to those from the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidios</i>,—and were +often effected on the way to gaol through the neglect +or connivance of the escort, especially when the +journey was made on foot and officers in charge +willingly consented to linger on the road in order +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>to enjoy themselves in the taverns and drinking +shops. They even allowed their prisoners to pay +lengthened visits to their own homes if situated anywhere +near.</p> + +<p>A famous escape took place, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en masse</i>, in one of +the prisons on the occasion of a theatrical performance +given by the prisoners in honour of the governor's +birthday. Permission had been duly accorded +and the function was organised on an imposing +scale. The stage was erected in an open +space, scenery provided and a fine curtain or act +drop behind which the usual preparations were +made. These had not gone beyond rehearsal, however. +All was ready to "ring up," the prison audience +all seated, enduring with increased impatience +and dissatisfaction the long wait which seemed and +was actually endless. At last the authorities interposed +and the governor sent a messenger behind +the curtain with a peremptory order to begin. +There was no company. Every single soul, manager +and actors had disappeared under cover of the +curtain. A great hole or gap had been made in the +outer wall, through which all of the performers had +passed out to freedom.</p> + +<p>Numerous as are the escapes, recaptures are also +frequent. That fine corps, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>, +which constitutes the rural police of Spain, always +so active in the prevention and suppression of crime, +has been highly successful in the pursuit of fugitives, +few of whom remain at large for any length<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +of time. Travellers in Spain, especially in the country +districts, must have been struck with the fine +appearance of these stalwart champions of the law. +They are all old soldiers, well trained and disciplined, +ever on the side of order, never mixing in +politics, and conspicuous for their loyalty to the existing +régime.</p> + +<p>The most disgraceful of the old prisons were in +Madrid. The Saladero which survived until very +recently had been once an abattoir and salting place +of pigs. But it replaced one more ancient and even +worse in every aspect. The earlier construction is +described by a Spanish writer, Don Francisco Lastres, +as the most meagre, the darkest, dirtiest place +imaginable. It had yet a deeper depth, an underground +dungeon, commonly called "el Infierno," +hell itself, in which light was so scarce that when +new comers arrived, the old occupants could only +make out their faces by striking matches, manufactured +from scraps of linen steeped in grease +saved from their soup or salad oil. When the gaol +was emptied it was so encrusted with abominable +filth that to clean it was out of the question and the +whole place was swept bodily out of existence.</p> + +<p>This must have been the prison in which George +Borrow was confined when that enterprising Englishman +was arrested for endeavouring to circulate +the Bible in Spain, as the agent and representative +of the British Bible Society in 1835 and the following +years. His experiences as told by himself con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>stitute +one of the most thrilling books of adventure +in the English language, and his strangely interesting +personality will long be remembered and admired. +He had led a very varied life, had wandered +the world over as the friend and associate of those +curious people, the gipsies, whose "crabbed" language +he spoke with fluency and to whose ways +and customs he readily conformed. Readers whom +his "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" have +delighted will bear witness to the daring and intrepid +character which carried him safely through +many difficult and dangerous situations. He was +a man of great stature, well trained in the art of +self defence, as he proved by his successful contest +with the "Flaming Tinker" described in "Lavengro." +The bigoted Spanish authorities caught a +Tartar in Borrow. It was easy to arrest him as he +was nothing loth to go to gaol; he had long been +thinking, as he tells us, "of paying a visit to the +prison, partly in the hope of being able to say a +few words of Christian instruction to the criminals +and partly with a view to making certain investigations +in the robber language of Spain." But, once +in, he refused to come out. He took high ground; +his arrest had been unlawful; he had never been +tried or condemned and nothing would satisfy him +but a full and complete apology from the Spanish +government. He was strongly backed up by the +British Ambassador and he was gratified in the end +by the almost abject surrender of the authorities.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +But he spent three weeks within the walls and we +have to thank his indomitable spirit for a glimpse +into the gloomy recesses of the Carcel de la Corte, +the chief prison, at that time, of the capital of +Spain.</p> + +<p>The arrest was made openly in one of the principal +streets of Madrid by a couple of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">alguazils</i> who +carried their prisoner to the office of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corregidor</i>, +or chief magistrate, where he was abruptly informed +that he was to be forthwith committed to +gaol. He was led across the Plaza Mayor, the great +square so often the scene in times past of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos +da fé</i>. Borrow, as he went, cast his eyes at the balcony +of the city hall where, on one occasion, "the +last of the Austrian line in Spain (Philip II) sat, +and, after some thirty heretics of both sexes had +been burnt by fours and fives, wiped his face perspiring +with heat and black with smoke and calmly +inquired, '<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">No hay mas?</i>'" (No more to come?) for +which exemplary proof of patience he was much +applauded by his priests and confessors, who subsequently +poisoned him.</p> + +<p>"We arrived at the prison," Borrow goes on, +"which stands in a narrow street not far from the +great square. We entered a dusty passage at the +end of which was a wicket. There was an exchange +of words and in a few moments I found +myself within the prison of Madrid, in a kind of +corridor which overlooked at a considerable altitude +what appeared to be a court from which arose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +a hubbub of voices and occasional wild shouts and +cries...." Several people sat here, one of whom +received the warrant of committal, perused it with +attention and, rising, advanced towards Borrow.</p> + +<p>"What a figure! He was about forty years of +age and ... in height might have been some six +feet two inches had his body not been curved much +after the fashion of the letter S. No weasel ever +appeared lanker; his face might have been called +handsome, had it not been for his extraordinary +and portentous meagreness; his nose was like an +eagle's bill, his teeth white as ivory, his eyes black +(oh, how black!) and fraught with a strange expression; +his skin was dark and the hair of his +head like the plumage of a raven. A deep quiet +smile dwelt continually on his features, but with all +the quiet it was a cruel smile, such a one as would +have graced the countenance of a Nero.</p> + +<p>"'<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Caballero</i>,' he said, 'allow me to introduce +myself as the alcaide of this prison.... I am to +have the honour of your company for a time, a +short time doubtless, beneath this roof; I hope you +will banish every apprehension from your mind. I +am charged to treat you with all respect, a needless +charge and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Caballero</i>, you will rather consider yourself +here as a guest than as a prisoner. Pray issue +whatever commands you may think fit to the turnkeys +and officials as if they were your own servants. +I will now conduct you to your apartment. We +invariably reserve it for cavaliers of distinction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +No charge will be made for it although the daily +hire is not unfrequently an ounce of gold.'</p> + +<p>"This speech was delivered in pure sonorous +Castilian with calmness, gravity and almost dignity +and would have done honour to a gentleman of +high birth. Now, who in the name of wonder, was +this alcaide? One of the greatest rascals in all +Spain. A fellow who more than once by his grasping +cupidity and his curtailment of the miserable +rations of the prisoners caused an insurrection in +the court below only to be repressed by bloodshed +and the summoning of military aid; a fellow of low +birth who five years previously had been a drummer +to a band of Royalist volunteers."</p> + +<p>The room allotted to Borrow was large and lofty, +but totally destitute of any kind of furniture except +a huge wooden pitcher containing the day's allowance +of water. But no objection was made to +Borrow's providing for himself and a messenger +was forthwith despatched to his lodgings to fetch +bed and bedding and all necessaries, with which +came a supply of food, and the new prisoner soon +made himself fairly comfortable. He ate heartily, +slept soundly and rejoiced next day to hear that +this illegal arrest and confinement of a British subject +was already causing the high-handed minister +who had ordered it, much uneasiness and embarrassment. +Borrow steadfastly refused to go free +without full and ample reparation for the violence +and injustice done to him. "Take notice," he de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>clared, +"that I will not quit this prison till I have +received full satisfaction for having been sent +hither uncondemned. You may expel me if you +please, but any attempt to do so shall be resisted +with all the bodily strength of which I am possessed." +In the end the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">amende</i> was made in an +official document admitting that he had been imprisoned +on insufficient grounds, and Borrow went +out after three weeks' incarceration, during which +he learned much concerning the prison and the people +it contained.</p> + +<p>He refrains from a particular description of the +place. "It would be impossible," he says, "to +describe so irregular and rambling an edifice. Its +principal features consisted of two courts, the one +behind the other, in which the great body of the +prisoners took air and recreation. Three large +vaulted dungeons or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozos</i> occupied the three +sides of the (first) court ... roomy enough to +contain respectively from one hundred to one hundred +and fifty prisoners who were at night secured +with lock and bar, but during the day were permitted +to roam about the courts as they thought fit. +The second court was considerably larger than the +first, though it contained but two dungeons, horribly +filthy and disgusting, used for the reception of the +lower grades of thieves. Of the two dungeons one +was if possible yet more horrible than the other. +It was called the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">gallinerÃa</i> or 'chicken coop' because +within it every night were pent up the young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +fry of the prison, wretched boys from seven to fifteen +years of age, the greater part almost in a state +of nudity. The common bed of all the inmates of +these dungeons was the ground, between which and +their bodies nothing intervened save occasionally a +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">manta</i> or horse cloth or perhaps a small mattress; +this latter luxury was however of exceedingly rare +occurrence.</p> + +<p>"Besides the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozos</i> connected with the courts +were other dungeons in various parts of the prison, +some of them quite dark, intended for the reception +of those whom it might be deemed expedient to treat +with peculiar severity. There was likewise a ward +set apart for females. Connected with the principal +corridor were many small apartments where resided +prisoners confined for debt or for political offences, +and, lastly, there was a small <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i> or chapel in +which prisoners cast for death passed the last three +days of their existence in the company of their +ghostly advisers.</p> + +<p>"I shall not forget my first Sunday in prison. +Sunday is the gala day ... and whatever robber +finery is to be found in it is sure to be exhibited on +that day of holiness. There is not a set of people +in the world more vain than robbers in general, +more fond of cutting a figure whenever they have +an opportunity. The famous Jack Sheppard delighted +in sporting a suit of Genoese velvet and +when he appeared in public generally wore a silver +hilted sword by his side.... Many of the Italian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +bandits go splendidly decorated, the cap alone of +the Haram Pacha, the head of the cannibal gipsy +band which infested Hungary at the conclusion of +the 18th century, was adorned with gold and jewels +to the value of several thousand guilders.... +The Spanish robbers are as fond of display as their +brethren of other lands, and whether in prison or +out are never so happy as when decked out in a +profusion of white linen in which they can loll in +the sun or walk jauntily up and down."</p> + +<p>To this day, snow-white linen is an especial mark +of foppery in the Spanish peasant. To put on a +clean shirt is considered a sufficient and satisfactory +substitute for a bath and in the humblest house a +white table cloth is provided for meals and clean +sheets for the beds. Borrow gives a graphic picture +of the "tip-top thieves" he came across. "Neither +coat nor jacket was worn over the shirt, the sleeves +of which were wide and flowing, only a waistcoat +of green or blue silk with an abundance of silver +buttons which are intended more for show than +use, as the waistcoat is seldom buttoned. Then +there are wide trousers something after the Turkish +fashion; around the waist is a crimson <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">faja</i> or +girdle and about the head is tied a gaudily coloured +handkerchief from the loom of Barcelona. Light +pumps and silk stockings complete the robber's +array.</p> + +<p>"Amongst those who particularly attracted my +attention were a father and son; the former a tall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +athletic figure, of about thirty, by profession a +housebreaker and celebrated through Madrid for +the peculiar dexterity he exhibited in his calling. +He was in prison for an atrocious murder committed +in the dead of night in a house in Carabanchel +(a suburb of Madrid), in which his only accomplice +was his son, a child under seven years of +age. The imp was in every respect the counterpart +of his father though in miniature. He too wore +the robber shirt sleeves, the robber waistcoat with +the silver buttons, the robber kerchief round his +brow and, ridiculously enough, a long Manchegan +knife in the crimson faja. He was evidently the +pride of the ruffian father who took all imaginable +care of him, would dandle him on his knee, and +would occasionally take the cigar from his own +mustachioed lips and insert it in the urchin's +mouth. The boy was the pet of the court, for the +father was one of the 'bullies' of the prison and +those who feared his prowess and wished to pay +their court to him were always fondling the child."</p> + +<p>Borrow when in the "Carcel de la Corte" renewed +his acquaintance with one, Balseiro, whom +he had met in a low tavern frequented by thieves +and bull fighters on a previous visit to Madrid. +One of these, Sevilla by name, professed deep admiration +for the Englishman and backed him to +know more than most people of the "crabbed" +Gitano language. A match was made with this +Balseiro who claimed to have been in prison half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +his life and to be on most intimate terms with the +gipsies. When Borrow came across him for the +second time he was confined in an upper story of +the prison in a strong room with other malefactors. +There was no mistaking this champion criminal +with his small, slight, active figure and his handsome +features, "but they were those of a demon." +He had recently been found guilty of aiding and +abetting a celebrated thief, Pepe Candelas, in a desperate +robbery perpetrated in open daylight on no +less a person than the Queen's milliner, a Frenchwoman, +whom they bound in her own shop, from +which they took goods to the amount of five or six +thousand dollars. Candelas had already suffered +for his crime, but Balseiro, whose reputation was +the worse of the two, had saved his life by the plentiful +use of money, and the capital sentence had in +his case been commuted to twenty years' hard labour +in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> of Malaga.</p> + +<p>When Borrow condoled with him, Balseiro +laughed it off, saying that within a few weeks he +would be transferred and could at any time escape +by bribing his guards. But he was not content to +wait and joined with several fellow convicts who +succeeded in breaking through the roof of the prison +and getting away. He returned forthwith to his +evil courses and soon committed a number of fresh +and very daring robberies in and around Madrid. +At length dissatisfied with the meagre results and +the smallness of the plunder he secured, Balseiro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +planned a great stroke to provide himself with sufficient +funds to leave the country and live elsewhere +in luxurious idleness.</p> + +<p>A Basque named Gabira, a man of great wealth, +held the post of comptroller of the Queen's household. +He had two sons, handsome boys of twelve +and fourteen years of age respectively, who were +being educated at a school in Madrid. Balseiro, well +aware of the father's strong affection for his children, +resolved to make it subservient to his rapacity. +He planned to carry off the boys and hold them for +ransom at an enormous price. Two of his confederates, +well-dressed and of respectable appearance, +drove up to the school and presenting a forged +letter, purporting to be written by the father, persuaded +the schoolmaster to let them go out for a +jaunt in the country. They were carried off to a +hiding place of Balseiro's in a cave some five miles +from Madrid in a wild unfrequented spot between +the Escorial and the village of Torre Lodones. +Here the two children were sequestered in the safekeeping +of their captors, while Balseiro remained in +Madrid to conduct negotiations with the bereaved +father. But Gabira was a man of great energy and +determination and altogether declined to agree to +the terms proposed. He invoked the power of the +authorities instead, and, at his request, parties of +horse and foot soldiers were sent to scour the country +and the cave was soon discovered, with the +children, who had been deserted by their guards in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +terror at the news of the rigorous search instituted. +Further search secured the capture of the accomplices +and they were identified by their young victims. +Balseiro, when his part in the plot became +known, fled from the capital but was speedily +caught, tried, and with his associates suffered death +on the scaffold. Gabira with his two children was +present at the execution.</p> + +<p>A brief description of the old Saladero, which has +at last disappeared off the face of the earth, may be +of interest. It stood at the top of the Santa Barbara +hill on the left hand side, in external aspect a half-ruined +edifice tottering to its fall, propped and buttressed, +at one corner quite past mending, at another +showing rotten cement and plaster with its +aged weather-worn walls stained with great black +patches of moisture and decay. A poor and +wretched place outside with no architectural pretensions, +its interior was infinitely worse. It was +entered by a wide entrance not unlike that of an +ancient country inn or hostelry with a broken-down +wooden staircase, leading to a battered doorway of +rotten timbers. The portals passed, the prison itself +was reached, a series of underground cellars with +vaulted roofs purposely constructed, as it seemed, to +exclude light and prevent ventilation, permeated +constantly with fetid odours and abominable foul +exhalations from the perpetual want of change of +atmosphere or circulation of fresh air. Yet human +beings were left to rot in these nauseous and pestif<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>erous +holes for two or three years continuously. +At times the detention lasted five years on account +of the disgracefully slow procedure in the law courts +and this although trials often ended in acquittal or +a verdict of non-responsibility for the criminal act +charged. Many of the unfortunate wretches subjected +to these interminable delays and waiting +judgment, therefore still innocent in the eyes of +the law, were yet herded with those already convicted +of the most heinous offences.</p> + +<p>This neglect of the rules, generally accepted as +binding upon civilised governments in the treatment +of those whom the law lays by the heels, produced +deplorable results. The gaol fever, that ancient +scourge which once ravaged ill-kept prisons and +swept away thousands, but long ago eliminated +from proper places of durance, survived in the Saladero +of Madrid until quite a recent date. Forty +cases occurred as late as 1876 and zymotic disease +was endemic in the prison. It was also a hotbed of +vice, where indiscriminate association of all categories, +good, bad and indifferent—the worst always +in the ascendent, fostered and developed criminal +instincts and multiplied criminals of the most +daring and accomplished kind. When, with a storm +of indignant eloquence, an eminent Spanish deputy, +Don Manuel Silvela, denounced the Saladero in +the Cortes and took the lead in insisting upon its +demolition, he pointed out its many shortcomings. +It was in the last degree unhealthy; it was nearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +useless as a place of detention, for the bold or ingenious +prisoner laughed at its restraints and escapes +took place daily to the number of fourteen +and sixteen at a time. If, however, with increased +precautions it was possible to keep prisoners secure +within the walls, nothing could save them from one +another. Contamination was widespread and unceasing +in a mass of men left entirely to themselves +without regular occupation, without industrial labour +or improving education and with no outlet for +their energies but demoralising talk and vicious +practices. Not strangely the Saladero became a +great criminal centre, a workshop and manufactory +of false money, where strange frauds were devised, +such as the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i><a name="Anchor-10" id="Anchor-10"></a><a href="#Footnote-10" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 10.">[10]</a> or suggested revelation of +hidden treasure, the well known Spanish swindle +which has had ramifications almost all over the +world.</p> + +<p>An independent witness, nevertheless, speaking +from experience, the same George Borrow already +quoted, has a good word to say for the inmates of +Spanish gaols. He was greatly surprised at their +orderly conduct and quiet demeanour. "They had +their occasional bursts of wild gaiety; their occasional +quarrels which they were in the habit of settling +in a corner of the interior court with their long +knives, the result not infrequently being death or a +dreadful gash in the face or abdomen; but upon +the whole their conduct was infinitely superior to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>what might have been expected from the inmates +of such a place. Yet this was not the result of coercion +or any particular care which was exercised +over them; for perhaps in no part of the world are +prisoners so left to themselves and so utterly neglected +as in Spain, the authorities having no further +anxiety about them than to prevent their escape, +not the slightest attention being paid to their moral +conduct,—not a thought bestowed on their health, +comfort or mental improvement whilst within the +walls. Yet in this prison of Madrid, and I may say +in Spanish prisons in general (for I have been an +inmate of more than one), the ears of the visitor +are never shocked with horrid blasphemy and obscenity +as in those of some other countries and +more particularly in civilised France, nor are his +eyes outraged or himself insulted as he would assuredly +be were he to look down upon the courts +from the galleries of the Bicêtre (in Paris)." And +yet in this prison of Madrid were some of the most +desperate characters in Spain; ruffians who had +committed acts of cruelty and atrocity sufficient to +make one shudder with horror. Gravity and sedateness +are the leading characteristics of the Spaniards, +and the worst robber, except in those moments +when he is engaged in his occupation, (and then no +one is more sanguinary, pitiless and wolfishly eager +for booty), is a being who can be courteous and affable +and who takes pleasure in conducting himself +with sobriety and decorum. Borrow thought so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +well of these fellow-prisoners that he was willing +to entertain them at dinner in his own private apartment +in the gaol, and the governor made no objection +to knocking off their irons temporarily so that +they might enjoy the meal in comfort and convenience.</p> + +<p>A more intimate acquaintance with the inner life +of the Spanish gaols has been accorded by a modern +writer, Don Rafael Salillas. He summarises all its +evils in the single word "money." All disorders +and shortcomings, the corruption, the absence of +discipline, the cruelties perpetrated, the prevailing +license, the shameful immorality constantly winked +at or openly permitted, have had one and the same +origin, the use and misuse of the private funds the +prisoners have at their disposal. Until quite a recent +date, everything, even temporary liberty, had +its price in Spanish prisons. This vicious system +dated from the times when the "alcaide" or head +of an establishment, the primary purpose of which +was the safe custody of offenders, bought his place +and was permitted to recoup himself as best he +could out of his charges. The same abominable +practice was at one time almost a world-wide practice, +but nowhere has it flourished so largely as in +Spain. No attempt was made to check it; it was +acknowledged and practically deemed lawful.</p> + +<p>In an ancient work on the prison of Seville, dating +from the sixteenth century, the writer, Christobal +de Chaves, classifies the interior under three heads;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +the spaces entered respectively by three doors of +gold, silver or copper, each metal corresponding to +the profits drawn from each. Imprisonment might +be made more tolerable by payment regulated according +to a fixed tariff. For a certain sum any +prisoner might go home to sleep, he might purchase +food where little, if any, was provided, he might +escape fetters or purchase "easement of irons," as +in the old English prisons. To enhance the value +of the relief afforded worse hardships were inflicted +at the outset. Restraint was made most irksome in +the beginning of imprisonment. The fetters were +then the heaviest and most varied, the deepest and +vilest dungeons were the first quarters allotted. A +plain hint of relaxation and alleviation was given, +to be obtained at a price and the converse made +equally certain. Increased pain and discomfort +were the penalty for those who would not, or, worse +still, who could not produce the extortionate sums +demanded. Tasks imposed were rendered more +difficult; it was a common practice to oil or grease +the rope by which water was raised from a well, so +that it should slip through the fingers and intensify +the labour.</p> + +<p>When authority had sold its good will or wrung +the life blood from its victims they were handed +over to the tender mercies of their fellow prisoners, +the self-constituted masters and irresponsible tyrants +in the place. The most brutal and overbearing ruled +supreme within the walls and levied taxes by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +right of the strongest. The "garnish" of the old +British prisons, the enforced payments to gain a first +footing, was exacted to the last in Spain from all +new arrivals and was called "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cobrar el patente</i>," <em>i. e.</em> +collecting the dues. To hesitate or refuse payment +was promptly punished by cruel blows; the defaulters +were flogged; they got the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">culebrazo</i> (whipping) +with a rope kept for the purpose. The quite +penniless were despoiled of their clothing and consoled +with the remark that it was better for them +to take to their beds because they were naked, than +on account of injuries and wounds, or they wrapped +themselves up in some ragged cloak infested with +fleas. The bullies or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">valientes</i> were not interfered +with by the authorities but rather supported by +them. In fact they played into each other's hands. +Both worked their wicked will upon their victims +and in their own way,—the authorities by right of +the legal powers they wielded, the master-prisoners +by force of character and the strength of their +muscles. Both squeezed out money like juice from +a lemon, robbed, swindled or stole all that came in +their way.</p> + +<p>Guzman de Alfarache, the typical thief of the +time of Philip II, whose life and adventures are told +by the author of the most famous of the picaresque +novels, describes his journey from Seville to Cadiz +to embark upon one of the galleys which made up +the naval power of Spain. "As we started on the +road, we came upon a swine-herd with a number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +young pigs, which we surrounded and captured, each +of us taking one. The man howled to our commissary +that he should make us restore them, but he +turned a deaf ear and we stuck to our plunder. At +the first halt we laid hands on other goods and concealed +them inside one of the pigs when the commissary +interposed, discovered the things and took possession +of them himself."</p> + +<p>The alcaide of the prison turned everything to +profit. He sold the Government stores, bedding +and clothing to the prison bullies who retailed the +pieces to individual prisoners. He trafficked in the +disciplinary processes, accepting bribes to overlook +misconduct, and pandered to the worst vices of the +inmates by allowing visitors of both sexes to have +free access to them and to bring in all manner of +prohibited articles, unlimited drink, and dangerous +weapons, knives and daggers and other arms for +use in attack and defence in the quarrels and murderous +conflicts continually occurring.</p> + +<p>A fruitful source of profit was the sale of privileged +offices, permits to hawk goods and to trade +within the precincts of the prison. Salillas when he +visited the Seville prison not many years ago, saw +numbers of prisoners selling cigars and cigarettes in +the yards, various articles of food, such as <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">gazpacho</i>, +the popular salad of Andalusia, compounded +of oil and bread soaked in water, and drinks including +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>, that powerful Spanish spirit akin +to Hollands. Some kept gaming tables and paid a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +tax on each game and its profits and especially +when the "King" was turned up at "Monte."</p> + +<p>Salillas publishes a list of prices that ruled for +places, privileges and boons conceded to the prisoners. +To become a "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i>," a "corporal carrying +the stick" or wand of office, cost from eight +to sixteen dollars. "Who and what was the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Cabo +de Vara</i>?" he asks and answers the question. "A +hybrid creature the offspring of such diverse parents +as the law and crime; half murderer, half +robber, who after living in defiance of the law is at +least prevented from doing further harm in freedom, +is locked up and entrusted with executive authority +over companions who have passed through the same +evil conditions and are now at his mercy. He is +half galley-slave chained to the oar, half public +functionary wearing the badge of officialdom and +armed with a stick to enforce his authority. He +represents two very opposite sets of ideas; on the +one hand that of good order and the maintenance +of penal discipline, on the other that of a natural +inclination towards the wrong doing in which he has +been a practitioner and for which he is, in a way, +enduring the penalty. To succeed he must possess +some strongly marked personal qualities; he should +be able to bully and impose his will upon those +subjected to his influence, overbearing, masterful, +swaggering, ready to take the law into his own +hands and insist upon its observance as he chooses +to interpret its dictates."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> + +<p>The post of hospital orderly or cook or laundry-man +could be secured for about the same price, while +a small fee to the prison surgeon gained a perfectly +sound man admission to hospital for treatment he +did not need, but in which he was much more comfortable +than in the ordinary prison. The place of +prison barber was to be bought for four dollars; +employment as a shoemaker two dollars; relief +from a punishment ordered three dollars; permission +to pay a visit home, four dollars. These prices +were not definitely settled and unchangeable. +Where a certain profit could be extracted from a +particular post such as the charge of the canteen it +was put up to auction and knocked down to the +highest bidder.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The presidio or convict prison—Stations at home and in +Northern Africa—Convict labour—Cruelties inflicted on +the presidiarios employed in road making—Severity of the +régime at Valladolid—Evils of overcrowding—Ceuta—Its +fortifications—Early history—The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> or "Spanish +swindle"—Several interesting instances—Monsignor +X—Armand Carron—M. Elked—Credulity of the victims—Boldness +of the swindlers—Attempt to dupe a +Yorkshire squire—Discovery of the fraud.</p></div> + + +<p>The Spanish "presidios" or penal establishments +for offenders sentenced to long terms are the counterpart +of the English convict prisons. They are of +two classes, those at home in provincial capitals or +in fortresses and strongholds, and those abroad installed +in North Africa, as the alternative or substitute +for the penal colonies beyond the sea established +by Italy and France. Home presidios are at Burgos, +Cartagena, Granada, Ocana, Santona, Valladolid +and Saragossa. There are two at Valencia, one at +Tarragona and two more at Alcalá de Henares. Of +the foregoing that of Cartagena was especially constructed +to meet the needs of the arsenal and dockyard +and is spoken of as deplorably deficient by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>those who visited it. Four hundred convicts were +lodged miserably in one dormitory; their bedding +consisted of a rough mattress and one brown rug; +clothing was issued only every two years; the dietaries +were supplied by a thievish contractor who +supplied a soup consisting of beans boiled in water, +abstracting the ration of oil and bacon. A presidio +of ancient date was installed in the arsenal of La +Carraca near Cadiz, a survival really of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">galera</i> +or galleys planted on shore when human motive +power ceased to be used in propelling warships.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i_150fp.jpg" alt="" /> +<div class="caption"><p><cite>Castel dell' Ovo</cite></p> + +<p>Situated on a high rocky island near the shore of Naples, +it was a place of great security. A number of the islands +in the bay of Naples have been utilised as prisons and as +penal settlements.</p></div> +</div> + +<p>A terrible story is preserved of the cruelties inflicted +on a number of these <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidiarios</i> employed +to make the road between San Lucar de Barrameda +and Puerto Santa Maria. Their labour was leased +to an inhuman contractor who worked them literally +to death. They were half-starved, over-burthened +with chains and continually flogged so that +within one year half their whole number of one +thousand had disappeared; they had died "of privation, +of blows, hunger, cold, insufficient clothing +and continuous neglect." The contractor cleared a +large profit, but lost it and died in extreme poverty +after having been arraigned and tried for his life +as a murderer.</p> + +<p>The presidio of Valladolid was also condemned +for the severity of its régime. The climate alternated +between great summer heat and extreme cold +in winter, but the convicts worked in the quarries +in all weathers. The death record rose in this prison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +to such a high figure that a third of the average +total population of three thousand perished within +eighteen months. The general average of the presidios +was low but as a rule the death rate was not +high. Even when twenty per cent. of males and +twenty-five per cent. of the females were sick and +hospital accommodation was scarce and imperfect, +the deaths did not exceed two and a half per cent. +per annum and this included the fatal results of +quarrels ending in duels to the death. One of the +most serious evils was overcrowding. Official figures +give the prison population as about nineteen +thousand and the available house-room was for not +more than twelve thousand. Salillas puts it at a +much lower total, asserting there was barely room +for three thousand.</p> + +<p>While the prisons of Cuba are not strictly within +the scope of this work, one of historic and particular +interest may be mentioned. This is Morro Castle, +which still guards the Harbour of Havana. It was +begun in 1589, soon after the unsuccessful attack on +Havana by Drake, and was finished in 1597. In +1862 it was partly destroyed by the English who +captured it and remained in possession of the city +for a year. The arms of the city, granted by royal +decree, were appropriately three castles of silver on +a blue field, and a golden key. The castles were +La Fuerza, El Morro and La Punta, guarding the +harbour.</p> + +<p>The ancient fortress has been described as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +"great mass of dun coloured rock and tower and +battlement and steep, of which the various parts +seem to have grown into one another." It contains +cells as damp, dark and unwholesome as those in +the notorious dungeons of the old world. This is +testified to by a California journalist, Charles +Michelson, who was arrested by mistake and +thrown into a cell in the castle just before the +Spanish-American War. Although he was liberated +in two days, his experience was not soon forgotten. +The cell was an arch of heavy masonry, damp with +the moisture of years. The only window was high +up in the arch, and there was no furniture—no +bed, blanket or chair. He was not without company +of a kind, however, for the place was full of +cockroaches and rats. When he clambered up and +tried to look out of the window, which commands +a fine view of the harbour, a guard outside poked +at him with a bayonet. The soup brought him was, +he said, "strong and scummy, and the can had been +so recently emptied of its original contents that there +was a film of oil over the top of it." His interpreter, +who was arrested at the same time, fared worse, for +he was bound and kept in even a fouler cell.</p> + +<p>In the days of Spanish sovereignty, many Cuban +prisoners were shot and their bodies were hurled +from the outer wall of the castle to the sharks of +the so-called "shark's nest," forty feet below, on +the gulf side.</p> + +<p>There are said to be many caverns in the castle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +through which the rush and noise of the waves +make music, but this is probably due to the winds +rather than the tides.</p> + +<p>Spain maintains several presidios beyond sea, +chiefly on the North African coast, and there is one +also at Palma de Mallorca, one of the Balearic +islands. Those in Africa are Alhucemas, Melilla, +Peñon de Velez de la Gomera, Chaferinas and +Ceuta, immediately opposite Gibraltar, which is no +doubt the first and original of all Spanish presidios. +The expression when first used was taken to convey +the meaning of a penal settlement, established +within a fortress under military rule and guardianship, +with its personnel constantly employed on the +fortifications, constructing, repairing and making +good wear and tear, and answering, if need be, the +call to arms in reinforcement of the regular garrison. +The early records of Ceuta prove this. This +stronghold, on one side rising out of the sea, with +its landward defences ever confronting a fierce hostile +power, was exposed at all times to siege and +incursion. When the Moorish warriors became too +bold the Spanish general sallied forth to beat up +their quarters, destroy their batteries and drive them +back into the mountains. Working parties of +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidiarios</i>, armed, accompanied the troops and +did excellent service, eager, as the old chronicler +puts it, to clear their characters by their heroism, +"always supposing that blood may wash out crime."</p> + +<p>Ceuta was a type of the military colony beyond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +sea, held by a strong garrison against warlike natives +who resisted the invasion and would have +driven out the intruders. The settlement was secured +by continual fortification in which the abundant +penal labour was constantly employed. Its +social conditions were precisely similar to those +which obtained in the early days of Australian transportation +and such as prevail to-day in the French +penal colony of New Caledonia. The population is +made up of two principal classes, bond and free. +The first are convicts serving their sentences and the +second the officials who guard them. Ordinary +colonists have not settled to any large extent in +these North African possessions. A few traders +and agriculturists have come seeking such fortune +as offers and the number of residents is increased by +released convicts, the counterpart of the emancipist +class in the Antipodes, who remain with the prospect +of earning a livelihood honestly, instead of +lapsing into evil courses on their return to the +mother country.</p> + +<p>Ceuta is essentially a convict city, not exactly +founded by penal labour but enlarged and improved +by it and served by it in all the needs of daily domestic +life. The first period of close confinement on +arrival is comparatively brief and is spent in the +prison proper outside the city at hard labour in +association on the fortifications, in the workshops +and quarries. In the second period the convicts are +permitted to enter the city and are employed under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +supervision in warehouses, offices and in water +carrying. In the third period, commonly called +from "gun to gun," extending daily from the morning +gun fire until the evening, the convicts are allowed +to go freely into the city and work there +on their own account. The fourth and last, entered +when two thirds of the whole sentence has been +completed, is called "under conditions," that is to +say, in conditional freedom, and the convicts are +let out to private employers precisely as they were +"assigned" in old Australian days. They may +live with their masters, sleep out, and are only +obliged to report at the prison once a month for +muster. More than a third of the total number are +thus employed.</p> + +<p>The result is that Ceuta offers the singular spectacle +that it is nominally a prison, but the bulk of +the prisoners live beyond the walls, quite unguarded +and really in the streets forming part of the ordinary +population. Convicts are to be met with at every +corner, they go in and out through the front doors +of houses, no one looks at them in surprise, no one +draws aside to let them pass. The situation is +described graphically by Salillas. "Who is the +coachman on the box? A convict. Who is the +man who waits at table? A convict. The cook in +the kitchen? A convict. The nursemaid in charge +of the children? A convict (male). Are their employers +afraid of being robbed or murdered? Not +in the least."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another eye witness<a name="Anchor-11" id="Anchor-11"></a><a href="#Footnote-11" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 11.">[11]</a> writes:—</p> + +<p>"Could this happen in any other city in Spain? +If the inhabitants found themselves rubbing shoulders +with the scum of the earth, with the worst +malefactors, with criminals guilty of the most +heinous offences, would they have enjoyed one +moment's peace? Could they overcome the natural +repugnance felt by honest and respectable people for +those whom the law has condemned to live apart? +The fact is that at Ceuta no one objects. The existing +state of things is deemed the most natural thing +in the world. It has been too long the rule and it +is claimed seriously that no evil consequences have +resulted. The utmost confidence is reposed in these +ex-criminals whose nature has been seemingly quite +changed by relegation to the African presidio. They +wash and get up linen without losing more pieces +than a first class washerwoman, they wait on the +children with the tenderest concern, they perform +all sorts of household service, go to market, run +messages, polish the floors and the furniture with +all the zeal and industry of the best servants in the +world. The most cordial relations exist between +employers and their convict attendants and cases +have been known where the former have carried +the latter back to Spain to continue their service. +One was a Chinese cook who was excused ten years' +supervision to go back with his master."</p> + +<p>It is claimed by the champions of Ceuta that</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p> +<p>despite the freedom accorded to the convicts their +conduct is exemplary. "I can certify," says Relosillas<a name="Anchor-12" id="Anchor-12"></a><a href="#Footnote-12" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 12.">[12]</a> +"that during a whole year there were but +three or four instances of crime amongst the convicts +employed in domestic service." Others however +are not so laudatory. An independent witness, +Doña Concepcion Arenal, has little good to say of +the prisons. "In them justice is punished or rather +crucified," she wrote, "and with it hygiene, morality, +decency, humanity, all, in a word, which every +one who is not himself hateful and contemptible, +respects. It is impossible to give any idea of the +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cuartel principal</i> or chief convict barrack in the +place. We can only refer to its terrible and revolting +demoralisation." Yet she is inclined to contradict +herself and argues that the convict when trusted +will behave well. His life on the whole is light and +easy; he has sufficient food, congenial company, and +can better his position by steady industry; he wears +no chains, performs no rude or laborious tasks and +is driven neither into insubordination nor crime.</p> + +<p>The statements just quoted are hardly credible +and cannot be reconciled with the reports of others, +from personal experience. Mr. Cook, an English +evangelist, who has devoted himself to extensive +prison visitation, has drawn a dark picture of this +ideal penal settlement as he saw it in 1892. At that +date general idleness was the rule. Hundreds hung +about with no work to do. Criminals with the</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p> +<p>worst antecedents were included in the prison population. +One had been a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">bandido</i> or brigand who had +been guilty of seven murders; another had four +murders to his credit and one assassin was in a +totally dark cell, confined hand and foot, condemned +to death and daily expecting to be shot. No fewer +than one hundred and twelve slept in one large room +without more supervision than that exercised by +their fellows discharging the functions of warders. +Mr. Cook expresses his wonder that they did not +break out oftener into rebellion. As a matter of fact +and as against the statement given above, outbreaks +were not uncommon with fierce attacks upon officers +and murderous affrays among the prisoners. +Crime and misconduct are certainly not unknown +in Ceuta.</p> + +<p>A gruesome description was given by a correspondent +writing to the <cite>London Times</cite> in the year +1876. When he visited the citadel prison he found +from eight hundred to one thousand convicts lodged +there in a wretched condition, clad only in tattered +rags, the cast off uniforms of soldiers, generally insufficient +for decency. They tottered in and out +of the ruinous sheds supposed to shelter them, quarrelled +like hyenas over their meagre and repulsive +rations, which were always short through the dishonesty +of the thieving contractor, and fought to +the death with the knives which every one carried. +Each shed contained from one to two hundred where +they lay like beasts upon the ground. Vermin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +crept up the wall and dirt abounded on all sides. +"No words of mine," said this outspoken eye-witness, +"can paint the darkness, the filth, the seething +corruption of these dens of convicts, dens into which +no streak of sunlight, divine or human, ever finds +its way, and where nothing is seen or heard but outrage +and cruelty on the one hand, misery and starvation +and obscenity on the other." There was a +worse place, the "Presidio del Campo," or field +prison in which the hard labour gangs<a name="Anchor-13" id="Anchor-13"></a><a href="#Footnote-13" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 13.">[13]</a> employed +on the fortifications were housed in still filthier +hovels, with less food and more demoralisation. +This same correspondent when he enquired his way +to the presidio was told by a Spanish officer: "They +are not presidios but the haunts of wild beasts and +nurseries of thieves." Obviously there is much discrepancy +in the various accounts published.</p> + +<p>The true state of the case may best be judged by +examining and setting forth the conditions prevailing. +On the surface the convicts may seem to abstain +from serious misconduct, but even this may be +doubted from the facts in evidence. "It is a wild +beasts' cage," writes one well informed authority. +It may be to some extent a cage without bars, or in +which the wild beasts are so tamed that they may +be allowed to go at large and do but little harm, but</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p> +<p>evil instincts are at times in the ascendancy as +shown in the quarrels and disorders that occur, but +to no greater extent says the apologist than in any +of the prisons on the Spanish mainland. It may be +that the régime is so mild that the convicts yield +willingly to it without a murmur and seldom rise +against it. But the very atmosphere of the place is +criminal. There may be few prison offences where +rules are easy but if serious offences against discipline +are but rarely committed within the limits, +others against society are constantly prepared for +execution beyond. Ceuta is a hot bed of crime, the +seed is sown there, nourished and developed to bear +baleful fruit afterwards. It is a first class school for +the education of thieves, swindlers, coiners, and forgers +who graduate and take honours in the open +world of evil doing. It is the original home, some +say, of the famous fraud, peculiarly Spanish, called +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, which still flourishes and draws profit +as ever, not from Spain alone, but from far and +wide in nearly all civilised countries.</p> + +<p>The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, or the "burial" literally translated, +means an artful and specious proposal to reveal +the whereabouts of a buried treasure. It is another +form of the well known "confidence trick" or, as the +French call it, the "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">vol à l'americaine</i>," and we cannot +but admire the ingenuity and inventiveness so +often displayed in its practice, while expressing surprise +at the credulity and gullibility of those who are +deluded by it. It originates as a rule in a letter ad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>dressed +from the prison to some prominent person +in Spain or elsewhere, for the astute practitioner is +well provided with lists of names likely to be useful +to him in his business. It is on record that a seizure +was made in the presidio of Granada of a whole +stock in trade, a great mass of information secretly +collected from all parts of the world to serve in +carrying out the fraud of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, and with it a +number of forms of letters in various European +languages. The invitation is marked "very private +and confidential" and conveys with extreme +caution and mystery the suggestion that for a sufficient +consideration the secret hiding place of a very +valuable treasure will be confided to the person addressed. +Colour is given to the proposal by some +plausible but not always probable story on which it +is based.</p> + +<p>In one case the writer pretended to be a Spanish +officer who had received from the hands of Napoleon +III himself, when flying to England in September, +1870, a casket of jewels which he was charged +to convey to the Countess of Montijo, mother of the +Empress Eugenie, in Madrid. The messenger had +however become involved in a Carlist or revolutionary +movement and was now in prison, but he had +succeeded before arrest in burying the jewels in a +remote spot so cleverly concealed that he alone possessed +the secret. The liberal offer was made to the +person addressed of a fourth share of the total value +provided he would transmit to the prisoner corre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>spondent +through a sure hand, indicated, the sum +of three hundred pounds in cash by means of which +he could secure release and proceed to unearth the +treasure.</p> + +<p>Another story is as follows:</p> + +<p>One day the regular mail boat brought to Ceuta +an Italian ecclesiastic, a high dignitary of the +Church, of grave and venerable appearance, who +proceeded at once to make a formal call upon the +commandant or general commanding for the time +being. He was in search of certain information and +he more particularly desired to be directed to an address +he sought, that of a small house in a retired +spot in one of the small little-frequented streets in +the hilly town. He carried with him a heavy and +rather bulky handbag which when he started from +the general's he begged he might leave in his charge +on the plea that its contents were valuable.</p> + +<p>After the lapse of two or three hours the Monsignor +returned with terrified aspect and evidently +in the greatest distress of mind. He entreated that +a priest might be summoned to whom he might confess, +and his wish was forthwith gratified. The +moment he had unbosomed himself to his ghostly +adviser, he seized his handbag and ran down to the +port just in time to catch the return mail boat to +Algeciras. The priest who had heard his confession +was to be released from the secret confided to him +and reveal it to the authorities as soon as the safe +arrival of the mail boat at the mainland was sig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>nalled +across to Ceuta. Then the whole story came +out.</p> + +<p>Monsignor X was one of the most trusted and +confidential chaplains of his Holiness the Pope and +he had gone to Ceuta in the interests of an ex-Carlist +general who had the misfortune to be detained there +as a political prisoner. A sum of money was needed +to compass his escape from the presidio and help +him to reach in safety the burying place of a vast +treasure, to disinter it and apply it to the furtherance +of the civil war in progress. This general seems to +have satisfied the papal dignitaries of his identity +and good faith; his communication was endorsed +with plans and statements pointing to the whereabouts +of the hidden treasure, and the method by +which the money he needed for his enterprise was +to be used, was minutely described. He said he was +too closely watched to allow any messenger to reach +him direct, but he had friends in Ceuta, two titled +ladies, near relatives who had been permitted to live +in the prison town and to visit him from time to +time and who would pass the money to him when it +was brought to Ceuta.</p> + +<p>Monsignor X landed as we have seen and learned +where he was to go, but with commendable caution +he hesitated to take his money with him. He would +hand it over when he had made the personal acquaintance +of the general's aristocratic friends. +They did not prove very desirable acquaintances. +He found the house he was to visit, was admitted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +without question, but then the door was shut behind +him and he was murderously assailed by half a dozen +convicts, knife in hand. He was ordered to give up +the money he had brought, and when on searching +him it was found missing, he was rifled of everything +he carried in his pockets, both his watch and +a considerable sum in cash. His life was spared +because it was certain that his prolonged absence +would lead to a hue and cry, but he was obliged to +swear that he would not attempt to leave the house +for one clear hour so that the robbers might make +good their escape. Moreover he was warned if he +gave the alarm he would certainly be assassinated. +Hence his desire to pass beyond the Straits of Gibraltar +before the outrage became known. When +the house was visited it was found empty and unfurnished +with not a sign of life on the premises. +The most interesting feature in the story is that the +swindlers should fly at such high game, but it is +founded on undoubted fact. The Carlist insurrection +was often used to father the attempt to defraud.</p> + +<p>In another case a letter conveyed to the proprietor +of a vineyard at Maestrazgo the alluring news that +a large sum in gold was hidden on his ground, the +accumulated contributions of Carlist supporters in +the neighbourhood. The exact position would be +revealed and a plan forwarded in exchange for a +sum of four thousand dollars in hard cash, which +was to be forwarded to Ceuta according to certain +precise instructions. The money was sent but no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +reply came. Days and weeks passed and at last, +weary of waiting and a little unhappy, the easily +duped victim made up his mind to cross to Ceuta +in person and bring his disappointing correspondent +to book. The wine grower unhappily landed in the +presidio on the day they were baiting a bull in the +streets, a game constantly played and with more +danger to the passers-by than the players. The bull +goaded into a state of fury attacked the new comer +and tossed him so that he fell to the ground with +both legs broken. The poor man got no plan and +no news of his dollars. All he gained was two +months in bed lying between life and death.</p> + +<p>The writer Relosillas, who filled the place of an +inspector or surveyor of works at Ceuta, has given +some of his personal experiences in that convict +prison.<a name="Anchor-14" id="Anchor-14"></a><a href="#Footnote-14" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 14.">[14]</a> He describes how on one occasion he was +present at a free fight among the convicts in the +barracks which had been originally a Franciscan +convent. He was in his own office at a late hour, +hard by, when he heard a terrible uproar in the great +dormitory and ran over to exercise his authority and +prevent bloodshed. Knives were out and being +freely used by combatants ranged on two sides, one +lot backing up a friend who had been robbed of a +photograph of his sister, the other lot defending the +thief, who had stolen the portrait for use in a buried +treasure swindle. He had created her a marchioness +and intended to forward it as a bait to show his in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>timacy +with the aristocracy and prepare the way for +the fraud. The case may be quoted to show how +minutely the practitioners in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> studied +their ground and acquired the means of operating. +In all Spanish prisons and notably in Ceuta, cunning +convicts are to be found, men of ability and experience, +who have travelled far and wide, who are conversant +with many languages and well acquainted +with prominent people in other countries and the +leading facts and particulars of their lives.</p> + +<p>A few additional stories of swindles akin to the +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> are of much interest.</p> + +<p>A French landowner by name Armand Carron, +a resident of a small town in the Department of +Finistère, received, some time ago, a letter from +Ceuta, signed Santiago (or James) Carron. The +writer explained that he was a native of Finistère +where the Frenchman resided; that he was a namesake +and a member of the landowner's family, son +of a first cousin of his who had left France many +years before and settled in Spain with wife and three +sons, of whom he, Santiago Carron, now alone survived. +This Santiago, the letter went on, had been +placed by his father in the military college at +Segovia, had served through all the subaltern grades +as an artillery officer, had risen to the rank of brigadier +and in that capacity had been sent out in command +of the district of the Cinco Villas in Cuba, +where he had married the daughter of Don Diego +Calderon, a wealthy Havana merchant, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +owner of vast sugar plantations. His wife had +brought him a dowry of four million reales (£40,000) +and had died leaving him a daughter called +after her mother, Juanita, now about 17 years old. +This girl, the only object of her father's love and +care, had been by him sent to Europe and placed for +her education at the convent of the Sacre Cœur at +Chamartin near Madrid.</p> + +<p>His career in the army had been for many years +very fortunate and his wedded life in Cuba exceedingly +happy. He had been laden with honours by +a grateful Government and received many proofs of +his country's trust, but lately the officer in charge +of the chest of the military district at Cinco Villas +had absconded and run away to New York with +a sum of two million reales. As he, the brigadier, +was answerable for his subaltern's conduct and was +not willing to sacrifice one half of his wife's—now +his daughter's—fortune to pay for the defaulter, +he had been summoned to Spain and then relegated, +or sent as a prisoner on parole to the fortress at +Ceuta to take his trial before a court martial, which +owing to the dilatoriness of all things in Spain +might sit till doomsday.</p> + +<p>After thus giving an account of himself and his +belongings the brigadier proceeded to explain the +reasons which induced him to address himself to his +unknown French relative. Having suffered much +from long exposure to the heat of a tropical climate +he felt old before his time, and his hereditary enemy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +the gout, had by several sharp twinges made him +aware of the precariousness of his tenure of life. +He had only that one daughter in the world, the +sole heiress of a considerable patrimony who might +at any moment be deprived of her natural protector +and for whose final education and introduction into +society it was his duty to provide. The girl had +great natural gifts, had inherited her mother's Creole +beauty, and the accounts of her proficiency, given +by the nuns at Chamartin were most flattering to +his paternal pride. He was anxious to appoint a +guardian to his daughter and he could think of no +one fitter in every respect for that charge than his +only relative, M. Armand Carron.</p> + +<p>He (the brigadier) had lately been diligently +looking over his father's papers; had found among +them very numerous and interesting family documents—ample +evidence that a hearty and loving +correspondence had for many years been kept up +between his father, Vincent Carron, and the father +of M. Armand Carron, also called Armand, and he +followed up the narrative with frequent allusions to +several incidents occurring in the early youth of the +two cousins, with descriptions of localities, common +acquaintances and the usual joys and sorrows alternating +in their domestic circles. Altogether it was +a well contrived, plausible story verging so closely +upon probability as to avoid shipwreck upon the +rock of truth.</p> + +<p>M. Armand Carron of Finistère did not think<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +it right or expedient to cast doubt on the genuineness +of the communication. He answered the brigadier's +appeal by calling him "My dear cousin," saying he +had a perfect recollection of his father's frequent +allusions to Vincent Carron, the cousin who had +grown up with him in their own home and only left +their native town on arriving at man's estate. After +heartily congratulating the brigadier on his conspicuous +career which reflected so much lustre on their +own name, and condoling with him about the momentary +cloud that had now—undeservedly he felt +sure—settled upon it, he assured his newly found +relative of his sympathy and of his readiness to look +upon the brigadier's daughter as his own child, to +receive her into the bosom of his family and take +that care of her which so precious a jewel as she was +described to be, must fully deserve.</p> + +<p>So the matter was settled. The correspondence +between the two newly found relatives continued for +six or seven months and became very affectionate +and confidential. The brigadier sent the Frenchman +his photograph and that of his daughter, both taken +in Havana and bearing the name and trade mark +of the artist. The one represented a middle-aged +officer of high rank in full uniform and with the +Grand Cross of San Hermengeldo on his breast, a +fine manly countenance with long grey silky moustache; +the other exhibiting the arch, pretty countenance +of a brunette in her teens, with smooth bands +of raven hair on either side of her low forehead and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +the shade of a moonlit night in her dark eyes; a +bright blooming creature with dimples and pouting +lips and a look of humour and frolic and sense in +every feature. Together with the photographs +came a letter of Juanita Carron to the brigadier, her +father, from the convent, and bearing the Chamartin +postmark, in which the girl congratulated her father +on his discovery of his Finistère relative, expressed +a firm confidence that her loving father would long +be spared to her and concluded that she would for +her part, in the worst event, willingly acknowledge +her relative as a second father and acquiesce in +every arrangement that might be made for her welfare.</p> + +<p>Seven months passed and the post one morning +brought M. Armand Carron a letter with the Ceuta +postmark, but no longer in his cousin's handwriting. +The writer who signed himself Don Francisco +Muñoz, parish priest of San Pedro in Ceuta, announced +the death of Brigadier Santiago Carron, +which had occurred seven days before the date of +the letter. He stated that the brigadier, brought +to the last extremity by a sudden attack of gout, had +been attended, by him, Don Francisco, as priest in +his last hours, and been instructed to wind up all +his earthly affairs both in Ceuta and in Madrid. He +was further empowered to remove the Señorita +Juanita, the brigadier's daughter, from the Chamartin +convent and take charge of her during her journey +to Finistère where she should be delivered into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +the hands of her appointed guardian. The priest's +letter enclosed the printed obituary handbill announcing +the brigadier's decease, according to Spanish +custom, the last will and testament of the deceased +appointing M. Armand Carron sole executor, +guardian and trustee of his only daughter Juanita, +and entrusting to him the management of her fortune +of one million francs, (£40,000), mentioning +the banks in Paris and Amsterdam in which that +sum lay in good state securities. The whole document +was duly drawn up by a notary, with witnesses' +signatures, seals, etc., and even with certificates of +the brigadier's burial, the signatures and stamps of +the civil and military authorities at Ceuta and those +of the governor in command of the place.</p> + +<p>At the close of this minute statement the priest +expressed his readiness to comply with the brigadier's +instructions by travelling to Madrid, receiving +the young Juanita from the hands of the Sacre +Cœur nuns and continuing with her the journey to +Finistère, immediately upon hearing from M. Armand +Carron that he was prepared to receive his +lovely ward. M. Armand Carron answered by +return of post that his house and arms were open +to welcome his relative's orphan child. Where there +came after some time another letter from Don +Francisco Muñoz explaining that the brigadier, although +the most methodical and careful of men, had +left some trifling debts at Ceuta and there were the +doctors' and undertakers' bills to be settled: also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +the travelling expenses for himself and the young +lady which he, the priest, was not able to defray. +Besides all this the papers, deeds, books and other +portable property left by the brigadier, some of it +very valuable, but also bulky—among which were +the certificates of the state securities deposited in the +French and Dutch banks—which at the express +desire of the deceased would have at once to be conveyed +to Finistère. He, the priest, would have to +be responsible for all this, so that, what with the +boarding money and fees due to the nuns, and the +clothes, linen and other necessaries the young lady +might require to fit herself for appearance in the +world, an expense would have to be incurred of +which it was difficult to calculate the exact amount. +The conclusion was that he could not undertake the +journey unless M. Armand Carron supplied him +with a round sum of money, say four thousand +francs, which he could forward in French bank notes +and in a registered letter addressed not to him but +to a Doña Dolores Mazaredo, a pious woman, whom +her reduced fortunes had compelled to take service +as a washerwoman of the Ceuta state prison.</p> + +<p>The reason alleged by the priest for receiving the +money in this roundabout way was that as the brigadier +had died in debt to the state and the government +might suspect that property belonging to the deceased +had come into his, the priest's charge and +be subject to the law of embargo on the brigadier's +effects, it was desirable that every precaution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +should be taken to disarm suspicion and prevent +injury.</p> + +<p>The fraud was entirely successful and in due +course the letter from Finistère enclosing bank +notes for four thousand francs was delivered to the +washerwoman and from her passed into the hands +of the sharpers whose deep laid plan and transcendent +inventive powers were thus crowned with full +success. M. Armand Carron heard no more of +his orphaned relative.</p> + +<p>The most astonishing feature in the "Spanish +Swindle," as it is commonly and almost universally +known, is the extent to which it is practised and in +countries far remote from those in which the trick +originates. In one case a resident in the Argentine +Republic received a letter from Madrid which he +communicated to the press stating that he could not +conceive how his name and address had become +known. But it was clear that the Argentine and +many other directories were possessed by the swindler, +for similar letters all conveying the usual rosy +stories of hidden treasure had come into the country +wholesale. The fraudulent agent had long discovered +that the credulity and cupidity on which he +trades are universal weaknesses and that he is likely +to find victims in every civilised part of the world. +At another time Germany was inundated with typewritten +letters from the Spanish prisoner, and the +correspondent cleverly accounted for his use of the +machine by stating that he was employed as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +convict clerk in the office of the governor of the +prison.</p> + +<p>An attempt of the same kind was tried on a Swiss +gentleman of Geneva, but it failed signally. The +swindler in Barcelona thought he had beguiled his +correspondent into purchasing certain papers at the +price of twelve thousand francs by which a treasure +was to be found, and sent a young woman to Geneva +to receive the cash. But the Swiss police, having +been informed of the transaction, were on the alert, +and when she kept her appointment with the proposed +dupe she was taken into custody. An individual +staying at the same hotel and said to have +been in communication with her was also arrested. +The emissary denied all complicity in the intended +fraud protesting that she had been commissioned +by a stranger she met in Barcelona to convey a letter +to Geneva and bring back another in return.</p> + +<p>The ubiquity of the swindle is proved by the adventures +of a certain M. Elked, a restaurateur of +Buda-Pest, who was lured into making a journey to +Madrid, carrying with him a sum of ten thousand +francs in cash. The money was to be used in securing +possession of a fortune of three hundred thousand +francs, part of which was lying in a trunk +deposited in the cloak room of a French railway +station and part in the strong room of a Berlin bank. +Elked was to get the half in return for his advance. +On arrival in Madrid he met the representative +of his correspondent and was shown bogus re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>ceipts +from the railway and bank. To remove all +possible doubt it was suggested that telegrams +should be sent to the railway station and to the bank +and in due course what purported to be replies were +brought to Elked by a pretended telegraph messenger. +The sham telegrams finally convinced him of +the genuineness of the business and he arranged to +meet the swindler in a certain café to hand over the +ten thousand francs.</p> + +<p>All this time an eye was kept upon Elked by a +brother Hungarian named Isray, a commercial traveller, +who had come to Madrid by the same train and +who on hearing the purpose of the restaurateur's +visit had vainly tried to persuade him that the affair +was a fraud. Isray followed his infatuated +compatriot to the café in a very low quarter of Madrid +and arrived just in time to see three men attempting +to hustle Elked into a carriage. He had +apparently hesitated to hand over the money at the +last moment and the ruffians were attempting to get +him away to a spot where he could be conveniently +searched and robbed. Isray drew his revolver and +fired two or three shots at Elked's assailants, but did +not succeed in hitting any one. He contrived however +to injure the horse and the struggle ended in +the three bandits running away, leaving Elked still +in possession of his money. No passers-by offered +the Hungarians any assistance during the fight, nor +did any police appear on the scene. When Elked +subsequently complained to the police authorities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +they simply laughed at him for displaying so much +credulity. The victims of the "Spanish Swindle" +are certainly not entitled to much sympathy. Although +arrests are occasionally made, the Spanish +police have never been able to cope very successfully +with the ancient and ever flourishing fraud.</p> + +<p>Some of the Spanish prisoner's lies are the crudest +and most transparent attempts at fraud, but a few +are really very fine works of art. An English country +gentleman once received the following letter:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir and Relative</span>: Not having the honour +to know you but for the reference which my dead +wife, Mary—your relative—gave me, who in detailing +the various individuals of our family warmly +praised the honest and good qualities which distinguished +you, I now address myself to you for the +first time and perhaps for the last one considering +the grave state of my health, explaining my sad position +and requesting your protection for my only +daughter, a child of fourteen years old whom I keep +as a pensioner in a college—"</p></div> + +<p>This is the prelude to a really clever and picturesque +story of the writer's adventures in Cuba, +where, after having been secretary and treasurer to +Martinez Campos, he had subsequently been driven +by General Weyler to join the insurgents, and was +eventually forced to flee the country taking with him +his fortune of thirty-seven thousand pounds. Subse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>quently +being summoned to Spain by the illness of +his "only daughter child" he deposited the money +in a London bank under the form of "security document." +After this we are introduced to the old +mechanism of this venerable swindle. The deposited +note was concealed in a secret drawer of the +prisoner's portmanteau. The prisoner had been arrested +on his arrival in Spain, but a trusty friend +at large was willing to assist him in recovering the +money for the benefit of his child, if only the dear +relative in England "would advance the necessary +funds for expenses." It is possible to imagine that +anyone who had never heard of these ingenious +frauds might be taken in by such a plausible narrative, +but it is difficult to understand such ignorance. +A letter was received from the Castle of Montjuich +in Barcelona by a man in Dublin, who showed it to +several friends in the city explaining the process. +It was new to them all, and arrests of persons who +had all but succeeded in completing this well-worn +confidence trick are constantly made in London. +The boldness of these attempts may be seen in the +case of the swindlers who despatched three letters +identically the same, to three persons who were near +neighbours, residing at North Berwick near Edinburgh. +The letter dated from Madrid and said:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>, Detained here as a bankrupt, I ask if you +would help me to withdraw the sum of fr. 925,000 +(£37,000) at present lodged in a secure place in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +France. It would be necessary for you to visit +Madrid and obtain possession of my baggage by +paying a lien on it. In one valise concealed in a +secret niche is the document which must be produced +as a warrant for the delivery of the above +mentioned sum. I propose to hand you over a third +of the whole in return for your outlay and trouble."</p></div> + +<p>The rest of the letter simply contained instructions +as to telegraphing an answer to Madrid. The whole +was a very stupid and clumsy attempt to deceive, +lacking all the emotional appeals, the motherless +child, the persecuted political adherent of a failing +cause. Worse yet it openly invited co-operation +with a bankrupt seeking to defraud his creditors. +Nor is there any effort to explain the selection of +these three particular persons in the same small town +as parties to the fraud, and the only conclusion is +that dupes had been found even under such circumstances +who were afterward reluctant to reveal their +own foolishness.</p> + +<p>A more elaborate fraud was perpetrated soon +after the fall of Cartagena; the story ran as follows: +Two of the well known leaders of the hare-brained +republican movement that led to that catastrophe,—General +Contreras and Señor Galdez,—both +deputies of the Constituent Cortes, came as fugitives +to England and lodged in the Bank of England +a sum amounting to several millions of reales +in state securities, obtaining for them of course the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +regular certificates and receipt from the bank. +These two Spanish gentlemen afterwards lived for +some time on the continent. General Contreras +took up his quarters as a political exile in France +and Señor Galdez ventured under a disguise into +Spain, where he had the misfortune to be recognised, +arrested and shut up in the Saladero. The certificates +had been left in England in trusty hands, in a +trunk belonging to Señor Galdez, who from his +prison sent directions that the box should be sent by +rail to Madrid addressed to a person enjoying his +full confidence. This person however had some +claim upon Señor Galdez for an old debt of six +thousand francs or about two hundred and forty +pounds and insisted upon payment of this sum before +he would either part with the trunk or allow it to +be opened and the precious certificates to be taken +from it.</p> + +<p>The matter required delicate handling, for Señor +Galdez was a prisoner, General Contreras an exile, +both beyond reach, and about the money they had +placed in the bank there might lie some mystery into +which it was not desirable that enquiry should be +made. An easy way of getting at the contents of +the trunk could be found if any one would think it +worth while to supply two hundred and forty +pounds, settle the claims of Señor Galdez's creditor, +and laying hold of the certificates, convey them to +England and withdraw the securities from the bank. +A man whose name was given and whose address<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +was in the Calle de la Abada or Rhinoceros Street, +Madrid, would undertake to carry through the negotiations +if any one would call upon him with the +needful two hundred and forty pounds and allow +him half an hour to rescue the trunk and deliver the +certificates. The worthy Yorkshire squire to whom +intimation had been conveyed of the coup there was +to be made, looked upon the story as extremely +probable. He fancied it was corroborated by a good +deal of circumstantial evidence and thought he +might venture on the speculation. A professional +adviser whom he consulted undertook to do the job +for him and carry the two hundred and forty pounds +to the Calle de la Abada, taking a revolver with him, +as a precaution, and intending to deliver the money +in Bank of England notes, the numbers of which +should be stopped the moment he found out that any +trick was being played on his good faith.</p> + +<p>Further enquiries were made, however, before +any decided steps were taken, and it was ascertained +beyond doubt that Señor Galdez was no longer a +prisoner, that General Contreras had come back +from banishment, that the house in the Calle de la +Abada was a notorious haunt of malefactors and +den of thieves, and the whole scheme was another +instance of the criminal ingenuity of the Spanish +swindler.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">LIFE IN CEUTA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Dangerous weapons manufactured within the prison walls—Frequent +quarrels—Murderous assaults on warders of constant +occurrence—Disorders and lack of discipline owing +to the employment of prisoners as warders—The "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos +de vara</i>"—These posts sold to the highest bidder—Salillas' +description of these convict warders—Worst criminals +often promoted to exercise authority over their fellows—Terrible +evils arising from such a state of affairs—Description +of Ceuta—Life at Ceuta no deterrent to crime by +reason of the pleasant conditions under which the convicts +lived—Popularity of the theatre in Spanish prisons—Escapes +from Ceuta—The case of El Niño de Brenes—The +different characteristics of the Andalusians and Aragonese—Foreigners +from Spanish colonies imprisoned at Ceuta—Chinamen +and negroes—Dolores, the negro convict—His +assassination by two fellow convicts—Political prisoners—Carlists—Different +types of murderers.</p></div> + + +<p>Life is held cheap in Ceuta and indeed in all +Spanish presidios and gaols. The saying "a word +and a blow," may be expanded into "a word and a +knife thrust." The possession of a lethal weapon +is common to all prisoners and prevails despite prohibiting +regulations. Fatal affrays are of constant +occurrence. At Valladolid five men were wounded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +in a fight over cards, which were openly permitted. +An official enquiry followed, with the result that on +a search instituted through the prison, numbers of +large knives were discovered and many smaller +daggers.</p> + +<p>It is pretended by the authorities that the introduction +of such weapons as well as of spirits +and packs of cards cannot be prevented. The gate +keepers however exercise no vigilance or are readily +bribed to shut their eyes. The ruinous condition +of many gaols with their numerous cracks and openings +and holes in the walls is partially responsible. +As a natural consequence blood flowed freely when +rage and unbridled passion were so easily inflamed +and the means of seeking murderous satisfaction +were always ready to hand. Quarrels grew at once +into fierce fights which could not be prevented and +must be fought out then and there even to the death. +Chains and stone walls and iron bars were ineffective +in imposing order. There could be no semblance +of discipline where the two essentials were absolutely +wanting, supervision and honest service in the +keepers.</p> + +<p>Knives were often provided by the ingenious +adaptation of all kinds of material within the walls, +such as one-half of a pair of scissors firmly fixed in +a handle bound round with cloth; or a piece of tin +doubled to form a blade and stiffened by two pieces +of wood to keep the point sharp; or the handle of +a wooden spoon sharpened and as formidable as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +an inflexible fish bone.<a name="Anchor-15" id="Anchor-15"></a><a href="#Footnote-15" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 15.">[15]</a> Other arms carried and +used on occasion for premeditated or unexpected +attack or in set, formal encounters were a razor, a +file, a carpenter's adze, a hammer, a cobbler's awl.</p> + +<p>Some surprising figures have been collected by +Salillas to show how frequent was the appeal to violence +and how fatal the consequences of the bloodthirsty +strife so constantly breaking out among the +more reckless members of this hot-tempered Latin +race. They had often their origin in drunken quarrels, +for <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>, the Spanish equivalent to whiskey +or gin, was always plentiful, introduced almost +openly by the warders. Ancient feuds were revived +when the opportunity of settling them was offered +by the chance meeting in the gaol. Occasionally a +homicidal lunatic ran loose about the yards and +struck blindly at any inoffensive person he met when +the furious fit was on him. Salillas tells us that in +one year sixteen murderous assaults were committed +upon warders,<a name="Anchor-16" id="Anchor-16"></a><a href="#Footnote-16" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 16.">[16]</a> and twenty-four free fights occurred +among the prisoners, eleven of whom were killed +outright and forty-two seriously wounded. One +truculent ruffian fell upon an aged wardsman (a +convict also), struck him with a shoemaker's knife</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p> + +<p>and then, brandishing his weapon, defied interference +or the rescue of his victim whom he "finished" +with repeated blows. A Valencian newspaper describes +an encounter between two inmates of the +Torres Serranos prison in that city. "Without +warning or suggesting the cause of difference the +two silently hurried to a large empty room, rushed +at each other with their knives, and the only sounds +heard were those of blows struck and warded off +and of shuffling feet as they circled round each other. +Warders headed by the governor (alcaide) strove to +separate the combatants and succeeded at last in doing +so but at peril of their lives. Both the antagonists +were wounded, one had his cheek laid open +and the other's face was horribly gashed. At Saragossa +an old man who complained that one of his +blankets had been stolen was fiercely attacked in the +shoemaker's shop by the thief, who had been cutting +out sole leather with a heavy iron tool. Deadly +wounds were inflicted on the victim, but the infuriated +aggressor stood over him, keeping those who +would have interposed at bay until it was clearly +evident that death had supervened.</p> + +<p>The primary cause of the chronic discreditable, +disgraceful disorder that reigned in the Spanish +prisons was the prevailing custom of employing +prisoners in the service and discipline of the prisons. +This practice is now universally condemned as reprehensible +and it has been abolished in most civilised +countries and even in Spain. The excuse offered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +which long passed current in Spain was the expense +entailed by employing a proper staff of officers, a +necessity in every well ordered prison administration. +But till quite a recent date the control and +supervision of prisoners in Spanish gaols was practically +their own affair. There were the usual superior +officials, assisted by a few free overseers (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capataces</i>) +but the bulk of the work was entrusted to +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos de vara</i>.</p> + +<p>The vicious system was the more objectionable +from the uncertainty which prevailed in its working. +If the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i> had been carefully selected from +the best and most exemplary prisoners some of the +worst evils might have been avoided. But it was +all a matter of chance. Not only was there no selection +of the best but there was no rejection or elimination +of the worst candidates. In some conspicuous +cases the office of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i> was suffered to +fall into the hands of men altogether unfit to hold +it. Two in particular may be quoted, those of +Pelufo and Carrillo, who having first committed +atrocious crimes, escaped punishment and were actually +promoted. One, Pelufo, was a convict in the +presidio of Cartagena who murdered a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> and cut +his way out of the St. Augustin prison, knife in +hand; the other, Carrillo, slew a comrade in a duel +in the presidio of San Miguel de los Reyes (Valencia) +and both were subsequently appointed <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>, +"a reward," as a witty official said, "which they had +earned by their services to penitentiary methods."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p>With such examples and under such authorities +serious crimes were naturally numerous. A few +may be mentioned. A <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> named Casalta killed a +fellow <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> in St. Augustin prison of Valencia with +five cruel thrusts and afterwards stabbed an officer +to the heart. When the military guard came up he +seriously injured one of the soldiers and wounded +two convicts, one in the head, the other in the back. +Casalta was however condemned to a fresh sentence +of twelve years. One Ferreiro Volta cut a comrade's +throat for having given evidence against the +man, Pelufo, already mentioned. Many more cases +of the same heinous character where the homicidal +instinct had full play may be picked out of the published +lists. In one prison thirteen already guilty of +murder or attempted murder repeated their crimes +as prisoners; in another nine convicted of maliciously +wounding, pursued the practice or were +guilty of awful threats to murder in the gaols. The +cases might be multiplied almost indefinitely but it +will suffice to indicate the terrible conditions constantly +prevailing. No doubt murderous attacks +were often stimulated by the tyranny of the prisoner +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>, against whom their fellows, goaded to desperation, +rose and wreaked vengeance.</p> + +<p>The discipline exercised by these prisoner warders +was naturally not worth much. It was their duty +to correct and restrain their comrades, to assist in +their pursuit when they escaped after having originally +most probably facilitated the evasion, to side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +with the authority in cases of serious insubordination +and disturbance. But they were weak vessels +yielding readily to temptation, accepting bribes hungrily, +swallowing drink greedily when offered, +quickly cowed by the threats of prison bullies and +surrendering at discretion when opposed. But even +although there were good and trusty men to be +found at times among them, no real reliance could +be placed in them. They generally represented fifty +per cent. of the staff and the necessity for the substitution +of the non-convicted, properly paid, fairly +honourable warders has been very wisely decided +upon. The chief danger lay in their close and intimate +association with the rest, day and night constantly +alone when no official supervision was possible. +Their value depended entirely upon their personal +qualifications. If they were weak-kneed and +invertebrate, they could apply no check upon the +ill-conditioned, could neither intimidate nor repress: +if on the other hand they were of masterful character +with arrogant, overbearing tempers, they might +do immense mischief by tyrannising over their +charges and leading them astray. Men of this class +often claimed an equality with the recognised officials, +treated them with off-hand familiarity, spoke +without saluting or removing their caps, while insolently +puffing the smoke of a half-consumed cigarette +in faces of the officers. Salillas sums up the +type as "semi-functionary, semi-convict and all +hangman."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> + +<p>The external aspect of Ceuta is not unpleasing. +It is built on seven hills, the highest of which is +topped by the fortress, and in the word "septem" +we may trace the name Ceuta. It still possesses a +few Moorish remains, for it was once an important +Moorish city. Some of the streets show a tesselated +pavement of red, white and green tiles, and house +fronts are to be seen in white, black and serpentine +marble with decorated scroll work running in a pattern +below the gutter. It has some claims to be +picturesque and possesses certain artistic architectural +features. An imposing barrack, that called +Del Valle, built by prison labour, is considered one +of the finest Spanish military edifices. It has also +a cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of Africa, engineering +and artillery yards, a military hospital, another +church, public offices, and above all a palace +of the governor and general commanding. The +latter in particular, with its extensive grounds, handsome +façade, and suites of fine rooms, the whole +well mounted and served by a large staff of convict +attendants, is the envy of all other government officials. +One wide street traverses the city from west +to east crossed by a network of smaller ways, all +airy and well ventilated by sea breezes and constantly +illuminated by a brilliant sun. From time +to time convicts in their distinctive dress pass along, +but scarcely cast a shadow upon the scene, showing +few signs of their thraldom and passing along with +light-hearted freedom, smoking excellent tobacco or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +singing a gay song. No beggars offend the eye, for +to solicit public charity is strictly forbidden. Generally +a contented well-to-do air is worn by the +crowd, and even the convicts are decently dressed. +Other inhabitants, Moors from the mainland, and +Jews long established in commerce seem prosperous +and evidently possess ample means gained by their +industry and thrift.</p> + +<p>The presidio or prison proper of Ceuta covers a +large part of the peninsula or promontory and embraces +four distinct districts; the first is situated in +the new or modern town; the second lies just outside +it; the third is within the old town and the +fourth is beyond the outer line of walls. The first +part is connected with the third by a drawbridge +called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">boquete de la sardina</i> or the "sardine's entrance"; +the second with the third by a portcullis; +the third with the fourth and last by the outer gate +of the city.</p> + +<p>In the first are the artisans' quarters, situated in +the cloisters of an ancient monastery, that of San +Francisco, and but for the patching and whitewashing +would look quite ruinous. It is neither secure +nor of sufficient size. The night guards are posted +in the old mortuary house, the bars to many windows +are of wood. The building contains offices, +schoolhouse, store for clothing and the workshops, +these being in a sort of patio or courtyard, or in +hollow spaces in the cloisters, and are simply dens +and rookeries, in part exactly over the old burial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +ground. The handicrafts pursued when I visited +it were various: men were making shoes; fourteen +tailors were at work; a blacksmith with a life sentence +constantly hammered out the red hot iron; +a tinsmith produced many useful articles; a turner +at his lathe worked admirably in the old meat bones +and fashioned handles for walking sticks and umbrellas. +This turner earned much money and was +comfortably lodged. Convicts at Ceuta are not deprived +of their profits and spend their money buying +better food, superior clothing and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> and +using it to bribe their overseers, or they cleverly +conceal it, adding constantly to their store. Industry +is a chief source of wealth, but many political prisoners +bring large sums in with them, or it is smuggled +in to them, and a successful hit with the "buried +treasure fraud" will supply plenty of cash.</p> + +<p>Other industries followed are carpentering and +the construction of trunks and boxes which sell well. +A number of looms are engaged in weaving canvas +for the manufacture of sails for the local shipping, +rough material for sacking and clothing of the convicts, +all in large quantities and to a really valuable +extent. These workshops are filled by the prisoners +in the first stage of their detention. The water-carriers +and clerks in the government office are in +the second period, and on reaching the third the convicts +obtain the privilege of going at large to accept +employment in the town "from gun to gun."</p> + +<p>The prison hospital is situated in this first district,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +an ancient edifice erected with part of the funds +subscribed in times past to purchase freedom for +Christian captives enslaved by the Barbary Moors. +The building is of good size, well ventilated, and enjoys +good hygienic conditions. But the defects and +shortcomings in Spanish administration extend even +to Ceuta and the prison hospital, which a local authority +says "is detestably organised and mounted +miserably." The roof is so slight that it affords +no proper protection in summer and the intense heat +of the blazing sun striking through is very injurious +to the patients. The medical resources are +small and inferior; the beds few and unclean; the +whole of the interior arrangements, furniture fittings +and appliances, insufficient and worn out. +There is no mortuary and to add a small detail in +proof of the imperfections, autopsies were performed +in a small den, part of the hospital proper, +without disinfectants and the essential appliances for +carrying out post mortems. Patients seldom made +a long stay in the hospital, for they were rarely admitted +until they had reached the last stages of an +illness and came in as a rule only to die.</p> + +<p>The second district contains the principal quarters +for convicts. One is in the chief barrack called +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cuartel principal</i> and another in the fortress <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el +Hacho</i>.<a name="Anchor-17" id="Anchor-17"></a><a href="#Footnote-17" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 17.">[17]</a> Some further evidence of their evil condition +may be extracted from an account given by +Salillas. "It is impossible to conceive," he writes, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>"a more unsuitable, unsavoury place for a prison. +The rooms and dormitories occupied by the convicts +are dark and gloomy, always damp, full of pestilential +odours and dirty beyond description. The floors +are of beaten earth, ever secure hiding places for all +forbidden articles, weapons, tools for compassing +escape, jars of drink, the fiery and poisonous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>. +It seems to me extraordinary," he goes on +to say, "that life under such conditions is possible. +A thousand and odd men who seldom if ever wash, +who never change their clothes, are crowded together +promiscuously in small, unclean, ill-ventilated, +noisome dens and must surely engender and propagate +loathsome epidemic disease." The fetid air is +foul with the noisome exhalations of many generations +of pestiferous people. It is one sink of concentrated +malaria—a reeking hot bed of infection. +The services of supply are carried out with abominable +carelessness: the kitchen is an abode of nastiness: +the cooking is performed by repulsive looking +convicts in greasy rags who plunge their dirty arms +deep into the seething mess of soup which they bail +out into buckets, a malodorous compound of the +colour and consistency of the mortar used in building +a wall.</p> + +<p>Close by is another quarter in which convicts are +lodged, <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i>, or the hilly ground or topmost +point of Ceuta on which is placed the citadel which +crowns the fortifications. It takes the overflow from +the principal barrack and is moreover generally oc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>cupied +by the worst characters, the most insubordinate +and incorrigible members of the prison population. +The rooms, as in the barrack below, are +dirty, overcrowded and insecure, but a few windows +of the upper story open on to the Mediterranean and +are not always protected by either wooden or iron +bars. <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El Hacho</i> contains within its limits a certain +number of solitary cells, well known and much +dreaded by the habitual criminals of Spain. They +are essentially punishment cells used in the coercion +of the incorrigible and are just as dark, damp and +wretched as the larger rooms. But the solitary inmate +in each cell is generally kept chained to the +wall or is as it is styled <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">amarrado en blanca</i>, nearly +naked and heavily ironed. The treatment is exemplary +in its cruelty, but does not necessarily cure +the subject. There was one irreclaimable upon +whom several years of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozo</i> had had no effect. +He had been sentenced to be thus chained up +as the penalty for murderously wounding an overseer +in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i>, but he did not mend his manners. +On one occasion on the arrival of a new governor +all under punishment were pardoned. This convict +when sent out forthwith furiously attacked the first +warder he met and was again condemned to be +locked up as a ceaseless danger to the presidio. He +is remembered as little more than a youth, but with +a diabolical countenance and indomitable air.</p> + +<p>The district of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Barcas</i> does not contain a barrack +properly speaking, but there is a space cut in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +the thickness of the line wall entering a patio or +courtyard which gives upon seven rooms, some high, +some low; of these three and part of the yard were +filled with munitions of war, and a battery of artillery +was placed over the dormitories on their upper +floor. Many of the convicts are employed as boatmen +and watchmen in the port, others have charge +of the walls and carry water up to the guardhouses +on the higher level. They also attend to the service +of the drawbridge between the old and new town. +One who was employed as gatekeeper at the drawbridge +was well remembered. He was trusted to +call on all convicts who passed to produce their permits +of free circulation or to enter and leave the +fortress. He had a pleasant rubicund face, was one +armed, a little deaf, but with very sharp eyes, not +easily hoodwinked. He was a confirmed gossip who +picked up all the news which he retailed to all who +passed in and out. Escapes were of constant occurrence +at Ceuta, but few occurred by the drawbridge +of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Barcas</i>.</p> + +<p>Half way up the road from the town to the citadel +and the fort of the Seraglio was the Jadu barrack +which was occupied by the convicts who were +engaged in agricultural work, in making tiles and +burning charcoal. Many of these were foreigners +and negroes. The bulk of the residents was made +up of those who had completed three fourths of their +sentences and lived "under conditions," or in a +state of conditional or semi-freedom. There was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +little wrong-doing in Jadu, thefts were rare, fights +and quarrels seldom took place. The Seraglio was +a fortified barrack of rectangular shape occupied by +troops of the garrison and lodging an odd hundred +convicts labouring on adjacent farms in private +hands.</p> + +<p>It will be observed that the convicts established in +these last-named quarters beyond the walls do not +appear to exhibit all the unpleasant features attributed +to them by some writers in recording their +experiences of Ceuta.<a name="Anchor-18" id="Anchor-18"></a><a href="#Footnote-18" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 18.">[18]</a> No doubt the truth lies +somewhere between the two extremes but it is certain +that the chief penal colony of Spain shares to +a marked extent the drawbacks inseparable from all +forms of penal colonisation. We may see, beyond +all question, that at Ceuta no beneficial results are +achieved by the system. Criminals who undergo +the penalty are not improved by it; their reformation, +too generally a will-o'-the-wisp under the very +best auspices, is not even attempted, much less assured. +On the other hand, it is perfectly clear that +evil is perpetually in the ascendent, that criminal +tendencies are largely encouraged by the facilities +given in the education and practice of wrong doing; +that the presidio itself is a criminal centre where the +seeds of crime are sown and their growth fostered +despite the difficulties of distance and inconvenience. +The fear of penal exile is no deterrent to crime for +the simple reason that life in Ceuta is not particu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>larly +irksome and that the convict finds many compensations +there. The obligation to hard labour is +not strictly enforced. Man must work, but not hard +and chiefly for his own advantage, to gain the +means of softening and bettering his lot. He passes +his time very much as he pleases. Though he rises +with the sun, as is the universal custom of his country, +he turns out of bed without giving a thought to +personal cleanliness and proceeds to his appointed +labour leisurely, after disposing of his breakfast, +adding perhaps more toothsome articles of food, including +a morning drink of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> bought +from the hawkers and hucksters awaiting him at the +prison gates. He is dressed in prison uniform, but +it is sufficient and suitably varied with the season. +He is not hampered by fetters, as the ancient practice +of chaining convicts together in couplets has +long since ceased. The wearing of irons fell into +disuse years ago at the building of the great barrack +del Valle, when several deplorable accidents occurred +and it was found that chains interfered with +the free movement of workmen on scaffolding and +so forth. The idea was that irons should again be +imposed at the conclusion of the building; "but all +who thought so did not know Spanish ways, nor +the despotism of custom when once established."<a name="Anchor-19" id="Anchor-19"></a><a href="#Footnote-19" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 19.">[19]</a> +"To-day (1873)," says same writer, "there are +not fifty suits of chains in the storehouse and not +more than twenty are worn by special penalty and</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p> + +<p>by no means as a general practice." The convict +loafs about the rooms or courtyard or idly handles +the tools of his trade, gossiping freely with his comrades, +or taking a hand at <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">monte</i> or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">chapas</i> with the +full permission of warders not indisposed to have +a "little on the games"; he finds easy means to +issue into the streets to carry on some delectable +flirtation; there may be a bull baiting afoot, a +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">novillos</i> in which all may join, or a theatrical performance +is being given by a convict company in +one of the penal establishments.</p> + +<p>The theatre is a passion with the average Spaniard +and the taste extends to those in durance. +Cases constantly occur in which popular plays have +been reproduced in prisons situated in the principal +cities. Salillas<a name="Anchor-20" id="Anchor-20"></a><a href="#Footnote-20" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 20.">[20]</a> states that almost all the prisons +of Spain had their theatre and he gives the names of +Burgos, Ceuta, Ocana, Valladolid, Saladero (Madrid) +and Alcalá de Henares. One writer who visited +the prison performance at Seville of a musical +piece, the "Viejas Ricas de Cadiz," said it was given +well and that the vocal talent was considerable in +that and other prisons. At the presidio of San +Miguel de los Reyes the convicts were heard singing +a chorus on Christmas Eve which was perfectly +executed and with great feeling.</p> + +<p>In the Valladolid gaol the theatre was regularly +installed by a company of forty convicts who had +contributed substantial sums for the purpose. It</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> +<p>had working committees with rules and regulations +formally sanctioned by the governor of the province. +The theatre with seats for an audience of four hundred, +and four private boxes holding twelve persons +each, was constructed in a building which afterwards +became the blacksmith shops. A refreshment room +was provided in which a contractor dispensed sweets +and pastry and strong drink; real actresses were +engaged from outside at a salary of a dollar for each +performance; invitations were issued to the free +residents and the convicts paid two reales for admission. +Well known, high class plays were produced, +comedies, dramas and comic operas.</p> + +<p>The whole proceeding was a caricature upon +prison discipline and the authorities who permitted +it were very properly sharply and severely condemned. +They exposed themselves to reproof and +worse for flagrant contempt of the most ordinary +restrictions in allowing women to pass in constantly, +and in permitting the sale of alcoholic liquors. That +a place of durance, primarily intended for the restraint +and punishment of evil doers should be converted +into a show and spectacle was an intolerable +misuse of power and a disgraceful travesty of the +fitness of things. The positive evil engendered was +seen in the wholesale escape of the theatrical company, +while the audience patiently waited in front +of the curtain which "went up" eventually on a +wholly unexpected performance.<a name="Anchor-21" id="Anchor-21"></a><a href="#Footnote-21" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 21.">[21]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> +<p>In the matter of escapes Ceuta was famous. It +was not difficult to get away from that imperfectly +guarded stronghold when the convict had means to +bribe officers or buy a boat and had the courage to +make the voyage across the Straits of Gibraltar. +The story of one veteran convict who escaped from +Ceuta is interesting because he was driven to take +himself off by what he no doubt deemed the ill-judged +severity of his injudicious keepers. This +was an old brigand known as "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El Niño de Brenes</i>," +(the lad of Brenes), a name he must have earned +some time back for he was a man aged seventy when +he "withdrew" (the word is exact) from Ceuta. +He was a well-behaved, well-to-do convict of affable +address who had gained many staunch friends +among the officials and his own comrades. The +position he had created for himself was one of practical +ease and comfort; he lived in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i> pursuing +various industries, usury among the rest, and +gradually grew so rich that he gained possession of +a strip of land which he cultivated profitably and +kept a fine poultry yard as well as many sheep and +goats.</p> + +<p>El Niño was a tall well built old man, dark-skinned, +with abundant white hair. He was of +highly respectable appearance, very stout and sleek, +and, being on the best of terms with his masters, +he took upon himself to discard the prison uniform +and dress himself as an Andalusian peasant with +gaiters and red sash and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sombrero calañes</i> (round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +hard hat). Not strangely this presumption displeased +the authorities and he was told that he must +conform to the rules and appear in the proper convict +clothing and cease to act as a money lender to +his poorer brethren. He received this intimation +with a smiling protest; he pointed out that he used +his influence in pacifying ill-conditioned convicts, in +staving off disturbances and preventing quarrels. +If his services were not better appreciated and he +was tied down to the strict observance of the ordinary +rules he would move further away; his remaining +in the presidio was quite a matter of favour +and he had always at his disposal the means to make +his escape, and if he were interfered with he would +take his departure. This impudent reply quite exasperated +the authorities, who thereupon resolved to +employ sharp measures. The facts as he had stated +them were more or less true and the blame lay really +with the faulty and inefficient régime in force. But +the authorities would not tamely submit to be defied +and a peremptory order was issued that he should +dispose of his private property by a certain date, +wind up his financial affairs and renounce all idea of +exceptional treatment. El Niño took this as a +threat to which there could be but one reply. He +gathered together his cash and portable property +and quietly disappeared. A hue and cry was raised; +the usual signals flew at the signal staff; all gates +and exits were closely watched; the police were unceasingly +active in pursuit, but the fugitive had laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +his plans astutely and was never recaptured. Having +the command of ample means he doubtless used +them freely to purchase freedom by taking some +sure road past the frontier or across the sea.</p> + +<p>Allies and auxiliaries were never wanting to the +enterprising fugitive willing to pay liberally for assistance. +In one case a convict had the courage to +allow himself to be shut up in a chest half full of +tobacco and to be thus conveyed to Gibraltar, to +which it was returned as containing damaged goods. +Gibraltar is a free port and the chest was landed +without question. Then the consignee opened it +without delay and extracted the fugitive convict uninjured. +The last part of the story is somewhat incredible +and we may wonder why the fugitive did +not succumb to the discomforts of his narrow receptacle, +want of air, the exhalations of the tobacco and +the shakings and bumping of the box as it made its +voyage, albeit a short one, from Ceuta to the Rock.</p> + +<p>An escape on a large scale was effected from the +principal barrack when eighteen convicts descended +into the drains, and finding their progress unimpeded +threaded them safely and passing under the +outer wall reached the outlet to the sea. It happened +that the water was high and that there was +a great conflict of currents in which that setting +inward had most force and the exit was blocked by +the stormy waves. Some of the convicts committed +themselves to the waters but were washed back with +violence against the rocky fortifications and all of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +them in terror for their lives raised loud cries, calling +for help. The sentries gave the alarm, the +guards ran down and recaptured all the fugitives +but one, a fine swimmer who persisted in his attempt +and was swept seaward clear of the rough water till +he was able to regain the shore on the far side of +the Moorish sentries.</p> + +<p>The prison population of Ceuta is made up of a +number of motley, polyglot types of the many diverse +families that compose the Spanish race and of +other distinct nationalities. The Spaniards are generally +classified under two principal heads: the +Aragonese and the Andalusians. The first named +comprises all from the northern provinces who are +generally coarse, quarrelsome and brutal, sentenced +chiefly for crimes of violence, murders premeditated +and committed under aggravated circumstances, the +outcome of furious and ungovernable passion. The +Andalusian is of more generous character, lively and +light-hearted, but of unsettled disposition and much +impelled to attempt escapes. He is a chronic grumbler +constantly moved to complain, dissatisfied with +his rations and clamorous for special privileges. +The Aragonese on the other hand suffers long in +silence which leads eventually, after long brooding, +into mutinous combination. The Andalusian makes +his grievances heard by word of mouth, the Aragonese +rushes without notice into overt action and +organised attack. Another distinct section of the +Spanish race is the Galician and the native of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +Asturias, a sober, quiet and well-conducted people +at home, who exhibit great ferocity as convicts. +Sanguinary encounters are little known in these +provinces, but when an Asturian or Galician takes +the life of his enemy, he uses artifice and waylays +him, decoying him into an ambush and murdering +him often with horrible mutilation. A criminal +feature, peculiar to the women of these provinces, is +their addiction to the use of poison. Other Spanish +females will use violence and inflict lethal wounds +openly, but the Galician woman administers poison +secretly, deliberately choosing her victims among +her nearest relatives.</p> + +<p>The colonial empire of Spain, now a thing of the +past, contributed in its time a substantial contingent +of yellow and black convicts, Chinamen from the +Philippines and negroes from Cuba. It was a reprehensible +practice to associate these foreigners with +the European convicts and it produced many evils. +The Chinaman was often shamefully ill-treated. He +bore it patiently, but at times when goaded beyond +endurance, retaliated with bloodthirsty violence. +The story of one negro convict, a rather remarkable +person, is still remembered at Ceuta. He rejoiced +in the somewhat inappropriate feminine name of +Dolores, and despite his colour was a singularly +handsome man. He had a slight, active figure, a +highly intelligent face and a clear, penetrating eye. +His mental faculties were of a high order, although +he had received only an indifferent education. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +had the fondness of his race for fine clothes and although +conforming to the prison uniform wore it +with a certain distinction, improving and adding to +it where possible and having quite a gentlemanly +appearance. He had been guilty of a hideous murder +in Havana for which he had received a nearly +interminable sentence. His behaviour in gaol was +orderly and submissive and he always displayed the +utmost loyalty to his masters, who in return lightened +his lot as far as was possible.</p> + +<p>Dolores, as a rule, was of a patient disposition, +although he was easily roused into fits of violent +temper and could be at times, according to his treatment, +either a lion or a lamb. It seemed almost incomprehensible +that the mild eyes so calm and peaceable, +when he was unmoved, could blaze with sudden +fury or that his small delicately shaped hands +could fasten murderously on a fellow creature's +throat. Tyranny and oppression were intolerable +to him and he altogether declined to submit to be +domineered over by the chief bully in the prison. +His defiance led to an embittered conflict—a duel +fought out with knives—in which the black champion +conquered after inflicting many deep wounds +upon his antagonist. With his victory Dolores +gained also the implacable ill-will of his fellows. +They put him on his trial, in a corner of the principal +barrack and condemned him to death, which +would certainly have been inflicted had not the authorities +interposed to give him their protection.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +He was removed to <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i> and placed in one of +the separate cells used generally for the punishment +of the incorrigible.<a name="Anchor-22" id="Anchor-22"></a><a href="#Footnote-22" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 22.">[22]</a> This was fatal to him. Two +water-carriers belonging to the hostile faction entered +the cell when Dolores was engaged in writing +with his back to the door, and throwing themselves +upon him gave him two mortal wounds under the +left shoulder. In this supreme moment Dolores put +forth his tremendous strength, caught his assailants +by their necks and broke them before the warders +could interfere on either side. Dolores died but he +is still remembered in the prison annals as one of +the most valiant and indomitable convicts who had +ever been detained in the presidio.</p> + +<p>Another alien convict to whom Relosillas pays a +high tribute was his own Chinese servant, a convict +known as "Juan de la Cruz, the Asiatic." He +seems to have been unceasingly loyal and devoted +in his service, an admirable cook, an indefatigable +nurse, a faithful watchman who guarded his effects +and secured his privacy. Juan had many accomplishments; +he could weave shade hats of the finest +palm fibre, he was as clever as any seamstress with +his needle; he was a first-class housemaid and laundress; +he could make a dollar go further in the +market than the most economical housewife. He +drove the most astonishing bargains with the hucksters +and purveyors of food, fish and game, with +which Ceuta was plentifully supplied. He had been</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> +<p>condemned to a long term for a murder committed +in Havana at a hotel, of which he was the chief +cook. In appearance he was younger than his years, +tall, thin, anæmic looking, shortsighted, with jet +black hair and oblique eyes. He was a man of great +intelligence, a dramatic author in Chinese and was +released before his time to accompany the Director +General of Prisons to Madrid as his cook. In the +end he started a fruit shop in the capital and prospered +greatly.</p> + +<p>An entirely different class of prisoners came to +Ceuta in considerable numbers from time to time,—those +exiled for political misdeeds. A whole discipline +battalion was composed of military offenders, +among them a number of artillerymen condemned +for the rising in Barcelona and crowds of Carlists +and those concerned in the so-called cantonal risings. +One or two politicals were strange characters, such +as the old soldier named "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Cojo</i>" (the lame man) +of Cariñena, a conceited veteran very proud of his +many campaigns in which he had served, and who +went everywhere on donkey back, being infirm and +crippled. Another was the ex-curé of Berraonda, a +Biscayan priest of ferocious aspect, tall, corpulent, +dark-skinned, with an abundant snow white bushy +beard, which grew to his waist and which was left +untouched by the prison barber.</p> + +<p>Speaking in general terms of the whole body all +types of character were represented. Some when in +funds liked to pose as dandies with fine linen, smart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +shoes or rope sandals tied with ribbons and coloured +sashes (fajas); others, the larger number, were +coarse and brutal ruffians, without private means, +or too idle to acquire them by the labour of their +hands, much given to drunkenness and very quarrelsome +in their cups. The attitude of most convicts +is mute irritation against everyone, but they +especially hate their warders and superiors; they +are surly and forbidding in manner, silent as to their +past, little disposed to talk of their criminal adventures. +Yet they display the most contradictory +traits. Even when they have been guilty of the most +horrible misdeeds they often show a calm, innocent +face and are little vexed by conscience. One who +was noted for his submissive demeanour and who +in any trouble always sided with authority, was a +parricide who had killed his father under the most +revolting conditions.</p> + +<p>This youth, barely of age at the time of his crime, +had sought his father's consent to his marriage with +an unworthy character, and when refused, he retaliated +by beating in his parent's brain with a pickaxe. +The fit of homicidal fury which possessed him drove +him to kill his father's donkey also and the dog +which had been at his heels. Then, having satiated +his rage, he went home seemingly undisturbed, and +made some paltry excuse for his father's absence. +When the corpse was found he was arrested on suspicion, +but for want of more than circumstantial +evidence escaped the garrote, and was sent to Ceuta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +for life. Yet this miscreant betrayed no outward +sign of the horrible passions that sometimes dominated +him, but was always placid and of an engaging +countenance. He was lamblike in his demeanour, +most attentive to his religious duties, never +missed a mass or failed to confess. He was devoted +to children and his greatest pleasure was to fondle +the baby child of one of the warders which he carried +about in his arms in the streets of Ceuta. He +seemed absolutely callous and insensible to the prickings +of conscience, but he showed in two ways that +he was consumed with remorse. When any reference +was made to his crime, at the slightest hint or +the vaguest question, a fierce look came into his eyes, +his mouth closed, his hand sought his knife and he +was ready to attempt some fresh act of violence. The +other sign of his mental distress was that he seldom +slept and never soundly or for long, and his nights +were disturbed with groans, deep sighs, even yells of +despair. Yet his general health was good, he ate +with appetite, maintained his strength well, and +there was no apparent mental failure. But he was +no doubt mad and under a more intelligent system +of jurisprudence he would have been relegated to a +criminal lunatic asylum. There is no record however +that at Ceuta he had been seized again by homicidal +mania.</p> + +<p>There were many other types of murderers in +Ceuta. The husbands who had killed their wives +formed a distinct group. Jealousy because of real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +or fancied injury led to the vindictive thirst for +revenge and this was more frequently found in the +peasant than in the higher and better educated +classes. Death had been inflicted in most cases by +violence, but one aggrieved Othello chose poison, rejoicing +in the acute suffering produced by arsenic. +Another, who was half a Frenchman, adopted the +French method of dismemberment, and to dispose of +the damning evidence of the corpse, cut it up into +small pieces and distributed them far and wide, but +could not hide them effectually. Extenuating circumstances +were allowed him and he went to Ceuta, +where he is said to have lived quite contentedly, +never regretting the savage act that had avenged his +dishonour and made him a widower.</p> + +<p>Ceuta made its own murderers. Duels to the +death were of constant occurrence as elsewhere, and +the authorities rarely interfered even when fatal +consequences ensued. On this point Relosillas +says: "During my stay of fourteen months in Ceuta +hardly an hour passed without a serious quarrel, not +a day when some one was not wounded, not a week +without a violent death in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Cuartel Principal</i>. +These troubles were due invariably to the same +causes, the admission of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> and the facility +with which knives and lethal weapons could be obtained—points +already noted and discussed at the +beginning of this chapter. The drink was always +on tap, as it could be introduced without difficulty +through the dishonesty of the warders and the un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>limited +traffic with the townspeople. The weapons +were never wanting, as it was impossible to check +their presence, for no convict would be without his +long sharp knife ready for instant use.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Disordered state of Spain at the accession of Isabella—Brigandage +raised into an organised system by lawless nobility +and rebels—The revival of the Santa Hermandad or Holy +Brotherhood—This institution revived again in the 19th +century under the name of "Migueletes"—Attack on the +mail coach outside Madrid—The famous brigand José +Maria—His daring robberies in the Serrania—His early +life—English officers from Gibraltar captured and held to +ransom—Beloved and venerated by the peasants—In 1833 +appointed an officer of the Migueletes—Brigandage not +extinct in Spain—Don Julian de Zugasti appointed governor +of Cordova—Methods of procedure—The famous +robber Vizco el Borje—His seizure of Don Pedro de M.—Enormous +ransom extorted—Agua Dulce.</p></div> + + +<p>Brigandage, the form of organised highway robbery +practised by bands of thieves in countries where +roads are long and lonely and imperfectly guarded, +has been always popular with the Latin races. It +suited the tastes and temperament of reckless people +who defied the law and laughed at the attempt to +protect defenceless wayfarers. Their activity was +stimulated by the long wastes of rugged country that +separated the towns, giving harbourage and security +to the robbers who issued forth to prey upon travel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>lers +and easily retired to their rocky fastnesses and +escaped pursuit. These Ishmaelites have been especially +active in Spain and Italy and the aggressive +spirit that moved them is not yet entirely extinct. +More settled government has produced a more effective +police in these latter days, but acts of brigandage +in its latest development, that of "holding +up" modern means of conveyance, express trains, +bicycles and motor cars, have occurred, and may be +reasonably expected to increase.</p> + +<p>Brigandage is as old as the hills in Spain and +some of its earliest phases are well worth describing +before they are forgotten or replaced by newer processes. +We may look back and gather some idea of +those early days in Spain.</p> + +<p>When Isabella, the Catholic, ascended the throne +of Castile, she was called upon to govern a country +profoundly demoralised, infested with evil doers and +dominated by a turbulent and vicious nobility. The +throne was an object of contempt, the treasury +empty, the people poverty stricken, and the princes +of the Church rebellious and rejoicing in large +revenues. A lawless aristocracy hungry for independent +authority were fighting for their own lands +or conspiring secretly to overawe the Crown. Titled +alcaldes, traitors and rebels, openly raised brigandage +into a system, exacted tribute by blackmail from +the lower classes, and made unceasing war upon the +higher. Within the kingdom a rival pretender +aimed at the Crown. One near neighbour, Al<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>fonso +V of Portugal, menaced the peace of the country +and kept an army on the frontier; another, +Louis XI of France, crafty and unscrupulous, constantly +threatened war and held his army in Guipuscoa.</p> + +<p>In a few short years the whole aspect of the country +was changed. Isabella brought her rebellious +nobles to their knees, all of them asking pardon and +promising allegiance; the French army withdrew +hastily to France; the Portuguese was defeated and +expelled; the claimant to the throne was imprisoned +and numbers of high-born criminals suffered on the +scaffold. The great ecclesiastics disgorged much of +their wealth to buy forgiveness, the robber haunts +were attacked and destroyed, the high-roads became +perfectly safe, thieves and highwaymen took to honest +labour. Now the revenue was largely improved, +the law was respected, crime was actively pursued +and rigorously punished. But for the terrors and +cruelties practised by the Inquisition, Spain would +have enjoyed unbroken domestic peace and all the +benefits accruing from general good government. +These satisfactory results were largely achieved by +the excellent police organised by Isabella and her +husband, Ferdinand. The revival and consolidation +of the "Santa Hermandad" or Holy Brotherhood +which had always existed in the country districts to +secure peace and tranquillity, but heretofore wielding +smaller powers, worked wonders. A comprehensive +system was now introduced by which all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +parts were patrolled by well-armed guardians of the +law, mounted and on foot, who checked, prevented +or punished misdeeds. In every collection of thirty +houses or more two officials were appointed to deal +with all offenders according to a strict code. Every +thief when taken was punished with fine, flogging +and exile, in penalties proportioned to the amount +stolen. For more heinous offences his ears were cut +off and he got a hundred lashes, or yet again one of +his feet was amputated and he was peremptorily forbidden +to ride on a horse or mule at peril of his life. +A sentence of death was carried out by shooting +with arrows.</p> + +<p>This ancient Hermandad was at one time revived +in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i>, a body of men organised early +in the nineteenth century to act as escorts to private +travellers, as the regular mails and diligences were +under the protection of troops provided by the Government. +The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i> were a semi-military force +composed of picked youths of courageous conduct, +wearing uniform and armed with a short gun, with +a sword, a single pistol and carrying a cord by +which to secure their prisoners. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i> +took their name from one Miguel de Pratz, who had +been a lieutenant of Caesar Borgia. They were +often recruited from the robbers who were offered +service as a condition of pardon when captured, and +afterwards behaved admirably. No one with an +escort of ten or twelve <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i> need fear attack.</p> + +<p>The mail coach was sometimes attacked, and on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +one occasion was stopped at Almuwadiel outside +Madrid. It carried several passengers, among +others an Englishman, a German artist and a Spaniard. +At the first appearance of the brigands, the +guard threw himself on the ground with his face in +the mud and the postillions did the same. When +summoned to deliver up their possessions, the Englishman +gave up his well filled purse and was warmly +thanked; the German artist would have been ill-treated +as a punishment for his empty pockets, but +was spared when his poverty was explained; the +Spaniard was caught attempting to conceal his valuables +in the carriage lining and narrowly escaped a +beating. The coach was at last permitted to proceed +and at parting the leader of the band shook hands +with the Englishman and said he was a real gentleman, +the German was ignored and the Spaniard was +sharply taken to task for his attempted "fraud."</p> + +<p>To this period (1825-35) belongs the famous +brigand, José Maria, the Spanish Fra Diavolo, +whose name is still remembered in the "Serrania" +or mountain country of Ronda and throughout +Southern Andalusia, for his daring robberies and +continual defiance of the authorities. A "pass" or +safe conduct granted by him was a better protection +than any official escort. So great was his power +that he was known by the proud title of "El Señor +del Campo" (the lord of the country), and he ruled +more absolutely in Andalusia than King Ferdinand +in Spain. Travellers paid him a head tax, black<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>mail +was levied on all public conveyances and, as +has been said, he issued passports at a price to all +who chose to pay for his protection. Strong bodies +of troops were sent against him, but he managed +always to elude or oppose them successfully.</p> + +<p>José Maria started in life as a small cultivator in a +village near Antequera, but, unable to earn a decent +living, he took to the more profitable business of +smuggling, a profession greatly honoured and esteemed +in Spain. In one of his operations he was +drawn into an affray with the soldiers and unfortunately +shot and killed one of them. He at once +fled to the mountains, where he was soon surrounded +by other no less reckless companions, all of them +outlaws like himself, and became the chief and +centre of the band which soon spread terror throughout +Southern Spain. His headquarters were in the +rugged and lofty mountain district of Ronda near +the little town of Grazalema, but he was ubiquitous +in his rapid movements and traversed the whole of +Andalusia. A story is preserved of an English +nobleman who travelled to Spain for the express +purpose of making his acquaintance but long sought +him in vain in his favourite haunts and much disappointed +retraced his steps to Madrid. But on the +road between Carmona and Ecija<a name="Anchor-23" id="Anchor-23"></a><a href="#Footnote-23" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 23.">[23]</a> he had the ques<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>tionable +good fortune to meet José Maria in person, +who thanked him courteously for the compliment he +had paid him in seeking an interview, in return for +which he proceeded to relieve his lordship of his +valuables and his baggage so that he might continue +his journey without encumbrance. He had many +ways of levying contributions. One was to send +a messenger to some landed proprietor, demanding +a large sum of money, and declaring that if it was +not paid he would swoop down to lay waste his +lands and burn his house over his head. Another +plan was to take post with his gang, all of them well +mounted and fully armed, on the highroad just outside +some populous city, and "hold up" every one +who passed in or out, seizing all ready money and +carrying off to some secret fastness all persons +known to possess means.</p> + +<p>English officers, part of the garrison of the Rock +of Gibraltar, did not escape the exactions of José +Maria. Once a shooting party in the woods near +Gibraltar was suddenly attacked and captured, but +after the first surprise they showed fight and a brigand +was wounded. The lives of all of them were in +danger but were saved on the persuasion of José +Maria that they would be more valuable as prisoners +for whom a large ransom would be obtained +than as corpses. One of the party was accordingly +sent to the Rock to procure the money while the +rest were detained as hostages for his return at a +certain hour the next day. The messenger was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +warned that if a rescue was attempted, the whole of +the prisoners would be instantly massacred. He +reached the Rock after gunfire, but the gates were +presently especially opened to admit him, the money +was collected, not without difficulty, and was conveyed +to the brigands in sufficient time to secure the +release of the captives. For some time later English +officers were forbidden to go into Spain except +in sufficient numbers to set the brigands at defiance. +In quite recent years (1871) two gentlemen, natives +of the Rock, were carried off and detained until a +large ransom was paid.</p> + +<p>José Maria dominated the country for nearly ten +years. The secret of his long continued impunity +may be traced to the fact that many of the local +authorities, influenced either by fear or interest, +were in collusion with him, and that the peasantry +all wished him success; for, as he never oppressed +them, but assisted and protected their smuggling +transactions in which they are nearly all, in one way +or other, engaged by opposing the regular troops, +he was greatly beloved and venerated. He was in +fact regarded as a hero; for such a life, wild and +adventurous, where there is plenty of plunder and +no laborious duty, has wondrous charms in the eyes +of the lower Andalusians, by whom the laws of +<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">meum</i> and <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">tuum</i> have never been well understood. +How long José might have continued in power it is +impossible to say, but like some other great personages +he chose to abdicate. In 1833, he made his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +terms with the Queen's government, agreeing to +break up his band on condition of receiving an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">indulto</i>, +or pardon for all past offences, and a salaried +appointment as an officer of Migueletes, or "police." +He did not long exercise this honest calling, for +soon after, when attempting to secure some of his +former comrades who had taken refuge in a farmhouse, +he was shot dead as he burst open the door.</p> + +<p>With all his bad qualities, José had some of a +redeeming character. Among these were his kindness +to his female prisoners, his generosity to the +poor, and his forbearance, for he frequently restrained +his troop from acts of violence, and displayed +on occasions a certain chivalrous nobility of +character, hardly to be expected from a robber. In +person he was very small, scarcely more than five +feet in height, with bowed legs; but he was stout, +strong and active and made amends in boldness, determination +and talent for his physical deficiencies. +His success and the long continued control which he +exercised over the lawless fellows who composed his +band proved that he possessed the difficult art of +command. His courage indeed was proverbial. As +an instance of it, it is reported that he once ventured +into the presence of the Prime Minister at Madrid +and dared to beard him in his own house.</p> + +<p>Brigandage has not wholly disappeared in Spain +although it no longer exists on the grand scale of +former days when the mountain passes and lesser +highways were infested by robber bands led by dar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>ing +and unscrupulous chiefs who stopped travellers, +blackmailed landed proprietors and carried off country +folk whom they held to ransom often for considerable +sums. To-day, if the knights of the road +are still to be met with occasionally, they are for the +most part paltry pilferers bent on stealing small +sums from the poorer folk returning from market, +or in rare cases holding up some solitary vehicle and +its defenceless passengers. These are of the type of +the old fashioned <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">salteadores</i> or "jumpers," so +named because they jumped out from behind a rock +and dropped suddenly on their prey with the old +peremptory summons of "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca abajo!</i>" "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca +à tierra!</i>" "Faces down! Mouth to the ground!" +The cry may still be heard, and it means mischief +when backed as of old by the muzzle of a gun protruding +from the bushes in some narrow pass or +defile. They are courageous too, these Spanish road +agents, ready to fight at need as well as to rob, to +overbear resistance and to meet the officers of the +law with their own weapons. A story is told of one +daring ruffian, Rullo de Zancayro, who, in 1859, +murdered the alcalde of his village and was followed +by two <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>. At the end of a long +chase they went too near some brushwood, when one +was shot dead and the fugitive made good his escape.</p> + +<p>In the year 1870 brigandage was general throughout +Spain, but the heart and centre of it was the +province of Andalusia, with branches and rami<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>fications +everywhere, spreading dismay and apprehension +among all peaceable people. This was in +the interregnum that followed the revolution which +drove Queen Isabella from the throne. There was +safety for no one. Respectable landowners dared +not visit nor reside upon their estates for fear of +attack, dreading robbery with violence or seizure of +their persons, and they constantly received threatening +letters demanding the purchase of immunity on +the payment of considerable sums. The roads were +more than ever insecure, trains and diligences were +repeatedly held up, and small parties of travellers or +solitary wayfarers were certain to be laid under contribution. +It was claimed that the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>, +the fine rural police, were no longer active but were +diverted from their legitimate duties by political +party leaders in power. So many bitter complaints, +so many indignant demands for protection, reached +the central government in Madrid, that the authorities +resolved to put down brigandage with a strong +hand. A new governor of Cordova was appointed, +a man of vigour and determination, armed with full +powers to purge the province of its desperadoes.</p> + +<p>The choice fell upon Don Julian de Zugasti y +Saenz, who had been a member of the Cortes and +employed as civil administrator, first as governor of +Teruel, where he had restored order in a period of +grave disorder, and at Burgos, where he had laid +bare a formidable conspiracy against the government. +When Zugasti undertook the task, it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +high time to adopt energetic measures. There was +no security for life or property as robberies on a +large scale were perpetrated both in town and country. +Well-to-do citizens were seized in the public +streets and carried off to sequestration; farmers +and cultivators were compelled to share their produce, +their harvests, and their herds with the brigands +who swooped down on them; the police were +impotent or too much overawed to interfere in the +interest of honest folk. The prevailing anarchy +and widespread lawlessness were a disgrace to any +country that called itself civilised. Zugasti did a +great work in restoring order and giving security +to the disturbed districts. The whole story is told +at some length in his book on "Bandolerismo,"<a name="Anchor-24" id="Anchor-24"></a><a href="#Footnote-24" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 24.">[24]</a> +which deals with brigandage in Spain from its very +beginnings, describing the principal feats of the banditti.</p> + +<p>At the outset he was faced with a most difficult +situation. Crimes in great number had been committed +with impunity. Many of their perpetrators +were wholly hidden from the authorities, while +others were perfectly well known. A crowd of spies +were ever on the watch and ready, whether from +greed or to curry favour, with abundant information +of openings that offered for attempts at crime. +On the other hand the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i> were greatly +discouraged and far too weak in numbers for the</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> +<p>onerous duties they were expected to perform. +Judges were dishonest and had been known to accept +bribes, the ordinary police were torpid, nearly +useless and generally despised. A complete reform +in the administration of justice was a crying need, +as the power and authority of the law were completely +broken down.</p> + +<p>The new governor was helpless and handicapped +on every side. His representations to the government +for support were but coldly received and he +had to rely on such scanty means as he had at hand. +He looked carefully into the character of all police +employés and dismissed all of doubtful reputation. +He established a system of supplying the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias +civiles</i> at all stations with photographs of criminals +at large whom they could identify and arrest, and +insisted on strictly revising the permits issued to +carry arms, allowing none but respectable persons +to do so. The prohibition was extended to all kinds +of knives, many of them murderous weapons of the +well known type. The quarters of all evil doers +he heard of were broken up, including the farm +which had come to be called Ceuta because it harboured +a mob of ex-convicts, escaped prisoners who +were eager to resume their depredations by joining +themselves to the plans and projects of others.</p> + +<p>These active measures were bitterly resented and +vigorously resisted by all evil doers, who went so +far as to seek the removal of the governor, and it +was falsely announced in more than one newspaper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +that he had sent in his resignation. The disastrous +consequence was the immediate revival of brigandage +in various forms. Horses and cattle were once +more stolen in the open country and a house in the +town of Estado was broken into and a large amount +in cash and securities with much valuable jewelry +was seized. At the same time ten prisoners escaped +in a body from the gaol of that city. On the highroad +between Posadas and Villaviciosa, seven armed +men robbed nineteen travellers, and a party had the +audacity to carry off a child of nine and hold him to +ransom. The police and well-disposed people were +greatly disheartened, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>, which had +done excellent service in capturing more than a hundred +prisoners in a short time, slackened in their +endeavours, while the municipal police, which had +forty captures to its credit, also held their hand. +The whole situation was greatly aggravated and +crime gained the ascendancy. But Zugasti rose to +the occasion, publicly denied the report of his resignation; +the government published a complimentary +decree commending his conduct, and his pursuit of +wrong doers was continued with renewed energy. +Naturally he incurred the bitterest hostility and went +constantly in danger of his life. He received anonymous +letters containing the most bloodthirsty +threats and was warned by his friends that they +could not possibly support or protect him. Undeterred +he held his way, bravely and wisely organised +an association akin to the "Regulators" of the wild<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +days in the Western States of the United States to +patrol the country and insure the general safety, and +employed a large force of secret police agents to +perambulate the country, keeping close watch upon +suspicious persons, travelling by all trains, patrolling +all roads, visiting taverns in low quarters, entering +the prisons in disguise and gaining the confidence of +the fellow prisoners. Zugasti himself spent long +periods in the various gaols, observing, investigating +and interviewing notable offenders.</p> + +<p>The thoroughness of his proceedings might be +gathered from the choice he made of his agents. +One of the most useful was an idiot boy, whose +weak-mindedness was relieved by some glimmerings +of sense and who passed entirely unsuspected +by those upon whom he spied. His foolish talk and +silly ways gained him ready admission into cafés +and clubs, where he was laughed at and treated as +a butt upon whom food, drink and unlimited cigars +were generously bestowed. He had the gift of remaining +wide awake while seeming to be sound +asleep, his ears ever on the stretch to pick up compromising +facts which were openly mentioned before +him. He had also a prodigious memory and +seldom forgot what he heard, storing up everything +to be produced later when he attended upon the +governor. In this way Zugasti often heard of +crimes almost as soon as they were planned, and +could hunt up their perpetrators without delay. On +one occasion a mysterious crime was unravelled by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +placing the idiot in the same cell with two of the +suspected actors, who entirely believed in the imbecility +of their cell companion and unguardedly revealed +the true inwardness of the whole affair.</p> + +<p>The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">ladron en grande</i>, the "robber chief" at the +head of a numerous band, is still to be met with, +although rarely representing the type of the famous +José Maria. These leaders rose to the command of +their lawless fellows by force of superior will, and +they were unhesitatingly obeyed and followed with +reckless devotion in the constant commission of +crime. One or two noted specimens have survived +till to-day and some account of them may be extracted +from recent records.</p> + +<p>Vizco el Borje was long a terror to the peaceable +people in northern Andalusia. He was originally +an officer of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">carabineros</i>, the "custom house" regiment +of Spain, but had been, in his own judgment, +unjustly dismissed and found himself deprived of +the means of subsistence. Falling lower and lower, +step by step he became an outcast, an Ishmaelite +consumed with an intense hatred of all social arrangements, +with his hand against every man. He +began business as a smuggler and soon took to +worse, following the Spanish proverb:—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="verse">"De contrabandista e ladron</div> +<div class="verse">No haymas que un escalon."</div> +</div></div></div> + +<p>"There is only one short step from smuggler to +thief," and Vizco quickly crossed the narrow space<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +and became a notorious criminal. He carried on +the war against law and order with constantly increasing +recklessness and more and more daring +outrages. His strong personal character, his iron +will, his unbounded courage and boldness gave him +a great ascendancy over the men who collected +around him and who served him with the greatest +loyalty and unstinting effort. One of his exploits +may be quoted at some length as exhibiting his +methods and the success that generally attended +them.</p> + +<p>A certain landowner, Don Pedro de M——, whose +estates were in the neighbourhood of the mountain +village of Zahrita, was in the habit of providing bulls +free of charge for the amusement of the villagers, +at the annual festival of their patron saint. Amateur +bull fighters are always to be found to take part +in the performance of a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">novillos</i>, or game with +young bulls. Don Pedro like many of his class was +also an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aficionado</i>, an amateur devoted to bull fighting, +and he loved to pick out himself the animals +he gave from his herds, trying first their temper and +their aptitude for the so-called sport of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">tauromaquia</i>. +He was thus engaged, assisted by his steward and a +herdsman, and had dismounted with the steward to +walk round the herd, when the ominous cry was +raised, "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca abajo!</i>" and they found themselves +covered by the rifles of three brigands who had +crept upon them unobserved. Resistance was hopeless, +though they also were armed, for their guns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +hung at the saddles of their horses, which they led +at the full length of their reins, and to have made +any hostile move would have drawn down a murderous +fire. The chance soon passed, for one of the +robbers quickly took possession of both horses and +guns. The seizure was complete and the captors +proceeded to carry off their prize.</p> + +<p>All remounted by order of the chief of the band, +who took the lead, and the party started in single +file along the narrow mountain path, an armed escort +bringing up the rear. They made straight for +the upper sierra, avoiding the frequented track until +they reached a dense thicket, where a halt was +called and a scout sent on ahead. After an interchange +of whistled signals, nine other horsemen +rode up, the two prisoners were ordered to dismount, +their eyes closely bandaged, and they were warned +that their lives depended upon their implicit obedience +to the orders they received. Then the march +was resumed. The road led constantly upward, +becoming more and more rugged and precipitous +till from the utter absence of brushwood and the +stumbling of their horses they knew that they were +climbing through a mountainous region. Another +halt was called, all again dismounted, and the prisoners +were led on foot along a narrow passage, that +from the echoing sounds and the closeness of the +air evidently penetrated far into the hill. It opened +presently into an extensive cavern, probably the +long-abandoned workings of some ancient Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +mine. Here their bandages were removed and Don +Pedro saw that he was in the presence of the three +bandits who had first made him prisoner. The +cave contained nothing but a few empty boxes, on +one of which was a light, a flickering wick in a saucerful +of oil. Another box was offered Don Pedro +as a seat, writing materials were produced and he +was desired to write from dictation as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Father</span>, I am in the power of the 'Sequestradores,' +who make good plans and bind fast. +It is madness to put the government on their track—they +will escape and you will lose your son. Your +secrecy and your money can at once free me. You +can send the silver by Diego our steward, who is +the bearer of this. Let him appear on the mountain +between Grazalema and El Bosque, riding a +white donkey and bringing ten thousand dollars."</p></div> + +<p>Here the prisoner stopped short and point blank +refused to demand so large a sum, declaring that +to pay it his brothers would be robbed of their patrimony +and that he had no right to ask even when +his life was at stake for more than his individual +share as one member of a large family. It was a +fair argument and he held out so staunchly that the +brigand was pleased to reduce the demand to six +thousand dollars. The letter conveying these terms +was then completed, signed and delivered to Diego, +who was told to make the best of his way to Xeres,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +and as dawn had now broken he had no difficulty in +finding the road.</p> + +<p>Don Pedro was hospitably entertained. A wine +skin (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">borracha</i>) was broached and a plentiful supper +laid out. The day was spent in sleep, but at +nightfall the march was resumed. The prisoner was +once more blindfolded, the weary pilgrimage, halting +by day, travelling by night for three nights in +succession, was resumed. On one occasion he +seemed near rescue. A cry of "Civiles! Civiles!" +was raised, an alarm of the near approach of the +much dreaded <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>. Orders were +promptly issued to prepare for action. The brigands +closed their ranks, sent their prisoner to the +rear and took post to open fire. In the confusion +Don Pedro, keenly alert for the deliverance that +seemed so near, managed to lift the bandage over his +eyes sufficiently to peep around. The party stood +on a narrow ledge of the mountain side, straight +cliff above, sheer drop below: movement forward +or back was alone feasible. Meanwhile the increasing +clatter of hoofs betrayed the enemy's approach, +nearer and nearer, and the brigands barring the +narrow road hoped to take them at a disadvantage +and, after shooting them down, make good their +retreat. But the sight of the first horse showed that +it had been a false alarm. These were not "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Civiles</i>" +but "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Contrabandistas</i>," smugglers not policemen, +friends not foes. A long train of animals, heavily +laden with goods that had paid no duty, were being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +guided across the mountains. Don Pedro's hopes +were crushed out of him when he heard the interchange +of friendly greetings: "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Muy buenas +noches!</i>" on one side and "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Vayan ustedes con +Dios</i>," on the other; "Good night!" and "Go in +God's keeping," and room was made by the robbers +for the safe passage of the smuggling train.</p> + +<p>On the third day news came that the authorities +were on the alert and it would be unsafe to meet +the messenger returning on his white donkey. Another +tryst was therefore appointed. Don Pedro's +father was desired to send half the whole sum demanded +to Grazalema and the other half was carried +by a man on the white donkey to a lonely spot +among the hills. The father started in person on +the long ride from Xeres to Grazalema weighted +with three thousand dollars in cash, reached his destination +safely but remained there for a couple of +days tortured with suspense. On the third morning +he was approached by a man leading a pony +laden with rolls of the rough brown cloth manufactured +in Grazalema, who said under his breath as +he passed, "Follow me." The peddler led the way +to a small draper's shop where the same cloth was +exposed for sale and, dismounting, passed into the +back premises, where another man, also a peddler, +was seated waiting. This was Vizco el Borje himself, +who at once asked for the money, producing +Don Pedro's pencil case as his credentials. The dollars +had been sewn for security into the pack saddle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +of the pony which had brought the old man, and +they were extracted, counted and handed over. +Vizco forthwith climbed on top of the pile of cloth +carried by his own mount and rode boldly out of +the town.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Diego, the steward on the white donkey, +with the remaining three thousand dollars patiently +hung about the mountain lair to which he +had been directed, and at last encountered a goatherd +at the entrance of the village, who told him to +ride on till he met a woman dressed in black seated +by the side of a well. "She will ask you the time, +and you will answer twelve o'clock, at which she +will guide you to the spot where you are expected." +It was a cavern in the hill and he was met there by +his young master Don Pedro safe and sound. The +money was handed over, but no release was permitted +until news came of the delivery of the other +half, when the prisoners were guided to a path familiar +to them and they were free to return home. +Next evening they rode into Xeres after a captivity +of fifteen days.</p> + +<p>The end of Vizco el Borje was such as might be +expected. He was shot down by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias +civiles</i>. For a long time he carried his life in his +hands and had many hairbreadth escapes, saved +always by his fine pluck and resourcefulness. At +last the authorities had positive information of his +whereabouts, gained through treachery, and he was +surrendered. He made a gallant defence, but his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +retreat was cut off and he was soon overpowered. +When he fell his body had been pierced by five rifle +bullets.</p> + +<p>Another type of brigand was Agua Dulce, who +worked on a much smaller scale, but was long a +terror in the neighbourhood of Xeres. He was a +mean, contemptible ruffian who preyed upon charcoal +burners, poor travellers, carriers and workmen +returning home with their hard earned wages. He +had one narrow escape. After securing an unusually +large sum, the equivalent of £600, all in small +coins, he was caught dividing these with two accomplices +in a wine shop. His arrest and imprisonment +followed. When called upon to account for his possession +of the gold, Agua Dulce explained that he +had got it in the course of a business transaction in +Seville and was removed to that city for trial, where +he was acquitted, although little doubt was entertained +of his guilt.</p> + +<p>For years he continued his depredations, committing +for the most part small thefts and petty larcenies. +Now and again he made bold coups, as when, +under threat of damaging a herd of valuable mares, +he extorted three thousand dollars from a lady who +raised horses. He levied a thousand dollars on another +landowner by using the same menace and a +third gentleman, who had stoutly refused to be +blackmailed and who owned a large drove of donkeys, +found them all with their throats cut lying +by the high road. When his misdeeds became too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +numerous to be borne the municipal guard of Gorez +swore to put an end to him. A hot pursuit was +organised and he was found at a ford near a wood +belonging to the Duke of San Lorenzo, where he +was caught hiding among the trees. Two guards +opened fire, which was returned, with the result that +one guard was killed and one robber. Agua Dulce, +who was still alive, got into the covert, and shots +were again and again exchanged, ending in the +destruction of the brigand.</p> + +<p>A later affair with brigands occurred at Gibraltar +in 1870, when two gentlemen, natives of the Rock, +much given to hunting and taking long rides in the +neighbourhood, were waylaid and made prisoners. +They were carried off to a lonely house in the hills +near Ronda and detained for ransom, which was +advanced by the British government through the +governor of the fortress of Gibraltar, and eventually +repaid by the Spanish authorities. After the money +had been paid over the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i> intercepted +the robbers and shot them down.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Wonderful results achieved by Colonel Montesinos in the +presidio at Valencia—Montesinos repairs and reconstructs +the prison with convict labour—His system of +treatment—Period—Marvellous success in reforming +criminals—Convicts entrusted with confidential despatches +in civil war—Armed to resist attack on the prison by insurgents—Employed +to hunt down brigands—Movement +towards prison reform in 1844—Three new model prisons +planned for Madrid—Executions—The "garrote"—Account +of the trial and execution of José de Rojas—The +condemned cell at the Saladero—An Englishman's description +of a Spanish execution.</p></div> + + +<p>The reader who has followed this detailed description +of Spanish penal methods has realised the +hideous shortcomings of Spanish prisons, the horrible +practices so constantly prevailing within the +walls, the apparently incurable nature of the criminals +who regularly fill them, and he might reasonably +doubt that definite and substantial amendment was +possible. Yet the contrary is true and to the most +marked and astonishing degree if we are to believe +the facts on record. In one instance the personal +character of one man, backed by his unshaken determination +and the exercise of a resolute and inflex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>ible +will, brought a large mass of convicts into an +admirable condition of self-control and good behaviour. +The story reads like a fairy tale, as set +forth in contemporary chronicles. One of the most +interesting accounts is to be found in a book of +travels entitled "Spain as It Is," by a Mr. Hoskins, +in which he gives his personal observations of the +results achieved in the prison at Valencia by the enlightened +administration of its Governor, Colonel +Montesinos. A brief account of the man himself +should precede our appreciation of his work.</p> + +<p>Montesinos was a soldier, trained to arms, whose +education and experience were entirely military. +He had no previous acquaintance with or insight +into prison systems, although he had travelled far +and wide in many countries. He had never visited +or inspected their penal establishments nor had he +penetrated into any single prison in his native Spain. +He served in the Spanish army, beginning as a cadet +at fourteen, was actively engaged in the war of Independence, +and was carried off as a prisoner into +France. When set free at the conclusion of peace, +he accepted a post in the secretariat of the War +Office at Madrid, where he remained for five years. +Then came the political troubles which ended in the +fall of the constitutional government in 1823 and +the surrender of Cadiz. With many other soldiers +and citizens, he left Spain and wandered through +Europe and America, with no very definite idea of +examining into the laws and customs of other coun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>tries, +but gaining knowledge and breadth of views. +On his return to Spain when close on forty years +of age he was appointed governor of the convict +prison in Valencia.</p> + +<p>Montesinos entered upon his duties with a firm +conviction of the paramount importance of military +discipline, of that passive and unquestioning obedience +to authority, the absolute surrender of individual +volition, the complete subjection of the many to +the single will of one superior master, which he +believed to be the essence of all personal government +and more particularly in a prison. To enforce +such discipline was the only effectual method of securing +good order and the due subordination of the +rough and possibly recalcitrant elements under his +command. In this he entirely succeeded and established +an extraordinary influence over his charges. +He became an autocrat but in the best sense; his +prisoners resigned themselves submissively and unhesitatingly +to his control, anxious to gain his good +will by their exemplary demeanour and their unvarying +desire to behave well. What he actually +made of his charges, how he succeeded in changing +their very natures, in transforming lawbreakers and +evil doers into honest, trustworthy persons, successfully +restraining their evil instincts, will be best +realised by a few strange facts which, if not positively +vouched for, would be considered beyond belief. +But before relating these marvellous results +it will be well to describe in some detail the processes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +adopted by him and the principles on which he +acted.</p> + +<p>When Colonel Montesinos was appointed governor +of the Valencian convent prison, it was located +in an ancient mediæval edifice known as the +"<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Torres de Cuarte</i>," two towers flanking the great +gate which gave upon the suburb known as "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El +Cuarte</i>." This semi-ruinous building, dating from +the fifteenth century, lodged about a thousand prisoners, +herded together in a number of dark, dirty, +ill-kept and insecure chambers, wholly unfit for +human habitation. They were on several floors +communicating by narrow passages and tortuous +staircases, below which were deep underground cellars +divided up into obscure foul dungeons, which +were always humid from the infiltration from the +city ditch and into which neither sunlight nor fresh +air came to dry up the damp pavement and the +streaming walls. Montesinos saw at once that it +would be impossible to introduce reforms in such a +building and he laboured hard to move into better +quarters, securing at length, after a long correspondence, +new quarters in the monastery of St. Augustine, +which indeed was but little better. Here also +the buildings had fallen into disrepair. A large part +was without roof, there was little flooring, and +many broken windows and decayed walls offered +numerous facilities for escape. Extensive repairs +were indispensable, yet funds were wanting, for the +Spanish government was sorely taxed to meet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +expenses of the civil war (Carlist) now in full +swing. Nevertheless Montesinos, strenuous and +indefatigable, a host in himself, transferred his +people, a thousand convicts of dangerous character, +into their new abode and set them to work to repair +and reconstruct the old building. He meant to succeed, +by drawing upon his own limitless energies, +creating means from his own native resources, and +was backed by the ready response of those he +brought under the dominion of an indomitable will.</p> + +<p>All difficulties yielded before his intense spirit. +He was the very incarnation of activity and it was +enough to look at him to be spurred on to assiduous +effort. His personal traits and their effect upon his +surroundings are thus described by his biographer, +Vincente Boix,—"There can be no doubt that his +martial air, his tall figure and the look in his face, +a mixture of imperious command with great kindliness +and shrewd appreciation of willing effort, had +a marked effect upon his people, and convicts who +had been once coerced and driven by the fear of +punishment yielded much more readily to his moral +force. His obvious determination and strength of +character got more out of them than threats or penalties, +although, if needs were, he was ready enough +to appeal to the strong arm. They acknowledged +his superiority, and rough undisciplined men, quite +capable of rising against authority when unchecked +or weakly held, succumbed to his lightest word like +children to their father. They yielded even against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +the grain absolute compliance to his lightest wish +without needing a sharp look or a cross word."</p> + +<p>It will be interesting to follow Montesinos' +procedure. Under his system the treatment was +progressive and divided into three periods; first, +that of chains; second, that of labour; and third, +that of conditional liberation. This arrangement is +in some respects akin to that generally known as +the "Irish" system as practised many years ago +with conspicuous success.</p> + +<p>(1) The wearing of irons at that time was general +in Spain, although now the practice has fallen +into disuse. With Montesinos the rule was to impose +irons of varying weight graduated to the length +of sentence. A two years' man carried them of +four pounds' weight; a four years' man of six +pounds, while between six and eight years they were +of eight pounds. They consisted of a single chain +fastened to a fetter on the right ankle, while the +other end was attached to a waist belt, a method +supposed to cause no great inconvenience. With +Montesinos the period of wearing them was of short +duration. It terminated on the day that the convict +petitioned for regular employment, for on first reception, +after having entered the first courtyard, +which was kept bright with garden flowers and the +songs of many birds in cages hanging around, the +new arrival was given no work. He remained at +the depot idle and silent, for no conversation was +permitted, although he was associated with others,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +and if he put a question to a neighbour he got no +reply. Weariness and boredom soon supervened in +this period of first probation and the convict was +keen to pass on. He appealed to his officer, who +told him to seek employment at some trade. "I +know none." "Then learn one, you cannot get +quit of your irons in any other way." If the convict +hesitated he was left studiously to himself, unhappy +and ashamed, for his condition was deemed +disgraceful. He could not hold his head up, for a +wide gulf separated him from others who had escaped +the chain. He was a marked man, shunned +and sneered at, and was required to work from the +second day at ignominious and humiliating labour, +such as sweeping, cleaning, and so forth. They +were the helots and scavengers of the prison. Their +lot was the more unbearable because they were debarred +from many privileges conferred on those +who were at regular labour, and who were earning +wages to spend in part upon themselves. These +regular labourers might buy toothsome food and +cigars, the delight of every Spaniard's heart. +Meanwhile the governor had been watching him +closely, noting his disposition and whether or not +he was desirous of taking up work which was so +much to his advantage and of which he would be +speedily deprived unless he applied himself to it +with zeal and unflagging industry.</p> + +<p>(2) A wide choice of labour obtained in Valencia. +Trades and handicrafts were varied and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +numerous. Carpenters, turners, saddlers, shoemakers, +fanmakers, workers with esparto grass, +weavers of palm straw hats, silk spinners, tailors, +basket makers, were all represented, and the total +was some forty trades, with seven hundred artisans. +To-day there would be nothing remarkable in this +industrial activity, which may be seen in well governed +prisons, but in Valencia at that date +(1835-40) it was a novelty due very largely to +Montesinos' initiative, and he could boast that out +of three thousand convicts, barely a fourth left +prison without having acquired some smattering of +a trade. Stress must not be laid upon the exact +amount of skill possessed by these prison taught +artisans, and it is to be feared that it was no more +thorough than in these latter days of ours, when the +same principles as those of Montesinos have actuated +prison administration. This is the crux of the +system of prison instruction. It cannot be expected +to turn out workmen sufficiently well trained and +expert to go out into the open labour market, so +generally overcrowded, and compete for wages +against the free labourer who has had the benefit +of full apprenticeship. Adults cannot easily acquire +knowledge and dexterity in the use of tools, and +inevitable waste of materials accompanies the experiments +made by unskilled hands. We have no +record of how far these drawbacks affected Montesinos' +well-meant practice.</p> + +<p>(3) We have no facts to show how far the third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +period, that of conditional liberation, was successful +at Valencia. There is no possibility of knowing +definitely whether it was really tried or went beyond +the enunciation of the theory so long in advance +of our modern practice. It is little likely, +however, that the effective and elaborate method of +police supervision on which it is absolutely dependent +was in existence or even understood in Spain +in the days of Montesinos.</p> + +<p>No permanent results seemed to have been +achieved by the Montesinos system. There is no +record that it survived the man who created it or +that the government sought to extend the admirable +principles on which it rested. It was essentially a +one man system, depending entirely for success on +the personal qualities of the individual called upon +to carry it out. Montesinos was not, however, singular +in his remarkable achievement. The German +Obermaier did much the same in the prison of Kaiserslautern, +and Captain Maconochie in Norfolk +Island exercised a notable mastery over the Australian +convicts. The effects produced by Montesinos +were little less than phenomenal. He so developed +the probity of his convicts that he could +rely implicitly upon their honesty and good faith. +During the civil war he sent them with confidential +despatches to commanders in the field and never had +cause to regret the trust placed in them. They were +sent out as scouts seeking information of the +enemy's movements and brought in news with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +punctuality and despatch. A message was brought +one day to the governor directing him to send a +clerk to fetch a thousand dollars from the provincial +Treasury. Montesinos forthwith summoned one of +his convicts and despatched him, carrying with him +the receipt for the money. Within half an hour the +man returned with the dollars. Whenever a convict +escaped from the presidio, a rare occurrence +indeed, other convicts were despatched in pursuit +and seldom failed to bring in the fugitive.</p> + +<p>At one time the Spanish government decided to +build a new prison in the capital and to employ convict +labour in the construction. The Governor of +the presidio of Valencia was ordered to send up a +number of prisoners, and next day at daylight they +marched, taking with them a quantity of material, +the whole escorted by a small body of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>, "prisoner +warders," and commanded by a veteran overseer. +The journey was safely made to Madrid +without the smallest mishap, not a sign or symptom +of misbehaviour shown on the road, and the alcaldes +of the towns on the route, after anticipating the +worst evils, were agreeably surprised and were satisfied +to lodge the travellers at night in private +houses if there was no prison accommodation. A +second experiment of the kind was made in the +same year.</p> + +<p>On a previous occasion Valencia was threatened +by a strong force of Carlists under that distinguished +Carlist general, Cabrera, and it was feared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +that he would capture a large body of convicts at +that time employed on a new road, Las Cabrillas, a +little distance from the city. There were hardly +any troops in the capital except the city militia only +recently organised and barely equal to the duties +and dangers imposed upon them. Great fears were +entertained that Cabrera would seize the convicts +and incorporate with his own force. Montesinos +was desired to prevent this, and he turned up in person +one evening at Las Cabrillas, where he assumed +command and drew off the greater number, happily +escaping without attack or interference by the +enemy. So loyal was the demeanour of the Valencian +prisoners that under the direction of Montesinos +at another time they were armed and resisted an +attack made upon the gates of their convent prison +by the insurgents in a rising in Valencia. The following +extraordinary story is related in an official +publication by the well known poet Don Ramon de +Campoamor, at that time governor of the province +of Valencia. A formidable band of brigands was +devastating the neighbourhood of Valencia and a +reign of terror prevailed. The governor sent for +Colonel Montesinos and inquired whether there +were any old brigands among the convicts in custody +and who were willing to atone for past misdeeds +by coming to the assistance of the authorities. +Montesinos, who made it a rule to know all his prisoners +by heart, their present dispositions, and indeed +their inmost thoughts, spoke confidently of one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +as quite a reformed character, and at the governor's +request entrusted him with the special mission of +clearing out the country. The convict, after receiving +his instructions, went out with a sufficient escort, +hunted down the brigands, broke up their bands, +killing or capturing the whole. Here the commanding +influence of Montesinos was paramount even +beyond the walls of the presidio. By the power of +his strong will he called out fine qualities and exacted +loyal service from the worst materials whom +he had won to a high sense of discipline.</p> + +<p>A minor and more sentimental instance is recorded +of the confidence he could repose in his +reformed criminals. The mother of one of the convicts +was at the point of death. The man was +summoned to the governor's office and informed of +her desperate condition. "Do you wish to see her +in her last moments?" asked the governor. "Can +I trust you to return if I give you permission to +leave the prison for a time?" The man much +moved solemnly promised not to misuse his liberty. +He was allowed to exchange his prison uniform for +a peasant's dress; he went without escort to his +mother's cottage, received her blessing, and went +back to durance as had been agreed.</p> + +<p>The experience of Valencia was unique and short-lived. +A commendable effort was made to extend +the principles on which Montesinos had acted, and +decrees embodying them and recommending them +for general adoption were issued but soon became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +a dead letter. Excellent in theory, their success depended +entirely on the man to give them effect. A +second Montesinos did not appear and Spanish +prisons continued to exhibit the worst features down +to the present day.</p> + +<p>A movement towards prison reform had been +commenced as early as 1844, when three new +"model" prisons were planned for Madrid, but +their construction was long delayed. About the +same date a model convict prison was planned at +Valladolid, but slow progress was made with this +and with other new prisons, including that of Saragossa, +and at the Casa de Galera of Alcalá de +Henares. A penitentiary was also projected on the +island of Cabrera, opposite Cadiz. The chief effort +was concentrated on the model prison of Madrid, +which was undertaken in 1876 after much debate +and discussion. It was to be an entirely new building, +to which were devoted all the funds that might +have been expended upon the impossible reform and +repair of the hideous old Saladero. Several years +passed before the building began, and not until 1884 +did the tenants of the dismantled Saladero move +into the new prison. It is for the most part on the +cellular or separate system, by which each individual +is held strictly apart from his fellows, according to +the most modern ideas, which have claimed to have +exerted a potent effect in the reformation of offenders +and the diminution of crime. Nevertheless the +system is still in its trial and its beneficial results are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +by no means universally conceded. The new prison +is a very distinct improvement on the old, and the +former horrors and atrocities are fast disappearing, +but the secluded solitary life has its own peculiar +terrors which press hardly on transgressors, with +results that are very distinctly deterrent if not very +largely reformatory.</p> + +<p>What those actually subjected to the treatment +feel we may read in their own effusions. The literary +quality of prison writers does not rank high +but they sometimes put their views forcibly. One +says of the "model":—"If I leave this trying +place alive I can at least declare that I have been +buried underground and had made the acquaintance +of the grave diggers." Another writer:—"If you +wish to know what life is like here, come and take +your lodging inside. They are handsome, but curious, +well provided with means to drive you out of +your mind. There is a water tap which overflows +in drought and runs dry in wet weather; a pocket +handkerchief and a towel; a plate, a basin and a +wooden spoon, a broom, a dust box, one blanket and +a mattress with four straws that gives you pain in +every limb: many things more, but one alone much +needed is absent, a rope by which you commit suicide."</p> + +<p>It has been said that the worst use to which a +man may be put is to shut him up in a prison. A +still more wasteful extravagance is to put him out +of the world. The penalties known to Spanish law<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +have been very various; there have been many +forms of imprisonment, perpetual imprisonment, +greater or less detention, exile, the application of +fetters of several sorts, handcuffs, shackles, the +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guarda amigo</i> or "holdfriend," the "persuader" or +"come along with me"; the leg irons and waist +chains of varying weights. Penal labour was enforced +in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">maniobras infimas</i> by convicts chained together +on public works, fortifications, harbours and +mines. All forms of secondary punishment have +been inflicted, winding up with capital, the death +sentence inflicting the extreme penalty of the law. +This last irrevocable act does not find favour with +all Spanish legists, whose chief objection is the familiar +one that when a judicial error has been committed, +rectification is altogether impossible. Spain +can add one to the many well known cases such as +those of Callas and Lesurques, and it may be quoted +here as it is probably little known.</p> + +<p>The case occurred in Seville and grew out of a +sudden quarrel in a tavern followed by a fight to the +death with knives. The combatants went on the +ground and attacked each other in the regular +fashion when one dropped to the ground mortally +wounded and the other with his second ran away. +The wounded man's second went up to see whether +his principal was dying or already dead, when he +got up and declared that he was entirely unhurt. +He had slipped upon a stone and fallen with the obviously +cowardly desire to escape from his antag<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>onist's +attack. The second was furiously angry and +rated his man soundly. He retorted fiercely and +another quarrel and another encounter ensued, also +with knives, in which the first man again fell and +this time was killed outright, by his own second, +who at once made off. The body lay where it had +fallen until next morning, when the police found it. +The story of the original quarrel but nothing of the +second had become known, and it was naturally concluded +that death had been inflicted by the first +combatant. On the face of it the evidence was conclusive +against him, and he did not attempt to deny +the facts as they appeared when arrested and put +upon his trial. At that time the law treated homicide +in a duel as murder and the victim suffered the +extreme penalty without protest, believing himself +to be guilty. The truth was never known, until the +real offender, years after, confessed the part he had +played, but too late of course to prevent the judicial +murder of the innocent man. This case has naturally +been added to give weight to the many powerful +arguments against capital punishment.</p> + +<p>The extreme penalty of the law is nowadays inflicted +in Spain by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>, a method of strangulation +by the tightening of an iron collar, the substitute +for hanging introduced by King Ferdinand +VII (1820). Till then the hanging was carried +out in the clumsiest and most brutal manner. The +culprits were dragged by the executioner up the +steps of a ladder leaning against the scaffold. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +a certain height he mounted on the victim's +shoulders and thus seated flung himself off with +his victim underneath. As they swung to and +fro the hangman's fingers were busily engaged in +choking the convict so as to complete the strangulation. +The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> is a very simple contrivance. +The condemned man sits on a stool or low seat, leaning +his back against a strong, firm upright post to +which an iron collar is fixed. This, when opened, +encircles his neck, and is closed and tightened by a +powerful screw, worked by a lever from behind. +Death is instantaneous.</p> + +<p>Public executions must prove very popular performances +with a people who still revel in a bull +fight and flock to look at the hairbreadth escapes of +human beings from hardly undeserved death by the +horns of a fierce beast tortured into madness. De +Foresta, an Italian traveller,<a name="Anchor-25" id="Anchor-25"></a><a href="#Footnote-25" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 25.">[25]</a> tells us that never was +a greater concourse seen in Madrid than that which +collected in 1877 to witness the execution of two +murderers, Mollo and Agullar, when it was estimated +that 80,000 people were present. Ford describes +an execution in Seville in 1845 when the +crowd was enormous and composed largely of the +lower orders, of the humbler ranks, "who hold the +conventions of society very cheap and give loose +rein to their morbid curiosity to behold scenes of +terror, which operates powerfully on the women,</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p> +<p>who seem irresistibly impelled to witness sights the +most repugnant to their nature and to behold sufferings +which they would most dread to undergo," +and many of whom "brought in their arms young +children at the beginning of life to witness its conclusion." +"They desire to see how the criminal +will conduct himself, they sympathise with him if +he displays coolness and courage, and despise him +on the least symptom of unmanliness."</p> + +<p>Ford in his "Gatherings from Spain" gives a +graphic account of the execution of a highway robber, +one of the band of the famous José Maria already +mentioned. The culprit, José de Rojas, was +nicknamed "Veneno," poison, from his venomous +qualities and had made a desperate resistance before +he was finally overcome by the troops who captured +him. He fell wounded with a bullet in his leg, but +killed the soldier who ran forward to secure him. +When in custody he turned traitor and volunteered +to betray his old associates and give such information +as would lead to their arrest if his own life was +spared. The offer was accepted and he was sent +out with a sufficient force to seize them. Such was +the terror of his name that all surrendered, but not +to him. On this quibble the indemnity promised +him was withdrawn, he was brought to trial, condemned, +and in due course executed on the Plaza +San Francisco, which adjoins the prison in Seville +and is commonly used for public executions.</p> + +<p>Ford was admitted within the walls and describes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +Veneno "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">en capilla</i>," a small room set apart as a +condemned cell, the approach to which was +thronged with officers, portly Franciscan friars and +"members of a charitable brotherhood collecting +alms from the visitors to be expended in masses for +the eternal repose of the soul of the criminal. The +levity of those assembled without, formed a heartless +contrast with the gloom and horror of the melancholy +interior of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i>. At the head of the +cell was placed a table with a crucifix, an image of +the Virgin and two wax tapers, near which stood +a silent sentinel with a drawn sword. Another +soldier was stationed at the door with a fixed bayonet. +In a corner of this darkened compartment lay +Veneno curled up like a snake, with a striped coverlet +drawn closely over his mouth, leaving visible +only a head of matted locks, and a glistening dark +eye rolling restlessly out of its deep socket. On being +approached he sprang up and seated himself on a +stool. He was almost naked, but a chaplet of beads +hung across his exposed breast and contrasted with +the iron chains around his limbs.... The expression +of his face though low and vulgar was one +which, once seen, was not easily forgotten. His +sallow complexion appeared more cadaverous in the +uncertain light and was heightened by a black unshorn +beard, growing vigorously on a half-dead +countenance. He appeared to be reconciled to his +fate and repeated a few sentences, the teaching of +the monks, as by rote. His situation was probably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +more painful to the spectator than himself, an indifference +to death arising rather from an ignorance +of its dreadful import than from high moral courage."</p> + +<p>When Veneno came out to die he was clad in a +coarse yellow baize gown, the colour which in Spain +denotes the crime of murder and appropriated always +to Judas Iscariot in Spanish paintings, the +colour, too, of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential cloak +worn by the victims of the Inquisition at an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto +da fé</i>. He walked slowly, stopping often to kiss the +crucifix held to his lips by the attendant confessor, +a monk of the Franciscan order, whom it was the +convict's privilege to choose for himself to accompany +him to the scaffold. He was met there by the +executioner, a young man dressed in black who proceeded +to bind his naked legs and arms so tightly +that they swelled and turned black: a necessary precaution, +as this very executioner's father had been +killed when struggling with a convict unwilling to +die. Veneno made no resistance, but he spoke with +supreme contempt of this degraded functionary, +saying, "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Mi delito me mata no ese hombre</i>" (My +crime kills me and not this creature). He uttered +many pious ejaculations, and his dying cry was, +"Viva la Virgen Santisima." The last scene was +ghastly in the extreme. While the priest stood by, +"a bloated corpulent man more occupied in shading +the sun from his face than in his ghostly office," the +robber sat with a writhing look of agony, grinding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +his clenched teeth. The executioner took the lever +of the screw in both hands, gathered himself up for +a strong muscular effort, drew the iron collar tight +while an attendant threw a black handkerchief over +the face. A convulsive pressure of the hands and +a heaving of the chest were the only visible signs +of the passing of the convict's spirit.</p> + +<p>"After a pause of a few moments the executioner +cautiously peeped under the handkerchief and, +after having given another turn of the screw, lifted +it off, carefully put it in his pocket and proceeded to +light a cigar. The face of the dead man was +slightly convulsed, the mouth open, the eye balls +turned into their sockets from the wrench. A black +bier with two lanterns fixed on staves was now set +down before the scaffold. A small table and a dish +into which alms were again collected to be paid to +the priests who sang masses for his soul was also +brought forward.... The body remained on the +scaffold till after noon. It was then thrown into +a scavenger's cart and led by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">pregonero</i> or common +crier beyond the jurisdiction of the city to a +square platform called the "mesa del Rey," the +king's table, where it was to be quartered and cut +up. Here the carcass was hewed and hacked into +pieces by the bungling executioner and his assistants."</p> + +<p>The condemned cell at the Saladero was a part +of the prison chapel in which the Spanish convict +spent the last twenty-four hours of life and was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +horrible and painfully gruesome hole. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i> +is described by de Foresta, who saw it when it was +on the eve of abolition. It was of narrow dimensions, +damp, dark, windowless and lighted only with +one or two small candles burning upon the altar +which occupied a large space filling all one wall. +In a corner cut off by a black iron railing from the +rest of the chapel was a small space fitted with a bed +or stone shelf with rings to which the convict's +chains were fastened and where he knelt close to +the bars to converse with or confess to the ministering +priests. The chapel was dimly lighted by a +hanging lamp and one or two wax candles. Its +walls and floor were damp and it received light and +air only through the door. This gruesome den rejoiced +in the name <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el confortador</i>, or the "place of +comfort."</p> + +<p>Another traveller gives the following graphic account +of a Spanish execution:—</p> + +<p>"At seven we find ourselves in the crowd immediately +beneath the prison walls. Large bodies of +troops are drawn up on either side of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">plaza</i> and +there is a tolerably large concourse of male spectators +present. In a few minutes the mournful cortége +appears upon the wall. First comes the executioner, +the Spanish Calcraft, a wiry looking fellow, +carrying a coil of rope; next comes a very stout +padre armed with a baton, and bawling out prayers +at the top of his voice; he is followed by the convict, +who walks on in prison uniform, with his neck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +bare and arms pinioned, clasping the cross in his +hands and looking literally in a blue fright; a couple +more priests and two armed sentries complete the +group, who range themselves along the wall, the +criminal in the centre. The terrible scene is long +protracted. The fat padre roars out <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Ave Marias</i>, +exhortations and prayers, waving his baton frantically +in the air and making the miserable wretch +repeat after him. He then clasps him in his arms, +and sitting down on chairs opposite each other, they +are covered with a large black pall held by the supernumerary +priests; under this they remain for some +time perfectly motionless, while the poor creature +is unburdening his soul and pouring forth his load +of crimes into the ear of his confessor.</p> + +<p>"The nerves of the spectators are strained to an +intense pitch during the awful pause, as is evident +from the oppressive silence which prevails and the +anxious looks directed at the scaffold. At length +the pall is removed and the executioner proceeds to +business. The culprit is made to sit against an upright +post to which he is firmly lashed; the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>, +a machine consisting of an iron collar worked back +by a powerful screw and a long lever, is carefully +adjusted round his neck, a small handkerchief +thrown over his face and all is ready. The priest +recommences shouting while the executioner, preparing +himself for a mighty effort, suddenly turns +the handle two or three times as quick as lightning; +the head of the victim drops, the knees and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +arms quiver for a few seconds and all is over. +Priests and sentries retire, Calcraft peeps under +the handkerchief and, whipping it off with a jerk, +immediately disappears, leaving the ghastly corpse +exposed to open view. It is a sickening and disgusting +sight: the face is of a livid hue, the tongue +protruding, and shedding saliva on the breast; the +bystanders shudder, the troops march off with +drums gaily beating and the crowd slowly disperses. +I make a rapid sketch of the body and return to the +hotel fully satisfied that, were it not for the cruel +state of suspense in which the criminal is kept before +the execution, the punishment of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> is far +more merciful and expeditious than the less speedy +death by hanging in this country."</p> + +<p>The profession of hangman does not entitle those +who practise it to the very highest honour, although +in France in the case of the Sansons it was an hereditary +office in which son succeeded father for +many generations and the family took considerable +pride in their functions. In Spain the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">verdugo</i> is +by no means a popular person. De Foresta, the +Italian traveller already quoted, tells us that in several +towns he saw a person of forbidding aspect +who was walking about with a camp stool under his +arm and generally shunned. On enquiry he was +informed that this was the gentleman who administered +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>. He was strictly forbidden to +take a seat at a café or in any place of public resort, +hence the camp stool on which he rested himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +when tired. No one recognised or addressed to him +a single word. De Foresta's comment on this is +a story of the French executioner who, when called +to Nice to guillotine a criminal, was unable to find +anywhere to lay his head. He was turned away +from every door, was refused a mouthful of food +and was obliged to dine on what he could find at +the railway station restaurant, and he spent the night +in walking up and down the platform. It may not +be generally known that in England the executioner +is provided with board and lodging in the +gaol where his victim is waiting to be "finished."</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="footnotes"> + <h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<ol> + <li class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote-1" id="Footnote-1"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-1">1</a>]</span> + Lea. History of the Inquisition. Vol. I. p. 299.</p> +</li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-2" id="Footnote-2"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-2">2</a>]</span> History of the Inquisition.</p> + </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-3" id="Footnote-3"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-3">3</a>]</span>The counts of San Lucar were hereditary alcaldes of + Triana, and in return for surrendering the castle, they were + granted the dignity of Alguazil Mayor of the Inquisition. It + was worth 150,000 maravedis a year and the holder of the + office provided a deputy. The maravedi, once a gold coin of + some value, latterly represented only 3/8 of a cent.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-4" id="Footnote-4"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-4">4</a>]</span> Langlois, L'Inquisition d'après des tableaux recénts (1902), + quoted by Vancandard (Conway's translation, 1908).</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-5" id="Footnote-5"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-5">5</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. II. p. 526.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-6" id="Footnote-6"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-6">6</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. III.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-7" id="Footnote-7"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-7">7</a>]</span> <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Trampazo</i> means, exactly, an "extreme tightening of + cords": <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">La ultima de las vueltas que se dan en el tormento de + las cuerdas</i>.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-8" id="Footnote-8"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-8">8</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. IV.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-9" id="Footnote-9"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-9">9</a>]</span> "Vida Penal en Espana," by Rafael Salillas, Madrid, 1888.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-10" id="Footnote-10"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-10">10</a>]</span> See <em>post</em>, p. 161.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-11" id="Footnote-11"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-11">11</a>]</span> Relosillas, "Four Months in Ceuta."</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-12" id="Footnote-12"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-12">12</a>]</span> "Four Months in Ceuta."</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-13" id="Footnote-13"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-13">13</a>]</span> Irons are not carried by the convicts, not even by those + sentenced to imprisonment "in chains," <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">con la cadena</i>. They + were considered an interference with the efforts and strength + of the labourer.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-14" id="Footnote-14"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-14">14</a>]</span> <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Catorce Meses en Ceuta</i>, Malaga, 1886.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-15" id="Footnote-15"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-15">15</a>]</span> I have seen a precisely similar weapon in an English convict + prison, the product of an evil-minded prisoner who used + it in an assault upon his officer.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-16" id="Footnote-16"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-16">16</a>]</span> An official report dated 1888 gives a total of 221 prisoners + in the whole of the establishments admitted into hospital suffering + from wounds, fractures and contusions received in the + gaols.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-17" id="Footnote-17"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-17">17</a>]</span> See ante, pp. 159 sqq.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-18" id="Footnote-18"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-18">18</a>]</span> See ante, p. 159.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-19" id="Footnote-19"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-19">19</a>]</span> Relosillas.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-20" id="Footnote-20"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-20">20</a>]</span> "Vida Penal en Espana."</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-21" id="Footnote-21"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-21">21</a>]</span> See ante, p. 128.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-22" id="Footnote-22"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-22">22</a>]</span> See ante, p. 194.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-23" id="Footnote-23"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-23">23</a>]</span> This town of Ecija is renowned in the history of Spanish + brigandage as the home of the "Seven Sons of Ecija," a + very daring and dangerous band whose achievements have + been told by the Spanish novelist, Fernandez y Gonzalez.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-24" id="Footnote-24"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-24">24</a>]</span> "Bandolerismo estudo social y memorias historicas," by + Don Julian de Zugasti. Madrid, 1876.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-25" id="Footnote-25"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-25">25</a>]</span> La Spagna; Da Irun a Malaga, by Adolfo de Foresta, + Bologna, 1879.</p> </li> +</ol> +</div> + +<div class='transnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + <p>Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.</p> +</div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 52114 ***</div> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/52114-8.txt b/old/52114-8.txt index e19b2d9..3f60449 100644 --- a/52114-8.txt +++ b/old/52114-8.txt @@ -1,6432 +1,6432 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History and Romance of Crime; Spanish
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-Title: The History and Romance of Crime; Spanish Prisons
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-Author: Arthur Griffiths
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- The History and Romance of Crime
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- Spanish Prisons
-
-
- THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD
- PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT
-
- _by_
-
- MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS
- _Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain_
-
- _Author of
- "The Mysteries of Police and Crime
- "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc._
-
-
- _The Inquisitor-General and the Catholic Sovereigns_
-
- The mandate of expulsion of the Jews from Spain was
- issued by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. This edict no doubt
- originated with Torquemada, who was very bitter against the
- Jews. When he learned that a number of their leaders were
- in conference with the King and Queen, and offering an immense
- ransom, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing
- a crucifix on high and crying in stentorian tones that the
- sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas Iscariot.
- "Here He is!" he exclaimed. "Sell Him again, not for
- thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging
- the crucifix on the table he ran out in a frenzy. This turned
- the tables and the decree for expulsion was confirmed.
-
- THE GROLIER SOCIETY
-
-
-
-
- Spanish Prisons
-
-
- THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD
- PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT
- _by_
-
- MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS _Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain_
-
- _Author of "The Mysteries of Police and Crime
- "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc._
-
- [Illustration]
-
- THE GROLIER SOCIETY
-
- EDITION NATIONALE
-
- Limited to one thousand registered and numbered sets.
-
- NUMBER 307
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTION
-
-
-A considerable portion of this volume is devoted to the Spanish
-Inquisition, which was, for three centuries, the most important force
-in Spain. Thousands were condemned by its tribunals, and its prisons
-and punishments make up a large part of the penal history of that
-country. Much exaggeration has crept into the popular accounts, but the
-simple truth must cause a shudder, when read to-day.
-
-The institution was created to deal with heresy, that is, with a
-departure from the accepted canons. The idea that there can be unity
-in diversity was not understood. The spiritual and the temporal powers
-were closely related, and bishop and king, pope and emperor, all
-believed that uniformity was necessary. Hence, heresy was everywhere
-treated as high treason not only to the Church but to the State
-as well. The Spanish Inquisition was a state affair as well as an
-ecclesiastical court.
-
-We shall see that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition was not confined
-to the suppression of heresy. Many crimes which to-day are purely
-state concerns, were then punished by it, including bigamy, blasphemy,
-perjury, unnatural crimes, and witchcraft. The Spanish Inquisition
-deserves credit for discouraging persecution of the last named offence,
-and thereby saved the lives of thousands, who, in any other state would
-have been executed.
-
-The adaptation to penal purposes of ancient buildings, to be found
-throughout the length and breadth of Spain, was very common, as these
-were immediately available although generally unsuitable. Chief among
-them are the many monastic buildings vacated when the laws broke up
-religious houses in Spain and which were mostly converted into prisons,
-but little deserving the name. Some of these houses have been utilised
-as gaols pure and simple; some have served two or more purposes as at
-Huelva, where the convent-prison was also a barrack.
-
-Spain has been slow in conforming to the movements towards prison
-reform. She could not afford to spend money on new constructions
-along modern lines, and the introduction of the cellular system is
-only of recent date. The model prison of Madrid, which has replaced
-the hideous Saladero, was only begun in 1887. But a few separate
-prisons had already been created, such as those of Loja, Pontevedra,
-Barcelona, Vittoria and Naval Carnero. These establishments are new to
-Spain but their methods and aims are too well known to call for fresh
-description. More interest attaches to the older forms that have so
-long served as places of durance.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
- CHAPTER PAGE
-
- INTRODUCTION 5
-
- I. THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN 11
-
- II. PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS 32
-
- III. PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS 63
-
- IV. THE INQUISITION ABROAD 91
-
- V. THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA 110
-
- VI. EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS 123
-
- VII. PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD 150
-
- VIII. LIFE IN CEUTA 182
-
- IX. BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE 212
-
- X. A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY 236
-
-
-
-
-List of Illustrations
-
-
- THE GRAND INQUISITOR AND THE CATHOLIC
- SOVEREIGNS _Frontispiece_
-
- THE ALHAMBRA PALACE, GRANADA _Page_ 52
-
- THE QUESTION " 116
-
- CASTEL DELL' OVO " 150
-
-
-
-
-SPANISH PRISONS
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN
-
- Beginning and growth of religious persecution--Temporal power of the
- Papacy--Pope Innocent III creates the first "Inquisitors"--Domingo de
- Guzman founder of the Inquisition--Founder of the Dominican Order of
- Friars--The "ancient" Inquisition--Penances inflicted--Persecution
- of the Jews in Spain--Institution of the "modern" Inquisition under
- Ferdinand and Isabella--Headquarters at Seville--Frequent _autos da
- fé_--Thomas de Torquemada the first Inquisitor-General--The privileges
- of the office--Torquemada's life and character--Sufferings of accused
- persons.
-
-
-The record of religious persecution furnishes some of the saddest
-pages in the world's history. It began with the immediate successors
-of Constantine the Great, the first Christian prince. They promulgated
-severe edicts against heretics with such penalties as confiscation,
-banishment and death against breaches of Catholic unity. In this
-present tolerant age when every one may worship God after his own
-fashion, it is difficult to realise how recent a growth is toleration.
-For more than six centuries the flames of persecution burned fiercely
-throughout Christendom, lighted by the strong arm of the law, and
-soldiers were constantly engaged to extirpate dissent from the accepted
-dogmas with fire and sword. The growth of the papacy and the assumption
-of the temporal power exalted heresy into treason; independence of
-thought was deemed opposition to authority and resistance to the
-universal supremacy of the Church. The popes fighting in self-defence
-stimulated the zeal of their followers unceasingly to stamp out heresy.
-Alexander III in the 12th century solemnly declared that every secular
-prince who spared heretics should be classed as a heretic himself and
-involved in the one common curse.
-
-When the temporal power of the popes was fully established and
-acknowledged, the papacy claimed universal sovereignty over all
-countries and peoples and was in a position to enforce it by systematic
-procedure against its foes. Pope Innocent III, consumed with the
-fervour of his intolerant faith, determined to crush heresy. His
-first step was to appoint two "inquisitors" (the first use of the
-name) and two learned and devout friars, who were really travelling
-commissioners, were sent to perambulate Christendom to discover heresy.
-They were commended to all bishops, who were strictly charged to
-receive them with kindness, treat them with affection, and "help them
-to turn heretics from the error of their way or else drive them out
-of the country." The same assistance was expected from the rulers of
-states who were to aid the inquisitors with equal kindness.
-
-The mission began in the south of France and a crusade was undertaken
-against the Albigensians and Waldensians, those early dissidents from
-the Church of Rome, who drew down on themselves the unappeasable
-animosity of the orthodox. The campaign against these original heretics
-raged fiercely, but persecution slackened and might have died out
-but for the appearance of one devoted zealot whose intense hatred of
-heresy, backed by his uncompromising energy, revived the illiberal
-spirit and organised fresh methods of attack. This was Domingo de
-Guzman, a Spanish monk who accompanied Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse,
-when he left his desolated diocese to take part in the fourth Lateran
-Council, assembled at Rome in 1215. This Domingo, historically known as
-St. Dominic, was the founder of the Dominican order of friars.
-
-Though generally accepted as such by Church historians, it is
-now argued that St. Dominic was not really the founder of the
-Inquisition[1] and that although he spent the best years of his life
-in combating heresy he took no more prominent part in persecution than
-hundreds of others. His eulogistic biographer describes him as "a man
-of earnest, resolute purpose, of deep and unalterable convictions, full
-of burning zeal for the propagation of the faith, yet kindly in heart,
-cheerful in temper and winning in manner.... He was as severe with
-himself as with his fellows.... His endless scourgings, his tireless
-vigils, his almost uninterrupted prayer, his superhuman fasts, are
-probably only harmless exaggerations of the truth." The Dominicans
-boasted that their founder exhaled "an odour of sanctity" and, when his
-tomb was opened, a delicious scent issued forth, so penetrating that it
-permeated the whole land, and so persistent that those who touched the
-holy relics had their hands perfumed for years.
-
-[1] Lea. History of the Inquisition. Vol. I. p. 299.
-
-Whatever the personal character of Dominic and whether or no he
-laboured to carry out the work himself, there can be no doubt that
-his Order was closely identified with the Inquisition from the first.
-Its members were appointed inquisitors, they served in the prisons as
-confessors, they assisted the tribunals as "qualificators," or persons
-appointed to seek out proof of guilt, or estimate the extent or quality
-of the heretical opinions charged against the accused; the great
-ceremonials and _autos da fé_ were organised by them; they worked the
-"censure" and prepared the "Index" of prohibited books. The Dominicans
-were undoubtedly the most active agents in the Inquisition and they
-owed their existence to him, even if he did not personally take part in
-its proceedings.
-
-The following quotation from Prescott's "History of Ferdinand and
-Isabella" may well be inserted here. "Some Catholic writers would
-fain excuse St. Dominic from the imputation of having founded
-the Inquisition. It is true he died some years before the perfect
-organisation of that tribunal; but as he established the principles
-on which, and the monkish militia by whom it was administered, it is
-doing him no injustice to regard him as its real author." The Sicilian
-writer, Paramo, indeed, in his heavy quarto, traces it up to a much
-more remote antiquity. According to him God was the first inquisitor
-and his condemnation of Adam and Eve furnished the models of the
-judicial forms observed in the trials of the Holy Office. The sentence
-of Adam was the type of the Inquisitional "reconciliation," his
-subsequent raiment of skins of animals was the type of the _sanbenito_,
-and the expulsion from Paradise, the precedent for the confiscation of
-the goods of heretics. This learned personage deduces a succession of
-inquisitors through the patriarchs, Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, and King
-David, down to John the Baptist, and he even includes our Saviour in
-whose precepts and conduct he finds abundant authority for the tribunal.
-
-The "Ancient Inquisition," as that first established in Spain is
-generally called, had many of the features of the "modern" which dates
-from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and which will presently be
-described at some length. Its proceedings were shrouded in the same
-impenetrable secrecy, it used the same insidious modes of accusation,
-supported them by similar tortures, and punished them with similar
-penalties. A manual drawn up in the fourteenth century for the guidance
-of judges of the Holy Office prescribes the familiar forms of artful
-interrogation employed to catch the unwary, and sometimes innocent
-victim. The ancient Inquisition worked on principles less repugnant to
-justice than the better known, but equally cruel modern institution,
-but was less extensive in its operations because in the earlier days
-there were fewer heretics to persecute.
-
-The ancient Inquisition was so unsparing in its actions that it almost
-extirpated the Albigensian heresy. The punishments it inflicted were
-even more severe than in the modern. Upon such as escaped the stake
-and were "reconciled," as it was styled, a terrible "penance" was
-imposed. One is cited by Llorente[2] as laid down in the ordinances of
-St. Dominic. The penitent, it was commanded, should be stripped of his
-clothes and beaten by a priest three Sundays in succession from the
-gate of the city to the door of the church; he must not eat any kind of
-meat during his whole life; must abstain from fish, oil and wine three
-days in the week during life, except in case of sickness or excessive
-labour; must wear a religious dress with a small cross embroidered on
-each breast; must attend mass every day, if he has the means of doing
-so, and vespers on Sundays and festivals; must recite the service for
-the day and night and repeat the paternoster seven times in the day,
-ten times in the evening, and twenty times at midnight. If he failed in
-any of these requirements, he was to be burned as a "relapsed heretic."
-
-[2] History of the Inquisition.
-
-Chief among the causes that produced the new or "modern" Inquisition
-was the envy and hatred of the Jews in Spain. Fresh material was
-supplied by the unfortunate race of Israel, long established in the
-country, and greatly prosperous. They had come in great numbers after
-the Saracenic invasion, which indeed they are said to have facilitated,
-and were accepted by some of the Moorish rulers on nearly equal terms,
-and were treated with a tolerance seldom seen among Mahometans, though
-occasional outbursts of fanaticism rendered their position not quite
-secure. Under these generally favourable auspices the Jews developed
-in numbers and importance. Their remarkable instinct for money making
-and their unstinting diligence brought them great wealth. Their love of
-letters and high intelligence gave them preëminence in the schools of
-the Moorish cities of Cordova, Toledo and Granada, where they helped
-to keep the flame of learning bright and shining through the darkest
-ages. They became noted mathematicians, learned astronomers, devoted
-labourers in the fields of practical and experimental science. Their
-shrewdness in public affairs and their financial abilities commended
-them to the service of the state, and many rose to the highest civic
-dignities at both Christian and Moorish courts. Often, despite
-prohibitory laws, they collected the revenues and supervised the
-treasuries of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, while in private life
-they had nearly unlimited control of commerce and owned most of the
-capital in use.
-
-After the Christian conquest, their success drew down upon them the
-envy and hatred of their less flourishing fellow subjects, who resented
-also that profuse ostentation of apparel and equipage to which the
-Jewish character has always inclined. Their widespread practice of
-usury was a still more fruitful cause for detestation. Often large sums
-were loaned, for which exorbitant rates of interest were charged, owing
-to the scarcity of specie and the great risk of loss inherent to the
-business. As much as twenty, thirty-three, and even forty per cent.
-per annum was exacted and paid. The general animosity was such that a
-fanatical populace, smarting under a sense of wrong, and urged on by a
-no less fanatical clergy broke out at times into violence, and fiercely
-attacked the Jews in the principal cities. The _Juderías_, or Jewish
-quarters, were sacked, the houses robbed of their valuable contents,
-precious collections, jewels and furniture were scattered abroad, and
-the wretched proprietors were massacred wholesale, irrespective of sex
-and age. According to the historian, Mariana, fifty thousand Jews were
-sacrificed to the popular fury in one year, 1391, alone.
-
-This was the turning point in Spanish history. Fanaticism once aroused,
-did not die until all Jews were driven out of Spain. It brought into
-being another class also, the _Conversos_, or "New Christians," _i. e._
-Jews who accepted Christian baptism, though generally without any
-spiritual change. At heart and in habits they remained Jews.
-
-The law was invoked, too, to aggravate their condition. Legislative
-enactments of a cruel and oppressive kind were passed. Jews were
-forbidden to mix freely with Christians, their residence restricted
-to certain limited quarters, they were subject to irksome, sumptuary
-regulations, debarred from all display in dress, forbidden to carry
-valuable ornaments or wear expensive clothes, and they were held up to
-public scorn by being compelled to appear in a distinctive, unbecoming
-garb, the badge or emblem of their social inferiority. They were also
-interdicted from following certain professions and callings. They might
-not study or practise medicine, might not be apothecaries, nurses,
-vintners, grocers or tavern keepers, were forbidden to act as stewards
-to the nobility or as farmers or collectors of the public revenues,
-although judging from repeated re-enactments, these laws were evidently
-not strictly enforced, and often in some districts were not enforced at
-all.
-
-Fresh fuel was added to the fiery passions vented on the Jews by the
-unceasing denunciation of their heresy and dangerous irreligion, and
-public feeling was further inflamed by grossly exaggerated stories
-of their hideous and unchristian malpractices. The curate of Los
-Palacios has detailed some of these in his "Chronicle," and they
-will serve, when quoted, to show what charges were brought against
-the Jew in his time. "This accursed race (the Israelites)," he says,
-speaking of the proceedings taken to bring about their conversion,
-"were either unwilling to bring their children to be baptised, or if
-they did, they washed away the stain on the way home. They dressed
-their stews and other dishes with oil instead of lard, abstained from
-pork, kept the passover, ate meat in Lent, and sent oil to replenish
-the lamps of their synagogues, with many other abominable ceremonies
-of their religion. They entertained no respect for monastic life, and
-frequently profaned the sanctity of religious houses by the violation
-or seduction of their inmates. They were an exceedingly politic and
-ambitious people, engrossing the most lucrative municipal offices, and
-preferring to gain their livelihood by traffic, in which they made
-exorbitant gains, rather than by manual labour or mechanical arts. They
-considered themselves in the hands of the Egyptians whom it was a merit
-to deceive and rob. By their wicked contrivances they amassed great
-wealth, and thus were able often to ally themselves by marriage with
-noble Christian families."
-
-The outcry against the Jews steadily increased in volume. The clergy
-were the loudest in their protests against the alleged abominations,
-and one Dominican priest, Alonso de Hojeda, prior of the monastery of
-San Pablo in Seville, with another priest, Diego de Merlo, vigorously
-denounced the "Jewish leprosy" so alarmingly on the increase and
-besought the Catholic sovereigns to revive the Holy Office with
-extended powers as the only effective means of healing it. The appeal
-was strongly supported by the papal nuncio at the Court of Castile.
-Ferdinand and Isabella, as devout Catholics, deplored the prevalence
-of heresy, which they acknowledged to be rampant, and yet they
-hesitated to surrender any of their independence. No other state in
-Europe was so free from papal control or interference. Some of the
-Conversos held high places about the court and they, of course, used
-every effort to strengthen the reluctance of the queen, particularly.
-On the other hand, the Dominican monk, Thomas de Torquemada, her
-confessor in her youth, strove to instil the same spirit of unyielding
-fanaticism that possessed himself, and earnestly entreated her to
-devote herself to the "extirpation of heresy for the glory of God and
-the glorification of the Catholic faith." She long resisted but yielded
-at last to the unceasing importunities of the priests around her, and
-consented to solicit a bull from the pope, Sixtus IV, to introduce
-the Modern Inquisition into Castile. It was issued, under the date of
-November 1st, 1478, and authorised the appointment of two or three
-ecclesiastical inquisitors for the detection and suppression of heresy
-throughout Spain.
-
-One difference from the usual form establishing such tribunals was the
-location of the power of appointment of inquisitors, which was vested
-in the king and queen instead of in Provincials of the Dominican or
-Franciscan Orders. Heretofore the appointment of inquisitors had been
-considered a delegation of the authority of the Holy See, something
-entirely independent of the secular power. But so jealous of outside
-interference were the Spanish rulers and the Spanish people, that the
-pope was forced to give way. Though he and his successors vainly strove
-to recover the power thus granted, they were never entirely successful,
-and the Spanish Inquisition remained to a large extent a state affair,
-and this fact explains much which otherwise is inexplicable. For
-example the confiscations passed into the royal instead of into the
-papal treasury.
-
-At first mild measures were to be tried. Cardinal Mendoza, Archbishop
-of Seville, had drawn up a catechism instructing his clergy to spare no
-pains in illuminating the benighted Israelites by a candid exposition
-of the true principles of Christianity. Progress was slow, and after
-two years the results were so meagre that it was thought necessary to
-proceed to the nomination of inquisitors, and two Dominican monks, Fra
-Miguel de Morillo, and Juan de San Martin, were appointed with full
-powers, assisted by an assessor and a procurator fiscal.
-
-The Jews played into the hands of their tormentors. Great numbers
-had been terrified into apostasy by the unrelenting hostility of the
-people. Their only escape from the furious attacks made upon them had
-been conversion to Christianity, often quite feigned and unreal. The
-proselytising priests, however, claimed to have done wonders; one, St.
-Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican of Valencia, had by means of his eloquence
-and the miraculous power vouchsafed him, "changed the hearts of no less
-than thirty-five thousand of house of Judah." These numerous converts
-were of course unlikely to be very tenacious in their profession of
-the new faith, and not strangely laid themselves open to constant
-suspicion. Many were denounced and charged with backsliding, many more
-boldly reverted to Judaism, or secretly performed their old rites.
-Now uncompromising war was to be waged against the backsliding "new
-Christians" or Conversos.
-
-The inquisitors installed themselves in Seville, and made the Dominican
-convent of San Pablo their first headquarters, but this soon proved
-quite insufficient in size and they were allowed to occupy the fortress
-of the Triana, the great fortress of Seville, on the right bank of
-the Guadalquivir, the immense size and gloomy dungeons of which were
-especially suitable. This part of the city was much exposed to
-inundations, and when, in 1626, it was threatened with destruction by
-an unusually high flood, the seat of the tribunal was removed to the
-palace of the Caballeros Tellos Taveros in the parish of San Marco. In
-1639 it returned to the Triana which had been repaired, and remained
-there till 1789, when further encroachments of the river caused it to
-be finally transferred to the College of Las Beccas. The Triana is now
-a low suburb, inhabited principally by gipsies and the lower classes.
-It was at one time the potters' quarter where the famous _azulejo_
-tiles were made, and its factories to-day produce the well known
-majolica vases and plates with surface of metallic lustre.
-
-One of the first steps of the Inquisition was to put a summary check to
-the exodus of the Jews who had been fast deserting the country. All the
-magnates of Castile, dukes, counts, hidalgos and persons in authority,
-were commanded to arrest all fugitives, to sequestrate their property
-and send them prisoners to Seville. Any who disobeyed or failed to
-execute this order were to be excommunicated as abettors of heresy, to
-be deposed from their dignities and deprived of their estates. Such
-orders were strange to the ears of the turbulent nobles who had been
-accustomed to pay little heed to pope or king. A new force had arisen
-in the land.
-
-On the Castle of the Triana,[3] already described, a tablet was
-erected over the portals with an inscription, celebrating the
-inauguration of the first "modern Inquisition" in Western Europe.
-The concluding words were:--"God grant that for the protection and
-augmentation of the faith it may abide unto the end of time. Arise oh
-Lord, judge Thy cause! Catch yet the foxes (heretics)!"
-
-[3] The counts of San Lucar were hereditary alcaldes of Triana, and in
-return for surrendering the castle, they were granted the dignity of
-Alguazil Mayor of the Inquisition. It was worth 150,000 maravedis a
-year and the holder of the office provided a deputy. The maravedi, once
-a gold coin of some value, latterly represented only 3/8 of a cent.
-
-Just now, by an ill-advised move, the Conversos lost the sympathy of
-all. Diego de Susan, one of the richest citizens of Seville, called
-a meeting of the "New Christians" in the church of San Salvador. It
-was attended by many high officials, and even ecclesiastics of Jewish
-blood. Susan suggested that they collect a store of arms, and that at
-the first arrest, they rise and slay the inquisitors. The plan was
-adopted but was betrayed by a daughter of Susan, who had a Christian
-lover. The plotters were arrested at once, and on February sixth, 1481,
-six men and women were burned and others were severely punished.
-
-The hunt was cunningly organised. An "Edict of Grace" was published
-promising pardon to all backsliders if they would come voluntarily
-and confess their sins. Many sought indulgence and were plied with
-questions by the inquisitors to extract evidence against others. On
-the information thus obtained the suspected were marked down, seized
-and carried off to the prisons. Any adherence to Jewish customs gave
-opportunity for denunciation, and the severe measures rapidly reduced
-the numbers of the backsliding Jewish-Christians. In Seville alone,
-according to Llorente, two hundred and ninety-eight persons were burnt
-in less than a year, and seventy-nine were condemned to perpetual
-imprisonment. Great sums ought to have passed into the treasury, then
-and afterwards, from the confiscated property of rich people who
-perished at the stake or were subjected to fine and forfeiture. But the
-great engine of the Inquisition was excessively costly. The pageants
-at the frequent _autos da fé_ were lavishly expensive, a great staff
-of officials, experts, familiars and guards was maintained, and, in
-addition, the outlay on the place of execution, the "_quemadero_" or
-burning place, a great pavement on a raised platform adorned with fine
-pillars and statues of the prophets, was very considerable, while the
-yearly bill for fuel, for faggots and brush wood rose to a high figure.
-Undoubtedly there was considerable embezzlement also.
-
-There was evidently too much work for two men, so in February, 1482,
-seven additional inquisitors were commissioned by the pope on the
-nomination of the sovereigns, and some of these were exceedingly
-zealous. There was, however, much confusion because of the lack
-of a unifying authority. The sovereigns were determined that the
-institution must be kept under the control of the state, and so a
-council of administration usually called _la Suprema_ was added to
-those already existing, and was charged with jurisdiction over all
-measures concerning the faith. At the head was placed a new officer,
-later called the inquisitor-general. The inquisitor-general was hardly
-a subject. He had direct access to the sovereign and exercised absolute
-and unlimited power over the whole population and was superior to
-all human law. No rank, high or low escaped his jurisdiction. Royal
-personages were not exempt from his control, for the Holy Office
-invaded the prince's palace as well as the pauper's hovel. There was
-no sanctity in the grave, for corpses of heretics were ruthlessly
-disinterred, mutilated and burned.
-
-The first inquisitor-general under the new organisation was Thomas
-de Torquemada, who has won for himself dreadful immortality from the
-signal part he played in the great tragedy of the Inquisition. He was
-a Dominican monk, a native of old Castile, who had been confessor and
-keeper of the Queen's conscience to Isabella in her early days and
-constantly sought to instil his fiery spirit into her youthful mind.
-"This man," says Prescott, "who concealed more pride under his monastic
-weeds than might have furnished forth a convent of his order, was one
-of that class with whom zeal passes for religion and who testify their
-zeal by a fiery persecution of those whose creed differs from their
-own; who compensate for their abstinence from sensual indulgence by
-giving scope to those deadlier vices of the heart, pride, bigotry
-and intolerance which are no less opposed to virtue and are far more
-extensively mischievous to society." The cruelties which he perpetrated
-grew out of a pitiless fanaticism, more cruel than the grave. He was
-rigid and unbending and knew no compromise. Absolutely fearless,
-he directed his terrible engine against the suspect no matter how
-high-born or influential.
-
-Torquemada was appointed in 1483 and was authorised from Rome to frame
-a new constitution for the Holy Office. He had been empowered to create
-permanent provincial tribunals under chief inquisitors which sat at
-Toledo, Valladolid, Madrid and other important cities, and his first
-act was to summon some of these to Seville to assist him in drawing
-up rules for the governance of the great and terrible engine that
-was to terrorise all Spain for centuries to come. The principles of
-action, the methods of procedure, the steps taken to hunt up victims
-and bring them under the jurisdiction of the court, secure conviction
-and enforce penalties, are all set out at length in the record of the
-times. "A bloody page of history," says the historian, "attests the
-fact that fanaticism armed with power is the sorest evil that can
-befall a nation." For generations the Spanish people, first the Jews,
-then the Moriscos, lastly the whole native born community lay helpless
-in the grip of this irresponsible despotism. Few, once accused,
-escaped without censure of some sort. Llorente declares with his usual
-exaggeration that out of a couple of thousand cases, hardly one ended
-in acquittal and the saying became proverbial that people if not
-actually roasted by the Inquisition were at least singed.
-
-In order to appreciate fully the harshness of the Spanish Inquisition
-and the cruelties perpetrated for several centuries, under the guise of
-religion, we must trace the steps taken by the Holy Office, its guiding
-principles and its methods of procedure.
-
-The great aim at the outset was to hunt up heretics and encourage the
-denunciation of presumed offenders. Good Catholics were commanded by
-edicts published from the pulpits of all churches to give information
-against every person they knew or suspected of being guilty of heresy,
-and priests were ordered to withhold absolution from any one who
-hesitated to speak, even when the suspected person was a near relation,
-parent, child, husband or wife. All accusations whether signed or
-anonymous were accepted, but the names of witnesses were also required.
-On this sometimes meagre inculpation victims might be at once arrested,
-though in some cases, censors must first pass upon the evidence. Often
-not a whisper of trouble reached the accused until the blow actually
-fell.
-
-Kept thus in solitary imprisonment, cut off entirely from his friends
-outside, denied the sympathy or support he might derive from their
-visits or communications, he was left to brood despairingly, a prey
-to agonised doubts, in ignorance even of the charges brought against
-him. A few brief extracts from the depositions of witnesses might be
-read to him, but the statements were so garbled that he could get no
-clue to names or identities. If there were any facts favourable to him
-in the testimony they were withheld from him. If he could, however,
-name as mortal enemies some of the witnesses, their testimony was
-much weakened. Facts of time, place and circumstance in the charges
-preferred were withheld from him and he was so confused and embarrassed
-that unless a man of acuteness and presence of mind he might become
-involved in inextricable contradictions when he attempted to explain
-himself.
-
-On the other hand judges were guided and supported by the most minute
-instructions. "It is the high and peculiar privilege of the tribunal
-that its officers are not required to act with formality; they need
-observe no strict forensic rules and therefore the omission of what
-ordinary justice might exact does not invalidate its actions, provided
-only that nothing essential to the proof be wanting." The first
-essential of justice, as we understand it, was ignored. An accused
-person arraigned for heresy was expected to incriminate himself, to
-furnish all necessary particulars for conviction. Testimony could
-be received from persons of any class or character. "They might be
-excommunicate, infamous, actual accomplices, or previously convicted
-of any crime." The evidence of Jews and infidels might be taken also,
-even in a question of heretical doctrine. Wife, children, relatives,
-servants, might depose against a heretic. "A brother may declare
-against a brother and a son against a father." The witnesses met with
-no mercy. If any one did not say all he could, or seemed reluctant to
-speak, the examiners occasionally ruled that torture should be applied.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS
-
- Increased persecution of the Jews--Accusations made against
- them--Ferdinand introduces the modern Inquisition into the Kingdom
- of Aragon in 1484--Fray Gaspar Juglar and Pedro Arbués appointed
- Inquisitors--Assassination of Pedro Arbués--Punishment of his
- murderers--Increased opposition against the Holy Office--Arrest of the
- Infante Don Jaime for sheltering a heretic--Expulsion of the Jews from
- Spain--Appeal to the King to revoke this edict--Ferdinand inclined
- to yield, but Torquemada over-rules him--Sufferings of the Jews on
- the journey--Death of Torquemada--Hernando de Talavera appointed
- archbishop of Granada--His success with the Moors--Don Diego Deza new
- Inquisitor-General--Succeeded by Ximenes de Cisneros--His character
- and life--Appointed Primate of all Spain--His severity with the
- Moors--University of Alcalá founded by Ximenes--Accession of Charles
- V--Persecution of Moors--Expulsion.
-
-
-The fires of the modern Inquisition, it was said, had been lighted
-exclusively for the Jews. The fiery zeal of Torquemada and his
-coadjutors was first directed against the Spanish children of Israel.
-The Jews constantly offered themselves to be harassed and despoiled.
-They were always fair game for avaricious greed. The inquisitors
-availed themselves of both lines of attack. Jewish wealth steadily
-increased as their financial operations and their industrial
-activities extended and flourished. When the Catholic Kings embarked
-upon the conquest of Granada, the Jews found the sinews of war; Jewish
-victuallers purveyed rations to the armies in the field; Jewish
-brokers advanced the cash needed for the payments of troops; Jewish
-armourers repaired the weapons used and furnished new tools and warlike
-implements.
-
-At the same time the passions of the populace were more and more
-inflamed against the Jews by the dissemination of scandalous stories
-of their blasphemous proceedings. It was seriously asserted by certain
-monks that some Jews had stolen a consecrated wafer with the intention
-of working it into a paste with the warm blood of a newly killed
-Christian child and so produce a deadly poison to be administered to
-the hated chief inquisitor. Another report was to the effect that
-crumbs from the holy wafer had been detected between the leaves of
-a Hebrew prayer book in a synagogue. One witness declared that this
-substance emitted a bright effulgence which gave clear proof of its
-sanctity and betrayed the act of sacrilege committed. Other tales were
-circulated of the diabolical practices of these wicked Jewish heretics.
-
-Ferdinand in 1484 proceeded to give the modern Inquisition to the
-Kingdom of Aragon, where the "ancient" had once existed but had lost
-much of its rigour. It was a comparatively free country and the Holy
-Office had become little more than an ordinary ecclesiastical court.
-But King Ferdinand was resolved to reëstablish it on the wider basis it
-had assumed in Castile and imposed it upon his people by a royal order
-which directed all constituted authorities to support it in carrying
-out its new extended functions. A Dominican monk, Fray Gaspar Juglar,
-and a canon of the church, Pedro Arbués, were appointed by Torquemada
-to be inquisitors for the diocese of Saragossa. The new institution
-was most distasteful to the Aragonese, a hardy and independent people.
-Among the higher orders were numbers of Jewish descent, filling
-important offices and likely to come under the ban of the Inquisition.
-The result was a deputation to the pope and another to the king
-representing the general repugnance of the Aragonese to the institution
-and praying that its action might be suspended. Neither pope nor king
-would listen to the appeal and the Holy Office began its work. Two
-_autos da fé_ were celebrated in Saragossa, the capital, in 1484, when
-two men were executed.
-
-Horror and consternation seized the Conversos and a fierce desire for
-reprisals developed. They were resolved to intimidate their oppressors
-by some appalling act of retaliation and a plot was hatched to make
-away with one of the inquisitors. The conspirators included many of
-the principal "New Christians," some of whom were persons of note in
-the district. A considerable sum was subscribed to meet expenses and
-pay the assassins. Pedro Arbués was marked down for destruction but,
-conscious of his danger, continually managed to evade his enemies. He
-wore always a coat of mail beneath his robes when he attended mass in
-the Cathedral, and every avenue by which he could be approached in his
-house was also carefully guarded.
-
-At length he was taken by surprise when at his devotions. He was on his
-knees before the high altar saying his prayers at midnight, when two
-men crept up behind him unobserved and attacked him. One struck him
-with a dagger in the left arm, the other felled him with a violent blow
-on the back of the neck by which he was laid prostrate and carried off
-dying. With his last breath he thanked God for being selected to seal
-so good a cause with his blood. His death was deemed a martyrdom and
-caused a reaction in favour of the Inquisition as a general rising of
-the New Christians was feared. The storm was appeased by the archbishop
-of Saragossa who gave out publicly that the murderers should be
-rigorously pursued and should suffer condign punishment. The promise
-was abundantly fulfilled. A stern recompense was exacted from all who
-were identified with the conspiracy. The scent was followed up with
-unrelenting pertinacity, several persons were taken and put to death,
-and a larger number perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. All
-the perpetrators of the murder were hanged after their right hands had
-been amputated. The sentence of one who had given evidence against the
-rest was commuted in that his hand was not cut off till after his death.
-
-A native of Saragossa had taken refuge in Tudela where he found
-shelter and concealment in the house of the Infante, Don Jaime, the
-illegitimate son of the Queen of Navarre, and nephew of King Ferdinand
-himself. The generous young prince could not reject the claims of
-hospitality and helped the fugitive to escape into France. But the
-Infante was himself arrested by the inquisitors and imprisoned as
-an "impeder" of the Holy Office. His trial took place in Saragossa,
-although Navarre was outside its jurisdiction, and he was sentenced
-to do open penance in the cathedral in the presence of a great
-congregation at High Mass. The ceremony was carried out before the
-Archbishop of Saragossa, a boy of seventeen, the illegitimate son
-of King Ferdinand, and this callow stripling in his primate's robes
-ordered his father's nephew to be flogged round the church with rods.
-
-The second story is much more horrible. One Gaspar de Santa Cruz of
-Saragossa had been concerned in the rebellion, but escaped to Toulouse
-where he died. He had been aided in his flight by a son who remained
-in Saragossa, and who was arrested as an "impeder" of the Holy Office.
-He was tried and condemned to appear at an _auto da fé_, where he was
-made to read an act which held up his father to public ignominy. Then
-the son was transferred to the custody of the inquisitor of Toulouse
-who took him to his father's grave, forced him to exhume the corpse and
-burn it with his own hands.
-
-The bitter hatred of the Jews culminated in the determination of the
-king and queen, urged on by Torquemada, to expel them entirely from
-Spain. The germ of this idea may be found in the capitulation of
-Granada by the Moors, when it was agreed that every Jew found in the
-city was to be shipped off forthwith to Barbary. It was now argued
-that since all attempts to convert them had failed, Spain should be
-altogether rid of them. The Catholic King and Queen were induced to
-sign an edict dated March 30th, 1492, by which it was decreed that
-every Jew should be banished from Spain within three months, save and
-except those who chose to apostasise and who, on surrendering the faith
-of their fathers, might be suffered to remain in the land of their
-adoption, with leave to enjoy the goods they had inherited or earned.
-No doubt this edict originated with Torquemada.
-
-Dismay and deep sorrow fell upon the Spanish Jews. The whole country
-was filled with tribulation. All alike cried for mercy and offered
-to submit to any laws and ordinances however oppressive, to accept
-any terms, to pay any penalties if only they might escape this cruel
-exile. Leading Jews appeared before King Ferdinand and pleaded abjectly
-for mercy for their co-religionists, offering an immediate ransom
-of six hundred thousand crowns in gold. The king was inclined to
-clemency, but the queen was firm. He saw the present advantage, the
-ready money, and doubted whether he would get as much from the fines
-and confiscations promised by the inquisitors. But at that moment, so
-the story goes, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing a crucifix
-on high and cried in stentorian tones that the sovereigns were about
-to act the part of Judas Iscariot. "Here he is! Sell Him again, not
-for thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging
-the crucifix on to the table, he ran out in a frenzy. This turned the
-tables, and the decree for expulsion was confirmed.
-
-The terms of the edict were extremely harsh and peremptory. As a
-preamble the crimes of the Jews were recited and the small effect
-produced hitherto by the most severe penalties. It was asserted that
-they still conspired to overturn Christianity in Spain and recourse
-to the last remedy, the decree of expulsion, under which all Jews and
-Jewesses were commanded to leave Spain and never return, even for a
-passing visit, on pain of death, was therefore necessary. The last day
-of July, 1492, or four months later, was fixed for the last day of
-their sojourn in Spain. After that date they would remain at the peril
-of their lives, while any person of whatever rank or quality who should
-presume to receive, shelter, protect or defend a Jew or Jewess should
-forfeit all his property and be discharged from his office, dignity
-or calling. During the four months, the law allowed the Jews to sell
-their estates, or barter them for heavy goods, but they were forbidden
-to remove gold or silver or take out of the kingdom other portable
-property which was already prohibited by law from exportation.
-
-During the preparation for, and execution of this modern exodus, the
-condition of the wretched Israelites was heart-rending. Torquemada had
-tried hard to proselytise, had sent out preachers offering baptism and
-reconciliation, but at first few listened to the terms proposed. All
-owners of property and valuables suffered the heaviest losses. Enforced
-sales were so numerous that purchasers were not to be easily found.
-Fine estates were sold for a song. A house was exchanged for an ass
-or beast of burden; a vineyard for a scrap of cloth or linen. Despite
-the prohibition much gold and silver were carried away concealed in
-the stuffing of saddles and among horse furniture. Some exiles at
-the moment of departure swallowed gold pieces, as many as twenty and
-thirty, and thus evaded to some extent the strict search instituted at
-the sea ports and frontier towns.
-
-At last in the first week of July, all took to the roads travelling
-to the coast on foot, on horse or ass-back or were conveyed in
-country carts. According to an eye-witness, "they suffered incredible
-misfortunes by the way, some walking feebly, some struggling manfully,
-some fainting, many attacked with illness, some dying, others coming
-into the world, so that there was not a Christian who did not feel
-for them and entreat them to be baptised." Here and there under the
-pressure of accumulated miseries a few professed to be converted, but
-such cases were very rare. The rabbis encouraged the people as they
-went and exhorted the young ones to raise their voices and the women to
-sing and play on pipes and timbrels to enliven them and keep up their
-spirits.
-
-Ships were provided by the Spanish authorities at Cadiz, Gibraltar,
-Carthagena, Valencia and Barcelona on which fifteen hundred of the
-wealthy families embarked and started for Africa, Italy and the Levant,
-taking with them their dialect of the Spanish language, such as is
-still talked at the places where they landed. Of those who joined in
-the general exodus some perished at sea, by wreck, disease, violence
-or fire, and some by famine, exhaustion or murder on inhospitable
-shores. Many were sold for slaves, many thrown overboard by savage
-ship captains, while parents parted with their children for money
-to buy food. On board one crowded ship a pestilence broke out, and
-the whole company was landed and marooned on a desert island. Other
-infected ships carried disease into the port of Naples, where it grew
-into a terrible epidemic, by which twenty thousand native Neapolitans
-perished. Those who reached the city found it in the throes of famine,
-but were met in landing by a procession of priests, led by one who
-carried a crucifix and a loaf of bread, and who intimated that only
-those who would adore the first would receive the other. In papal
-dominions alone was a hospitable reception accorded. The pope of the
-time, Alexander VI, was more tolerant than other rulers.
-
-The total loss of population is now difficult to ascertain, but
-undoubtedly it has been greatly exaggerated. The most trustworthy
-estimate fixes the number of emigrants at one hundred and sixty-five
-thousand, and the number dying of hardships and grief before leaving at
-about twenty thousand. Probably fifty thousand more accepted baptism
-as a consequence of the edict. The loss entailed in actual value was
-incalculable and a vast amount of potential earnings was sacrificed by
-the disappearance of so large a part of the most industrious members
-of the population. The king and queen greatly impoverished Spain in
-purging it of Hebrew heresy. Their action however was greeted with
-applause by other rulers who did not go to the same lengths on account
-of economic considerations. They were praised because they were willing
-to sacrifice revenue for the sake of the faith.
-
-Open Judaism no longer existed in Spain. There were left only the
-apostates, or New Christians. That many of these were Christians in
-name and kept the Mosaic law in every detail is undoubted. As Jews they
-were not subject to the Inquisition. As professing Christians, any
-departure from the established faith subjected them to the penalties
-imposed upon heretics. In spite of the high positions which many
-achieved, they were objects of suspicion, and with the increasing
-authority of the Inquisition their lot grew harder.
-
-Torquemada had been active not only against the Jews, but against
-all suspected of any heresy, no matter how influential. The odium he
-incurred raised up constant accusations against him, and he was obliged
-on three occasions to send an agent to Rome to defend his character.
-Later his arbitrary power was curtailed by the appointment of four
-coadjutors, nominally, to share the burthens of office, but really to
-check his action. On the whole he may be said to take rank among those
-who have been the authors of evil to their species. "His zeal was of
-such an extravagant character that it may almost shelter itself under
-the name of insanity." His later days were filled with constant dread
-of assassination, and when he moved to and fro his person was protected
-by a formidable escort, a bodyguard of fifty familiars of the Holy
-Office mounted as dragoons and a body of two hundred infantry soldiers.
-Yet he reached a very old age and died quietly in his bed.
-
-Estimates of the numbers convicted and punished during his
-administration differ widely. Llorente, who is, however, much given
-to exaggeration, states that eight thousand eight hundred were burned
-alive, and that the total number condemned was more than one hundred
-and five thousand. On the other hand Langlois,[4] whose estimate is
-accepted by Vancandard, and other Catholic writers, thinks that the
-number put to death was about two thousand.
-
-[4] Langlois, L'Inquisition d'après des tableaux recénts (1902), quoted
-by Vancandard (Conway's translation, 1908).
-
-Death overtook him when a fresh campaign against heresy was imminent.
-The conquest of the Kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella opened
-up a new field for the proselytising fervour of the Inquisition, which
-was now resolved to convert all Mahometan subjects to the Christian
-faith. A friar of the order of St. Jerome, Hernando de Talavera, a
-man of blameless life, a ripe scholar, a persuasive preacher, deeply
-read in sacred literature and moral philosophy, had been one of the
-confessors to Royalty, and had been raised to the bishopric of Avila.
-But he had begged to be allowed to resign it and devote himself
-entirely to the conversion of the Moors. The pope granted his request
-and appointed him archbishop of Granada with a smaller revenue than
-that of the diocese he left, but he was humble minded, had no craving
-to exhibit the pomp and display of a great prelate and devoted himself
-with all diligence to the duties of his new charge.
-
-He soon won the hearts of the Moors who loved and venerated him. He
-proceeded with great caution, made no open show of his desire to
-convert them, and strictly refrained from any coercive measures,
-trusting rather to reason them out of their heterodox belief. He
-caused a translation to be made of the Bible into Arabic, distributed
-it, encouraged the Moors to attend conferences, and come to him in
-private to listen to his arguments. Being thus busily engaged, he
-withdrew to a great extent from the court of Ferdinand and Isabella,
-who came more and more under the influence of fiery bigots, to whom
-the mild measures of the archbishop became profoundly displeasing.
-The inquisitors, with Don Diego Deza who had succeeded Torquemada, at
-their head, incessantly entreated the sovereigns to proceed with more
-severity, and went the length of advising the immediate expulsion of
-all Moors who hesitated to accept conversion and baptism forthwith.
-They urged that it was for the good of their souls to draw them into
-the fold and insisted that it would be utterly impossible for Christian
-and Moslem to live peacefully and happily side by side. The king and
-queen demurred, temporising as they had done with the revival of the
-Inquisition. It might be dangerous, they argued, to enforce penalties
-that were too harsh. Their supremacy was hardly as yet consolidated
-in Granada; the Moors had not yet entirely laid aside their arms and
-unwise oppression might bring about a resumption of hostilities. They
-hoped that the Moors, like other conquered peoples, would in due course
-freely adopt the religion of their new masters. Loving kindliness and
-gentle persuasion would more surely gain ground than fierce threats and
-arbitrary decrees.
-
-So for seven or more years the conciliatory methods of Archbishop
-Talavera prevailed and met with the approval of Ferdinand and Isabella.
-But now a remarkable man of very different character appeared upon the
-scene and began to advocate sterner measures. This was a Franciscan
-monk, Ximenes de Cisneros, one of the most notable figures in Spanish
-history, who became in due course inquisitor-general and regent of
-Spain. A sketch of his life may well be given to enable us better to
-understand the times.
-
-Ximenes de Cisneros better known, perhaps, under his first name alone,
-was the scion of an ancient but decayed family and destined from his
-youth for the Church. He studied at the University of Salamanca and
-evinced marked ability. After a stay in Rome, the best field for
-preferment, he returned to Spain with the papal promise of the first
-vacant benefice in the See of Toledo. The archbishop had other views,
-however, and when Ximenes claimed the cure of Uceda, he was sent to
-prison in its fortress and not to the presbytery. For six years Ximenes
-asserted his pretensions unflinchingly and was at last nominated, when
-he exchanged to a chaplaincy in another diocese, that of Siguenza,
-where he continued his theological studies and acquired Hebrew and
-Chaldee. Here he came under the observation of the Bishop Mendoza,
-who afterwards became Cardinal Primate of Spain, and who enjoyed the
-unbounded confidence of Queen Isabella. Mendoza when invited to
-recommend to her a new confessor, in succession to Talavera on his
-translation to the See of Granada, fixed upon Ximenes of whom he had
-never lost sight since their first acquaintance at Siguenza.
-
-Ximenes, meanwhile, had become more and more devoted to his sacred
-calling. His marked business aptitudes had gained for him the post
-of steward to a great nobleman, the Conde de Cifuentes, who had been
-taken prisoner by the Moors. But secular concerns were distasteful
-to him and Ximenes resigned his charge. His naturally austere and
-contemplative disposition had deepened into stern fanatical enthusiasm
-and he resolved to devote himself more absolutely to the service of the
-Church. He entered the Franciscan order, threw up all his benefices
-and employments, and became a simple novice in the monastery of San
-Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, where his cloister life was signalised
-by extreme severity and self-mortification. He wore haircloth next
-his skin, slept on the stone floor with a wooden pillow under his
-head, tortured himself with continual fasts and vigils, and flogged
-himself perpetually. At last he became a professed monk, and because
-of the fame of his exemplary piety, great crowds were attracted to
-his confessional. He shrank now from the popular favour and retired
-to a lonely convent in a far off forest, where he built himself a
-small hermitage with his own hands and where he passed days and
-nights in solemn abstraction and unceasing prayer, living like
-the ancient anchorites on the green herbs he gathered and drinking
-water from the running streams. Self centred and pondering deeply on
-spiritual concerns, constantly in a state of mental exaltation and
-ecstasy, he saw visions and dreamed dreams, believing himself to be
-in close communication with celestial agencies and was no doubt on
-the eve of going mad, when his superiors ordered him to reside in the
-convent of Salceda, where he became charged with its administration
-and management, and was forced to exercise his powerful mind for the
-benefit of others.
-
-It was here that the call to court found him and he was summoned to
-Valladolid and unexpectedly brought into the presence of the queen.
-Isabella was greatly prepossessed in his favour by his simple dignity
-of manner, his discretion, his unembarrassed self-possession and
-above all his fervent piety in discussing religious questions. Yet he
-hesitated to accept the office of her confessor, and only did so on
-the condition that he should be allowed to conform to the rules of his
-order and remain at his monastery except when officially on duty at the
-court.
-
-Soon afterwards, he was appointed Provincial of the Franciscans
-in Castile and set himself to reform their religious houses,
-the discipline of which was greatly relaxed. Sloth, luxury and
-licentiousness prevailed and especially in his own order, which was
-wealthy and richly endowed with estates in the country, and stately
-dwellings in the towns. These monks, styled "conventuals," wasted large
-sums in prodigal expenditure, and were often guilty of scandalous
-misconduct which Ximenes, as an Observantine, one of a small section
-pledged to rigid observance of monastic rules, strongly condemned. He
-was encouraged and supported in the work of reform by Isabella and a
-special bull from Rome armed him with full authority. His rigorous and
-unsparing action met with fierce opposition, but he triumphed in the
-end and won a notable reward. When the archbishop of Toledo died, in
-1495, Ximenes, unknown to himself, was selected for the great post of
-primate of all Spain and Lord High Chancellor of Castile.
-
-The right to nominate was vested in the Queen, and Ferdinand in this
-instance begged her to appoint his natural son, Alfonso, already
-archbishop of Saragossa, but a child almost in years. She firmly and
-unhesitatingly refused and recommended her confessor to the pope as
-the most worthy recipient of the honour. When the bull making the
-appointment arrived from Rome, the queen summoned Ximenes to her
-presence handed him the letter and desired him to open it before her.
-On reading the address, "To our venerable brother, Francisco Ximenes
-de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo," he changed colour, dropped the
-letter, and crying, "There must be some mistake," ran out of the room.
-The queen, in surprise, waited, but he did not return and it was found
-that he had taken horse and fled to his monastery. Two grandees were
-despatched in hot haste to ride after him, overtake him and bring him
-back to Madrid. He returned but still resisted all the entreaties of
-his friends and the clearly expressed wishes of his sovereign. Finally
-his persistent refusal was overborne, but only by the direct command of
-the pope, who ordered him to accept the post for which his sovereigns
-had chosen him. He has been sharply criticised for his apparent
-humility, but it is generally admitted that he was sincere in his
-refusal. He was already advanced in years, ambition was dying in him,
-he had become habituated to monastic seclusion and his thoughts were
-already turned from the busy turmoil of this world to the life beyond
-the grave.
-
-However reluctant to accept high office, Ximenes was by no means slow
-to exercise the power it gave him. He ruled the Spanish Church with
-a rod of iron, bending all his energies to the work of reforming the
-practices of the clergy, enforcing discipline and insisting upon the
-maintenance of the strictest morality. He trod heavily, made many
-enemies, and stirred so much ill feeling that the malcontents combined
-to despatch a messenger to lay their grievances before the pope. The
-officious advocate, however, got no audience but went home to Spain,
-where twenty months' imprisonment taught him not to offend again the
-masterful archbishop of Toledo.
-
-Ximenes in insisting upon a strict observance of propriety and
-the adoption of an exemplary life, was in himself a model to the
-priesthood. He never relaxed the personal mortifications which had
-been his rule when a simple monk. He kept no state and made no
-show, regulating his domestic expenditure with the strictest and
-most parsimonious economy, until reminded by the Holy See that the
-dignity of his great office demanded more magnificence. Still, when he
-increased his display and the general style of living in household,
-equipages and the number of his retainers, he continued to be as harsh
-as ever to himself.
-
-In spite of all opposition and discontent he pursued his course with
-inflexible purpose. His spirit was unyielding, and his energetic
-proceedings were unremittingly directed to the amelioration and
-improvement in the morals of the clergy with marked success. And now
-he set himself with the same uncompromising zeal to extirpate heresy.
-Having begged Archbishop Talavera to allow him to join in the good work
-at Granada, he took immediate advantage of the consent given and began
-to attack the Moorish unbelievers in his own vigorous fashion. His
-first step was to call together a great conference of learned Mussulman
-doctors, to whom he expounded with all the eloquence he had at his
-command, the true doctrines of the Catholic faith and their superiority
-to the law of Mahomet. He accompanied his teaching with liberal gifts,
-chiefly of costly articles of apparel, a specious though irresistible
-bribery, which had the desired effect. Great numbers of the Moorish
-doctors came over at once and their example was speedily followed by
-many of their illiterate disciples. So great was the number of converts
-that no less than three thousand presented themselves for baptism in
-one day, and as the rite could not be administered individually, they
-were christened wholesale by sprinkling them from a mop or hyssop which
-had been dipped in holy water, and from which the drops fell upon the
-proselytes as it was twirled over the heads of the multitude. These
-early successes stimulated the primate's zeal and he next adopted more
-violent measures by proceeding to imprison and impose penalties upon
-all Moors who still stood out against conversion. He was resolved
-not merely to exterminate heresy, but to destroy the basis of belief
-contained in the most famous Arabic manuscripts, large quantities of
-which were collected into great piles and burned publicly in the great
-squares of the city. Many of these were beautifully executed copies
-of the Koran; others, treasured theological and scientific works, and
-their indiscriminate destruction is a blot upon the reputation of the
-cultivated prelate who had created the most learned university in Spain.
-
-More temperate and cautious people besought Ximenes to hold his hand.
-But he proceeded pertinaciously, declaring that a tamer policy might
-serve in temporal matters, but not where the interests of the soul were
-at stake. If the unbeliever could not be drawn he must be driven into
-the way of salvation, and he continued with unflinching resolution
-to arrest all recusants, and throw them into the prisons which were
-filled to overflowing. Discontent grew rapidly and soon broke into
-open violence. When an _alguazil_ in Granada was leading a woman away
-as a prisoner, the people rose and released her from custody. The
-insurrection became general in the city and assumed a threatening
-aspect. Granada was full of warlike Moors and a mob besieged Ximenes in
-his house until he was rescued by the garrison of the Alhambra.
-
-The king and queen were much annoyed with Ximenes and condemned his
-zealous precipitancy, but he was clever enough to vindicate his action
-and bring the sovereigns to believe that it was imperative that the
-rebellious Moors must be sharply repressed. Now a long conflict began.
-Forcible conversion became the order of the day; baptism continued to
-be performed in the gross upon thousands, the alternative being exile,
-and numbers were actually deported to Barbary in the royal ships. A
-fierce civil conflict broke out in the Alpujarras beyond Granada, which
-required a royal army to quell. The object sought was the welfare of
-the state by producing uniformity of faith.
-
-[Illustration: _Peint par Benjamin Constant_
-_Photogravure Goupil & C^{ie}._
-
-_The Alhambra Palace, Granada_
-
-The beautiful Moorish stronghold during the time of the supremacy
-of the Moors was often made the home of slaves captured in near-by
-frontier towns of Andalusia, who endured hateful bondage under the
-rule of the Mohammedan monarch. Granada and its palace were finally
-captured by Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Alhambra is to-day the
-finest example of Moorish architecture, with its delicate elaboration
-of detail.]
-
-Ximenes found a strenuous supporter in Diego Deza, the
-inquisitor-general, who was eager to emulate the strictness of
-his predecessor, Torquemada. Deza was a Dominican who had been at
-one time professor of theology and confessor to the queen. He was by
-nature and predilection exactly fitted for his new office upon which he
-entered with extensive powers. A bull from Pope Alexander VI dated 1499
-invested him with the title of "Conservator of the Faith" in Spain.
-
-Deza gave a new constitution to the Holy Office and prescribed that
-there should be a general "Inquest" in places not yet visited, and
-that edicts should be republished requiring all persons to lay
-information against suspected heretics. He stirred up the zeal of
-all subordinate inquisitors and was well served by them, especially
-by one, Lucero, commonly called _el Tenebroso_, "the gloomy," whose
-savage and ruthless proceedings terrorised Cordova where he presided.
-He made a general attack upon the most respectable inhabitants and
-arrested great numbers, many of whom were condemned and executed.
-Informers crowded Lucero's ante-chamber bringing monstrous tales of
-heretical conspiracies to reëstablish Judaism and subvert the Church.
-His familiars dragged the accused from their beds to answer to these
-charges and the prisons overflowed. Cordova was up in arms and many
-would have offered armed resistance to the Inquisition, but the more
-circumspect people, the Bishop and Chapter, some of the nobility and
-the municipal council appealed to Deza praying him to remove Lucero.
-The inquisitor-general however turned furiously upon the complainants
-and caused them to be arrested as abettors of heresy. Philip I, acting
-for his wife Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was
-inclined to listen to the complainants, and suspended both Deza and
-Lucero from their functions. But his sudden death stayed the relief
-he had promised, and the tormenting officials returned to renew their
-oppression.
-
-The Cordovese would not tamely submit and appealed to force. A strong
-body of men under the Marques de Priego attacked the "Holy House,"
-broke open the prison and liberated many of those detained, shutting up
-the officers of the Inquisition in their place. Lucero took to flight
-upon a swift mule and escaped. Though for a time Deza continued to
-keep his influence, he was shortly forced to resign and Cordova became
-tranquil. Deza's persecution had spared no one. In the eight years
-during which he held office, one account, probably greatly exaggerated,
-says that 2,592 persons were burned alive, some nine hundred were
-burned in effigy, and thirty-five thousand were punished by penance,
-fines and confiscations.
-
-The fall of Deza and the hostile attitude of the people warned the
-authorities that the affairs of the Inquisition must be managed
-more adroitly. New inquisitors must be appointed and choice fell
-upon Ximenes de Cisneros, who had already played a foremost part
-in proselytising, but who now was willing to adopt more moderate
-measures. The Pope in giving his approval sent him a cardinal's hat
-as a recompense for past services, and as an encouragement to act
-wisely in the future. He had a difficult task. Disaffection, strongly
-pronounced, prevailed through the kingdom and the Inquisition was
-everywhere cordially detested. Ximenes strove to appease the bitter
-feeling by instituting a searching inquiry into the conduct of his
-immediate predecessor, Deza, and promising to hear all complaints and
-redress all grievances. He created a "Catholic Congregation" as a
-special court to investigate the actions of Lucero in the proceedings
-growing out of the charges against Archbishop Talavera and his
-family. This court in due course pronounced a verdict of acquittal
-and rehabilitation of the Talaveras. Ruined houses were rebuilt, the
-memory of the dead restored to honour and fame, and this act of grace
-was published at Valladolid with great solemnity in the presence of the
-kings, bishops and grandees.
-
-Nevertheless Ximenes had no desire to remodel the Holy Office or
-limit its operations to any considerable extent. On the contrary,
-he bent all his efforts to develop its influence and make it an
-engine of government, utilising it as a political as well as a
-religious agency. It was as rigorous as ever but he set his face
-like a flint against dishonesty. He systematised the division of the
-realm into inquisitorial provinces, each under its own inquisitor
-with headquarters in the principal cities, such as Seville, Toledo,
-Valladolid, Murcia, and in Sardinia and Sicily beyond the seas. His
-personal ascendancy became extraordinary. He enjoyed the unbounded
-confidence and favour of the sovereign. He had been created Cardinal of
-Spain, a title rarely conferred. As archbishop of Toledo, he was the
-supreme head of the Spanish clergy, and as inquisitor-general, he was
-the terror of every priest and every layman within his jurisdiction.
-He had, in fact, reached the highest ecclesiastical rank, short of the
-papacy and as he rose higher and higher he wielded powers little short
-of an independent absolute monarch, and his zeal in the cause of his
-religion grew more and more fervent and far-reaching. No doubt in an
-earlier age he would have turned crusader, but now he sought to crush
-the fugitive Moors who had escaped into Northern Africa, whence they
-made constant descents upon the south of Spain, burning to avenge the
-wrongs of their co-religionists, and were a constant scourge and source
-of grievous trouble.
-
-The evils centred in the province of Oran, a fortified stronghold--the
-most considerable of the Moslem possessions on the shores of the
-Mediterranean--whence issued a swarm of pirate cruisers, manned by the
-exiles driven out of Spain, who had sought and found a welcome refuge
-in Oran. Ximenes was resolved to seize and sweep out this hornets'
-nest and undertook its conquest on his own account. Much ridicule
-was levelled at this "monk about to fight the battles of Spain," but
-he went forth undeterred at the head of a powerful army, conveyed by
-a strong fleet from Cartagena, which he landed at the African port of
-Mazalquivir, and after some desperate fighting made himself master of
-Oran. After his successful African campaign he resumed his duties of
-chief inquisitor, and the Holy Office under his fierce and vigorous
-rule became more than ever oppressive. Ximenes pursued his unwavering
-course and encouraged his inquisitors in their unceasing activity.
-He desired to extend the power and influence of the Inquisition, and
-established it in the new countries recently added to the Spanish
-dominion. A branch was set up in the newly conquered province of Oran,
-and another farther afield in the recently discovered new world beyond
-the Atlantic. On the initiative of Ximenes Fray Juan Quevedo, Bishop of
-Cuba, was appointed chief inquisitor in the kingdom of Terrafirma, as
-the territories of the new world were styled.
-
-The energetic pursuit of heresy did not monopolise the exertions of
-Ximenes. He founded the great University of Alcalá, a vast design, a
-noble seat of learning richly endowed with magnificent buildings and
-a remarkable scheme of education, which produced the ablest and most
-eminent scholars. Another great monument is the well known polyglot
-Bible, designed to exhibit the scriptures in their various ancient
-languages, a work of singular erudition upon which the munificent
-cardinal expended vast sums.
-
-Ximenes lived to the advanced age of eighty-one, long enough to act as
-regent of Spain during the interregnum preceding the arrival of Charles
-I, better known as the Emperor Charles V. The immediate cause of his
-death was said to have been the receipt of a letter from the Emperor in
-which he was coldly thanked for his services and desired to retire to
-his diocese, to "seek from heaven that reward which heaven alone could
-adequately bestow." In his last moments he is reported to have said,
-"that he had never intentionally wronged any man; but had rendered to
-every one his due, without being swayed, as far as he was conscious, by
-fear or affection."
-
-He combined a versatility of talent usually found only in softer and
-more flexible characters. Though bred in the cloister, he distinguished
-himself both in the cabinet and the camp. For the latter, indeed, so
-repugnant to his regular profession, he had a natural genius, according
-to the testimony of his biographer; and he evinced his relish for it
-by declaring that "the smell of gunpowder was more grateful to him
-than the sweetest perfume of Arabia!" In every situation, however, he
-exhibited the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern lineaments
-of the monk were never wholly concealed under the mask of the statesman
-or the visor of the warrior. He had a full measure of the religious
-bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had melancholy scope for
-displaying it, as chief of that dread tribunal over which he presided
-during the last ten years of his life.
-
-The accession of the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish
-throne as Charles I (better known as the Emperor Charles V), seemed
-to foreshadow a change in the relations of the Inquisition and the
-state. The young sovereign was born in Ghent and was more Fleming than
-Spaniard. Though his grandfather left in his will solemn injunctions
-"to labour with all his strength to destroy and extirpate heresy" and
-to appoint ministers "who will conduct the Inquisition justly and
-properly for the service of God and the exaltation of the Catholic
-faith, and who will also have great zeal for the destruction of the
-sect of Mahomet," it was reported that he sympathised with the critics
-of the Inquisition and was disposed to curtail its activity. The
-influence of his old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, whom he commissioned
-inquisitor-general, first of Aragon, and, after the death of Ximenes,
-of Castile also, changed him however into a strong friend and staunch
-supporter of the institution.
-
-Cardinal Manrique, who followed as inquisitor-general, was a man of
-more kindly disposition, charitable and a benefactor to the poor.
-He was inclined to relax the severities of the Holy Office but it
-was urged upon him that heresy was on the increase on account of the
-appearance of Lutheran opinions and the bitterest persecution was
-more than ever essential. Protestants began to appear sporadically and
-called for uncompromising repression. The writings of Luther, Erasmus,
-Melancthon, Zwingli, and the rest of the early reformers were brought
-into Spain, but the circulation was adjudged a crime, though Erasmus
-had once been a favourite author.
-
-The Inquisition later prepared an _Index Expurgandorum_, or list of
-condemned and prohibited literature. All books named on it were put
-under the ban of the law. Possession of a translation of the Bible in
-the vulgar tongues was forbidden in 1551, and the prohibition was not
-lifted until 1782. By that time there was no longer such keen interest
-in its contents, and the Book was little circulated. In 1825 the
-British and Foreign Bible Society sent one of its agents into Spain to
-distribute it, and his adventures are described autobiographically in
-that interesting work, George Borrow's "Bible in Spain."
-
-In spite of all the efforts to make good Catholics and good Spaniards
-of the Moriscos, little real progress was made. They had accepted
-baptism under compulsion, not realising that thereby they were brought
-under control of the Church. Little effort was made to instruct them,
-moreover, and as a result thousands, nominally Christians, observed
-scrupulously the whole Moslem ritual, used the old language, and kept
-their old costume. Some, to be sure, were hardly to be distinguished
-from the Spaniards with whom they had intermarried, but, on the whole,
-they seemed an unassimilable element in the population.
-
-When Philip II succeeded his father, Charles V, in 1556, he determined
-to take strong measures. A decree proclaimed in Granada in 1566 forbade
-the use of the distinctive dress and of the Moorish names. The old
-customs were to be abandoned, and all the baths were to be destroyed.
-Rebellion followed this edict, and, for a time, it was doubtful whether
-it could be crushed. Finally open resistance was overcome, and several
-thousand were transferred to the mountains of Northern Spain. Meanwhile
-the Inquisition was active, and thousands were brought to trial for
-pagan practices.
-
-Prejudice continued to grow, and fanatics declared that Spain could
-never prosper until the "evil seed" was destroyed or expelled from
-the Christian land. Jealousy of the prosperity of the Moriscos led
-the populace to agree with the bigots, and finally expulsion was
-unanimously decreed by the Council of State, in 1609, during the
-reign of Philip III. Valencia was first purged, and next Murcia,
-Granada, Andalusia, Old and New Castile and Aragon. Afterward vigorous
-attempts to root out individuals of Moorish blood, who had become
-indistinguishable because of their strict conformity, were made. Great
-suffering was incurred by the unfortunate exiles and many died. Those
-who reached Africa carried with them a hatred which persists to the
-present.
-
-The number driven out is uncertain. The estimates vary from three
-hundred thousand to three million. Probably the most accurate estimate
-is that of six hundred thousand. In this number were included the most
-skilful artisans, and the most industrious and most thrifty portion of
-the population. It was a mistake from which Spain has never recovered.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS
-
- Prisons, usually, a part of the building occupied by court--Better
- than civil prisons--Torture inflicted--No new methods
- invented--Description of various kinds--Two Lutheran congregations
- broken up--Description of some famous _autos da fé_--Famous
- victims--Englishmen punished--Archbishop Carranza's trial.
-
-
-The prisons of the Inquisition fall under two great heads, the
-"secret prisons" in which those awaiting trial were confined, and the
-"penitential prisons" where sentences were served. Generally there were
-also _cárceles de familiares_ where officers of the institution charged
-with wrong-doing were confined. In some tribunals there were others
-variously called _cárceles medias_, _cárceles comunes_, and _cárceles
-públicas_, where offenders not charged with heresy might be confined.
-
-The secret prisons, however, have most fired the imagination. A
-man might disappear from his accustomed haunts, and for years his
-family and friends be ignorant of his condition, or even of his very
-existence, until one day he might appear at an _auto da fé_. What
-went on within the walls was a mystery. Seldom did any hint of the
-proceedings leak out. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, and the arm of the
-Inquisition was long, if the luckless witness or attendant failed to
-heed his instructions.
-
-These prisons were almost invariably a part of the building occupied
-by the tribunal. In Valencia, it was the archbishop's palace; in
-Saragossa, the royal castle; in Seville, the Triana; in Cordova, the
-Alcázar, and so on. In some, there were cells and dungeons already
-prepared, in others, they were constructed. There was no common
-standard of convenience or sanitation. In many cases, generally,
-perhaps, they were superior to the common jails in which ordinary
-prisoners were confined. Yet we know that some were entirely dark and
-very damp. Others were so small that a cramped position was necessary,
-and were hardly ventilated at all. Sometimes they were poorly cared
-for, and loathsome filth and vermin made them unendurable. Many
-places were used for prisons during the three hundred years of the
-Inquisition, and no statement is broad enough to cover them all. The
-mortality was high, yet not so high as in the prisons generally. Since
-many were unsuitable and often unsafe, the wearing of fetters was
-common. Prisoners often, incidentally, speak of their chains.
-
-Occasionally more than one prisoner occupied the same room, and much
-evidence was secured in this way, as each hoped to lighten his own
-punishment by inculpating others. Writing materials were permitted,
-though every sheet of paper must be accounted for and delivered into an
-official's hands. Lights were not permitted however.
-
-Yet entire secrecy was not always secured. Attendants were sometimes
-bribed, and by various ingenious methods, communications occasionally
-found their way in or out. Again in cases of severe sickness, the
-prisoner might be transferred to a hospital, which however must account
-for him if he recovered. Cardinal Adrian, the inquisitor-general,
-reminded the tribunals that the prison was for detention, not for
-punishment, that prisoners must not be defrauded of their food, and
-that the cells must be carefully inspected.
-
-These and similar instructions issued at intervals were not always
-obeyed, for inquisitors were often negligent. According to Lea, "no
-general judgment can be formed as to the condition of so many prisons
-during three centuries, except that their average standard was
-considerably higher than that in other jurisdictions, and that, if
-there were abodes of horror, such as have been described by imaginative
-writers they were wholly exceptional."[5] Again the same author quotes
-instances where prisoners speak of improved health, due to better
-food in prison than they were accustomed to at home, and in summing
-up declares that the general management was more humane than could be
-found elsewhere, either in or out of Spain.
-
-[5] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. II. p. 526.
-
-We may briefly recapitulate the various processes of the Inquisition
-in order, as they obtained. First came the denunciation, followed
-by seizure and the commencement of an inquiry. The several offences
-imputed were next submitted to those logical experts named "qualifiers"
-who decided, so to speak, "whether there was a true bill," in which
-case the procurator fiscal committed the accused to durance. Three
-audiences were given him, and the time was fully taken up with cautions
-and monitions. The charges were next formulated but with much prolixity
-and reduplication. They were not reduced to writing and delivered to
-the accused for slow perusal and reply, but were only read over to him,
-hurriedly. On arraignment he was called upon to reply, then and there,
-to each article, to state at once whether it was true or false. The
-charges were usually originated by an informer and resort was had, if
-necessary, to "inquiry," the hunting up of suspicious or damaging facts
-on which evidence was sought, in any quarter and from any one good or
-bad. If the accused persisted in denial he was allowed counsel, but
-later the counsel became an official of the Inquisition and naturally
-made only a perfunctory defence. An appeal to torture was had if the
-prisoner persisted in denying his guilt, in the face of plausible
-testimony, or if he confessed only partially to the charges against
-him, or if he refused to name his accomplices. A witness who had
-retracted his testimony or had contradicted himself, might be tortured
-in order that the truth might be made known.
-
-It was admitted, however, that torture was by no means an infallible
-method for bringing out the truth. "Weak-hearted men, impatient of the
-first pain, will confess crimes they never committed and criminate
-others at the same time. Bold and strong ones will bear the most severe
-torments. Those who have been already on the rack are likely to bear
-it with greater courage, for they know how to adapt their limbs to it
-and can resist more powerfully." It may be admitted that the system
-was so far humane that the torture was not applied until every other
-effort had been tried and had failed. The instruments of torture
-were first exhibited with threats, but when once in use, it might be
-repeated day after day, "in continuation," as it was called, and if any
-"irregularity" occurred, such as the death of a victim, the inquisitors
-were empowered to absolve one another. Nobles were supposedly exempted
-from torture, and it was not permissible by the civil laws in Aragon,
-but the Holy Office was nevertheless authorised to torture without
-restriction all persons of all classes.
-
-Torture was not inflicted as a punishment by the Inquisition, nor was
-it peculiar to its trials. Until a comparatively recent date it was
-a recognised method of securing testimony, accepted in nearly all
-courts of Europe as a matter of course. The Inquisition seems to have
-invented no new methods, and seldom used the extreme forms commonly
-practised. In fact in nearly every case, torture was inflicted by the
-regular public executioner who was called in for the purpose and sworn
-to secrecy. The list of tortures practised on civil prisoners was
-long, and they seem to us now fiendish in their ingenuity. A complete
-course would require many hours, and included apparently the infliction
-of pain to every organ or limb and to almost every separate muscle
-and nerve. The records of the Inquisition show almost invariably the
-infliction of a few well known sorts.
-
-Some sorts were abandoned because of the danger of permanent harm, and
-others less violent, but probably no less painful, were substituted.
-Often the record states that the prisoner "overcame the torture,"
-_i. e._ was not moved to confess. Evidently, though the whole idea is
-abhorrent to us to-day, torture as inflicted was less awful than some
-writers would have us believe.[6]
-
-[6] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. III.
-
-A curious memento of the methods employed by the Holy Office has been
-preserved in an ancient "Manual of the Inquisition of Seville," a
-thin quarto volume bound in vellum, with pages partly printed, partly
-in manuscript. It bears the date 1628, and purports to be compiled
-from ancient and modern instructions for the order of procedure. It
-was found in the Palace of the Inquisition at Seville, when it was
-sacked in the year 1820. One part of this manual details the steps to
-be taken, "when torture has to be performed." The criminal having
-been brought into the audience, was warned that he had not told the
-entire truth, and as he was believed to have kept back and hidden many
-things, he was about to be "tormented" to compel him to speak out.
-Formal sentence to the torture chamber was then passed, after "invoking
-the name of Christ." It was announced that the "question" would be
-administered. The method of infliction was detailed whether by pulleys
-or by water or cords, or by all, to be continued for "as long a time as
-may appear well," with the proviso that if in the said torment, "he (or
-she) should die or be wounded, or if there be any effusion of blood or
-mutilation of member, the blame should be his (or hers) not ours."
-
-Here follows in manuscript the description of the torments applied to
-one unfortunate female whose name is not given.
-
-"On this she was ordered to be taken to the chamber of Torment whither
-went the Lords Inquisitors, and when they were there she was admonished
-to tell the truth and not to let herself be brought into such great
-trouble.
-
-"Her answer is not recorded.
-
-"Carlos Felipe, the executor of Justice, was called and his oath taken
-that he would do his business well and faithfully and that he would
-keep the secret. All of which he promised.
-
-"She was told to tell the truth or orders would be given to strip her.
-She was commanded to be stripped naked.
-
-"She was told to tell the truth or orders would be given to cut off her
-hair. It was taken off and she was examined by the doctor and surgeon
-who certified that there was no reason why she should not be put to the
-torture.
-
-"She was commanded to mount the rack and to tell the truth or her
-body should be bound; and she was bound. She was commanded to tell
-the truth, or they would order her right foot to be made fast to the
-_trampazo_."[7]
-
-[7] _Trampazo_ means, exactly, an "extreme tightening of cords": _La
-ultima de las vueltas que se dan en el tormento de las cuerdas_.
-
-After the _trampazo_ of the right foot that of the left followed. Then
-came the binding and stretching of the right arm, then that of the
-left. After that the _garrote_ or the compression of the fleshy parts
-of the arms and thighs with fine cords, a plan used to revive any
-person who had fainted under the torture. Last of all the _mancuerda_
-was inflicted, a simultaneous tension of all the cords on all the limbs
-and parts.
-
-The water torture was used to extort confession. The patient was
-tightly bound to the _potro_, or ladder, the rungs of which were
-sharp-edged. The head was immovably fastened lower than the body, and
-the mouth was held open by an iron prong. A strip of linen slowly
-conducted water into the mouth, causing the victim to strangle and
-choke. Sometimes six or eight jars, each holding about a quart, were
-necessary to bring the desired result. This is the "water-cure" found
-in the Philippines by American soldiers when the islands were captured.
-
-If these persuasions still failed of effect, or if the hour was late,
-or "for other considerations" the torment might be suspended with the
-explanation that it had been insufficiently tried and the victim was
-taken back to his prison to be brought out again after a respite. If,
-on the other hand, a confession was secured, it was written down word
-for word and submitted to the victim for ratification after at least
-twenty-four hours had elapsed. If he revoked the confession, he might
-be tortured again.
-
-When a number of cases had been decided, the Suprema appointed a day,
-usually a Sunday or a feast day, for pronouncing sentence. This was
-an _auto da fé_, literally an "act of faith." The greater festivals,
-Easter day, Christmas day, or Sundays in Advent or Lent were excepted
-because these holy days had their own special musical or dramatic
-entertainments in the churches. The day fixed was announced from all
-the pulpits in the city (Seville or Madrid or Cordova as the case might
-be) and notice given that a representative of the Inquisition would
-deliver a "sermon of the faith" and that no other preacher might raise
-his voice. The civil authorities were warned to be ready to receive
-their victims. At the same time officials unfurled a banner and
-made public proclamation to the effect that "no person whatever his
-station or quality from that hour until the completion of the _auto_
-should carry arms offensive or defensive, under pain of the greater
-excommunication and the forfeiture of such arms; nor during the same
-period should any one ride in coach, or sedan chair, or on horseback,
-through the streets in the route of the procession, nor enter the
-enclosure in which the place of execution (_quemadero_) was erected,"
-which was usually beyond the walls.
-
-On the eve of the great day a gorgeous procession was organised, for
-which all the communities of friars in the city and neighbourhood
-assembled at the Holy House of the Inquisition, together with the
-commissaries and familiars of the Holy Office. They sallied forth in
-triumphal array, followed by the "qualifiers" and experts, all carrying
-large white tapers, lighted. In their midst a bier was borne covered
-with a black pall, and, bringing up the rear, was a band, instrumental
-and vocal, performing hymns. In this order the procession reached the
-public square, when the pall was removed from the bier and a green
-cross disclosed which was carried to the altar on the platform, and
-there erected surrounded by a dozen candles. The white cross was
-carried to the burning place. Now a strong body of horse and a number
-of Dominican friars took post to watch through the night and the rest
-of the actors dispersed. At the same time those who were to suffer
-were prepared for the fatal event. All were shaved close, both head
-and beard, so that they might present an appearance of nakedness and
-humiliation suitable to their forlorn condition. At sunrise on their
-last day they were arrayed in the prescribed garb and brought from
-their cells into the chapel or great hall. The least heinous offenders
-were in coarse black blouses and pantaloons, and were bare-footed and
-bare-headed. The worst culprits were in the _sanbenito_ or penitential
-sack of yellow canvas, adorned with a St. Andrew's cross in bright red
-paint, and they often carried a halter round their necks as a badge
-of ignominy. Those to die at the stake were distinguished by black
-_sanbenitos_ with painted flames and wore on their heads a conical
-paper headdress in the shape of a bishop's mitre, but also resembling
-somewhat a fool's cap. This was called the _coroza_, a contemptuous
-form of _corona_ or crown. To make the clothing more hideous, it was
-decorated by coarse pictures of devils in flames. The condemned as
-they passed on their way were assailed to the last with importunate
-exhortations to repent, and a promise was held out to them that if
-they yielded they would be rewarded by a less painful death, and would
-be strangled before the flames reached them. All the penitents were
-obliged to sit upon the ground in profound silence and without so much
-as moving a limb, while the slow hours dragged themselves along. In the
-morning a sumptuous meal was set before them, and they were suffered
-to eat their fill. All the officials and visitors were also regaled
-before the day's business began.
-
-After the sermon, the secretary read to all the people the oath
-pledging them to support the Inquisition. Then sentences were
-pronounced, beginning with the lesser offenders and proceeding to the
-graver. The punishments ranged from a reprimand, through abjuration,
-fines, exile, for a longer or shorter period, destruction of residence,
-penance, scourging, the galleys, imprisonment, wearing the _sanbenito_
-or penitential garment, up to "relaxation to the secular arm;" _i. e._
-death by fire. These penalties carried with them civil disability, and
-tainted the blood of the descendants of the condemned as well.
-
-Penance might be inflicted in various forms. The condemned, perhaps,
-might be required to fast one day in every week, to recite a specified
-number of prayers on appointed days, or to appear at the church door
-with a halter around his neck on successive Sundays. When scourging was
-inflicted, the penitent, naked to the waist, was placed astride an ass,
-and paraded through the principal streets preceded by the town crier.
-Meanwhile the executioner, accompanied by a clerk to keep tally, plied
-the _penca_ or leather strap, but was charged most solemnly not to draw
-blood. Usually two hundred lashes was the limit.
-
-Theoretically a heretic who escaped the stake by confession was
-sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. This penalty might be served in
-a prison, a monastery, or in a private house. As a matter of fact,
-comparatively few were kept in prisons as the expense of maintenance
-was a heavy burden, and the sentences were usually changed to
-deportation to the colonies, or assignment to the galleys, or else the
-sentence was shortened.
-
-The trial and sentence of the bodies of the dead was common, but it
-was not peculiar to the Inquisition. As late as 1600, in Scotland, the
-bodies of the Earl of Gowrie and his brother were brought into court,
-and sentenced to be hanged, quartered and gibbeted. Logan of Restalrig,
-in 1609, three years after his death, was tried on the charge of being
-concerned in the same conspiracy, was found guilty and his property was
-confiscated.
-
-In recounting the punishments imposed by the Inquisition, we must not
-forget that it assumed jurisdiction over many crimes which to-day
-are tried by the civil courts. Bigamy was punished as, by a second
-marriage, the criminal denied the authority of the Church which makes
-marriage a sacrament. Certain forms of blasphemy also were brought
-before it, and perjury as well. Personation of the priesthood, or
-of officials of the Inquisition, was punished, and later it gained
-jurisdiction over unnatural crimes. Sorcery and witchcraft, which in
-other states, including the American colonies, were considered subjects
-for the secular courts, were within the jurisdiction of the Spanish
-Inquisition.
-
-Strange as it may appear at first thought, the attitude of the
-Inquisition toward the witchcraft delusion was one of skepticism almost
-from the beginning. Individual inquisitors, influenced by the well nigh
-universal belief, were occasionally active, but the Suprema moderated
-their zeal. In 1610 an _auto_ was held at Logroño, which was the centre
-of wild excitement. Twenty-nine witches were punished, six of whom were
-burned, and the bones of five others who had died in prison were also
-consumed. The eighteen remaining were "reconciled." In 1614, however,
-the Suprema drew up an elaborate code of instructions to the tribunals.
-While not denying the existence of witchcraft, these instructions
-treated it as a delusion and practically made proof impossible. As a
-result of this policy the victims of the craze in Spain can be counted
-almost by the score, while in almost every other country of Europe,
-they are numbered by the thousand. In Great Britain the best estimate
-fixes the number of victims at thirty thousand, and as late as 1775
-the great legal author, Sir William Blackstone, says that to deny
-"the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery is at once flatly to
-contradict the revealed word of God."[8]
-
-[8] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. IV.
-
-Heresy, of course, according to the views not only of Catholics but
-of Protestants, deserved death as a form of treason. Tolerance is a
-modern idea. Calvin burned Servetus at Geneva and was applauded for
-it. Protestants in England persecuted other Protestants as well as
-Catholics. The impenitent heretic in Spain was burned alive. That
-one, who after conviction, expressed his repentance, and his desire
-to die in the Church was usually strangled before the flames touched
-him. Before going on to describe some famous _autos da fé_ and the
-subsequent infliction of the death penalty, a word of explanation is in
-order.
-
-Protestant doctrines were introduced into Spain either by foreigners
-or by natives who travelled or studied in foreign lands, but made slow
-headway. In 1557 a secret organisation, comprising about one hundred
-and twenty members, was discovered in Seville. The next year another
-little band of about sixty was found in Valladolid.
-
-The almost simultaneous exposure of these two heretical organisations,
-both of which included some prominent people, created great commotion.
-Charles V, then living at San Yuste, whither he had retired after his
-abdication, wrote to his daughter Juana, who was acting as regent
-in the absence of Philip II, urging the most stringent measures and
-advocating that the heretics be pursued mercilessly. Little stimulation
-of the Inquisition was necessary, and the two little congregations were
-destroyed.
-
-A part of those condemned at Valladolid were sentenced at a great
-_auto da fé_ held on Trinity Sunday, May 21st, 1559, in Valladolid,
-not before Philip II, who was abroad, but his sister, Princess
-Juana, presided and with her was the unhappy Prince, Don Carlos.
-It was a brilliant gathering, a great number of grandees of Spain,
-titled noblemen and gentlemen untitled, ladies of high rank in
-gorgeous apparel, all seated in great state to watch the arrival of
-the penitential procession. Fourteen heretics were to die, sixteen
-more to be "reconciled" but to be branded with infamy and suffer
-lesser punishments. Among the sufferers were many persons of rank
-and consideration such as the two brothers Cazalla and their sister,
-children of the king's comptroller, one of them a canon of the Church,
-the other a presbyter, and all three members of the little Lutheran
-congregation. Their mother had died in heresy and on this occasion her
-effigy, clad in her widow's weeds and wearing a mitre with flames, was
-paraded through the streets and then burned publicly. Her house, where
-Lutherans had met for prayer, was razed to the ground and a pillar
-erected with an inscription setting forth her offence and sentence.
-Another victim was the licentiate, Antonio Herrezuelo, an impenitent
-Lutheran, the only one who went to the stake unmoved, singing psalms by
-the way, and reciting passages of scripture. They gagged him at last
-and a soldier in his zeal stabbed him with his halberd, but the wound
-was not mortal and bleeding and burning, he slowly expired.
-
-The sixteen who survived the horrors of the day were haled back to
-the prison of the Inquisition to spend one more night in the cells.
-Next morning they were again taken before the inquisitors who exhorted
-them afresh, and their sentences were finally read to them. Some
-destined to the galleys were transferred first to the civil prison to
-await removal, after they had been flogged through the streets and
-market places. Others clad in the _sanbenito_ and carrying ropes were
-exposed to the hoots and indignities of the ribald crowd. All who
-passed through the hands of the Holy Office were sworn to seal up in
-everlasting silence whatever they had seen, heard or suffered, on peril
-of a renewed prosecution.
-
-Philip II was present at the second great _auto_ in Valladolid in
-October of the same year, when the remainder of the Protestants were
-sentenced. His wife, Queen Mary of England, was dead, and he returned
-to Spain by way of the Netherlands, embarking at Flushing for Laredo.
-Rough weather and bad seamanship all but wrecked his fleet in sight of
-port, and Philip vowed if he were permitted to set foot on shore, to
-prosecute the heretics of Spain unceasingly. He was saved from drowning
-and went at once to Valladolid to carry out his vow.
-
-The ceremony was organised with unprecedented pomp and splendour. The
-king came in state, rejoicing that several notable heretics had been
-reserved to die in torments, for his especial delectation. His heir,
-Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, was also present but under compulsion;
-he was, at that time, no more than fourteen years of age and had
-writhed with agony at the sight of the suffering at the former _auto_.
-Moreover, when called upon to swear fidelity to the Inquisition, he
-had taken the oath with great reluctance. Not so King Philip, who when
-called upon to take the same oath at the second _auto da fé_, rose in
-his place, drew his sword and brandished it as he swore to show every
-favour to the Holy Office and support its ministers against whomsoever
-might directly or indirectly impede its efforts or affairs. "_Asi lo
-juro_," he said with deep feeling. "Thus I swear."
-
-The victims at this great _auto da fé_ were many and illustrious.
-One was Don Carlos de Seso, an Italian of noble family, the son of
-a bishop, a scholar who had long been in the service of the Emperor
-Charles V, and was chief magistrate of Toro. He had married a Spanish
-lady and resided at Logroño, where he became an object of suspicion
-as a professor of Lutheranism, and was arrested. They took him to the
-prison of Valladolid, where he was charged, tortured and condemned to
-die. When called upon to make confession, he wrote two full sheets
-denouncing the Catholic teaching, claiming that it was at variance with
-the true faith of the gospel. The priests argued with him in vain,
-and he was brought into church next morning, gagged, and so taken to
-the burning place, "lest he should speak heresy in the hearing of the
-people." At the stake the gag was removed and he was again exhorted to
-recant but he stoutly refused and bade them light up the fire speedily
-so that he might die in his belief.
-
-Much grief was felt by the Dominicans at the lapse of one of their
-order, Fray Domingo de Rojas, who was undoubtedly a Lutheran. On his
-way to the stake he strove to appeal to the king who drove him away
-and ordered him to be gagged. More than a hundred monks of his order
-followed him close entreating him to recant, but he persisted in a
-determined although inarticulate refusal until in sight of the flames.
-He then recanted and was strangled before being burned. One Juan
-Sanchez, a native of Valladolid, had fled to Flanders, but was pursued,
-captured and brought back to Spain to die on this day. When the cords
-which had bound him snapped in the fire, he bounded into the air with
-his agony but still repelled the priests and called for more fire. Nine
-more were burned in the presence of the king, who was no merely passive
-spectator, but visited the various stakes and ordered his personal
-guard to assist in piling up the fuel.
-
-The congregation at Seville were sentenced at _autos_ held in 1559 and
-1560. On December 22d of the latter year, there were fourteen burned in
-the flesh and three in effigy. The last were notable people. One was
-Doctor Egidio, who had been a leading canon of Seville Cathedral, and
-who had been tried and forced to recant his heresies in 1552. After
-release he renewed his connection with the Lutherans, but soon died
-and was buried at Seville. His corpse was exhumed, brought to trial,
-and burnt with his effigy; all his property was confiscated and his
-memory declared infamous. Another was Doctor Ponce de la Fuente, a man
-of deep learning and extraordinary eloquence who had been chaplain and
-preacher to the emperor. He followed the Imperial Court into Germany,
-then returned to charm vast congregations in Seville, but his sermons
-were reported by spies to be tainted with the Reformed doctrines. He
-was seized by the Inquisition and many incriminating papers were also
-taken. When cast into a secret dungeon and confronted with these proofs
-of his heresy, he would make no confession, nor would he betray any
-of his friends. He was transferred to a subterranean cell, damp and
-pestiferous, so narrow he could barely move himself, and was deprived
-of the commonest necessaries of life. Existence became impossible under
-such conditions, and he died, proclaiming with his last breath that
-neither Scythians nor cannibals could be more cruel and inhuman than
-the barbarians of the Holy Office. The third effigy consumed was that
-of Doctor Juan Pérez de Pineda, then a fugitive in Geneva.
-
-Chief among the living victims was Julian Hernandez, commonly called
-_el Chico_, "the little," from his diminutive stature. Yet his heart
-was of the largest and his courage extraordinary. He was a deacon
-in the Reformed Church and dared to penetrate the interior of Spain,
-disguised as a muleteer, carrying merchandise in which Lutheran
-literature was concealed. Being exceedingly shrewd and daring he
-travelled far and wide, beyond Castile into Andalusia, distributing his
-books among persons of rank and education in all the chief cities. His
-learning, skill in argument, and piety, were not less remarkable than
-the diligence and activity by which he baffled all efforts to lay hold
-of him. At last he was caught and imprisoned. Relays of priests were
-told off to controvert his opinions, and he was repeatedly tortured to
-extract the names of those who had aided him in his long and dangerous
-pilgrimage through the Peninsula, but he was staunch and silent to the
-last.
-
-A citizen of London, one Nicholas Burton, was a shipmaster who traded
-to Cadiz in his own vessel. He was arrested on the information of a
-"familiar" of the Inquisition, charged with having spoken in slighting
-terms of the religion of the country. No reason was given him, and
-when he protested indignantly, he was thrown into the common gaol
-and detained there for a fortnight, during which he was moved to
-administer comfort and preach the gospel to his fellow-prisoners.
-This gave a handle to his persecutors and he was removed on a further
-charge of heresy to Seville, where he was imprisoned, heavily ironed
-in the secret gaol of the Inquisition in the Triana. At the end he was
-condemned as a contumacious Lutheran, and was brought out, clad in
-the _sanbenito_ and exposed in the great hall of the Holy Office with
-his tongue forced out of his mouth. Last of all, being obdurate in his
-heresy, he was burned and his ship with its cargo was taken possession
-of by his persecutors.
-
-The story does not end here. Another Englishman, John Frampton, an
-attorney of Bristol, was sent to Cadiz by a part-owner to demand
-restoration of the ship. He became involved in a tedious law suit and
-was at last obliged to return to England for enlarged powers. Bye and
-bye he went out a second time to Spain, and on landing at Cadiz was
-seized by the servants of the Inquisition and carried to Seville. He
-travelled on mule back "tied by a chain that came three times under its
-belly and the end whereof was fastened in an iron padlock made fast to
-the saddle bow." Two armed familiars rode beside him, and thus escorted
-and secured, he was conveyed to the old prison and lodged in a noisome
-dungeon. The usual interrogatories were put to him and it was proved
-to the satisfaction of the Holy Office that he was an English heretic.
-The same evidence sufficed to place him on the rack, and after fourteen
-months, he was taken to be present as a penitent at the same _auto da
-fé_ which saw Burton, the ship's captain, done to death. Frampton went
-back to prison for another year and was forbidden to leave Spain. He
-managed to escape and returned to England to make full revelation of
-his wrongs, but the ship was never surrendered and no indemnity was
-obtained.
-
-Other Englishmen fell from time to time into the hands of the
-Inquisition. Hakluyt preserved the simple narratives of two English
-sailors, who were brought by their Spanish captors from the Indies as
-a sacrifice to the "Holy House" of Seville, though the authenticity of
-the statement has been attacked. One, a happy-go-lucky fellow, Miles
-Phillips, who had been too well acquainted in Mexico with the dungeons
-of the Inquisition, slipped over the ship's side at San Lucar, near
-Cadiz, made his way to shore, and boldly went to Seville, where he
-lived a hidden life as a silk-weaver, until he found his chance to
-steal away and board a Devon merchantman. The other, Job Hortop, added
-to his two years of Mexican imprisonment, two more years in Seville.
-Then "they brought us out in procession," as he tells us, "every one of
-us having a candle in his hand and the coat with S. Andrew's cross on
-our backs; they brought us up on an high scaffold, that was set up in
-the place of S. Francis, which is in the chief street in Seville; there
-they set us down upon benches, every one in his degree and against
-us on another scaffold sate all the Judges and the Clergy on their
-benches. The people wondered and gazed on us, some pitying our case,
-others said, 'Burn those heretics.' When we had sat there two hours, we
-had a sermon made to us, after which one called Bresina, secretary to
-the Inquisition, went up into the pulpit with the process and called
-on Robert Barret, shipmaster, and John Gilbert, whom two familiars of
-the Inquisition brought from the scaffold in front of the Judges, and
-the secretary read the sentence, which was that they should be burnt,
-and so they returned to the scaffold and were burnt.
-
-"Then, I, Job Hortop and John Bone, were called and brought to the same
-place, as the others and likewise heard our sentence, which was, that
-we should go to the galleys there to row at the oar's end ten years
-and then to be brought back to the Inquisition House, to have the coat
-with St. Andrew's cross put on our backs and from thence to go to the
-everlasting prison remediless.
-
-"I, with the rest were sent to the Galleys, where we were chained
-four and four together.... Hunger, thirst, cold and stripes we lacked
-none, till our several times expired; and after the time of twelve
-years, for I served two years above my sentence, I was sent back to
-the Inquisition House in Seville and there having put on the above
-mentioned coat with St. Andrew's cross, I was sent to the everlasting
-prison remediless, where I wore the coat four years and then, upon
-great suit, I had it taken off for fifty duckets, which Hernandez de
-Soria, treasurer of the king's mint, lent me, whom I was to serve for
-it as a drudge seven years." This victim, too, escaped in a fly-boat at
-last and reached England.
-
-The records of the Inquisition of this period contain the name of an
-eminent Spanish ecclesiastic who offended the Holy Office and felt
-the weight of its arm. This was Bartolome de Carranza, Archbishop of
-Toledo, Primate of Spain, a Dominican,--whose rise had been rapid and
-who was charged with leanings toward Lutheranism. In early life he
-had passed through the hands of the Inquisition and was censured for
-expressing approval of the writings of Erasmus, but no other action
-was taken. His profound theological knowledge indeed commended him to
-the Councils of the Church, for which he often acted as examiner of
-suspected books.
-
-Carranza's connection with English history is interesting. At the
-time of Queen Mary's marriage with Philip II, he came to London to
-arrange, in conjunction with Cardinal Pole, for the reconciliation
-of England to Rome. He laboured incessantly to win over British
-Protestants, "preached continually, convinced and converted heretics
-without number, ... guided the Queen and Councils and assisted in
-framing rules for the governance of the English Universities." He
-was particularly anxious for the persecution of obstinate heretics,
-and was in a measure responsible for the burning of Thomas Cranmer,
-Archbishop of Canterbury. His zeal and his great merits marked him down
-as the natural successor to the archbishopric of Toledo, when it became
-vacant, and he was esteemed as a chief pillar of the Catholic Church,
-destined in due course to the very highest preferment. He might indeed
-become cardinal and even supreme pontiff before he died.
-
-Yet when nearing the topmost pinnacle he was on the verge of falling
-to the lowest depths. He had many enemies. His stern views on Church
-discipline, enunciated before the Council of Trent, alienated many of
-the bishops, who planned his ruin and secretly watched his discourses
-and writings for symptoms of unsoundness. Valdés, the chief inquisitor,
-was a leading opponent and industriously collected a mass of evidence
-tending to inculpate Carranza. He had used "perilous language" when
-preaching in England, especially in the hearing of heretics, and one
-witness deposed that some of his sermons might have been delivered
-by Melancthon himself. He had affirmed that mercy might be shown to
-Lutherans who abjured their errors, and had frequently manifested
-scandalous indulgence to heretics. Valdés easily framed a case against
-Carranza, strong enough to back up an application to the pope to
-authorise the Inquisition to arrest and imprison the primate of Spain.
-Paul IV, the new pope, permitted the arrest. Great circumspection was
-shown in making it because of the prisoner's rank. Carranza was invited
-to come to Valladolid to have an interview with the king, and, with
-some misgivings, the archbishop set out. A considerable force of men
-was gathered together by the way--all loyal to the Inquisition--and at
-the town of Torrelaguna, the arrest was made with great formality and
-respect.
-
-On reaching Valladolid the prisoner begged he might be lodged in the
-house of a friend. The Holy Office consented but hired the building.
-The trial presented many serious difficulties. Here was no ordinary
-prisoner; Carranza was widely popular, and the Supreme Council of the
-Kingdom was divided as to the evidences of his guilt. Nearly a hundred
-witnesses were examined, but proof was not easily to be secured.
-Besides, Carranza had appealed to the Supreme Pontiff. Year after year
-was spent in tiresome litigation and a fierce contest ensued between
-Rome and the Spanish court which backed up the Inquisition. At length,
-after eight years' confinement, the primate was sent to Cartagena to
-take ship for Rome, accompanied by several inquisitors and the Duke of
-Alva, that most notorious nobleman, the scourge and oppressor of the
-Netherlands. All landed at Civita Vecchia and the party proceeded to
-the Holy City, when Carranza was at once lodged in the Castle of St.
-Angelo, the well known State prison. He was detained there nine years,
-until released by Pope Gregory XIII. He was censured for his errors,
-and required to abjure the Lutheran principles found in his writings,
-and was relieved from his functions as archbishop, to which, however,
-his strength, impaired by age and suffering, was no longer equal. While
-visiting the seven churches as a penance, he was taken ill, April 23d,
-1576, and soon died. Before his death, however, the pope gave him full
-indulgence.
-
-Those who saw him in his last days record that he bore his trials with
-dignity and patience. But this learned priest who had been called to
-the highest rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, only to be himself
-assailed and thrown down, was the same who had sat in cruel judgment
-upon Thomas Cranmer and compassed his martyrdom.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-THE INQUISITION ABROAD
-
- Fresh field for the Inquisition in Spanish America--Operations begun
- by Ximenes and more firmly established by Charles V--Spanish Viceroys'
- complaints--Zeal of the Inquisitors checked for a while--Revived
- under Philip II--Royal Edict forbidding heretics to emigrate to
- Spanish America--Inquisition extended to the Low Countries--Dutch
- rebellion proceedings--The Inquisition of the Galleys instituted by
- Philip--Growing dislike of the Inquisition--Experiences of Carcel, a
- goldsmith--His account of an _auto da fé_--Decline of the powers of
- the Inquisition.
-
-
-The acquisition of Spanish America opened a fresh field for the
-activity of the Inquisition. Besides the natives there were the New
-Christians who had fled across the seas seeking refuge from intolerance
-in the old country. Although the emigration of heretics was forbidden
-after a time, lest they should spread the hateful doctrines, Cardinal
-Ximenes, when inquisitor-general, resolved that the New World should
-have its own Holy Office, and appointed Fray Juan de Quevedo, then
-Bishop of Cuba, as inquisitor-general of the "Tierra Firma" as the
-Spanish mainland was commonly called. The Inquisition was more broadly
-established by Charles V, who empowered Cardinal Adrian to organise
-it and appoint new chiefs. The Dominicans were supreme, as in the
-old country, and proceeded with their usual fiery vigour, wandering
-at large through the new territories and spreading dismay among the
-native population. The Indians retreated in crowds into the interior,
-abandoned the Christianity they had never really embraced, and joined
-the other native tribes still unsubdued. The Spanish viceroys alarmed
-at the general desertion complained to the king at home and the
-excessive zeal of the inquisitors was checked for a time. But when
-Philip II came into power he would not agree with this milder policy,
-and although the inquisitors were no longer permitted to perambulate
-the country districts hunting up heretics, the Holy Office was
-established with its palaces and prisons in the principal cities and
-acted with great vigour. Three great central tribunals were created at
-Panama, Lima, and at Cartagena de las Indias, and persecution raged
-unceasingly, chiefly directed against Jews and Moors. In the city of
-Mexico also there was an inquisitor-general. A royal edict proclaimed
-that "no one newly converted to our Holy Faith from being Moor or Jew
-nor his child shall pass over into our Indies without our express
-license." At the same time the prohibition was extended to any who had
-been "reconciled," and to the child or grandchild of anyone who had
-worn the _sanbenito_ or of any person burnt or condemned as a heretic
-... "all, under penalty of loss of goods and peril of his person, shall
-be perpetually banished from the Indies, and if he have no property
-let them give him a hundred lashes, publicly."
-
-The emperor, Charles V, is responsible for the extension of the
-Inquisition from Spain to the Low Countries, by which he repaid the
-loyal service and devotion the Dutch people had long rendered him.
-This Inquisition was headed at first however by a layman, and then
-four inquisitors chosen from the secular clergy were named. The
-Netherlanders resisted stoutly its establishment and its operation,
-and in 1646 it was provided that no sentence should go into effect
-unless approved by some member of the provincial council. Heretics
-were condemned of course, but the number was not large, though in some
-way grossly exaggerated reports of the numbers of victims have gained
-credence. Finally, on the application of the people of Brabant, who
-declared that the name would injure commercial prosperity in their
-district, the name was dropped altogether. At best it was a faint and
-feeble copy of the Spanish institution, and during the reign of Charles
-was little feared. In proof we may cite the fact that eleven successive
-edicts were necessary to keep the Inquisition at work between 1620 and
-1650.
-
-Philip II, on his accession, attempted to increase the power of the
-institution, with the hope of uprooting the reformed doctrines. The
-assertion, often made, however, that the Inquisition is responsible for
-the revolt of the Netherlands is entirely too broad. Other factors than
-religious differences entered into the complex situation. The terrible
-war which finally resulted in the independence of the Protestant
-Netherlands, falls outside the plan of this volume.
-
-Philip wished to extend the sway of the Inquisition and planned a
-naval tribunal to take cognisance of heresy afloat. He created the
-Inquisition of the Galleys, or, as it was afterwards styled, of the
-Army and Navy. In every sea port a commissary general visited the
-shipping to search for prohibited books and make sure of the orthodoxy
-of crews and passengers. Even cargoes and bales of merchandise were
-examined, lest the taint of heresy should infect them. This marine
-inspection was most active in Cadiz, at that time the great centre
-of traffic with the far West. A visitor from the Holy Office with a
-staff of assistants and familiars boarded every ship on arrival and
-departure and claimed that their authority should be respected, so that
-nothing might be landed or embarked without their certificate. The
-merchants resented this system which brought substantial commercial
-disadvantages, and the ships' captains disliked priestly interference
-with their crews, whose regular duties were neglected. The men were
-kept below under examination, when they were wanted on deck to make or
-shorten sail or take advantage of a change in the wind or a turn in the
-tide. By degrees the marine Inquisition was thought to impede business
-on the High Seas and fell into disuse.
-
-Under succeeding sovereigns the Holy Office was still favoured and
-supported, but the reign of Philip III witnessed loud and frequent
-remonstrances against its operation. The Cortes of Castile implored
-the king to put some restraint upon the too zealous inquisitors, but
-they still wielded their arbitrary powers unchecked, and Philip sought
-further encouragement for them from Rome. The accession of Philip IV to
-the throne was celebrated by an _auto da fé_, but no victim was put to
-death, and the only corporal punishment inflicted was the flogging of
-an immoral nun who professed to have made a compact with the devil. She
-was led out gagged, and, wearing the _sanbenito_, received two hundred
-lashes followed by perpetual imprisonment. Philip IV strove for a time
-to check the activity of the Inquisition, but he was too weak and
-wavering to make permanent headway against an institution, the leaders
-of which knew precisely what they were striving for, and pertinaciously
-pursued it.
-
-A graphic account of what purport to have been the painful experiences
-of a poor soul who fell at a later date into the clutches of the
-inquisitors is related by himself in a curious pamphlet printed in
-Seville, by one Carcel, who was a goldsmith in that city. Evidently
-there is the work of another hand in it, however, as it is written with
-too much regard for the dramatic to have been his own composition. The
-description of the _auto_ is also unusual, and not according to the
-usual procedure.
-
-He says that he was arrested on the 2nd of April, 1680, at ten o'clock
-in the evening, as he was finishing a gold necklace for one of the
-queen's maids of honour. A week after his first arrest Carcel was
-examined. We will quote his own words:--
-
-"In an ante-room," he says, "a smith frees me of my irons and I pass
-from the ante-chamber to the 'Inquisitor's table,' as the small inner
-room is called. It is hung with blue and citron-coloured taffety.
-At one end, between the two grated windows, is a gigantic crucifix
-and on the central estrade (a table fifteen feet long surrounded by
-arm-chairs), with his back to the crucifix, sits the secretary, and on
-my right, Francisco Delgado Ganados, the Grand Inquisitor, who is a
-secular priest. The other inquisitors had just left, but the ink was
-still wet in their quills, and I saw on papers before their chairs some
-names marked with red ink. I am seated on a low stool opposite the
-secretary. The inquisitor asks my name and profession and why I come
-there, exhorting me to confess as the only means of quickly regaining
-my liberty. He hears me, but when I fling myself weeping at his knees,
-he says coolly there is no hurry about my case; that he has more
-pressing business than mine waiting, (the secretary smiles), and he
-rings a little silver bell which stands beside him on the black cloth,
-for the alcaide who leads me off down a long gallery, where my chest is
-brought in and an inventory taken by the secretary. They cut my hair
-off and strip me of everything, even to my ring and gold buttons;
-but they leave me my beads, my handkerchief and some money I had
-fortunately sewn in my garters. I am then led bareheaded into a cell,
-and left to think and despair till evening when they bring me supper.
-
-"The prisoners are seldom put together. Silence perpetual and strict is
-maintained in all the cells. If any prisoner should moan, complain or
-even pray too loud, the gaolers who watch the corridors night and day
-warn them through the grating. If the offence is repeated, they storm
-in and load you with blows to intimidate the other prisoners, who, in
-the deep grave-like silence, hear your every cry and every blow.
-
-"Once every two months the inquisitor, accompanied by his secretary
-and interpreter, visits the prisoners and asks them if their food is
-brought them at regular hours, or if they have any complaint to make
-against the gaolers. But this is only a parade of justice, for if a
-prisoner dares to utter a complaint, it is treated as mere fanciful
-ravings and never attended to.
-
-"After two months' imprisonment," goes on Carcel, "one Saturday,
-when, after my meagre prison dinner, I give my linen, as usual, to
-the gaolers to send to the wash, they will not take it and a great
-cold breath whispers at my heart--to-morrow is the _auto da fé_. When,
-immediately after the vespers at the cathedral, they ring for matins,
-which they never do but when rejoicing on the eve of a great feast,
-I know that my horrid suspicions are right. Was I glad at my escape
-from this living tomb, or was I paralysed by fear, at the pile perhaps
-already hewn and stacked for my wretched body? I know not. I was torn
-in pieces by the devils that rack the brains of unhappy men. I refused
-my next meal, but, contrary to their wont, they pressed it more than
-usual. Was it to give me strength to bear my torture? Do God's eyes not
-reach to the prisons of the Inquisition?
-
-"I am just falling into a sickly, fitful sleep, worn out with
-conjecturing, when, about eleven o'clock at night, the great bolts of
-my cell grind and jolt back and a party of gaolers in black, in a flood
-of light, so that they looked like demons on the borders of heaven,
-come in.
-
-"The alcaide throws down by my pallet a heap of clothes, tells me to
-put them on and hold myself ready for a second summons. I have no
-tongue to answer, as they light my lamp, leave me and lock the door
-behind them. Such a trembling seizes me for half an hour, that I cannot
-rise and look at the clothes which seem to me shrouds and winding
-sheets. I rise at last, throw myself down before the black cross I had
-smeared with charcoal on the wall, and commit myself, as a miserable
-sinner, into God's hands. I then put on the dress, which consists of a
-tunic with long, loose sleeves and hose drawers, all of black serge,
-striped with white.
-
-"At two o'clock in the morning the wretches came and led me into a long
-gallery where nearly two hundred men, brought from their various cells,
-all dressed in black, stood in a long silent line against the wall of
-the long, plain vaulted, cold corridor where, over every two dozen
-heads, swung a high brass lamp. We stood silent as a funeral train.
-The women, also in black, were in a neighbouring gallery, far out of
-our sight. By sad glimpses down a neighbouring dormitory I could see
-more men dressed in black, who, from time to time, paced backwards and
-forwards. These I afterwards found were men doomed also to be burnt,
-not for murder--no, but for having a creed unlike that of the Jesuits.
-Whether I was to be burnt or not I did not know, but I took courage,
-because my dress was like that of the rest and the monsters could not
-dare to put two hundred men at once into one fire, though they did hate
-all who love doll-idols and lying miracles.
-
-"Presently, as we waited sad and silent, gaolers came round and handed
-us each a long yellow taper and a yellow scapular, or tabard, crossed
-behind and before with red crosses of Saint Andrew. These are the
-_sanbenitos_ that Jews, Turks, sorcerers, witches, heathen or perverts
-from the Roman Catholic Church are compelled to wear. Now came the
-gradation of our ranks--those who have relapsed, or who were obstinate
-during their accusations, wear the _zamarra_, which is gray, with
-a man's head burning on red faggots painted at the bottom and all
-round reversed flames and winged and armed black devils horrible to
-behold. I, and seventy others, wear these, and I lose all hope. My
-blood turns to ice; I can scarcely keep myself from swooning. After
-this distribution they bring us, with hard, mechanical regularity,
-pasteboard conical mitres (_corozas_) painted with flames and devils
-with the words '_sorcerer_' and '_heretic_' written round the rim. Our
-feet are all bare. The condemned men, pale as death, now begin to weep
-and keep their faces covered with their hands, round which the beads
-are twisted. God only--by speaking from heaven--could save them. A
-rough, hard voice now tells us we may sit on the ground till our next
-orders come. The old men and boys smile as they eagerly sit down, for
-this small relief comes to them with the refreshment of a pleasure.
-
-"At four o'clock they bring us bread and figs, which some drop by their
-sides and others languidly eat. I refuse mine, but a guard prays me to
-put it in my pocket for I may yet need it. It is as if an angel had
-comforted me. At five o'clock, at daybreak, it was a ghastly sight to
-see shame, fear, grief, despair, written on our pale livid faces. Yet
-not one but felt an undercurrent of joy at the prospect of any release,
-even by death.
-
-"Suddenly, as we look at each other with ghastly eyes, the great bell
-of the Giralda begins to boom with a funeral knell, long and slow. It
-was the signal of the gala day of the Holy Office, it was the signal
-for the people to come to the show. We are filed out one by one. As
-I pass the gallery in the great hall, I see the inquisitor, solemn
-and stern, in his black robes, throned at the gate. Beneath him is
-his secretary, with a list of the citizens of Seville in his wiry
-twitching hands. The room is full of the anxious frightened burghers,
-who, as their names are called and a prisoner passes through, move
-to his trembling side to serve as his godfather in the Act of Faith.
-The honest men shudder as they take their place in the horrible death
-procession. The time-serving smile at the inquisitor, and bustle
-forward. This is thought an honourable office and is sought after by
-hypocrites and suspected men afraid of the Church's sword.
-
-"The procession commences with the Dominicans. Before them flaunts the
-banner of the order in glistening embroidery that burns in the sun
-and shines like a mirror, the frocked saint, holding a threatening
-sword in one hand, and in the other, an olive branch with the motto,
-'Justitia et misericordia' (Justice and mercy). Behind the banner
-come the prisoners in their yellow scapulars, holding their lighted
-torches, their feet bleeding with the stones and their less frightened
-godfathers, gay in cloak and sword and ruff tripping along by their
-side, holding their plumed hats in their hands. The street and windows
-are crowded with careless eyes, and children are held up to execrate
-us as we pass to our torturing death. The _auto da fé_ was always a
-holiday sight to the craftsmen and apprentices; it drew more than even
-a bull fight, because of the touch of tragedy about it. Our procession,
-like a long black snake, winds on, with its banners and crosses, its
-shaven monks and mitred bare-footed prisoners, through street after
-street, heralded by soldiers who run before to clear a way for us--to
-stop mules and clear away fruit-stalls, street-performers and their
-laughing audiences. We at last reach the Church of All the Saints,
-where, tired, dusty, bleeding and faint we are to hear mass.
-
-"The church has a grave-vault aspect and is dreadfully like a charnel
-house. The great altar is veiled in black, and is lit with six silver
-candlesticks, whose flames shine like yellow stars with clear twinkle
-and a soft halo round each black, fire-tipped wick. On each side of
-the altar, that seems to bar out God and his mercy from us and to
-wrap the very sun in a grave cloak, are two thrones, one for the
-grand-inquisitor and his counsel, another for the king and his court.
-The one is filled with sexton-like lawyers, the other with jewelled and
-feathered men.
-
-"In front of the great altar and near the door where the blessed
-daylight shines with hope and joy, but not for us, is another altar,
-on which six gilded and illuminated missals lie open; those books of
-the Gospels, too, in which I had once read such texts as--God is love;
-Forgive as ye would be forgiven; Faith, hope, charity: these three,
-but the greatest of these is charity. Near this lesser altar the monks
-had raised a balustraded gallery, with bare benches, on which sat
-the criminals in their yellow and flame-striped tabards with their
-godfathers. The doomed ones came last, the more innocent first. Those
-who entered the black-hung church first, passing up nearest to the
-altar sat there, either praying or in a frightened trance of horrid
-expectancy. The trembling living corpses wearing the mitres, yellow and
-red, came last, preceded by a gigantic crucifix, the face turned from
-them.
-
-"Immediately following these poor mitred men came servitors of the
-Inquisition, carrying four human effigies fastened to long staves,
-and four chests containing the bones of those men who had died before
-the fire could be got ready. The coffers were painted with flames and
-demons and the effigies wore the dreadful mitre and the crimson and
-yellow shirt all a-flame with paint. The effigies sometimes represented
-men tried for heresy since their death and whose estates had since been
-confiscated and their effigies doomed to be burnt as a warning; for no
-one within their reach may escape if they differ in opinion with the
-Inquisition.
-
-"Every prisoner being now in his place--godfathers, torchmen, pikemen,
-musketeers, inquisitors, and flaunting court--the Provincial of the
-Augustins mounted the pulpit, followed by his ministrant and preached
-a stormy, denouncing, exulting sermon, half an hour long (it seemed
-a month of anguish), in which he compared the Church with burning
-eloquence to Noah's ark; but with this difference, that those animals
-who entered it before the deluge came out of it unaltered, but the
-blessed Inquisition had, by God's blessing, the power of changing those
-whom its walls once enclosed, turning them out meek as the lambs he saw
-around him so tranquil and devout, all of whom had once been cruel as
-wolves and savage and daring as lions.
-
-"This sermon over, two readers mounted the pulpit to shout the list of
-names of the condemned, their crimes (now, for the first time, known to
-them) and their sentences. We grew all ears and trembled as each name
-was read.
-
-"As each name was called the alcaide led out the prisoner from his pen
-to the middle of the gallery opposite the pulpit, where he remained
-standing, taper in hand. After the sentence he was led to the altar
-where he had to put his hand on one of the missals and to remain there
-on his knees.
-
-"At the end of each sentence, the reader stopped to pronounce in a
-loud, angry voice, a full confession of faith, which he exhorted us,
-the guilty, to join with heart and voice. Then we all returned to
-our places. My offence, I found, was having spoken bitterly of the
-Inquisition, and having called a crucifix a mere bit of cut ivory. I
-was therefore declared excommunicated, my goods confiscated to the
-king, I was banished Spain and condemned to the Havana galleys for
-five years with the following penances: I must renounce all friendship
-with heretics and suspected persons; I must, for three years, confess
-and communicate three times a month; I must recite five times a day,
-for three years, the Pater and Ave Maria in honour of the Five Wounds;
-I must hear mass and sermon every Sunday and feast day; and above all,
-I must guard carefully the secret of all I had said, heard, or seen
-in the Holy Office (which oath, as the reader will observe, I have
-carefully kept).
-
-"The inquisitor then quitted his seat, resumed his robes and followed
-by twenty priests, each with a staff in his hand, passed into the
-middle of the church and with divers prayers some of us were relieved
-from excommunication, each of us receiving a blow from a priest.
-Once, such an insult would have sent the blood in a rush to my head,
-and I had died but I had given a return buffet; now, so weak and
-broken-spirited was I, I burst into tears.
-
-"Now, one by one, those condemned to the stake, faint and staggering,
-were brought in to hear their sentences, which they did with a
-frightened vacancy, inconceivably touching, but the inquisitors were
-gossiping among themselves and scarcely looked at them. Every sentence
-ended with the same cold mechanical formula: That the Holy Office being
-unhappily unable to pardon the prisoners present, on account of their
-relapse and impenitence, found itself obliged to punish them with all
-the rigour of earthly law, and therefore delivered them with regret
-to the hands of secular justice, praying it to use clemency and mercy
-towards the wretched men, saving their souls by the punishment of
-their bodies and recommending death, but not effusion of blood. Cruel
-hypocrites!
-
-"At the word blood the hangmen stepped forward and took possession of
-the bodies, the alcaide first striking each of them on the chest to
-show that they were now abandoned to the rope and fire." Then he goes
-on to describe the scene at the _quemadero_, which, however, included
-nothing of importance not already mentioned elsewhere.
-
-After the death of Philip IV, and during the minority of his son,
-Charles II, Father Nithard, a Jesuit, who combined the two forces
-long in opposition, the disciples of Loyola and the descendants of
-Torquemada, was for a time inquisitor-general. The Holy Office was
-hotly opposed by Don John of Austria, a natural son of Philip IV,
-who rose to political power and would have fallen a victim to the
-Inquisition had not popular indignation sided with him against Nithard,
-who fled from Spain to Rome. He was stripped of all his offices but
-still kept the favour of the queen-mother who finally secured for him
-from Pope Clement X the coveted cardinal's hat. Don John was unequal
-to the task of curbing the power of the Inquisition, however, and the
-institution claimed wider and wider jurisdiction.
-
-Growing dissatisfaction prevailed, and in 1696, the king, Charles II,
-summoned a conference or Grand Junta to enquire into the complaints
-that poured in from all quarters against the Inquisition. It was
-composed of two councillors of state from Castile, Aragon, the Indies,
-and the Spanish provinces in Italy, with two members of the religious
-orders. It reported that the Holy Office exercised illegal powers,
-still arrogated the right to throw persons of rank into prison and
-cover their families with disgrace. It punished with merciless severity
-the slightest opposition or disrespect shown to dependents or familiars
-who had come to enjoy extensive and exorbitant privileges. They claimed
-secular jurisdiction in matters nowise appertaining to religion,
-and set aside restrictions contained in their own canon law. The
-Junta strongly recommended that these restrictions should be rigidly
-enforced, and that no one should be thrown into the prisons of the
-Inquisition, save on charges of an heretical nature. It urged the right
-of appeal to the throne, and the removal of all causes to the royal
-courts for trial. It detailed the privileges granted to the servants
-of the Holy Office. Even a coachman or a lackey demanded reverence and
-might conduct himself with unbounded insolence. If a servant girl were
-not treated obsequiously in a shop she might complain and the offender
-was liable to be cast into the dungeons of the Inquisition. So great
-was the discontent, so many tumults arose, that the Junta would have
-all such unrighteous privileges curtailed, and would authorise the
-civil courts to keep the encroachments of the Holy Office in check.
-
-With the eighteenth century the authority of the Holy Office visibly
-waned. Philip V, a French prince, and a grandson of Louis XIV, whose
-succession produced the long protracted war of the Spanish Succession,
-declined to be honoured with an _auto da fé_ at his coronation, but he
-maintained the Inquisition as an instrument of despotic government,
-and actually used it to punish as heretics those who had any doubt
-concerning his title to the crown. Yet he rather used the Inquisition
-than supported it; for he deprived of his office an inquisitor-general
-who had presumed to proceed for heresy against a high officer. The
-Cortes of Castile again, (1714), recorded their condemnation, but
-without any further benefit than that which must eventually result
-from the disclosure of a truth. The same body reiterated their
-disapproval a few years afterwards, (1720). But while Philip V used the
-Inquisition for his own service, and the heretical doctrine which had
-prevailed two centuries before no longer left a trace behind, there
-were multitudes of persons accused of attempting to revive Judaism and
-others gave offence by their efforts to promote Freemasonry. This gave
-the inquisitors abundant pretext for the discharge of their political
-mission.
-
-During the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV, a revival of
-literature and an advance in political science guided the attention
-of the clergy and the government to the position of the court of Rome,
-as well as to the proceedings of the inquisitors. The former of these
-monarchs nearly yielded to the advice of his councillors to suppress
-the Inquisition, as well as to expel the Jesuits. He banished the
-Society, but, in regard to the Inquisition, said: "The Spaniards want
-it and it gives me no trouble."
-
-Meanwhile death sentences nearly ceased, and once when a good man was
-sentenced to be delivered to the secular arm, in compliance with the
-letter of the law, the inquisitors let him go free. By this contrivance
-Don Miguel Solano, priest of Esco, a town in Aragon, walked out of
-the prison of the Inquisition in Saragossa, as a maniac, forgiven his
-heresy, and lived on as a maniac, exempted from priestly ministrations,
-while every one knew him to be a reasonable man and treated him
-accordingly. In the end he died, refusing Extreme Unction, and was
-buried in unconsecrated ground within the walls of the Inquisition on
-the banks of the Ebro.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA
-
- The Inquisition in Spain abolished by Napoleon's invasion--Its
- revival--Persecution of the Freemasons--The "Tribunal of Faith"
- established--Inquisition in Portugal--The case of an Englishman
- who is arrested, tortured and burnt alive--Difference between
- the Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal--The supreme power of the
- Holy Office in Portugal in the eighteenth century--The terrible
- earthquake at Lisbon--Establishment of the Holy Office in India at
- Goa--Description of the Inquisition prison at Goa by M. Dellon--Case
- of Father Ephrem--His arrest and rescue by the English from the hands
- of the inquisitors.
-
-
-Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the removal of the young king,
-Ferdinand VII, to France, put an end to the Inquisition. When the
-Emperor took possession of Madrid, he called upon all public bodies
-to submit to his authority, but the Holy Office refused. Whereupon he
-issued an order to arrest the inquisitors, abolish the Inquisition,
-and sequestrate its revenues. All Spain did not readily yield to the
-French conqueror, and when the Cortes met in Cadiz they empowered one
-of the inquisitors, who had escaped, to reconstitute the tribunal, but
-it was never really restored. At the same time, the governing powers
-appointed a special commission to enquire into the legal status of the
-ancient body, and to decide whether the Inquisition had any legal right
-to exist. A report was published in 1812, reviewing its whole history
-and condemning it as incompatible with the liberties of the country.
-The indictment against it was couched in very vigorous language. It was
-held to have been guilty of the most harsh and oppressive measures; to
-have inflicted the most cruel and illegal punishments; "in the darkness
-of the night it had dragged the husband from the side of his wife, the
-father from the children, the children from their parents, and none may
-see the other again until they are absolved or condemned without having
-had the means of contributing to their defence or knowing whether they
-had been fairly tried." The result was a law passed by the Cortes to
-suppress the Inquisition in Spain.
-
-The restoration of Ferdinand VII, at the termination of the war in
-1814, gave the Inquisition fresh life. He resented the action taken by
-the Cortes, arrested its members, and cast them into prison, declaring
-them to be infidels and rebels, and forthwith issued a decree reviving
-the tribunal of the Holy Office. Its supreme council met in Seville and
-persecution was renewed under the new inquisitor-general, Xavier Mier y
-Campillo, who put out a fresh list of prohibited books, tried to raise
-revenues and issued a new Edict of Faith. There might have been another
-_auto da fé_ even in the nineteenth century, but informers would
-not come forward and latter-day victims could not be found. Dread,
-nevertheless, prevailed, and numbers fled for refuge into foreign
-lands. Fierce energy was directed against the Freemasons, for during
-the French occupation, the palace of the Inquisition at Seville had
-been used, partly as a common gaol and partly as a Freemasons' lodge.
-The members of the craft who were found in Spain were dealt with as
-heretics, and all Freemasons were excommunicated.
-
-For a time the Inquisition languished, although favoured by the
-arbitrary régime introduced by Ferdinand VII, who sought to reinstate
-it on its former lines. It was destroyed or at least suspended by
-the Revolution of 1820, and on his restoration, the king did not
-reëstablish it, though the officials still hoped for a better day and
-continued to draw their salaries. Some of the bishops established
-_juntas de fé_, which took up much the same work, and July 26th, 1826,
-a poor schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll, was hanged for heresy--the last
-execution for this crime in Spain. Finally, January 4th, 1834, the
-Inquisition was definitely abolished, and the _juntas de fé_ were
-abolished the next year.
-
-The Inquisition extended its influence into the neighbouring country of
-Portugal, which was an independent kingdom until conquered by Philip
-II in 1580. Here persecution prevailed from the fifteenth century,
-chiefly of the Jews and new Christians, who flocked into the country
-from Spain, and were treated with great severity. The Holy Office
-was set up in Lisbon under an inquisitor-general, Diego de Silva, and
-Portugal was divided into inquisitional districts. _Autos da fé_ were
-frequent, and on a scale hardly known in Spain, though the records are
-fragmentary.
-
-From among the cases reported, we may quote that of an Englishman, a
-native of Bristol, engaged in commerce in Lisbon, who boldly assaulted
-the cardinal archbishop in the act of performing mass. Gardiner,
-as fiercely intolerant as those of the dominant religion who were
-worshipping according to their own rites, attacked the priest when he
-elevated the host, "snatched away the cake with one hand, trod it under
-his feet, and with the other overthrew the chalice." The congregation,
-at first utterly astounded, raised one great cry and fell bodily upon
-the sacrilegious wretch, who was promptly stabbed in the shoulder and
-haled before the king, who was present in the cathedral, and forthwith
-interrogated. It was thought that he had been instigated by the English
-Protestants to this outrageous insult, but he declared that he had been
-solely moved by his abhorrence of the idolatry he had witnessed. He was
-imprisoned and with him all the English in Lisbon. So soon as his wound
-was healed, he was examined by the Holy Office, tortured and condemned.
-Then he was carried to the market place on an ass and his left hand
-was cut off; thence he was taken to the river side and by a rope and
-pulley hoisted over a pile of wood which was set on fire. "In spite
-of the great torment he continued in a constant spirit and the more
-terribly he burned the more vehemently he prayed." He was in the act of
-reciting a psalm, when by the use of exceeding violence, the burning
-rope broke and he was precipitated into the devouring flames.
-
-A fellow lodger of Gardiner was detained in the Inquisition for two
-years, and was frequently tortured to elicit evidence against other
-Englishmen, but without avail. A Scotch professor of Greek in the
-university of Coimbra was charged with Lutheranism, and imprisoned for
-a year and a half, after which he was committed to a monastery so that
-he might be instructed by the monks in the true religion. They did not
-change his views and he was presently set free. Another, an English
-shipmaster, was less fortunate and was burned alive as a heretic at
-Lisbon.
-
-It has been observed that, on comparison of the Inquisitions of Spain
-and Portugal, a certain marked difference was disclosed between them.
-The same precise rigour of the Spanish inquisitors was not exhibited
-by the Portuguese. In Portugal the discipline was more savage yet
-more feeble. Yet in the latter country there was a brutal and more
-wanton excess in inflicting pain at the _autos da fé_. When convicts
-were about to suffer they were taken before the Lord Chief Justice to
-answer the enquiry as to what religion they intended to die in. If
-the answer was "in the Roman Catholic Apostolic," the order was given
-that they should be strangled before burning. If in the Protestant, or
-in any other religion, death in the flames was decreed. At Lisbon the
-place of execution, as has been said, was at the waterside. A thick
-stake was erected for each person condemned, with a wide crosspiece
-at the top against which a crosspiece was nailed to receive the tops
-of two ladders. In the centre the victim was secured by a chain, with
-a Jesuit priest on either side, seated on a ladder, who proceeded to
-exhort him to repentance. If they failed they declared they left him
-to the devil and the mob roared, "Let the dog's beard be trimmed," in
-other words, "his face scorched." This was effected by applying an
-ignited furze bush at the end of a long pole till his face was burned
-and blackened. The record of the Portuguese Inquisition to 1794 shows a
-total of one thousand, one hundred and seventy-five relaxed in person,
-_i. e._ executed, six hundred and thirty-three relaxed in effigy, and
-twenty-nine thousand, five hundred and ninety penanced.
-
-The Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade with the Far East
-and, after Vasco de Gama had discovered India, Albuquerque annexed and
-occupied Goa, which might have become the seat and centre of the great
-empire which fell at length into British hands.
-
-Portugal sacrificed all power and prosperity to the extirpation of
-heresy in its new possessions and was chiefly concerned in the
-establishment of the Holy Office in India. The early Portuguese
-settlers in the East clamoured loudly for the Inquisition; the Jesuit
-fathers who were zealous in their propaganda in India declared that
-the tribunal was most necessary in Goa, owing to the prevailing
-licentiousness and the medley of all nations and superstitions. It
-was accordingly established in 1560, and soon commenced its active
-operations with terrific vigour. General baptisms were frequent in
-this the ecclesiastical metropolis of India, and so were _autos da fé_
-conducted with great pomp with many victims.
-
-A light upon the proceedings of the Holy Office in Goa is afforded by
-the story told by a French traveller, M. Dellon, who was arrested at
-the instance of the Portuguese governor at Damaum, and imprisoned at
-Goa in the private prison of the archbishop. "The most filthy," says
-Dellon, "the darkest and most horrible of any I had ever seen.... It
-is a kind of cave wherein there is no day seen but by a very little
-hole. The most subtle rays of the sun cannot enter it and there is
-never any true light in it. The stench is extreme...." M. Dellon
-was dragged before the Board of the Holy Office, seated in the Holy
-House, which is described as a great and magnificent building, "one
-side of a great space before the church of St. Catherine." There were
-three gates. The prisoners entered by the central or largest, and
-ascending a stately flight of steps, reached the great hall. Behind the
-principal building was another very spacious, two stories high
-and consisting of a double row of cells. Those on the ground floor
-were the smallest, due to the greater thickness of the walls, and
-had no apertures for light or air. The upper cells were vaulted and
-whitewashed, and each had a small strongly grated window without glass.
-The cells had double doors, the outer of which was kept constantly
-open, an indispensable plan in this climate or the occupant must have
-died of suffocation.
-
-[Illustration: _Peint par D. F. Laugée_
-_Photogravure Goupil & C^{ie}._
-
-_The Question_
-
-One of the forms of torture before a tribunal of the Inquisition, used
-in the examination of the accused. Lighted charcoal was placed under
-the victim's feet, which were greased over with lard, so that the heat
-of the fire might more quickly become effective.]
-
-The régime was, to some extent, humane. Water for ablutions was
-provided and for drinking purposes, food was given sparingly in three
-daily meals, but was wholesome in quality. Physicians were at hand
-to attend the sick and confessors to wait on the dying, but they
-administered no unction, gave no viaticum, said no mass. If any died,
-as many did, his death was unknown to all without. He was buried within
-the walls with no sacred ceremony, and if it was decided that he had
-died in heresy, his bones were exhumed to be burnt at the next act of
-Faith. While alive he lived apart in all the strictness of the modern
-solitary cell. Alone and silent, for the prisoner was forbidden to
-speak, he was not allowed even to groan or sob or sigh aloud.
-
-The Holy Office in Goa was worked on the same lines as that of Spain as
-already described and by the same officers. There was the _Inquisidor
-Mor_ or grand-inquisitor, a secular priest, a second or assistant
-inquisitor, a Dominican monk, with many deputies; "qualifiers," to
-examine books and writings; a fiscal and a procurator; notaries and
-familiars. The authority of the tribunal was absolute in Goa except
-that the great officials, archbishop and his grand-vicar, the viceroy
-and the governor, could not be arrested without the sanction of the
-supreme council in Lisbon. The procedure, the examination and use of
-torture was exactly as in other places.
-
-M. Dellon was taxed with having spoken ill of the Inquisition, and
-was called upon to confess his sins, being constantly brought out and
-again relegated to his cell and continually harassed to make him accuse
-himself, until in a frenzy of despair he resolved to commit suicide
-by refusing food. The physician bled him and treated him for fever,
-but he tore off the bandages hoping to bleed to death. He was taken up
-insensible, restored by cordials, and carried before the inquisitor,
-where he lay on the floor and was assailed with bitter reproaches,
-heavily ironed and sent back to languish in his cell in a wild access
-of fury approaching madness.
-
-At last the great day of the Act of Faith approached, and Dellon heard
-on every side the agonised cries of both men and women. During the
-night the alcaide and warders came into his cell with lights bringing
-a suit of clothes, linen, best trousers, black striped with white. He
-was marched to join a couple of hundred other penitents squatted on
-the floor along the sides of a spacious gallery, all motionless but
-in an agony of apprehension, for none knew his doom. A large company
-of women were collected in a neighbouring chamber and a third lot in
-_sanbenitos_, among whom the priests moved seeking confessions and if
-made the boon of strangulation was conceded before "tasting the fire."
-
-Shortly before sunrise the great bell of the Cathedral tolled and
-roused the city into life. People filled the chief streets, lined the
-thoroughfares and crowded into places whence they might best see the
-procession. With daylight Dellon saw from the faces of his companions
-that they were mostly Indians with but a dozen white men among them. M.
-Dellon went barefoot with the rest over the loose flints of the badly
-paved streets, and, at length, cut and bleeding, entered the church of
-St. Francisco, for the ceremony could not be performed under the fierce
-sky of this torrid climate. Dellon's punishment was confiscation of all
-his property, and banishment from India, with five years' service in
-the galleys of Portugal.
-
-The rest of his sad adventures may be told briefly. He was brought
-back to Lisbon and worked at the oar with other convicts for some
-years, when at the intercession of friends in France the Portuguese
-government consented to release him. There is no record that the French
-authorities made any claim or reclamation for the ill-usage of a French
-subject.
-
-It was otherwise with their neighbours, the English, who even before
-their power in India was established, would not suffer the Portuguese
-authorities in Goa to ill-treat a person who could claim British
-protection. A French Capuchin, named Father Ephrem, had visited Madras
-when on his way to join the Catholic mission in Pegu. He was invited to
-remain in Madras and was promised entire liberty with respect to his
-religion, and permitted to minister to the Catholics already settled
-in the factory. In the course of his preaching he laid down a dogma
-offensive, as it was asserted, to the Mother of God, and information
-thereof was laid with the inquisitors at Goa, who made their plans to
-kidnap Father Ephrem and carry him off to Goa, some six hundred miles
-distant from Madras. The plot succeeded and the French Capuchin was
-lodged in the prison of the Holy Office at Goa. This was not to be
-brooked by the English in Madras. An English ship forthwith proceeded
-to Goa and a party of ten determined men, well-armed, landed and
-appeared at the gates of the Inquisition and demanded admittance.
-Leaving a couple of men on guard at the gate, the rest entered the gaol
-and insisted at the point of the sword that Father Ephrem should be
-forthwith surrendered to them. An order thus enforced was irresistible,
-and the prisoner was released, taken down to the ship's boat,
-reëmbarked and carried back in safety to Madras.
-
-The aims of the Inquisition are no longer those of modern communities.
-So widely has the idea of toleration extended, that we often forget
-how recent it is. The relations of Church and State are so changed in
-the last two centuries, that it is difficult to understand the times
-of the Spanish Inquisition. Then it was universally believed that
-orthodoxy in faith was intimately connected with loyalty to the state.
-As a matter of fact, nearly all the earlier heretical movements were
-also social or political revolts. It is, therefore, easy to see how
-heresy and high treason came to appear identical.
-
-Some of the inquisitors were corrupt, others were naturally cruel,
-others, drunk with power, were more zealous in exerting that power
-than they were in deciding between guilt and innocence. On the other
-hand many were zealous because of their honesty. If a man believes
-that he knows the only hope of salvation, it is perfectly logical
-to compel another by force, if necessary, to follow that hope. Any
-physical punishment is slight compared with the great reward which
-reconciliation brings. On the other hand, if he is firm in his heresy,
-he is as dangerous as a wild beast. We are more tolerant now, less
-certain, perhaps, of our ground, but three or four hundred years ago
-these points were a stern reality.
-
-That many inquisitors were more concerned with the Church as an
-institution than as a means of salvation is also true. They punished
-disrespect to an officer or to a law more severely than they did
-a doctrinal error, but that was, perhaps, inevitable. The Spanish
-Inquisition, which, as has been said, was to some extent a state
-affair, punished many for what we might call trifling offences, or,
-indeed, no offence at all, but it was an intolerant age, in and out of
-Spain.
-
-The number punished has been grossly exaggerated, but it was enough to
-injure Spain permanently, to crush out freedom of thought and action to
-an unwarrantable extent. The historian must attribute much of Spain's
-decadence to the work of the mistaken advocate of absolute uniformity.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS
-
- Slow development of Prison Reform in Spain--Description of the old
- Saladero--George Borrow's account of his arrest and imprisonment
- there--Balseiro's escape and subsequent escapades--He seizes the two
- sons of a wealthy Basque and holds them for ransom--His capture and
- execution--The _valientes_ or bullies--The cruelties they practised
- upon their weaker fellow prisoners--Don Rafael Salillas' description
- of the Seville prison.
-
-
-The prisons in Spain have been generally divided into three categories:
-First, the _depositos correcionales_, the _cárceles_ or common gaols,
-one in the capital of each province, to which were sent accused persons
-and all sentenced to two years or less; second, the _presidios_ of
-the Peninsula for convicts between two years and eight years; and
-third, the African penal settlements for terms beyond eight years.
-The character and condition of the bulk of these places of durance
-long continued most unsatisfactory. In 1888 in an official report, the
-Minister of Grace and Justice said, "The present state of the Spanish
-prisons is not enchanting. They are neither safe nor wholesome, nor
-adapted to the ends in view." This criticism was fully borne out by
-the result of a general inquiry instituted. It was found that of a
-total of four hundred and fifty-six of the correctional prisons only
-one hundred and sixty-six were really fit for the purpose intended and
-the remainder were installed in any buildings available. Some were very
-ancient, dating back to the 16th century; and had once been palaces,
-religious houses, castles or fortresses.
-
-Many of these buildings were ancient monuments which suffered much
-injury from the ignoble rôle to which they were put. A protest was
-published by a learned society of Madrid against the misuse of the
-superb ex-convents of San Gregorio in Valladolid and San Isidro del
-Campo near Seville, and the mutilation by its convict lodgers of the
-very beautiful gateway of the Templo de la Piedad in Guadalajara. The
-installation of the prison at Palma de Mallorca all but hopelessly
-impaired the magnificent cloisters of the convent of San Francisco, a
-thirteenth century architectural masterpiece, and a perfect specimen of
-the ogival form, like nothing else in Spain. Within a short period of
-ten years several of these interesting old buildings were ruined. The
-entire convent prison at Coruña sank, causing many casualties, loss of
-life and serious wounds.
-
-Sometimes the authorities hired private dwellings to serve as prisons,
-or laid hands on whatever they could find. At Granada a slice of the
-Court House was used, a dark triangle to which air came only from the
-interior yard. The prison of Allariz at Orense was on the ground floor
-of a house in the street, having two windows looking directly on to
-it, guarded by a grating with bars so far apart that a reasonably thin
-man could slip through. One of the worst features of many of these
-ancient prisons was their location in the very heart of the towns with
-communication to the street. Friends gathered at the _rejas_ outside,
-and the well known picture of flirtation at the prison window was
-drawn from life. A common sight also was the outstretched hand of the
-starving prisoner imploring alms from the charitable, for there was no
-regular or sufficient supply of provisions within. Free access was also
-possible when the domestic needs of the interior took the prisoners to
-the public well in the street.
-
-The Carmona gaol in Seville was for years half in ruins; no sunlight
-reached any part of it with the exception of two of the yards; the
-dungeons had no ventilation except by a hole in their doors; an open
-sewer ran through the gaol, the floors were always wet, fleas abounded,
-as also rats, beetles and cockroaches; cooking was done in one corner
-of the exercising yard and clothes were washed in the other. The
-removal of the gaol was ordered and plans for a new building prepared
-in 1864, but they were pigeon-holed until 1883, then sent back to be
-revised, and the project is still delayed. The Colmenar prison of
-Malaga was always under water in heavy rain, and although simple
-repairs would have rectified this, nothing was done. The prison of Leon
-was condemned in 1878 as unfit for human habitation, and its alcalde
-(governor) stated that it had been reported for a century or more that
-it wanted light, air and sanitary arrangements; typhoid was endemic
-and three alcaldes had died of zymotic disease in a few years. It
-was generally denounced as "a poisonous pesthouse, a judicial burial
-ground." The Totana prison of Murcia was not properly a prison, but
-only a range of warehouses and shops fit for the storage of grain
-and herbs, but wholly unsuitable to lodge human beings. The district
-governor speaking of the Infiesto prison at Oviedo in 1853 wrote:
-"Humanity shudders at the horrible aspect of this detestable place."
-
-At Cartagena the common gaol was on the ground floor of the _presidio_
-or convict prison. Here the innocent, still untried prisoners occupied
-a dark, damp den, enduring torments of discomfort, speedily losing
-health and strength, and exposed by its ruinous condition to the
-extremes of heat and cold in the varying seasons. Females were lodged
-on a lower floor, darker and closer and even exposed to the worst
-temptations. The convicts of the _presidio_ had free access to their
-prison and immorality could not be prevented; no amount of supervision
-(and there was really none) could have checked the moral contamination
-more easily conveyed than the physical. These painful facts may be
-read in an official report dated October, 1877, and are practically the
-same as those detailed in the famous indictment of John Howard just a
-century earlier.[9]
-
-[9] "Vida Penal en Espana," by Rafael Salillas, Madrid, 1888.
-
-Many of the makeshift prisons mentioned above were located in the very
-heart of towns and were without boundary walls or means of separation
-from the public, and two hundred and sixty-four had windows giving upon
-the streets. It was impossible to ensure safe custody so limited was
-the supervision, so insecure and ruinous the state of these imperfect
-prisons. Escapes had been of very frequent occurrence, but the total
-number could not be stated owing to the absence of accurate records
-from year to year. One authority gave the annual average of escapes
-as thirty-four, ranging over five successive years. They were greatly
-facilitated by the slack, slipshod system of discipline and the
-careless guard kept at the gates through which crowds constantly passed
-in and out. Friends admitted wholesale to visit prisoners brought in
-disguises and easily helped them to evade the vigilance of warders and
-keepers. Escapes were most numerous in the small gaols,--about three
-to one when compared to those from the _presidios_,--and were often
-effected on the way to gaol through the neglect or connivance of the
-escort, especially when the journey was made on foot and officers in
-charge willingly consented to linger on the road in order to enjoy
-themselves in the taverns and drinking shops. They even allowed their
-prisoners to pay lengthened visits to their own homes if situated
-anywhere near.
-
-A famous escape took place, _en masse_, in one of the prisons on the
-occasion of a theatrical performance given by the prisoners in honour
-of the governor's birthday. Permission had been duly accorded and the
-function was organised on an imposing scale. The stage was erected in
-an open space, scenery provided and a fine curtain or act drop behind
-which the usual preparations were made. These had not gone beyond
-rehearsal, however. All was ready to "ring up," the prison audience all
-seated, enduring with increased impatience and dissatisfaction the long
-wait which seemed and was actually endless. At last the authorities
-interposed and the governor sent a messenger behind the curtain with
-a peremptory order to begin. There was no company. Every single soul,
-manager and actors had disappeared under cover of the curtain. A great
-hole or gap had been made in the outer wall, through which all of the
-performers had passed out to freedom.
-
-Numerous as are the escapes, recaptures are also frequent. That fine
-corps, the _guardias civiles_, which constitutes the rural police of
-Spain, always so active in the prevention and suppression of crime, has
-been highly successful in the pursuit of fugitives, few of whom remain
-at large for any length of time. Travellers in Spain, especially in
-the country districts, must have been struck with the fine appearance
-of these stalwart champions of the law. They are all old soldiers, well
-trained and disciplined, ever on the side of order, never mixing in
-politics, and conspicuous for their loyalty to the existing régime.
-
-The most disgraceful of the old prisons were in Madrid. The Saladero
-which survived until very recently had been once an abattoir and
-salting place of pigs. But it replaced one more ancient and even worse
-in every aspect. The earlier construction is described by a Spanish
-writer, Don Francisco Lastres, as the most meagre, the darkest,
-dirtiest place imaginable. It had yet a deeper depth, an underground
-dungeon, commonly called "el Infierno," hell itself, in which light was
-so scarce that when new comers arrived, the old occupants could only
-make out their faces by striking matches, manufactured from scraps of
-linen steeped in grease saved from their soup or salad oil. When the
-gaol was emptied it was so encrusted with abominable filth that to
-clean it was out of the question and the whole place was swept bodily
-out of existence.
-
-This must have been the prison in which George Borrow was confined when
-that enterprising Englishman was arrested for endeavouring to circulate
-the Bible in Spain, as the agent and representative of the British
-Bible Society in 1835 and the following years. His experiences as told
-by himself constitute one of the most thrilling books of adventure in
-the English language, and his strangely interesting personality will
-long be remembered and admired. He had led a very varied life, had
-wandered the world over as the friend and associate of those curious
-people, the gipsies, whose "crabbed" language he spoke with fluency
-and to whose ways and customs he readily conformed. Readers whom his
-"Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" have delighted will bear witness to the
-daring and intrepid character which carried him safely through many
-difficult and dangerous situations. He was a man of great stature, well
-trained in the art of self defence, as he proved by his successful
-contest with the "Flaming Tinker" described in "Lavengro." The bigoted
-Spanish authorities caught a Tartar in Borrow. It was easy to arrest
-him as he was nothing loth to go to gaol; he had long been thinking, as
-he tells us, "of paying a visit to the prison, partly in the hope of
-being able to say a few words of Christian instruction to the criminals
-and partly with a view to making certain investigations in the robber
-language of Spain." But, once in, he refused to come out. He took
-high ground; his arrest had been unlawful; he had never been tried
-or condemned and nothing would satisfy him but a full and complete
-apology from the Spanish government. He was strongly backed up by the
-British Ambassador and he was gratified in the end by the almost abject
-surrender of the authorities. But he spent three weeks within the
-walls and we have to thank his indomitable spirit for a glimpse into
-the gloomy recesses of the Carcel de la Corte, the chief prison, at
-that time, of the capital of Spain.
-
-The arrest was made openly in one of the principal streets of Madrid by
-a couple of _alguazils_ who carried their prisoner to the office of the
-_corregidor_, or chief magistrate, where he was abruptly informed that
-he was to be forthwith committed to gaol. He was led across the Plaza
-Mayor, the great square so often the scene in times past of the _autos
-da fé_. Borrow, as he went, cast his eyes at the balcony of the city
-hall where, on one occasion, "the last of the Austrian line in Spain
-(Philip II) sat, and, after some thirty heretics of both sexes had been
-burnt by fours and fives, wiped his face perspiring with heat and black
-with smoke and calmly inquired, '_No hay mas?_'" (No more to come?) for
-which exemplary proof of patience he was much applauded by his priests
-and confessors, who subsequently poisoned him.
-
-"We arrived at the prison," Borrow goes on, "which stands in a narrow
-street not far from the great square. We entered a dusty passage at
-the end of which was a wicket. There was an exchange of words and in a
-few moments I found myself within the prison of Madrid, in a kind of
-corridor which overlooked at a considerable altitude what appeared to
-be a court from which arose a hubbub of voices and occasional wild
-shouts and cries...." Several people sat here, one of whom received the
-warrant of committal, perused it with attention and, rising, advanced
-towards Borrow.
-
-"What a figure! He was about forty years of age and ... in height might
-have been some six feet two inches had his body not been curved much
-after the fashion of the letter S. No weasel ever appeared lanker;
-his face might have been called handsome, had it not been for his
-extraordinary and portentous meagreness; his nose was like an eagle's
-bill, his teeth white as ivory, his eyes black (oh, how black!) and
-fraught with a strange expression; his skin was dark and the hair
-of his head like the plumage of a raven. A deep quiet smile dwelt
-continually on his features, but with all the quiet it was a cruel
-smile, such a one as would have graced the countenance of a Nero.
-
-"'_Caballero_,' he said, 'allow me to introduce myself as the alcaide
-of this prison.... I am to have the honour of your company for a time,
-a short time doubtless, beneath this roof; I hope you will banish
-every apprehension from your mind. I am charged to treat you with all
-respect, a needless charge and _Caballero_, you will rather consider
-yourself here as a guest than as a prisoner. Pray issue whatever
-commands you may think fit to the turnkeys and officials as if they
-were your own servants. I will now conduct you to your apartment. We
-invariably reserve it for cavaliers of distinction. No charge will be
-made for it although the daily hire is not unfrequently an ounce of
-gold.'
-
-"This speech was delivered in pure sonorous Castilian with calmness,
-gravity and almost dignity and would have done honour to a gentleman
-of high birth. Now, who in the name of wonder, was this alcaide? One
-of the greatest rascals in all Spain. A fellow who more than once by
-his grasping cupidity and his curtailment of the miserable rations of
-the prisoners caused an insurrection in the court below only to be
-repressed by bloodshed and the summoning of military aid; a fellow of
-low birth who five years previously had been a drummer to a band of
-Royalist volunteers."
-
-The room allotted to Borrow was large and lofty, but totally destitute
-of any kind of furniture except a huge wooden pitcher containing
-the day's allowance of water. But no objection was made to Borrow's
-providing for himself and a messenger was forthwith despatched to his
-lodgings to fetch bed and bedding and all necessaries, with which
-came a supply of food, and the new prisoner soon made himself fairly
-comfortable. He ate heartily, slept soundly and rejoiced next day to
-hear that this illegal arrest and confinement of a British subject
-was already causing the high-handed minister who had ordered it, much
-uneasiness and embarrassment. Borrow steadfastly refused to go free
-without full and ample reparation for the violence and injustice
-done to him. "Take notice," he declared, "that I will not quit this
-prison till I have received full satisfaction for having been sent
-hither uncondemned. You may expel me if you please, but any attempt
-to do so shall be resisted with all the bodily strength of which I am
-possessed." In the end the _amende_ was made in an official document
-admitting that he had been imprisoned on insufficient grounds, and
-Borrow went out after three weeks' incarceration, during which he
-learned much concerning the prison and the people it contained.
-
-He refrains from a particular description of the place. "It would
-be impossible," he says, "to describe so irregular and rambling an
-edifice. Its principal features consisted of two courts, the one
-behind the other, in which the great body of the prisoners took air
-and recreation. Three large vaulted dungeons or _calabozos_ occupied
-the three sides of the (first) court ... roomy enough to contain
-respectively from one hundred to one hundred and fifty prisoners who
-were at night secured with lock and bar, but during the day were
-permitted to roam about the courts as they thought fit. The second
-court was considerably larger than the first, though it contained but
-two dungeons, horribly filthy and disgusting, used for the reception of
-the lower grades of thieves. Of the two dungeons one was if possible
-yet more horrible than the other. It was called the _gallinería_ or
-'chicken coop' because within it every night were pent up the young
-fry of the prison, wretched boys from seven to fifteen years of age,
-the greater part almost in a state of nudity. The common bed of all
-the inmates of these dungeons was the ground, between which and their
-bodies nothing intervened save occasionally a _manta_ or horse cloth or
-perhaps a small mattress; this latter luxury was however of exceedingly
-rare occurrence.
-
-"Besides the _calabozos_ connected with the courts were other dungeons
-in various parts of the prison, some of them quite dark, intended for
-the reception of those whom it might be deemed expedient to treat with
-peculiar severity. There was likewise a ward set apart for females.
-Connected with the principal corridor were many small apartments where
-resided prisoners confined for debt or for political offences, and,
-lastly, there was a small _capilla_ or chapel in which prisoners cast
-for death passed the last three days of their existence in the company
-of their ghostly advisers.
-
-"I shall not forget my first Sunday in prison. Sunday is the gala
-day ... and whatever robber finery is to be found in it is sure to
-be exhibited on that day of holiness. There is not a set of people
-in the world more vain than robbers in general, more fond of cutting
-a figure whenever they have an opportunity. The famous Jack Sheppard
-delighted in sporting a suit of Genoese velvet and when he appeared in
-public generally wore a silver hilted sword by his side.... Many of the
-Italian bandits go splendidly decorated, the cap alone of the Haram
-Pacha, the head of the cannibal gipsy band which infested Hungary at
-the conclusion of the 18th century, was adorned with gold and jewels to
-the value of several thousand guilders.... The Spanish robbers are as
-fond of display as their brethren of other lands, and whether in prison
-or out are never so happy as when decked out in a profusion of white
-linen in which they can loll in the sun or walk jauntily up and down."
-
-To this day, snow-white linen is an especial mark of foppery in the
-Spanish peasant. To put on a clean shirt is considered a sufficient
-and satisfactory substitute for a bath and in the humblest house a
-white table cloth is provided for meals and clean sheets for the
-beds. Borrow gives a graphic picture of the "tip-top thieves" he came
-across. "Neither coat nor jacket was worn over the shirt, the sleeves
-of which were wide and flowing, only a waistcoat of green or blue silk
-with an abundance of silver buttons which are intended more for show
-than use, as the waistcoat is seldom buttoned. Then there are wide
-trousers something after the Turkish fashion; around the waist is a
-crimson _faja_ or girdle and about the head is tied a gaudily coloured
-handkerchief from the loom of Barcelona. Light pumps and silk stockings
-complete the robber's array.
-
-"Amongst those who particularly attracted my attention were a father
-and son; the former a tall athletic figure, of about thirty, by
-profession a housebreaker and celebrated through Madrid for the
-peculiar dexterity he exhibited in his calling. He was in prison for
-an atrocious murder committed in the dead of night in a house in
-Carabanchel (a suburb of Madrid), in which his only accomplice was his
-son, a child under seven years of age. The imp was in every respect the
-counterpart of his father though in miniature. He too wore the robber
-shirt sleeves, the robber waistcoat with the silver buttons, the robber
-kerchief round his brow and, ridiculously enough, a long Manchegan
-knife in the crimson faja. He was evidently the pride of the ruffian
-father who took all imaginable care of him, would dandle him on his
-knee, and would occasionally take the cigar from his own mustachioed
-lips and insert it in the urchin's mouth. The boy was the pet of the
-court, for the father was one of the 'bullies' of the prison and those
-who feared his prowess and wished to pay their court to him were always
-fondling the child."
-
-Borrow when in the "Carcel de la Corte" renewed his acquaintance with
-one, Balseiro, whom he had met in a low tavern frequented by thieves
-and bull fighters on a previous visit to Madrid. One of these, Sevilla
-by name, professed deep admiration for the Englishman and backed him to
-know more than most people of the "crabbed" Gitano language. A match
-was made with this Balseiro who claimed to have been in prison half
-his life and to be on most intimate terms with the gipsies. When Borrow
-came across him for the second time he was confined in an upper story
-of the prison in a strong room with other malefactors. There was no
-mistaking this champion criminal with his small, slight, active figure
-and his handsome features, "but they were those of a demon." He had
-recently been found guilty of aiding and abetting a celebrated thief,
-Pepe Candelas, in a desperate robbery perpetrated in open daylight on
-no less a person than the Queen's milliner, a Frenchwoman, whom they
-bound in her own shop, from which they took goods to the amount of five
-or six thousand dollars. Candelas had already suffered for his crime,
-but Balseiro, whose reputation was the worse of the two, had saved his
-life by the plentiful use of money, and the capital sentence had in his
-case been commuted to twenty years' hard labour in the _presidio_ of
-Malaga.
-
-When Borrow condoled with him, Balseiro laughed it off, saying that
-within a few weeks he would be transferred and could at any time escape
-by bribing his guards. But he was not content to wait and joined with
-several fellow convicts who succeeded in breaking through the roof of
-the prison and getting away. He returned forthwith to his evil courses
-and soon committed a number of fresh and very daring robberies in and
-around Madrid. At length dissatisfied with the meagre results and the
-smallness of the plunder he secured, Balseiro planned a great stroke
-to provide himself with sufficient funds to leave the country and live
-elsewhere in luxurious idleness.
-
-A Basque named Gabira, a man of great wealth, held the post of
-comptroller of the Queen's household. He had two sons, handsome boys
-of twelve and fourteen years of age respectively, who were being
-educated at a school in Madrid. Balseiro, well aware of the father's
-strong affection for his children, resolved to make it subservient
-to his rapacity. He planned to carry off the boys and hold them for
-ransom at an enormous price. Two of his confederates, well-dressed and
-of respectable appearance, drove up to the school and presenting a
-forged letter, purporting to be written by the father, persuaded the
-schoolmaster to let them go out for a jaunt in the country. They were
-carried off to a hiding place of Balseiro's in a cave some five miles
-from Madrid in a wild unfrequented spot between the Escorial and the
-village of Torre Lodones. Here the two children were sequestered in
-the safekeeping of their captors, while Balseiro remained in Madrid to
-conduct negotiations with the bereaved father. But Gabira was a man
-of great energy and determination and altogether declined to agree to
-the terms proposed. He invoked the power of the authorities instead,
-and, at his request, parties of horse and foot soldiers were sent to
-scour the country and the cave was soon discovered, with the children,
-who had been deserted by their guards in terror at the news of the
-rigorous search instituted. Further search secured the capture of the
-accomplices and they were identified by their young victims. Balseiro,
-when his part in the plot became known, fled from the capital but was
-speedily caught, tried, and with his associates suffered death on the
-scaffold. Gabira with his two children was present at the execution.
-
-A brief description of the old Saladero, which has at last disappeared
-off the face of the earth, may be of interest. It stood at the top
-of the Santa Barbara hill on the left hand side, in external aspect
-a half-ruined edifice tottering to its fall, propped and buttressed,
-at one corner quite past mending, at another showing rotten cement
-and plaster with its aged weather-worn walls stained with great black
-patches of moisture and decay. A poor and wretched place outside with
-no architectural pretensions, its interior was infinitely worse. It
-was entered by a wide entrance not unlike that of an ancient country
-inn or hostelry with a broken-down wooden staircase, leading to a
-battered doorway of rotten timbers. The portals passed, the prison
-itself was reached, a series of underground cellars with vaulted roofs
-purposely constructed, as it seemed, to exclude light and prevent
-ventilation, permeated constantly with fetid odours and abominable
-foul exhalations from the perpetual want of change of atmosphere or
-circulation of fresh air. Yet human beings were left to rot in these
-nauseous and pestiferous holes for two or three years continuously. At
-times the detention lasted five years on account of the disgracefully
-slow procedure in the law courts and this although trials often ended
-in acquittal or a verdict of non-responsibility for the criminal
-act charged. Many of the unfortunate wretches subjected to these
-interminable delays and waiting judgment, therefore still innocent in
-the eyes of the law, were yet herded with those already convicted of
-the most heinous offences.
-
-This neglect of the rules, generally accepted as binding upon civilised
-governments in the treatment of those whom the law lays by the heels,
-produced deplorable results. The gaol fever, that ancient scourge which
-once ravaged ill-kept prisons and swept away thousands, but long ago
-eliminated from proper places of durance, survived in the Saladero
-of Madrid until quite a recent date. Forty cases occurred as late as
-1876 and zymotic disease was endemic in the prison. It was also a
-hotbed of vice, where indiscriminate association of all categories,
-good, bad and indifferent--the worst always in the ascendent, fostered
-and developed criminal instincts and multiplied criminals of the
-most daring and accomplished kind. When, with a storm of indignant
-eloquence, an eminent Spanish deputy, Don Manuel Silvela, denounced
-the Saladero in the Cortes and took the lead in insisting upon its
-demolition, he pointed out its many shortcomings. It was in the last
-degree unhealthy; it was nearly useless as a place of detention, for
-the bold or ingenious prisoner laughed at its restraints and escapes
-took place daily to the number of fourteen and sixteen at a time. If,
-however, with increased precautions it was possible to keep prisoners
-secure within the walls, nothing could save them from one another.
-Contamination was widespread and unceasing in a mass of men left
-entirely to themselves without regular occupation, without industrial
-labour or improving education and with no outlet for their energies but
-demoralising talk and vicious practices. Not strangely the Saladero
-became a great criminal centre, a workshop and manufactory of false
-money, where strange frauds were devised, such as the _entierro_[10] or
-suggested revelation of hidden treasure, the well known Spanish swindle
-which has had ramifications almost all over the world.
-
-[10] See _post_, p. 161.
-
-An independent witness, nevertheless, speaking from experience, the
-same George Borrow already quoted, has a good word to say for the
-inmates of Spanish gaols. He was greatly surprised at their orderly
-conduct and quiet demeanour. "They had their occasional bursts of
-wild gaiety; their occasional quarrels which they were in the habit
-of settling in a corner of the interior court with their long knives,
-the result not infrequently being death or a dreadful gash in the face
-or abdomen; but upon the whole their conduct was infinitely superior
-to what might have been expected from the inmates of such a place.
-Yet this was not the result of coercion or any particular care which
-was exercised over them; for perhaps in no part of the world are
-prisoners so left to themselves and so utterly neglected as in Spain,
-the authorities having no further anxiety about them than to prevent
-their escape, not the slightest attention being paid to their moral
-conduct,--not a thought bestowed on their health, comfort or mental
-improvement whilst within the walls. Yet in this prison of Madrid, and
-I may say in Spanish prisons in general (for I have been an inmate
-of more than one), the ears of the visitor are never shocked with
-horrid blasphemy and obscenity as in those of some other countries and
-more particularly in civilised France, nor are his eyes outraged or
-himself insulted as he would assuredly be were he to look down upon the
-courts from the galleries of the Bicêtre (in Paris)." And yet in this
-prison of Madrid were some of the most desperate characters in Spain;
-ruffians who had committed acts of cruelty and atrocity sufficient to
-make one shudder with horror. Gravity and sedateness are the leading
-characteristics of the Spaniards, and the worst robber, except in those
-moments when he is engaged in his occupation, (and then no one is
-more sanguinary, pitiless and wolfishly eager for booty), is a being
-who can be courteous and affable and who takes pleasure in conducting
-himself with sobriety and decorum. Borrow thought so well of these
-fellow-prisoners that he was willing to entertain them at dinner in his
-own private apartment in the gaol, and the governor made no objection
-to knocking off their irons temporarily so that they might enjoy the
-meal in comfort and convenience.
-
-A more intimate acquaintance with the inner life of the Spanish
-gaols has been accorded by a modern writer, Don Rafael Salillas. He
-summarises all its evils in the single word "money." All disorders
-and shortcomings, the corruption, the absence of discipline, the
-cruelties perpetrated, the prevailing license, the shameful immorality
-constantly winked at or openly permitted, have had one and the same
-origin, the use and misuse of the private funds the prisoners have at
-their disposal. Until quite a recent date, everything, even temporary
-liberty, had its price in Spanish prisons. This vicious system dated
-from the times when the "alcaide" or head of an establishment, the
-primary purpose of which was the safe custody of offenders, bought
-his place and was permitted to recoup himself as best he could out
-of his charges. The same abominable practice was at one time almost
-a world-wide practice, but nowhere has it flourished so largely as
-in Spain. No attempt was made to check it; it was acknowledged and
-practically deemed lawful.
-
-In an ancient work on the prison of Seville, dating from the sixteenth
-century, the writer, Christobal de Chaves, classifies the interior
-under three heads; the spaces entered respectively by three doors
-of gold, silver or copper, each metal corresponding to the profits
-drawn from each. Imprisonment might be made more tolerable by payment
-regulated according to a fixed tariff. For a certain sum any prisoner
-might go home to sleep, he might purchase food where little, if any,
-was provided, he might escape fetters or purchase "easement of irons,"
-as in the old English prisons. To enhance the value of the relief
-afforded worse hardships were inflicted at the outset. Restraint was
-made most irksome in the beginning of imprisonment. The fetters were
-then the heaviest and most varied, the deepest and vilest dungeons were
-the first quarters allotted. A plain hint of relaxation and alleviation
-was given, to be obtained at a price and the converse made equally
-certain. Increased pain and discomfort were the penalty for those who
-would not, or, worse still, who could not produce the extortionate sums
-demanded. Tasks imposed were rendered more difficult; it was a common
-practice to oil or grease the rope by which water was raised from a
-well, so that it should slip through the fingers and intensify the
-labour.
-
-When authority had sold its good will or wrung the life blood from its
-victims they were handed over to the tender mercies of their fellow
-prisoners, the self-constituted masters and irresponsible tyrants in
-the place. The most brutal and overbearing ruled supreme within the
-walls and levied taxes by the right of the strongest. The "garnish" of
-the old British prisons, the enforced payments to gain a first footing,
-was exacted to the last in Spain from all new arrivals and was called
-"_cobrar el patente_," _i. e._ collecting the dues. To hesitate or
-refuse payment was promptly punished by cruel blows; the defaulters
-were flogged; they got the _culebrazo_ (whipping) with a rope kept for
-the purpose. The quite penniless were despoiled of their clothing and
-consoled with the remark that it was better for them to take to their
-beds because they were naked, than on account of injuries and wounds,
-or they wrapped themselves up in some ragged cloak infested with fleas.
-The bullies or _valientes_ were not interfered with by the authorities
-but rather supported by them. In fact they played into each other's
-hands. Both worked their wicked will upon their victims and in their
-own way,--the authorities by right of the legal powers they wielded,
-the master-prisoners by force of character and the strength of their
-muscles. Both squeezed out money like juice from a lemon, robbed,
-swindled or stole all that came in their way.
-
-Guzman de Alfarache, the typical thief of the time of Philip II, whose
-life and adventures are told by the author of the most famous of the
-picaresque novels, describes his journey from Seville to Cadiz to
-embark upon one of the galleys which made up the naval power of Spain.
-"As we started on the road, we came upon a swine-herd with a number of
-young pigs, which we surrounded and captured, each of us taking one.
-The man howled to our commissary that he should make us restore them,
-but he turned a deaf ear and we stuck to our plunder. At the first
-halt we laid hands on other goods and concealed them inside one of the
-pigs when the commissary interposed, discovered the things and took
-possession of them himself."
-
-The alcaide of the prison turned everything to profit. He sold the
-Government stores, bedding and clothing to the prison bullies who
-retailed the pieces to individual prisoners. He trafficked in the
-disciplinary processes, accepting bribes to overlook misconduct, and
-pandered to the worst vices of the inmates by allowing visitors of
-both sexes to have free access to them and to bring in all manner of
-prohibited articles, unlimited drink, and dangerous weapons, knives and
-daggers and other arms for use in attack and defence in the quarrels
-and murderous conflicts continually occurring.
-
-A fruitful source of profit was the sale of privileged offices, permits
-to hawk goods and to trade within the precincts of the prison. Salillas
-when he visited the Seville prison not many years ago, saw numbers of
-prisoners selling cigars and cigarettes in the yards, various articles
-of food, such as _gazpacho_, the popular salad of Andalusia, compounded
-of oil and bread soaked in water, and drinks including _aguardiente_,
-that powerful Spanish spirit akin to Hollands. Some kept gaming tables
-and paid a tax on each game and its profits and especially when the
-"King" was turned up at "Monte."
-
-Salillas publishes a list of prices that ruled for places, privileges
-and boons conceded to the prisoners. To become a "_cabo de vara_," a
-"corporal carrying the stick" or wand of office, cost from eight to
-sixteen dollars. "Who and what was the _Cabo de Vara_?" he asks and
-answers the question. "A hybrid creature the offspring of such diverse
-parents as the law and crime; half murderer, half robber, who after
-living in defiance of the law is at least prevented from doing further
-harm in freedom, is locked up and entrusted with executive authority
-over companions who have passed through the same evil conditions and
-are now at his mercy. He is half galley-slave chained to the oar, half
-public functionary wearing the badge of officialdom and armed with a
-stick to enforce his authority. He represents two very opposite sets of
-ideas; on the one hand that of good order and the maintenance of penal
-discipline, on the other that of a natural inclination towards the
-wrong doing in which he has been a practitioner and for which he is, in
-a way, enduring the penalty. To succeed he must possess some strongly
-marked personal qualities; he should be able to bully and impose his
-will upon those subjected to his influence, overbearing, masterful,
-swaggering, ready to take the law into his own hands and insist upon
-its observance as he chooses to interpret its dictates."
-
-The post of hospital orderly or cook or laundry-man could be secured
-for about the same price, while a small fee to the prison surgeon
-gained a perfectly sound man admission to hospital for treatment he
-did not need, but in which he was much more comfortable than in the
-ordinary prison. The place of prison barber was to be bought for
-four dollars; employment as a shoemaker two dollars; relief from a
-punishment ordered three dollars; permission to pay a visit home, four
-dollars. These prices were not definitely settled and unchangeable.
-Where a certain profit could be extracted from a particular post such
-as the charge of the canteen it was put up to auction and knocked down
-to the highest bidder.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD
-
- The presidio or convict prison--Stations at home and in
- Northern Africa--Convict labour--Cruelties inflicted on the
- presidiarios employed in road making--Severity of the régime at
- Valladolid--Evils of overcrowding--Ceuta--Its fortifications--Early
- history--The _entierro_ or "Spanish swindle"--Several interesting
- instances--Monsignor X--Armand Carron--M. Elked--Credulity of the
- victims--Boldness of the swindlers--Attempt to dupe a Yorkshire
- squire--Discovery of the fraud.
-
-
-The Spanish "presidios" or penal establishments for offenders sentenced
-to long terms are the counterpart of the English convict prisons.
-They are of two classes, those at home in provincial capitals or in
-fortresses and strongholds, and those abroad installed in North Africa,
-as the alternative or substitute for the penal colonies beyond the
-sea established by Italy and France. Home presidios are at Burgos,
-Cartagena, Granada, Ocana, Santona, Valladolid and Saragossa. There are
-two at Valencia, one at Tarragona and two more at Alcalá de Henares.
-Of the foregoing that of Cartagena was especially constructed to meet
-the needs of the arsenal and dockyard and is spoken of as deplorably
-deficient by those who visited it. Four hundred convicts were
-lodged miserably in one dormitory; their bedding consisted of a rough
-mattress and one brown rug; clothing was issued only every two years;
-the dietaries were supplied by a thievish contractor who supplied
-a soup consisting of beans boiled in water, abstracting the ration
-of oil and bacon. A presidio of ancient date was installed in the
-arsenal of La Carraca near Cadiz, a survival really of the _galera_ or
-galleys planted on shore when human motive power ceased to be used in
-propelling warships.
-
-[Illustration: _Castel dell' Ovo_
-
-Situated on a high rocky island near the shore of Naples, it was a
-place of great security. A number of the islands in the bay of Naples
-have been utilised as prisons and as penal settlements.]
-
-A terrible story is preserved of the cruelties inflicted on a number
-of these _presidiarios_ employed to make the road between San Lucar de
-Barrameda and Puerto Santa Maria. Their labour was leased to an inhuman
-contractor who worked them literally to death. They were half-starved,
-over-burthened with chains and continually flogged so that within one
-year half their whole number of one thousand had disappeared; they had
-died "of privation, of blows, hunger, cold, insufficient clothing and
-continuous neglect." The contractor cleared a large profit, but lost it
-and died in extreme poverty after having been arraigned and tried for
-his life as a murderer.
-
-The presidio of Valladolid was also condemned for the severity of
-its régime. The climate alternated between great summer heat and
-extreme cold in winter, but the convicts worked in the quarries in
-all weathers. The death record rose in this prison to such a high
-figure that a third of the average total population of three thousand
-perished within eighteen months. The general average of the presidios
-was low but as a rule the death rate was not high. Even when twenty
-per cent. of males and twenty-five per cent. of the females were sick
-and hospital accommodation was scarce and imperfect, the deaths did
-not exceed two and a half per cent. per annum and this included the
-fatal results of quarrels ending in duels to the death. One of the
-most serious evils was overcrowding. Official figures give the prison
-population as about nineteen thousand and the available house-room was
-for not more than twelve thousand. Salillas puts it at a much lower
-total, asserting there was barely room for three thousand.
-
-While the prisons of Cuba are not strictly within the scope of this
-work, one of historic and particular interest may be mentioned. This is
-Morro Castle, which still guards the Harbour of Havana. It was begun
-in 1589, soon after the unsuccessful attack on Havana by Drake, and
-was finished in 1597. In 1862 it was partly destroyed by the English
-who captured it and remained in possession of the city for a year. The
-arms of the city, granted by royal decree, were appropriately three
-castles of silver on a blue field, and a golden key. The castles were
-La Fuerza, El Morro and La Punta, guarding the harbour.
-
-The ancient fortress has been described as a "great mass of dun
-coloured rock and tower and battlement and steep, of which the various
-parts seem to have grown into one another." It contains cells as
-damp, dark and unwholesome as those in the notorious dungeons of the
-old world. This is testified to by a California journalist, Charles
-Michelson, who was arrested by mistake and thrown into a cell in the
-castle just before the Spanish-American War. Although he was liberated
-in two days, his experience was not soon forgotten. The cell was an
-arch of heavy masonry, damp with the moisture of years. The only window
-was high up in the arch, and there was no furniture--no bed, blanket or
-chair. He was not without company of a kind, however, for the place was
-full of cockroaches and rats. When he clambered up and tried to look
-out of the window, which commands a fine view of the harbour, a guard
-outside poked at him with a bayonet. The soup brought him was, he said,
-"strong and scummy, and the can had been so recently emptied of its
-original contents that there was a film of oil over the top of it." His
-interpreter, who was arrested at the same time, fared worse, for he was
-bound and kept in even a fouler cell.
-
-In the days of Spanish sovereignty, many Cuban prisoners were shot
-and their bodies were hurled from the outer wall of the castle to the
-sharks of the so-called "shark's nest," forty feet below, on the gulf
-side.
-
-There are said to be many caverns in the castle through which the rush
-and noise of the waves make music, but this is probably due to the
-winds rather than the tides.
-
-Spain maintains several presidios beyond sea, chiefly on the North
-African coast, and there is one also at Palma de Mallorca, one of
-the Balearic islands. Those in Africa are Alhucemas, Melilla, Peñon
-de Velez de la Gomera, Chaferinas and Ceuta, immediately opposite
-Gibraltar, which is no doubt the first and original of all Spanish
-presidios. The expression when first used was taken to convey the
-meaning of a penal settlement, established within a fortress under
-military rule and guardianship, with its personnel constantly employed
-on the fortifications, constructing, repairing and making good wear
-and tear, and answering, if need be, the call to arms in reinforcement
-of the regular garrison. The early records of Ceuta prove this. This
-stronghold, on one side rising out of the sea, with its landward
-defences ever confronting a fierce hostile power, was exposed at all
-times to siege and incursion. When the Moorish warriors became too
-bold the Spanish general sallied forth to beat up their quarters,
-destroy their batteries and drive them back into the mountains. Working
-parties of _presidiarios_, armed, accompanied the troops and did
-excellent service, eager, as the old chronicler puts it, to clear their
-characters by their heroism, "always supposing that blood may wash out
-crime."
-
-Ceuta was a type of the military colony beyond sea, held by a strong
-garrison against warlike natives who resisted the invasion and would
-have driven out the intruders. The settlement was secured by continual
-fortification in which the abundant penal labour was constantly
-employed. Its social conditions were precisely similar to those which
-obtained in the early days of Australian transportation and such
-as prevail to-day in the French penal colony of New Caledonia. The
-population is made up of two principal classes, bond and free. The
-first are convicts serving their sentences and the second the officials
-who guard them. Ordinary colonists have not settled to any large extent
-in these North African possessions. A few traders and agriculturists
-have come seeking such fortune as offers and the number of residents is
-increased by released convicts, the counterpart of the emancipist class
-in the Antipodes, who remain with the prospect of earning a livelihood
-honestly, instead of lapsing into evil courses on their return to the
-mother country.
-
-Ceuta is essentially a convict city, not exactly founded by penal
-labour but enlarged and improved by it and served by it in all the
-needs of daily domestic life. The first period of close confinement
-on arrival is comparatively brief and is spent in the prison proper
-outside the city at hard labour in association on the fortifications,
-in the workshops and quarries. In the second period the convicts
-are permitted to enter the city and are employed under supervision
-in warehouses, offices and in water carrying. In the third period,
-commonly called from "gun to gun," extending daily from the morning
-gun fire until the evening, the convicts are allowed to go freely into
-the city and work there on their own account. The fourth and last,
-entered when two thirds of the whole sentence has been completed, is
-called "under conditions," that is to say, in conditional freedom, and
-the convicts are let out to private employers precisely as they were
-"assigned" in old Australian days. They may live with their masters,
-sleep out, and are only obliged to report at the prison once a month
-for muster. More than a third of the total number are thus employed.
-
-The result is that Ceuta offers the singular spectacle that it is
-nominally a prison, but the bulk of the prisoners live beyond the
-walls, quite unguarded and really in the streets forming part of the
-ordinary population. Convicts are to be met with at every corner, they
-go in and out through the front doors of houses, no one looks at them
-in surprise, no one draws aside to let them pass. The situation is
-described graphically by Salillas. "Who is the coachman on the box? A
-convict. Who is the man who waits at table? A convict. The cook in the
-kitchen? A convict. The nursemaid in charge of the children? A convict
-(male). Are their employers afraid of being robbed or murdered? Not in
-the least."
-
-Another eye witness[11] writes:--
-
-[11] Relosillas, "Four Months in Ceuta."
-
-"Could this happen in any other city in Spain? If the inhabitants found
-themselves rubbing shoulders with the scum of the earth, with the worst
-malefactors, with criminals guilty of the most heinous offences, would
-they have enjoyed one moment's peace? Could they overcome the natural
-repugnance felt by honest and respectable people for those whom the law
-has condemned to live apart? The fact is that at Ceuta no one objects.
-The existing state of things is deemed the most natural thing in the
-world. It has been too long the rule and it is claimed seriously that
-no evil consequences have resulted. The utmost confidence is reposed
-in these ex-criminals whose nature has been seemingly quite changed
-by relegation to the African presidio. They wash and get up linen
-without losing more pieces than a first class washerwoman, they wait
-on the children with the tenderest concern, they perform all sorts of
-household service, go to market, run messages, polish the floors and
-the furniture with all the zeal and industry of the best servants in
-the world. The most cordial relations exist between employers and their
-convict attendants and cases have been known where the former have
-carried the latter back to Spain to continue their service. One was a
-Chinese cook who was excused ten years' supervision to go back with his
-master."
-
-It is claimed by the champions of Ceuta that despite the freedom
-accorded to the convicts their conduct is exemplary. "I can certify,"
-says Relosillas[12] "that during a whole year there were but three
-or four instances of crime amongst the convicts employed in domestic
-service." Others however are not so laudatory. An independent witness,
-Doña Concepcion Arenal, has little good to say of the prisons. "In
-them justice is punished or rather crucified," she wrote, "and with
-it hygiene, morality, decency, humanity, all, in a word, which every
-one who is not himself hateful and contemptible, respects. It is
-impossible to give any idea of the _cuartel principal_ or chief convict
-barrack in the place. We can only refer to its terrible and revolting
-demoralisation." Yet she is inclined to contradict herself and argues
-that the convict when trusted will behave well. His life on the whole
-is light and easy; he has sufficient food, congenial company, and can
-better his position by steady industry; he wears no chains, performs no
-rude or laborious tasks and is driven neither into insubordination nor
-crime.
-
-[12] "Four Months in Ceuta."
-
-The statements just quoted are hardly credible and cannot be reconciled
-with the reports of others, from personal experience. Mr. Cook, an
-English evangelist, who has devoted himself to extensive prison
-visitation, has drawn a dark picture of this ideal penal settlement as
-he saw it in 1892. At that date general idleness was the rule. Hundreds
-hung about with no work to do. Criminals with the worst antecedents
-were included in the prison population. One had been a _bandido_ or
-brigand who had been guilty of seven murders; another had four murders
-to his credit and one assassin was in a totally dark cell, confined
-hand and foot, condemned to death and daily expecting to be shot. No
-fewer than one hundred and twelve slept in one large room without
-more supervision than that exercised by their fellows discharging the
-functions of warders. Mr. Cook expresses his wonder that they did not
-break out oftener into rebellion. As a matter of fact and as against
-the statement given above, outbreaks were not uncommon with fierce
-attacks upon officers and murderous affrays among the prisoners. Crime
-and misconduct are certainly not unknown in Ceuta.
-
-A gruesome description was given by a correspondent writing to the
-_London Times_ in the year 1876. When he visited the citadel prison he
-found from eight hundred to one thousand convicts lodged there in a
-wretched condition, clad only in tattered rags, the cast off uniforms
-of soldiers, generally insufficient for decency. They tottered in and
-out of the ruinous sheds supposed to shelter them, quarrelled like
-hyenas over their meagre and repulsive rations, which were always short
-through the dishonesty of the thieving contractor, and fought to the
-death with the knives which every one carried. Each shed contained
-from one to two hundred where they lay like beasts upon the ground.
-Vermin crept up the wall and dirt abounded on all sides. "No words of
-mine," said this outspoken eye-witness, "can paint the darkness, the
-filth, the seething corruption of these dens of convicts, dens into
-which no streak of sunlight, divine or human, ever finds its way, and
-where nothing is seen or heard but outrage and cruelty on the one hand,
-misery and starvation and obscenity on the other." There was a worse
-place, the "Presidio del Campo," or field prison in which the hard
-labour gangs[13] employed on the fortifications were housed in still
-filthier hovels, with less food and more demoralisation. This same
-correspondent when he enquired his way to the presidio was told by a
-Spanish officer: "They are not presidios but the haunts of wild beasts
-and nurseries of thieves." Obviously there is much discrepancy in the
-various accounts published.
-
-[13] Irons are not carried by the convicts, not even by those sentenced
-to imprisonment "in chains," _con la cadena_. They were considered an
-interference with the efforts and strength of the labourer.
-
-The true state of the case may best be judged by examining and setting
-forth the conditions prevailing. On the surface the convicts may seem
-to abstain from serious misconduct, but even this may be doubted from
-the facts in evidence. "It is a wild beasts' cage," writes one well
-informed authority. It may be to some extent a cage without bars, or
-in which the wild beasts are so tamed that they may be allowed to go
-at large and do but little harm, but evil instincts are at times in
-the ascendancy as shown in the quarrels and disorders that occur, but
-to no greater extent says the apologist than in any of the prisons on
-the Spanish mainland. It may be that the régime is so mild that the
-convicts yield willingly to it without a murmur and seldom rise against
-it. But the very atmosphere of the place is criminal. There may be few
-prison offences where rules are easy but if serious offences against
-discipline are but rarely committed within the limits, others against
-society are constantly prepared for execution beyond. Ceuta is a hot
-bed of crime, the seed is sown there, nourished and developed to bear
-baleful fruit afterwards. It is a first class school for the education
-of thieves, swindlers, coiners, and forgers who graduate and take
-honours in the open world of evil doing. It is the original home, some
-say, of the famous fraud, peculiarly Spanish, called the _entierro_,
-which still flourishes and draws profit as ever, not from Spain alone,
-but from far and wide in nearly all civilised countries.
-
-The _entierro_, or the "burial" literally translated, means an artful
-and specious proposal to reveal the whereabouts of a buried treasure.
-It is another form of the well known "confidence trick" or, as the
-French call it, the "_vol à l'americaine_," and we cannot but admire
-the ingenuity and inventiveness so often displayed in its practice,
-while expressing surprise at the credulity and gullibility of those
-who are deluded by it. It originates as a rule in a letter addressed
-from the prison to some prominent person in Spain or elsewhere, for the
-astute practitioner is well provided with lists of names likely to be
-useful to him in his business. It is on record that a seizure was made
-in the presidio of Granada of a whole stock in trade, a great mass of
-information secretly collected from all parts of the world to serve in
-carrying out the fraud of the _entierro_, and with it a number of forms
-of letters in various European languages. The invitation is marked
-"very private and confidential" and conveys with extreme caution and
-mystery the suggestion that for a sufficient consideration the secret
-hiding place of a very valuable treasure will be confided to the person
-addressed. Colour is given to the proposal by some plausible but not
-always probable story on which it is based.
-
-In one case the writer pretended to be a Spanish officer who had
-received from the hands of Napoleon III himself, when flying to England
-in September, 1870, a casket of jewels which he was charged to convey
-to the Countess of Montijo, mother of the Empress Eugenie, in Madrid.
-The messenger had however become involved in a Carlist or revolutionary
-movement and was now in prison, but he had succeeded before arrest
-in burying the jewels in a remote spot so cleverly concealed that he
-alone possessed the secret. The liberal offer was made to the person
-addressed of a fourth share of the total value provided he would
-transmit to the prisoner correspondent through a sure hand, indicated,
-the sum of three hundred pounds in cash by means of which he could
-secure release and proceed to unearth the treasure.
-
-Another story is as follows:
-
-One day the regular mail boat brought to Ceuta an Italian ecclesiastic,
-a high dignitary of the Church, of grave and venerable appearance, who
-proceeded at once to make a formal call upon the commandant or general
-commanding for the time being. He was in search of certain information
-and he more particularly desired to be directed to an address he
-sought, that of a small house in a retired spot in one of the small
-little-frequented streets in the hilly town. He carried with him a
-heavy and rather bulky handbag which when he started from the general's
-he begged he might leave in his charge on the plea that its contents
-were valuable.
-
-After the lapse of two or three hours the Monsignor returned with
-terrified aspect and evidently in the greatest distress of mind. He
-entreated that a priest might be summoned to whom he might confess, and
-his wish was forthwith gratified. The moment he had unbosomed himself
-to his ghostly adviser, he seized his handbag and ran down to the port
-just in time to catch the return mail boat to Algeciras. The priest who
-had heard his confession was to be released from the secret confided
-to him and reveal it to the authorities as soon as the safe arrival of
-the mail boat at the mainland was signalled across to Ceuta. Then the
-whole story came out.
-
-Monsignor X was one of the most trusted and confidential chaplains of
-his Holiness the Pope and he had gone to Ceuta in the interests of an
-ex-Carlist general who had the misfortune to be detained there as a
-political prisoner. A sum of money was needed to compass his escape
-from the presidio and help him to reach in safety the burying place
-of a vast treasure, to disinter it and apply it to the furtherance of
-the civil war in progress. This general seems to have satisfied the
-papal dignitaries of his identity and good faith; his communication
-was endorsed with plans and statements pointing to the whereabouts of
-the hidden treasure, and the method by which the money he needed for
-his enterprise was to be used, was minutely described. He said he was
-too closely watched to allow any messenger to reach him direct, but he
-had friends in Ceuta, two titled ladies, near relatives who had been
-permitted to live in the prison town and to visit him from time to time
-and who would pass the money to him when it was brought to Ceuta.
-
-Monsignor X landed as we have seen and learned where he was to go,
-but with commendable caution he hesitated to take his money with him.
-He would hand it over when he had made the personal acquaintance of
-the general's aristocratic friends. They did not prove very desirable
-acquaintances. He found the house he was to visit, was admitted
-without question, but then the door was shut behind him and he was
-murderously assailed by half a dozen convicts, knife in hand. He was
-ordered to give up the money he had brought, and when on searching him
-it was found missing, he was rifled of everything he carried in his
-pockets, both his watch and a considerable sum in cash. His life was
-spared because it was certain that his prolonged absence would lead to
-a hue and cry, but he was obliged to swear that he would not attempt
-to leave the house for one clear hour so that the robbers might make
-good their escape. Moreover he was warned if he gave the alarm he
-would certainly be assassinated. Hence his desire to pass beyond the
-Straits of Gibraltar before the outrage became known. When the house
-was visited it was found empty and unfurnished with not a sign of life
-on the premises. The most interesting feature in the story is that the
-swindlers should fly at such high game, but it is founded on undoubted
-fact. The Carlist insurrection was often used to father the attempt to
-defraud.
-
-In another case a letter conveyed to the proprietor of a vineyard at
-Maestrazgo the alluring news that a large sum in gold was hidden on
-his ground, the accumulated contributions of Carlist supporters in
-the neighbourhood. The exact position would be revealed and a plan
-forwarded in exchange for a sum of four thousand dollars in hard
-cash, which was to be forwarded to Ceuta according to certain precise
-instructions. The money was sent but no reply came. Days and weeks
-passed and at last, weary of waiting and a little unhappy, the easily
-duped victim made up his mind to cross to Ceuta in person and bring his
-disappointing correspondent to book. The wine grower unhappily landed
-in the presidio on the day they were baiting a bull in the streets, a
-game constantly played and with more danger to the passers-by than the
-players. The bull goaded into a state of fury attacked the new comer
-and tossed him so that he fell to the ground with both legs broken. The
-poor man got no plan and no news of his dollars. All he gained was two
-months in bed lying between life and death.
-
-The writer Relosillas, who filled the place of an inspector or surveyor
-of works at Ceuta, has given some of his personal experiences in that
-convict prison.[14] He describes how on one occasion he was present
-at a free fight among the convicts in the barracks which had been
-originally a Franciscan convent. He was in his own office at a late
-hour, hard by, when he heard a terrible uproar in the great dormitory
-and ran over to exercise his authority and prevent bloodshed. Knives
-were out and being freely used by combatants ranged on two sides, one
-lot backing up a friend who had been robbed of a photograph of his
-sister, the other lot defending the thief, who had stolen the portrait
-for use in a buried treasure swindle. He had created her a marchioness
-and intended to forward it as a bait to show his intimacy with the
-aristocracy and prepare the way for the fraud. The case may be quoted
-to show how minutely the practitioners in the _entierro_ studied their
-ground and acquired the means of operating. In all Spanish prisons and
-notably in Ceuta, cunning convicts are to be found, men of ability
-and experience, who have travelled far and wide, who are conversant
-with many languages and well acquainted with prominent people in other
-countries and the leading facts and particulars of their lives.
-
-[14] _Catorce Meses en Ceuta_, Malaga, 1886.
-
-A few additional stories of swindles akin to the _entierro_ are of much
-interest.
-
-A French landowner by name Armand Carron, a resident of a small town
-in the Department of Finistère, received, some time ago, a letter from
-Ceuta, signed Santiago (or James) Carron. The writer explained that he
-was a native of Finistère where the Frenchman resided; that he was a
-namesake and a member of the landowner's family, son of a first cousin
-of his who had left France many years before and settled in Spain with
-wife and three sons, of whom he, Santiago Carron, now alone survived.
-This Santiago, the letter went on, had been placed by his father in
-the military college at Segovia, had served through all the subaltern
-grades as an artillery officer, had risen to the rank of brigadier
-and in that capacity had been sent out in command of the district of
-the Cinco Villas in Cuba, where he had married the daughter of Don
-Diego Calderon, a wealthy Havana merchant, and the owner of vast
-sugar plantations. His wife had brought him a dowry of four million
-reales (£40,000) and had died leaving him a daughter called after her
-mother, Juanita, now about 17 years old. This girl, the only object of
-her father's love and care, had been by him sent to Europe and placed
-for her education at the convent of the Sacre Coeur at Chamartin near
-Madrid.
-
-His career in the army had been for many years very fortunate and his
-wedded life in Cuba exceedingly happy. He had been laden with honours
-by a grateful Government and received many proofs of his country's
-trust, but lately the officer in charge of the chest of the military
-district at Cinco Villas had absconded and run away to New York with
-a sum of two million reales. As he, the brigadier, was answerable for
-his subaltern's conduct and was not willing to sacrifice one half of
-his wife's--now his daughter's--fortune to pay for the defaulter, he
-had been summoned to Spain and then relegated, or sent as a prisoner
-on parole to the fortress at Ceuta to take his trial before a court
-martial, which owing to the dilatoriness of all things in Spain might
-sit till doomsday.
-
-After thus giving an account of himself and his belongings the
-brigadier proceeded to explain the reasons which induced him to address
-himself to his unknown French relative. Having suffered much from long
-exposure to the heat of a tropical climate he felt old before his time,
-and his hereditary enemy, the gout, had by several sharp twinges made
-him aware of the precariousness of his tenure of life. He had only that
-one daughter in the world, the sole heiress of a considerable patrimony
-who might at any moment be deprived of her natural protector and for
-whose final education and introduction into society it was his duty to
-provide. The girl had great natural gifts, had inherited her mother's
-Creole beauty, and the accounts of her proficiency, given by the nuns
-at Chamartin were most flattering to his paternal pride. He was anxious
-to appoint a guardian to his daughter and he could think of no one
-fitter in every respect for that charge than his only relative, M.
-Armand Carron.
-
-He (the brigadier) had lately been diligently looking over his father's
-papers; had found among them very numerous and interesting family
-documents--ample evidence that a hearty and loving correspondence had
-for many years been kept up between his father, Vincent Carron, and the
-father of M. Armand Carron, also called Armand, and he followed up the
-narrative with frequent allusions to several incidents occurring in the
-early youth of the two cousins, with descriptions of localities, common
-acquaintances and the usual joys and sorrows alternating in their
-domestic circles. Altogether it was a well contrived, plausible story
-verging so closely upon probability as to avoid shipwreck upon the rock
-of truth.
-
-M. Armand Carron of Finistère did not think it right or expedient to
-cast doubt on the genuineness of the communication. He answered the
-brigadier's appeal by calling him "My dear cousin," saying he had a
-perfect recollection of his father's frequent allusions to Vincent
-Carron, the cousin who had grown up with him in their own home and only
-left their native town on arriving at man's estate. After heartily
-congratulating the brigadier on his conspicuous career which reflected
-so much lustre on their own name, and condoling with him about the
-momentary cloud that had now--undeservedly he felt sure--settled upon
-it, he assured his newly found relative of his sympathy and of his
-readiness to look upon the brigadier's daughter as his own child,
-to receive her into the bosom of his family and take that care of
-her which so precious a jewel as she was described to be, must fully
-deserve.
-
-So the matter was settled. The correspondence between the two newly
-found relatives continued for six or seven months and became very
-affectionate and confidential. The brigadier sent the Frenchman
-his photograph and that of his daughter, both taken in Havana and
-bearing the name and trade mark of the artist. The one represented a
-middle-aged officer of high rank in full uniform and with the Grand
-Cross of San Hermengeldo on his breast, a fine manly countenance with
-long grey silky moustache; the other exhibiting the arch, pretty
-countenance of a brunette in her teens, with smooth bands of raven hair
-on either side of her low forehead and the shade of a moonlit night in
-her dark eyes; a bright blooming creature with dimples and pouting lips
-and a look of humour and frolic and sense in every feature. Together
-with the photographs came a letter of Juanita Carron to the brigadier,
-her father, from the convent, and bearing the Chamartin postmark,
-in which the girl congratulated her father on his discovery of his
-Finistère relative, expressed a firm confidence that her loving father
-would long be spared to her and concluded that she would for her part,
-in the worst event, willingly acknowledge her relative as a second
-father and acquiesce in every arrangement that might be made for her
-welfare.
-
-Seven months passed and the post one morning brought M. Armand Carron
-a letter with the Ceuta postmark, but no longer in his cousin's
-handwriting. The writer who signed himself Don Francisco Muñoz, parish
-priest of San Pedro in Ceuta, announced the death of Brigadier Santiago
-Carron, which had occurred seven days before the date of the letter. He
-stated that the brigadier, brought to the last extremity by a sudden
-attack of gout, had been attended, by him, Don Francisco, as priest
-in his last hours, and been instructed to wind up all his earthly
-affairs both in Ceuta and in Madrid. He was further empowered to remove
-the Señorita Juanita, the brigadier's daughter, from the Chamartin
-convent and take charge of her during her journey to Finistère where
-she should be delivered into the hands of her appointed guardian. The
-priest's letter enclosed the printed obituary handbill announcing the
-brigadier's decease, according to Spanish custom, the last will and
-testament of the deceased appointing M. Armand Carron sole executor,
-guardian and trustee of his only daughter Juanita, and entrusting to
-him the management of her fortune of one million francs, (£40,000),
-mentioning the banks in Paris and Amsterdam in which that sum lay
-in good state securities. The whole document was duly drawn up by
-a notary, with witnesses' signatures, seals, etc., and even with
-certificates of the brigadier's burial, the signatures and stamps of
-the civil and military authorities at Ceuta and those of the governor
-in command of the place.
-
-At the close of this minute statement the priest expressed his
-readiness to comply with the brigadier's instructions by travelling to
-Madrid, receiving the young Juanita from the hands of the Sacre Coeur
-nuns and continuing with her the journey to Finistère, immediately
-upon hearing from M. Armand Carron that he was prepared to receive
-his lovely ward. M. Armand Carron answered by return of post that
-his house and arms were open to welcome his relative's orphan child.
-Where there came after some time another letter from Don Francisco
-Muñoz explaining that the brigadier, although the most methodical and
-careful of men, had left some trifling debts at Ceuta and there were
-the doctors' and undertakers' bills to be settled: also the travelling
-expenses for himself and the young lady which he, the priest, was not
-able to defray. Besides all this the papers, deeds, books and other
-portable property left by the brigadier, some of it very valuable, but
-also bulky--among which were the certificates of the state securities
-deposited in the French and Dutch banks--which at the express desire of
-the deceased would have at once to be conveyed to Finistère. He, the
-priest, would have to be responsible for all this, so that, what with
-the boarding money and fees due to the nuns, and the clothes, linen
-and other necessaries the young lady might require to fit herself for
-appearance in the world, an expense would have to be incurred of which
-it was difficult to calculate the exact amount. The conclusion was that
-he could not undertake the journey unless M. Armand Carron supplied him
-with a round sum of money, say four thousand francs, which he could
-forward in French bank notes and in a registered letter addressed not
-to him but to a Doña Dolores Mazaredo, a pious woman, whom her reduced
-fortunes had compelled to take service as a washerwoman of the Ceuta
-state prison.
-
-The reason alleged by the priest for receiving the money in this
-roundabout way was that as the brigadier had died in debt to the
-state and the government might suspect that property belonging to the
-deceased had come into his, the priest's charge and be subject to the
-law of embargo on the brigadier's effects, it was desirable that every
-precaution should be taken to disarm suspicion and prevent injury.
-
-The fraud was entirely successful and in due course the letter from
-Finistère enclosing bank notes for four thousand francs was delivered
-to the washerwoman and from her passed into the hands of the sharpers
-whose deep laid plan and transcendent inventive powers were thus
-crowned with full success. M. Armand Carron heard no more of his
-orphaned relative.
-
-The most astonishing feature in the "Spanish Swindle," as it is
-commonly and almost universally known, is the extent to which it is
-practised and in countries far remote from those in which the trick
-originates. In one case a resident in the Argentine Republic received a
-letter from Madrid which he communicated to the press stating that he
-could not conceive how his name and address had become known. But it
-was clear that the Argentine and many other directories were possessed
-by the swindler, for similar letters all conveying the usual rosy
-stories of hidden treasure had come into the country wholesale. The
-fraudulent agent had long discovered that the credulity and cupidity on
-which he trades are universal weaknesses and that he is likely to find
-victims in every civilised part of the world. At another time Germany
-was inundated with typewritten letters from the Spanish prisoner, and
-the correspondent cleverly accounted for his use of the machine by
-stating that he was employed as a convict clerk in the office of the
-governor of the prison.
-
-An attempt of the same kind was tried on a Swiss gentleman of Geneva,
-but it failed signally. The swindler in Barcelona thought he had
-beguiled his correspondent into purchasing certain papers at the
-price of twelve thousand francs by which a treasure was to be found,
-and sent a young woman to Geneva to receive the cash. But the Swiss
-police, having been informed of the transaction, were on the alert,
-and when she kept her appointment with the proposed dupe she was taken
-into custody. An individual staying at the same hotel and said to have
-been in communication with her was also arrested. The emissary denied
-all complicity in the intended fraud protesting that she had been
-commissioned by a stranger she met in Barcelona to convey a letter to
-Geneva and bring back another in return.
-
-The ubiquity of the swindle is proved by the adventures of a certain
-M. Elked, a restaurateur of Buda-Pest, who was lured into making a
-journey to Madrid, carrying with him a sum of ten thousand francs in
-cash. The money was to be used in securing possession of a fortune
-of three hundred thousand francs, part of which was lying in a trunk
-deposited in the cloak room of a French railway station and part in
-the strong room of a Berlin bank. Elked was to get the half in return
-for his advance. On arrival in Madrid he met the representative of his
-correspondent and was shown bogus receipts from the railway and bank.
-To remove all possible doubt it was suggested that telegrams should
-be sent to the railway station and to the bank and in due course what
-purported to be replies were brought to Elked by a pretended telegraph
-messenger. The sham telegrams finally convinced him of the genuineness
-of the business and he arranged to meet the swindler in a certain café
-to hand over the ten thousand francs.
-
-All this time an eye was kept upon Elked by a brother Hungarian named
-Isray, a commercial traveller, who had come to Madrid by the same train
-and who on hearing the purpose of the restaurateur's visit had vainly
-tried to persuade him that the affair was a fraud. Isray followed his
-infatuated compatriot to the café in a very low quarter of Madrid
-and arrived just in time to see three men attempting to hustle Elked
-into a carriage. He had apparently hesitated to hand over the money
-at the last moment and the ruffians were attempting to get him away
-to a spot where he could be conveniently searched and robbed. Isray
-drew his revolver and fired two or three shots at Elked's assailants,
-but did not succeed in hitting any one. He contrived however to
-injure the horse and the struggle ended in the three bandits running
-away, leaving Elked still in possession of his money. No passers-by
-offered the Hungarians any assistance during the fight, nor did any
-police appear on the scene. When Elked subsequently complained to the
-police authorities they simply laughed at him for displaying so much
-credulity. The victims of the "Spanish Swindle" are certainly not
-entitled to much sympathy. Although arrests are occasionally made, the
-Spanish police have never been able to cope very successfully with the
-ancient and ever flourishing fraud.
-
-Some of the Spanish prisoner's lies are the crudest and most
-transparent attempts at fraud, but a few are really very fine works of
-art. An English country gentleman once received the following letter:
-
- "DEAR SIR AND RELATIVE: Not having the honour to know you but for
- the reference which my dead wife, Mary--your relative--gave me, who
- in detailing the various individuals of our family warmly praised
- the honest and good qualities which distinguished you, I now address
- myself to you for the first time and perhaps for the last one
- considering the grave state of my health, explaining my sad position
- and requesting your protection for my only daughter, a child of
- fourteen years old whom I keep as a pensioner in a college--"
-
-This is the prelude to a really clever and picturesque story of the
-writer's adventures in Cuba, where, after having been secretary and
-treasurer to Martinez Campos, he had subsequently been driven by
-General Weyler to join the insurgents, and was eventually forced to
-flee the country taking with him his fortune of thirty-seven thousand
-pounds. Subsequently being summoned to Spain by the illness of his
-"only daughter child" he deposited the money in a London bank under the
-form of "security document." After this we are introduced to the old
-mechanism of this venerable swindle. The deposited note was concealed
-in a secret drawer of the prisoner's portmanteau. The prisoner had
-been arrested on his arrival in Spain, but a trusty friend at large
-was willing to assist him in recovering the money for the benefit
-of his child, if only the dear relative in England "would advance
-the necessary funds for expenses." It is possible to imagine that
-anyone who had never heard of these ingenious frauds might be taken
-in by such a plausible narrative, but it is difficult to understand
-such ignorance. A letter was received from the Castle of Montjuich
-in Barcelona by a man in Dublin, who showed it to several friends in
-the city explaining the process. It was new to them all, and arrests
-of persons who had all but succeeded in completing this well-worn
-confidence trick are constantly made in London. The boldness of these
-attempts may be seen in the case of the swindlers who despatched
-three letters identically the same, to three persons who were near
-neighbours, residing at North Berwick near Edinburgh. The letter dated
-from Madrid and said:--
-
- "SIR, Detained here as a bankrupt, I ask if you would help me to
- withdraw the sum of fr. 925,000 (£37,000) at present lodged in a
- secure place in France. It would be necessary for you to visit Madrid
- and obtain possession of my baggage by paying a lien on it. In one
- valise concealed in a secret niche is the document which must be
- produced as a warrant for the delivery of the above mentioned sum.
- I propose to hand you over a third of the whole in return for your
- outlay and trouble."
-
-The rest of the letter simply contained instructions as to telegraphing
-an answer to Madrid. The whole was a very stupid and clumsy attempt
-to deceive, lacking all the emotional appeals, the motherless child,
-the persecuted political adherent of a failing cause. Worse yet it
-openly invited co-operation with a bankrupt seeking to defraud his
-creditors. Nor is there any effort to explain the selection of these
-three particular persons in the same small town as parties to the
-fraud, and the only conclusion is that dupes had been found even under
-such circumstances who were afterward reluctant to reveal their own
-foolishness.
-
-A more elaborate fraud was perpetrated soon after the fall of
-Cartagena; the story ran as follows: Two of the well known
-leaders of the hare-brained republican movement that led to that
-catastrophe,--General Contreras and Señor Galdez,--both deputies of
-the Constituent Cortes, came as fugitives to England and lodged in the
-Bank of England a sum amounting to several millions of reales in state
-securities, obtaining for them of course the regular certificates and
-receipt from the bank. These two Spanish gentlemen afterwards lived for
-some time on the continent. General Contreras took up his quarters as
-a political exile in France and Señor Galdez ventured under a disguise
-into Spain, where he had the misfortune to be recognised, arrested and
-shut up in the Saladero. The certificates had been left in England in
-trusty hands, in a trunk belonging to Señor Galdez, who from his prison
-sent directions that the box should be sent by rail to Madrid addressed
-to a person enjoying his full confidence. This person however had some
-claim upon Señor Galdez for an old debt of six thousand francs or about
-two hundred and forty pounds and insisted upon payment of this sum
-before he would either part with the trunk or allow it to be opened and
-the precious certificates to be taken from it.
-
-The matter required delicate handling, for Señor Galdez was a prisoner,
-General Contreras an exile, both beyond reach, and about the money
-they had placed in the bank there might lie some mystery into which it
-was not desirable that enquiry should be made. An easy way of getting
-at the contents of the trunk could be found if any one would think it
-worth while to supply two hundred and forty pounds, settle the claims
-of Señor Galdez's creditor, and laying hold of the certificates,
-convey them to England and withdraw the securities from the bank. A
-man whose name was given and whose address was in the Calle de la
-Abada or Rhinoceros Street, Madrid, would undertake to carry through
-the negotiations if any one would call upon him with the needful two
-hundred and forty pounds and allow him half an hour to rescue the trunk
-and deliver the certificates. The worthy Yorkshire squire to whom
-intimation had been conveyed of the coup there was to be made, looked
-upon the story as extremely probable. He fancied it was corroborated by
-a good deal of circumstantial evidence and thought he might venture on
-the speculation. A professional adviser whom he consulted undertook to
-do the job for him and carry the two hundred and forty pounds to the
-Calle de la Abada, taking a revolver with him, as a precaution, and
-intending to deliver the money in Bank of England notes, the numbers
-of which should be stopped the moment he found out that any trick was
-being played on his good faith.
-
-Further enquiries were made, however, before any decided steps were
-taken, and it was ascertained beyond doubt that Señor Galdez was
-no longer a prisoner, that General Contreras had come back from
-banishment, that the house in the Calle de la Abada was a notorious
-haunt of malefactors and den of thieves, and the whole scheme was
-another instance of the criminal ingenuity of the Spanish swindler.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-LIFE IN CEUTA
-
- Dangerous weapons manufactured within the prison walls--Frequent
- quarrels--Murderous assaults on warders of constant
- occurrence--Disorders and lack of discipline owing to the employment
- of prisoners as warders--The "_cabos de vara_"--These posts sold
- to the highest bidder--Salillas' description of these convict
- warders--Worst criminals often promoted to exercise authority
- over their fellows--Terrible evils arising from such a state of
- affairs--Description of Ceuta--Life at Ceuta no deterrent to crime
- by reason of the pleasant conditions under which the convicts
- lived--Popularity of the theatre in Spanish prisons--Escapes from
- Ceuta--The case of El Niño de Brenes--The different characteristics
- of the Andalusians and Aragonese--Foreigners from Spanish colonies
- imprisoned at Ceuta--Chinamen and negroes--Dolores, the negro
- convict--His assassination by two fellow convicts--Political
- prisoners--Carlists--Different types of murderers.
-
-
-Life is held cheap in Ceuta and indeed in all Spanish presidios and
-gaols. The saying "a word and a blow," may be expanded into "a word and
-a knife thrust." The possession of a lethal weapon is common to all
-prisoners and prevails despite prohibiting regulations. Fatal affrays
-are of constant occurrence. At Valladolid five men were wounded in
-a fight over cards, which were openly permitted. An official enquiry
-followed, with the result that on a search instituted through the
-prison, numbers of large knives were discovered and many smaller
-daggers.
-
-It is pretended by the authorities that the introduction of such
-weapons as well as of spirits and packs of cards cannot be prevented.
-The gate keepers however exercise no vigilance or are readily bribed
-to shut their eyes. The ruinous condition of many gaols with their
-numerous cracks and openings and holes in the walls is partially
-responsible. As a natural consequence blood flowed freely when rage
-and unbridled passion were so easily inflamed and the means of seeking
-murderous satisfaction were always ready to hand. Quarrels grew at once
-into fierce fights which could not be prevented and must be fought
-out then and there even to the death. Chains and stone walls and iron
-bars were ineffective in imposing order. There could be no semblance
-of discipline where the two essentials were absolutely wanting,
-supervision and honest service in the keepers.
-
-Knives were often provided by the ingenious adaptation of all kinds
-of material within the walls, such as one-half of a pair of scissors
-firmly fixed in a handle bound round with cloth; or a piece of tin
-doubled to form a blade and stiffened by two pieces of wood to keep
-the point sharp; or the handle of a wooden spoon sharpened and as
-formidable as an inflexible fish bone.[15] Other arms carried and
-used on occasion for premeditated or unexpected attack or in set,
-formal encounters were a razor, a file, a carpenter's adze, a hammer, a
-cobbler's awl.
-
-[15] I have seen a precisely similar weapon in an English convict
-prison, the product of an evil-minded prisoner who used it in an
-assault upon his officer.
-
-Some surprising figures have been collected by Salillas to show how
-frequent was the appeal to violence and how fatal the consequences
-of the bloodthirsty strife so constantly breaking out among the more
-reckless members of this hot-tempered Latin race. They had often
-their origin in drunken quarrels, for _aguardiente_, the Spanish
-equivalent to whiskey or gin, was always plentiful, introduced almost
-openly by the warders. Ancient feuds were revived when the opportunity
-of settling them was offered by the chance meeting in the gaol.
-Occasionally a homicidal lunatic ran loose about the yards and struck
-blindly at any inoffensive person he met when the furious fit was on
-him. Salillas tells us that in one year sixteen murderous assaults
-were committed upon warders,[16] and twenty-four free fights occurred
-among the prisoners, eleven of whom were killed outright and forty-two
-seriously wounded. One truculent ruffian fell upon an aged wardsman
-(a convict also), struck him with a shoemaker's knife and then,
-brandishing his weapon, defied interference or the rescue of his victim
-whom he "finished" with repeated blows. A Valencian newspaper describes
-an encounter between two inmates of the Torres Serranos prison in that
-city. "Without warning or suggesting the cause of difference the two
-silently hurried to a large empty room, rushed at each other with their
-knives, and the only sounds heard were those of blows struck and warded
-off and of shuffling feet as they circled round each other. Warders
-headed by the governor (alcaide) strove to separate the combatants and
-succeeded at last in doing so but at peril of their lives. Both the
-antagonists were wounded, one had his cheek laid open and the other's
-face was horribly gashed. At Saragossa an old man who complained that
-one of his blankets had been stolen was fiercely attacked in the
-shoemaker's shop by the thief, who had been cutting out sole leather
-with a heavy iron tool. Deadly wounds were inflicted on the victim,
-but the infuriated aggressor stood over him, keeping those who would
-have interposed at bay until it was clearly evident that death had
-supervened.
-
-[16] An official report dated 1888 gives a total of 221 prisoners in
-the whole of the establishments admitted into hospital suffering from
-wounds, fractures and contusions received in the gaols.
-
-The primary cause of the chronic discreditable, disgraceful disorder
-that reigned in the Spanish prisons was the prevailing custom of
-employing prisoners in the service and discipline of the prisons. This
-practice is now universally condemned as reprehensible and it has been
-abolished in most civilised countries and even in Spain. The excuse
-offered which long passed current in Spain was the expense entailed by
-employing a proper staff of officers, a necessity in every well ordered
-prison administration. But till quite a recent date the control and
-supervision of prisoners in Spanish gaols was practically their own
-affair. There were the usual superior officials, assisted by a few free
-overseers (_capataces_) but the bulk of the work was entrusted to the
-_cabos de vara_.
-
-The vicious system was the more objectionable from the uncertainty
-which prevailed in its working. If the _cabo de vara_ had been
-carefully selected from the best and most exemplary prisoners some of
-the worst evils might have been avoided. But it was all a matter of
-chance. Not only was there no selection of the best but there was no
-rejection or elimination of the worst candidates. In some conspicuous
-cases the office of _cabo de vara_ was suffered to fall into the hands
-of men altogether unfit to hold it. Two in particular may be quoted,
-those of Pelufo and Carrillo, who having first committed atrocious
-crimes, escaped punishment and were actually promoted. One, Pelufo,
-was a convict in the presidio of Cartagena who murdered a _cabo_ and
-cut his way out of the St. Augustin prison, knife in hand; the other,
-Carrillo, slew a comrade in a duel in the presidio of San Miguel de
-los Reyes (Valencia) and both were subsequently appointed _cabos_, "a
-reward," as a witty official said, "which they had earned by their
-services to penitentiary methods."
-
-With such examples and under such authorities serious crimes were
-naturally numerous. A few may be mentioned. A _cabo_ named Casalta
-killed a fellow _cabo_ in St. Augustin prison of Valencia with five
-cruel thrusts and afterwards stabbed an officer to the heart. When the
-military guard came up he seriously injured one of the soldiers and
-wounded two convicts, one in the head, the other in the back. Casalta
-was however condemned to a fresh sentence of twelve years. One Ferreiro
-Volta cut a comrade's throat for having given evidence against the
-man, Pelufo, already mentioned. Many more cases of the same heinous
-character where the homicidal instinct had full play may be picked out
-of the published lists. In one prison thirteen already guilty of murder
-or attempted murder repeated their crimes as prisoners; in another nine
-convicted of maliciously wounding, pursued the practice or were guilty
-of awful threats to murder in the gaols. The cases might be multiplied
-almost indefinitely but it will suffice to indicate the terrible
-conditions constantly prevailing. No doubt murderous attacks were often
-stimulated by the tyranny of the prisoner _cabos_, against whom their
-fellows, goaded to desperation, rose and wreaked vengeance.
-
-The discipline exercised by these prisoner warders was naturally not
-worth much. It was their duty to correct and restrain their comrades,
-to assist in their pursuit when they escaped after having originally
-most probably facilitated the evasion, to side with the authority in
-cases of serious insubordination and disturbance. But they were weak
-vessels yielding readily to temptation, accepting bribes hungrily,
-swallowing drink greedily when offered, quickly cowed by the threats
-of prison bullies and surrendering at discretion when opposed. But
-even although there were good and trusty men to be found at times
-among them, no real reliance could be placed in them. They generally
-represented fifty per cent. of the staff and the necessity for the
-substitution of the non-convicted, properly paid, fairly honourable
-warders has been very wisely decided upon. The chief danger lay in
-their close and intimate association with the rest, day and night
-constantly alone when no official supervision was possible. Their
-value depended entirely upon their personal qualifications. If they
-were weak-kneed and invertebrate, they could apply no check upon the
-ill-conditioned, could neither intimidate nor repress: if on the other
-hand they were of masterful character with arrogant, overbearing
-tempers, they might do immense mischief by tyrannising over their
-charges and leading them astray. Men of this class often claimed an
-equality with the recognised officials, treated them with off-hand
-familiarity, spoke without saluting or removing their caps, while
-insolently puffing the smoke of a half-consumed cigarette in faces
-of the officers. Salillas sums up the type as "semi-functionary,
-semi-convict and all hangman."
-
-The external aspect of Ceuta is not unpleasing. It is built on seven
-hills, the highest of which is topped by the fortress, and in the
-word "septem" we may trace the name Ceuta. It still possesses a few
-Moorish remains, for it was once an important Moorish city. Some of
-the streets show a tesselated pavement of red, white and green tiles,
-and house fronts are to be seen in white, black and serpentine marble
-with decorated scroll work running in a pattern below the gutter.
-It has some claims to be picturesque and possesses certain artistic
-architectural features. An imposing barrack, that called Del Valle,
-built by prison labour, is considered one of the finest Spanish
-military edifices. It has also a cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of
-Africa, engineering and artillery yards, a military hospital, another
-church, public offices, and above all a palace of the governor and
-general commanding. The latter in particular, with its extensive
-grounds, handsome façade, and suites of fine rooms, the whole well
-mounted and served by a large staff of convict attendants, is the
-envy of all other government officials. One wide street traverses the
-city from west to east crossed by a network of smaller ways, all airy
-and well ventilated by sea breezes and constantly illuminated by a
-brilliant sun. From time to time convicts in their distinctive dress
-pass along, but scarcely cast a shadow upon the scene, showing few
-signs of their thraldom and passing along with light-hearted freedom,
-smoking excellent tobacco or singing a gay song. No beggars offend the
-eye, for to solicit public charity is strictly forbidden. Generally a
-contented well-to-do air is worn by the crowd, and even the convicts
-are decently dressed. Other inhabitants, Moors from the mainland, and
-Jews long established in commerce seem prosperous and evidently possess
-ample means gained by their industry and thrift.
-
-The presidio or prison proper of Ceuta covers a large part of the
-peninsula or promontory and embraces four distinct districts; the first
-is situated in the new or modern town; the second lies just outside
-it; the third is within the old town and the fourth is beyond the
-outer line of walls. The first part is connected with the third by a
-drawbridge called _boquete de la sardina_ or the "sardine's entrance";
-the second with the third by a portcullis; the third with the fourth
-and last by the outer gate of the city.
-
-In the first are the artisans' quarters, situated in the cloisters of
-an ancient monastery, that of San Francisco, and but for the patching
-and whitewashing would look quite ruinous. It is neither secure nor of
-sufficient size. The night guards are posted in the old mortuary house,
-the bars to many windows are of wood. The building contains offices,
-schoolhouse, store for clothing and the workshops, these being in a
-sort of patio or courtyard, or in hollow spaces in the cloisters, and
-are simply dens and rookeries, in part exactly over the old burial
-ground. The handicrafts pursued when I visited it were various: men
-were making shoes; fourteen tailors were at work; a blacksmith with
-a life sentence constantly hammered out the red hot iron; a tinsmith
-produced many useful articles; a turner at his lathe worked admirably
-in the old meat bones and fashioned handles for walking sticks and
-umbrellas. This turner earned much money and was comfortably lodged.
-Convicts at Ceuta are not deprived of their profits and spend their
-money buying better food, superior clothing and _aguardiente_ and
-using it to bribe their overseers, or they cleverly conceal it, adding
-constantly to their store. Industry is a chief source of wealth, but
-many political prisoners bring large sums in with them, or it is
-smuggled in to them, and a successful hit with the "buried treasure
-fraud" will supply plenty of cash.
-
-Other industries followed are carpentering and the construction of
-trunks and boxes which sell well. A number of looms are engaged in
-weaving canvas for the manufacture of sails for the local shipping,
-rough material for sacking and clothing of the convicts, all in large
-quantities and to a really valuable extent. These workshops are
-filled by the prisoners in the first stage of their detention. The
-water-carriers and clerks in the government office are in the second
-period, and on reaching the third the convicts obtain the privilege of
-going at large to accept employment in the town "from gun to gun."
-
-The prison hospital is situated in this first district, an ancient
-edifice erected with part of the funds subscribed in times past to
-purchase freedom for Christian captives enslaved by the Barbary Moors.
-The building is of good size, well ventilated, and enjoys good hygienic
-conditions. But the defects and shortcomings in Spanish administration
-extend even to Ceuta and the prison hospital, which a local authority
-says "is detestably organised and mounted miserably." The roof is so
-slight that it affords no proper protection in summer and the intense
-heat of the blazing sun striking through is very injurious to the
-patients. The medical resources are small and inferior; the beds
-few and unclean; the whole of the interior arrangements, furniture
-fittings and appliances, insufficient and worn out. There is no
-mortuary and to add a small detail in proof of the imperfections,
-autopsies were performed in a small den, part of the hospital proper,
-without disinfectants and the essential appliances for carrying out
-post mortems. Patients seldom made a long stay in the hospital, for
-they were rarely admitted until they had reached the last stages of an
-illness and came in as a rule only to die.
-
-The second district contains the principal quarters for convicts. One
-is in the chief barrack called _cuartel principal_ and another in the
-fortress _el Hacho_.[17] Some further evidence of their evil condition
-may be extracted from an account given by Salillas. "It is impossible
-to conceive," he writes, "a more unsuitable, unsavoury place for a
-prison. The rooms and dormitories occupied by the convicts are dark
-and gloomy, always damp, full of pestilential odours and dirty beyond
-description. The floors are of beaten earth, ever secure hiding places
-for all forbidden articles, weapons, tools for compassing escape,
-jars of drink, the fiery and poisonous _aguardiente_. It seems to me
-extraordinary," he goes on to say, "that life under such conditions is
-possible. A thousand and odd men who seldom if ever wash, who never
-change their clothes, are crowded together promiscuously in small,
-unclean, ill-ventilated, noisome dens and must surely engender and
-propagate loathsome epidemic disease." The fetid air is foul with the
-noisome exhalations of many generations of pestiferous people. It is
-one sink of concentrated malaria--a reeking hot bed of infection.
-The services of supply are carried out with abominable carelessness:
-the kitchen is an abode of nastiness: the cooking is performed by
-repulsive looking convicts in greasy rags who plunge their dirty arms
-deep into the seething mess of soup which they bail out into buckets, a
-malodorous compound of the colour and consistency of the mortar used in
-building a wall.
-
-[17] See ante, pp. 159 sqq.
-
-Close by is another quarter in which convicts are lodged, _el Hacho_,
-or the hilly ground or topmost point of Ceuta on which is placed the
-citadel which crowns the fortifications. It takes the overflow from
-the principal barrack and is moreover generally occupied by the worst
-characters, the most insubordinate and incorrigible members of the
-prison population. The rooms, as in the barrack below, are dirty,
-overcrowded and insecure, but a few windows of the upper story open on
-to the Mediterranean and are not always protected by either wooden or
-iron bars. _El Hacho_ contains within its limits a certain number of
-solitary cells, well known and much dreaded by the habitual criminals
-of Spain. They are essentially punishment cells used in the coercion
-of the incorrigible and are just as dark, damp and wretched as the
-larger rooms. But the solitary inmate in each cell is generally kept
-chained to the wall or is as it is styled _amarrado en blanca_, nearly
-naked and heavily ironed. The treatment is exemplary in its cruelty,
-but does not necessarily cure the subject. There was one irreclaimable
-upon whom several years of the _calabozo_ had had no effect. He had
-been sentenced to be thus chained up as the penalty for murderously
-wounding an overseer in _el Hacho_, but he did not mend his manners.
-On one occasion on the arrival of a new governor all under punishment
-were pardoned. This convict when sent out forthwith furiously attacked
-the first warder he met and was again condemned to be locked up as a
-ceaseless danger to the presidio. He is remembered as little more than
-a youth, but with a diabolical countenance and indomitable air.
-
-The district of the _Barcas_ does not contain a barrack properly
-speaking, but there is a space cut in the thickness of the line wall
-entering a patio or courtyard which gives upon seven rooms, some
-high, some low; of these three and part of the yard were filled with
-munitions of war, and a battery of artillery was placed over the
-dormitories on their upper floor. Many of the convicts are employed as
-boatmen and watchmen in the port, others have charge of the walls and
-carry water up to the guardhouses on the higher level. They also attend
-to the service of the drawbridge between the old and new town. One
-who was employed as gatekeeper at the drawbridge was well remembered.
-He was trusted to call on all convicts who passed to produce their
-permits of free circulation or to enter and leave the fortress. He
-had a pleasant rubicund face, was one armed, a little deaf, but with
-very sharp eyes, not easily hoodwinked. He was a confirmed gossip who
-picked up all the news which he retailed to all who passed in and out.
-Escapes were of constant occurrence at Ceuta, but few occurred by the
-drawbridge of the _Barcas_.
-
-Half way up the road from the town to the citadel and the fort of
-the Seraglio was the Jadu barrack which was occupied by the convicts
-who were engaged in agricultural work, in making tiles and burning
-charcoal. Many of these were foreigners and negroes. The bulk of the
-residents was made up of those who had completed three fourths of their
-sentences and lived "under conditions," or in a state of conditional or
-semi-freedom. There was little wrong-doing in Jadu, thefts were rare,
-fights and quarrels seldom took place. The Seraglio was a fortified
-barrack of rectangular shape occupied by troops of the garrison and
-lodging an odd hundred convicts labouring on adjacent farms in private
-hands.
-
-It will be observed that the convicts established in these last-named
-quarters beyond the walls do not appear to exhibit all the unpleasant
-features attributed to them by some writers in recording their
-experiences of Ceuta.[18] No doubt the truth lies somewhere between
-the two extremes but it is certain that the chief penal colony of
-Spain shares to a marked extent the drawbacks inseparable from all
-forms of penal colonisation. We may see, beyond all question, that at
-Ceuta no beneficial results are achieved by the system. Criminals who
-undergo the penalty are not improved by it; their reformation, too
-generally a will-o'-the-wisp under the very best auspices, is not even
-attempted, much less assured. On the other hand, it is perfectly clear
-that evil is perpetually in the ascendent, that criminal tendencies
-are largely encouraged by the facilities given in the education and
-practice of wrong doing; that the presidio itself is a criminal centre
-where the seeds of crime are sown and their growth fostered despite the
-difficulties of distance and inconvenience. The fear of penal exile is
-no deterrent to crime for the simple reason that life in Ceuta is not
-particularly irksome and that the convict finds many compensations
-there. The obligation to hard labour is not strictly enforced. Man
-must work, but not hard and chiefly for his own advantage, to gain
-the means of softening and bettering his lot. He passes his time very
-much as he pleases. Though he rises with the sun, as is the universal
-custom of his country, he turns out of bed without giving a thought to
-personal cleanliness and proceeds to his appointed labour leisurely,
-after disposing of his breakfast, adding perhaps more toothsome
-articles of food, including a morning drink of _aguardiente_ bought
-from the hawkers and hucksters awaiting him at the prison gates. He is
-dressed in prison uniform, but it is sufficient and suitably varied
-with the season. He is not hampered by fetters, as the ancient practice
-of chaining convicts together in couplets has long since ceased. The
-wearing of irons fell into disuse years ago at the building of the
-great barrack del Valle, when several deplorable accidents occurred and
-it was found that chains interfered with the free movement of workmen
-on scaffolding and so forth. The idea was that irons should again
-be imposed at the conclusion of the building; "but all who thought
-so did not know Spanish ways, nor the despotism of custom when once
-established."[19] "To-day (1873)," says same writer, "there are not
-fifty suits of chains in the storehouse and not more than twenty are
-worn by special penalty and by no means as a general practice." The
-convict loafs about the rooms or courtyard or idly handles the tools
-of his trade, gossiping freely with his comrades, or taking a hand at
-_monte_ or _chapas_ with the full permission of warders not indisposed
-to have a "little on the games"; he finds easy means to issue into the
-streets to carry on some delectable flirtation; there may be a bull
-baiting afoot, a _novillos_ in which all may join, or a theatrical
-performance is being given by a convict company in one of the penal
-establishments.
-
-[18] See ante, p. 159.
-
-[19] Relosillas.
-
-The theatre is a passion with the average Spaniard and the taste
-extends to those in durance. Cases constantly occur in which popular
-plays have been reproduced in prisons situated in the principal cities.
-Salillas[20] states that almost all the prisons of Spain had their
-theatre and he gives the names of Burgos, Ceuta, Ocana, Valladolid,
-Saladero (Madrid) and Alcalá de Henares. One writer who visited the
-prison performance at Seville of a musical piece, the "Viejas Ricas
-de Cadiz," said it was given well and that the vocal talent was
-considerable in that and other prisons. At the presidio of San Miguel
-de los Reyes the convicts were heard singing a chorus on Christmas Eve
-which was perfectly executed and with great feeling.
-
-[20] "Vida Penal en Espana."
-
-In the Valladolid gaol the theatre was regularly installed by a
-company of forty convicts who had contributed substantial sums for
-the purpose. It had working committees with rules and regulations
-formally sanctioned by the governor of the province. The theatre with
-seats for an audience of four hundred, and four private boxes holding
-twelve persons each, was constructed in a building which afterwards
-became the blacksmith shops. A refreshment room was provided in which a
-contractor dispensed sweets and pastry and strong drink; real actresses
-were engaged from outside at a salary of a dollar for each performance;
-invitations were issued to the free residents and the convicts paid
-two reales for admission. Well known, high class plays were produced,
-comedies, dramas and comic operas.
-
-The whole proceeding was a caricature upon prison discipline and the
-authorities who permitted it were very properly sharply and severely
-condemned. They exposed themselves to reproof and worse for flagrant
-contempt of the most ordinary restrictions in allowing women to pass
-in constantly, and in permitting the sale of alcoholic liquors. That a
-place of durance, primarily intended for the restraint and punishment
-of evil doers should be converted into a show and spectacle was an
-intolerable misuse of power and a disgraceful travesty of the fitness
-of things. The positive evil engendered was seen in the wholesale
-escape of the theatrical company, while the audience patiently waited
-in front of the curtain which "went up" eventually on a wholly
-unexpected performance.[21]
-
-[21] See ante, p. 128.
-
-In the matter of escapes Ceuta was famous. It was not difficult to
-get away from that imperfectly guarded stronghold when the convict
-had means to bribe officers or buy a boat and had the courage to make
-the voyage across the Straits of Gibraltar. The story of one veteran
-convict who escaped from Ceuta is interesting because he was driven to
-take himself off by what he no doubt deemed the ill-judged severity of
-his injudicious keepers. This was an old brigand known as "_El Niño de
-Brenes_," (the lad of Brenes), a name he must have earned some time
-back for he was a man aged seventy when he "withdrew" (the word is
-exact) from Ceuta. He was a well-behaved, well-to-do convict of affable
-address who had gained many staunch friends among the officials and
-his own comrades. The position he had created for himself was one of
-practical ease and comfort; he lived in _el Hacho_ pursuing various
-industries, usury among the rest, and gradually grew so rich that he
-gained possession of a strip of land which he cultivated profitably and
-kept a fine poultry yard as well as many sheep and goats.
-
-El Niño was a tall well built old man, dark-skinned, with abundant
-white hair. He was of highly respectable appearance, very stout and
-sleek, and, being on the best of terms with his masters, he took
-upon himself to discard the prison uniform and dress himself as an
-Andalusian peasant with gaiters and red sash and _sombrero calañes_
-(round hard hat). Not strangely this presumption displeased the
-authorities and he was told that he must conform to the rules and
-appear in the proper convict clothing and cease to act as a money
-lender to his poorer brethren. He received this intimation with
-a smiling protest; he pointed out that he used his influence in
-pacifying ill-conditioned convicts, in staving off disturbances and
-preventing quarrels. If his services were not better appreciated
-and he was tied down to the strict observance of the ordinary rules
-he would move further away; his remaining in the presidio was quite
-a matter of favour and he had always at his disposal the means to
-make his escape, and if he were interfered with he would take his
-departure. This impudent reply quite exasperated the authorities,
-who thereupon resolved to employ sharp measures. The facts as he had
-stated them were more or less true and the blame lay really with the
-faulty and inefficient régime in force. But the authorities would not
-tamely submit to be defied and a peremptory order was issued that he
-should dispose of his private property by a certain date, wind up his
-financial affairs and renounce all idea of exceptional treatment. El
-Niño took this as a threat to which there could be but one reply.
-He gathered together his cash and portable property and quietly
-disappeared. A hue and cry was raised; the usual signals flew at the
-signal staff; all gates and exits were closely watched; the police were
-unceasingly active in pursuit, but the fugitive had laid his plans
-astutely and was never recaptured. Having the command of ample means he
-doubtless used them freely to purchase freedom by taking some sure road
-past the frontier or across the sea.
-
-Allies and auxiliaries were never wanting to the enterprising fugitive
-willing to pay liberally for assistance. In one case a convict had the
-courage to allow himself to be shut up in a chest half full of tobacco
-and to be thus conveyed to Gibraltar, to which it was returned as
-containing damaged goods. Gibraltar is a free port and the chest was
-landed without question. Then the consignee opened it without delay
-and extracted the fugitive convict uninjured. The last part of the
-story is somewhat incredible and we may wonder why the fugitive did not
-succumb to the discomforts of his narrow receptacle, want of air, the
-exhalations of the tobacco and the shakings and bumping of the box as
-it made its voyage, albeit a short one, from Ceuta to the Rock.
-
-An escape on a large scale was effected from the principal barrack when
-eighteen convicts descended into the drains, and finding their progress
-unimpeded threaded them safely and passing under the outer wall reached
-the outlet to the sea. It happened that the water was high and that
-there was a great conflict of currents in which that setting inward had
-most force and the exit was blocked by the stormy waves. Some of the
-convicts committed themselves to the waters but were washed back with
-violence against the rocky fortifications and all of them in terror
-for their lives raised loud cries, calling for help. The sentries gave
-the alarm, the guards ran down and recaptured all the fugitives but
-one, a fine swimmer who persisted in his attempt and was swept seaward
-clear of the rough water till he was able to regain the shore on the
-far side of the Moorish sentries.
-
-The prison population of Ceuta is made up of a number of motley,
-polyglot types of the many diverse families that compose the
-Spanish race and of other distinct nationalities. The Spaniards are
-generally classified under two principal heads: the Aragonese and the
-Andalusians. The first named comprises all from the northern provinces
-who are generally coarse, quarrelsome and brutal, sentenced chiefly for
-crimes of violence, murders premeditated and committed under aggravated
-circumstances, the outcome of furious and ungovernable passion. The
-Andalusian is of more generous character, lively and light-hearted,
-but of unsettled disposition and much impelled to attempt escapes. He
-is a chronic grumbler constantly moved to complain, dissatisfied with
-his rations and clamorous for special privileges. The Aragonese on
-the other hand suffers long in silence which leads eventually, after
-long brooding, into mutinous combination. The Andalusian makes his
-grievances heard by word of mouth, the Aragonese rushes without notice
-into overt action and organised attack. Another distinct section of
-the Spanish race is the Galician and the native of the Asturias, a
-sober, quiet and well-conducted people at home, who exhibit great
-ferocity as convicts. Sanguinary encounters are little known in these
-provinces, but when an Asturian or Galician takes the life of his
-enemy, he uses artifice and waylays him, decoying him into an ambush
-and murdering him often with horrible mutilation. A criminal feature,
-peculiar to the women of these provinces, is their addiction to the use
-of poison. Other Spanish females will use violence and inflict lethal
-wounds openly, but the Galician woman administers poison secretly,
-deliberately choosing her victims among her nearest relatives.
-
-The colonial empire of Spain, now a thing of the past, contributed
-in its time a substantial contingent of yellow and black convicts,
-Chinamen from the Philippines and negroes from Cuba. It was a
-reprehensible practice to associate these foreigners with the European
-convicts and it produced many evils. The Chinaman was often shamefully
-ill-treated. He bore it patiently, but at times when goaded beyond
-endurance, retaliated with bloodthirsty violence. The story of one
-negro convict, a rather remarkable person, is still remembered at
-Ceuta. He rejoiced in the somewhat inappropriate feminine name of
-Dolores, and despite his colour was a singularly handsome man. He
-had a slight, active figure, a highly intelligent face and a clear,
-penetrating eye. His mental faculties were of a high order, although
-he had received only an indifferent education. He had the fondness
-of his race for fine clothes and although conforming to the prison
-uniform wore it with a certain distinction, improving and adding to it
-where possible and having quite a gentlemanly appearance. He had been
-guilty of a hideous murder in Havana for which he had received a nearly
-interminable sentence. His behaviour in gaol was orderly and submissive
-and he always displayed the utmost loyalty to his masters, who in
-return lightened his lot as far as was possible.
-
-Dolores, as a rule, was of a patient disposition, although he was
-easily roused into fits of violent temper and could be at times,
-according to his treatment, either a lion or a lamb. It seemed almost
-incomprehensible that the mild eyes so calm and peaceable, when he was
-unmoved, could blaze with sudden fury or that his small delicately
-shaped hands could fasten murderously on a fellow creature's throat.
-Tyranny and oppression were intolerable to him and he altogether
-declined to submit to be domineered over by the chief bully in the
-prison. His defiance led to an embittered conflict--a duel fought out
-with knives--in which the black champion conquered after inflicting
-many deep wounds upon his antagonist. With his victory Dolores gained
-also the implacable ill-will of his fellows. They put him on his trial,
-in a corner of the principal barrack and condemned him to death, which
-would certainly have been inflicted had not the authorities interposed
-to give him their protection. He was removed to _el Hacho_ and placed
-in one of the separate cells used generally for the punishment of the
-incorrigible.[22] This was fatal to him. Two water-carriers belonging
-to the hostile faction entered the cell when Dolores was engaged in
-writing with his back to the door, and throwing themselves upon him
-gave him two mortal wounds under the left shoulder. In this supreme
-moment Dolores put forth his tremendous strength, caught his assailants
-by their necks and broke them before the warders could interfere on
-either side. Dolores died but he is still remembered in the prison
-annals as one of the most valiant and indomitable convicts who had ever
-been detained in the presidio.
-
-[22] See ante, p. 194.
-
-Another alien convict to whom Relosillas pays a high tribute was his
-own Chinese servant, a convict known as "Juan de la Cruz, the Asiatic."
-He seems to have been unceasingly loyal and devoted in his service, an
-admirable cook, an indefatigable nurse, a faithful watchman who guarded
-his effects and secured his privacy. Juan had many accomplishments;
-he could weave shade hats of the finest palm fibre, he was as clever
-as any seamstress with his needle; he was a first-class housemaid and
-laundress; he could make a dollar go further in the market than the
-most economical housewife. He drove the most astonishing bargains with
-the hucksters and purveyors of food, fish and game, with which Ceuta
-was plentifully supplied. He had been condemned to a long term for
-a murder committed in Havana at a hotel, of which he was the chief
-cook. In appearance he was younger than his years, tall, thin, anæmic
-looking, shortsighted, with jet black hair and oblique eyes. He was
-a man of great intelligence, a dramatic author in Chinese and was
-released before his time to accompany the Director General of Prisons
-to Madrid as his cook. In the end he started a fruit shop in the
-capital and prospered greatly.
-
-An entirely different class of prisoners came to Ceuta in considerable
-numbers from time to time,--those exiled for political misdeeds. A
-whole discipline battalion was composed of military offenders, among
-them a number of artillerymen condemned for the rising in Barcelona
-and crowds of Carlists and those concerned in the so-called cantonal
-risings. One or two politicals were strange characters, such as the
-old soldier named "_el Cojo_" (the lame man) of Cariñena, a conceited
-veteran very proud of his many campaigns in which he had served, and
-who went everywhere on donkey back, being infirm and crippled. Another
-was the ex-curé of Berraonda, a Biscayan priest of ferocious aspect,
-tall, corpulent, dark-skinned, with an abundant snow white bushy beard,
-which grew to his waist and which was left untouched by the prison
-barber.
-
-Speaking in general terms of the whole body all types of character were
-represented. Some when in funds liked to pose as dandies with fine
-linen, smart shoes or rope sandals tied with ribbons and coloured
-sashes (fajas); others, the larger number, were coarse and brutal
-ruffians, without private means, or too idle to acquire them by the
-labour of their hands, much given to drunkenness and very quarrelsome
-in their cups. The attitude of most convicts is mute irritation against
-everyone, but they especially hate their warders and superiors; they
-are surly and forbidding in manner, silent as to their past, little
-disposed to talk of their criminal adventures. Yet they display the
-most contradictory traits. Even when they have been guilty of the most
-horrible misdeeds they often show a calm, innocent face and are little
-vexed by conscience. One who was noted for his submissive demeanour and
-who in any trouble always sided with authority, was a parricide who had
-killed his father under the most revolting conditions.
-
-This youth, barely of age at the time of his crime, had sought his
-father's consent to his marriage with an unworthy character, and
-when refused, he retaliated by beating in his parent's brain with a
-pickaxe. The fit of homicidal fury which possessed him drove him to
-kill his father's donkey also and the dog which had been at his heels.
-Then, having satiated his rage, he went home seemingly undisturbed,
-and made some paltry excuse for his father's absence. When the corpse
-was found he was arrested on suspicion, but for want of more than
-circumstantial evidence escaped the garrote, and was sent to Ceuta
-for life. Yet this miscreant betrayed no outward sign of the horrible
-passions that sometimes dominated him, but was always placid and
-of an engaging countenance. He was lamblike in his demeanour, most
-attentive to his religious duties, never missed a mass or failed to
-confess. He was devoted to children and his greatest pleasure was to
-fondle the baby child of one of the warders which he carried about in
-his arms in the streets of Ceuta. He seemed absolutely callous and
-insensible to the prickings of conscience, but he showed in two ways
-that he was consumed with remorse. When any reference was made to his
-crime, at the slightest hint or the vaguest question, a fierce look
-came into his eyes, his mouth closed, his hand sought his knife and
-he was ready to attempt some fresh act of violence. The other sign of
-his mental distress was that he seldom slept and never soundly or for
-long, and his nights were disturbed with groans, deep sighs, even yells
-of despair. Yet his general health was good, he ate with appetite,
-maintained his strength well, and there was no apparent mental
-failure. But he was no doubt mad and under a more intelligent system
-of jurisprudence he would have been relegated to a criminal lunatic
-asylum. There is no record however that at Ceuta he had been seized
-again by homicidal mania.
-
-There were many other types of murderers in Ceuta. The husbands who
-had killed their wives formed a distinct group. Jealousy because of
-real or fancied injury led to the vindictive thirst for revenge and
-this was more frequently found in the peasant than in the higher
-and better educated classes. Death had been inflicted in most cases
-by violence, but one aggrieved Othello chose poison, rejoicing in
-the acute suffering produced by arsenic. Another, who was half a
-Frenchman, adopted the French method of dismemberment, and to dispose
-of the damning evidence of the corpse, cut it up into small pieces and
-distributed them far and wide, but could not hide them effectually.
-Extenuating circumstances were allowed him and he went to Ceuta, where
-he is said to have lived quite contentedly, never regretting the savage
-act that had avenged his dishonour and made him a widower.
-
-Ceuta made its own murderers. Duels to the death were of constant
-occurrence as elsewhere, and the authorities rarely interfered even
-when fatal consequences ensued. On this point Relosillas says: "During
-my stay of fourteen months in Ceuta hardly an hour passed without a
-serious quarrel, not a day when some one was not wounded, not a week
-without a violent death in the _Cuartel Principal_. These troubles
-were due invariably to the same causes, the admission of _aguardiente_
-and the facility with which knives and lethal weapons could be
-obtained--points already noted and discussed at the beginning of this
-chapter. The drink was always on tap, as it could be introduced without
-difficulty through the dishonesty of the warders and the unlimited
-traffic with the townspeople. The weapons were never wanting, as it was
-impossible to check their presence, for no convict would be without his
-long sharp knife ready for instant use.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE
-
- Disordered state of Spain at the accession of Isabella--Brigandage
- raised into an organised system by lawless nobility and rebels--The
- revival of the Santa Hermandad or Holy Brotherhood--This
- institution revived again in the 19th century under the name of
- "Migueletes"--Attack on the mail coach outside Madrid--The famous
- brigand José Maria--His daring robberies in the Serrania--His
- early life--English officers from Gibraltar captured and held to
- ransom--Beloved and venerated by the peasants--In 1833 appointed an
- officer of the Migueletes--Brigandage not extinct in Spain--Don Julian
- de Zugasti appointed governor of Cordova--Methods of procedure--The
- famous robber Vizco el Borje--His seizure of Don Pedro de M.--Enormous
- ransom extorted--Agua Dulce.
-
-
-Brigandage, the form of organised highway robbery practised by bands of
-thieves in countries where roads are long and lonely and imperfectly
-guarded, has been always popular with the Latin races. It suited the
-tastes and temperament of reckless people who defied the law and
-laughed at the attempt to protect defenceless wayfarers. Their activity
-was stimulated by the long wastes of rugged country that separated the
-towns, giving harbourage and security to the robbers who issued forth
-to prey upon travellers and easily retired to their rocky fastnesses
-and escaped pursuit. These Ishmaelites have been especially active in
-Spain and Italy and the aggressive spirit that moved them is not yet
-entirely extinct. More settled government has produced a more effective
-police in these latter days, but acts of brigandage in its latest
-development, that of "holding up" modern means of conveyance, express
-trains, bicycles and motor cars, have occurred, and may be reasonably
-expected to increase.
-
-Brigandage is as old as the hills in Spain and some of its earliest
-phases are well worth describing before they are forgotten or replaced
-by newer processes. We may look back and gather some idea of those
-early days in Spain.
-
-When Isabella, the Catholic, ascended the throne of Castile, she was
-called upon to govern a country profoundly demoralised, infested
-with evil doers and dominated by a turbulent and vicious nobility.
-The throne was an object of contempt, the treasury empty, the
-people poverty stricken, and the princes of the Church rebellious
-and rejoicing in large revenues. A lawless aristocracy hungry for
-independent authority were fighting for their own lands or conspiring
-secretly to overawe the Crown. Titled alcaldes, traitors and rebels,
-openly raised brigandage into a system, exacted tribute by blackmail
-from the lower classes, and made unceasing war upon the higher. Within
-the kingdom a rival pretender aimed at the Crown. One near neighbour,
-Alfonso V of Portugal, menaced the peace of the country and kept
-an army on the frontier; another, Louis XI of France, crafty and
-unscrupulous, constantly threatened war and held his army in Guipuscoa.
-
-In a few short years the whole aspect of the country was changed.
-Isabella brought her rebellious nobles to their knees, all of them
-asking pardon and promising allegiance; the French army withdrew
-hastily to France; the Portuguese was defeated and expelled; the
-claimant to the throne was imprisoned and numbers of high-born
-criminals suffered on the scaffold. The great ecclesiastics disgorged
-much of their wealth to buy forgiveness, the robber haunts were
-attacked and destroyed, the high-roads became perfectly safe, thieves
-and highwaymen took to honest labour. Now the revenue was largely
-improved, the law was respected, crime was actively pursued and
-rigorously punished. But for the terrors and cruelties practised by the
-Inquisition, Spain would have enjoyed unbroken domestic peace and all
-the benefits accruing from general good government. These satisfactory
-results were largely achieved by the excellent police organised by
-Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand. The revival and consolidation of
-the "Santa Hermandad" or Holy Brotherhood which had always existed in
-the country districts to secure peace and tranquillity, but heretofore
-wielding smaller powers, worked wonders. A comprehensive system was now
-introduced by which all parts were patrolled by well-armed guardians
-of the law, mounted and on foot, who checked, prevented or punished
-misdeeds. In every collection of thirty houses or more two officials
-were appointed to deal with all offenders according to a strict code.
-Every thief when taken was punished with fine, flogging and exile, in
-penalties proportioned to the amount stolen. For more heinous offences
-his ears were cut off and he got a hundred lashes, or yet again one of
-his feet was amputated and he was peremptorily forbidden to ride on a
-horse or mule at peril of his life. A sentence of death was carried out
-by shooting with arrows.
-
-This ancient Hermandad was at one time revived in the _Migueletes_,
-a body of men organised early in the nineteenth century to act as
-escorts to private travellers, as the regular mails and diligences
-were under the protection of troops provided by the Government. The
-_Migueletes_ were a semi-military force composed of picked youths of
-courageous conduct, wearing uniform and armed with a short gun, with
-a sword, a single pistol and carrying a cord by which to secure their
-prisoners. The _Migueletes_ took their name from one Miguel de Pratz,
-who had been a lieutenant of Caesar Borgia. They were often recruited
-from the robbers who were offered service as a condition of pardon when
-captured, and afterwards behaved admirably. No one with an escort of
-ten or twelve _Migueletes_ need fear attack.
-
-The mail coach was sometimes attacked, and on one occasion was stopped
-at Almuwadiel outside Madrid. It carried several passengers, among
-others an Englishman, a German artist and a Spaniard. At the first
-appearance of the brigands, the guard threw himself on the ground with
-his face in the mud and the postillions did the same. When summoned
-to deliver up their possessions, the Englishman gave up his well
-filled purse and was warmly thanked; the German artist would have been
-ill-treated as a punishment for his empty pockets, but was spared
-when his poverty was explained; the Spaniard was caught attempting to
-conceal his valuables in the carriage lining and narrowly escaped a
-beating. The coach was at last permitted to proceed and at parting the
-leader of the band shook hands with the Englishman and said he was a
-real gentleman, the German was ignored and the Spaniard was sharply
-taken to task for his attempted "fraud."
-
-To this period (1825-35) belongs the famous brigand, José Maria, the
-Spanish Fra Diavolo, whose name is still remembered in the "Serrania"
-or mountain country of Ronda and throughout Southern Andalusia, for his
-daring robberies and continual defiance of the authorities. A "pass" or
-safe conduct granted by him was a better protection than any official
-escort. So great was his power that he was known by the proud title
-of "El Señor del Campo" (the lord of the country), and he ruled more
-absolutely in Andalusia than King Ferdinand in Spain. Travellers paid
-him a head tax, blackmail was levied on all public conveyances and, as
-has been said, he issued passports at a price to all who chose to pay
-for his protection. Strong bodies of troops were sent against him, but
-he managed always to elude or oppose them successfully.
-
-José Maria started in life as a small cultivator in a village near
-Antequera, but, unable to earn a decent living, he took to the more
-profitable business of smuggling, a profession greatly honoured and
-esteemed in Spain. In one of his operations he was drawn into an affray
-with the soldiers and unfortunately shot and killed one of them. He at
-once fled to the mountains, where he was soon surrounded by other no
-less reckless companions, all of them outlaws like himself, and became
-the chief and centre of the band which soon spread terror throughout
-Southern Spain. His headquarters were in the rugged and lofty mountain
-district of Ronda near the little town of Grazalema, but he was
-ubiquitous in his rapid movements and traversed the whole of Andalusia.
-A story is preserved of an English nobleman who travelled to Spain
-for the express purpose of making his acquaintance but long sought
-him in vain in his favourite haunts and much disappointed retraced
-his steps to Madrid. But on the road between Carmona and Ecija[23] he
-had the questionable good fortune to meet José Maria in person, who
-thanked him courteously for the compliment he had paid him in seeking
-an interview, in return for which he proceeded to relieve his lordship
-of his valuables and his baggage so that he might continue his journey
-without encumbrance. He had many ways of levying contributions. One was
-to send a messenger to some landed proprietor, demanding a large sum of
-money, and declaring that if it was not paid he would swoop down to lay
-waste his lands and burn his house over his head. Another plan was to
-take post with his gang, all of them well mounted and fully armed, on
-the highroad just outside some populous city, and "hold up" every one
-who passed in or out, seizing all ready money and carrying off to some
-secret fastness all persons known to possess means.
-
-[23] This town of Ecija is renowned in the history of Spanish
-brigandage as the home of the "Seven Sons of Ecija," a very daring
-and dangerous band whose achievements have been told by the Spanish
-novelist, Fernandez y Gonzalez.
-
-English officers, part of the garrison of the Rock of Gibraltar, did
-not escape the exactions of José Maria. Once a shooting party in the
-woods near Gibraltar was suddenly attacked and captured, but after
-the first surprise they showed fight and a brigand was wounded. The
-lives of all of them were in danger but were saved on the persuasion
-of José Maria that they would be more valuable as prisoners for whom a
-large ransom would be obtained than as corpses. One of the party was
-accordingly sent to the Rock to procure the money while the rest were
-detained as hostages for his return at a certain hour the next day.
-The messenger was warned that if a rescue was attempted, the whole of
-the prisoners would be instantly massacred. He reached the Rock after
-gunfire, but the gates were presently especially opened to admit him,
-the money was collected, not without difficulty, and was conveyed to
-the brigands in sufficient time to secure the release of the captives.
-For some time later English officers were forbidden to go into Spain
-except in sufficient numbers to set the brigands at defiance. In quite
-recent years (1871) two gentlemen, natives of the Rock, were carried
-off and detained until a large ransom was paid.
-
-José Maria dominated the country for nearly ten years. The secret of
-his long continued impunity may be traced to the fact that many of
-the local authorities, influenced either by fear or interest, were in
-collusion with him, and that the peasantry all wished him success;
-for, as he never oppressed them, but assisted and protected their
-smuggling transactions in which they are nearly all, in one way or
-other, engaged by opposing the regular troops, he was greatly beloved
-and venerated. He was in fact regarded as a hero; for such a life, wild
-and adventurous, where there is plenty of plunder and no laborious
-duty, has wondrous charms in the eyes of the lower Andalusians, by
-whom the laws of _meum_ and _tuum_ have never been well understood.
-How long José might have continued in power it is impossible to say,
-but like some other great personages he chose to abdicate. In 1833, he
-made his own terms with the Queen's government, agreeing to break up
-his band on condition of receiving an _indulto_, or pardon for all past
-offences, and a salaried appointment as an officer of Migueletes, or
-"police." He did not long exercise this honest calling, for soon after,
-when attempting to secure some of his former comrades who had taken
-refuge in a farmhouse, he was shot dead as he burst open the door.
-
-With all his bad qualities, José had some of a redeeming character.
-Among these were his kindness to his female prisoners, his generosity
-to the poor, and his forbearance, for he frequently restrained his
-troop from acts of violence, and displayed on occasions a certain
-chivalrous nobility of character, hardly to be expected from a robber.
-In person he was very small, scarcely more than five feet in height,
-with bowed legs; but he was stout, strong and active and made amends
-in boldness, determination and talent for his physical deficiencies.
-His success and the long continued control which he exercised over the
-lawless fellows who composed his band proved that he possessed the
-difficult art of command. His courage indeed was proverbial. As an
-instance of it, it is reported that he once ventured into the presence
-of the Prime Minister at Madrid and dared to beard him in his own house.
-
-Brigandage has not wholly disappeared in Spain although it no longer
-exists on the grand scale of former days when the mountain passes
-and lesser highways were infested by robber bands led by daring
-and unscrupulous chiefs who stopped travellers, blackmailed landed
-proprietors and carried off country folk whom they held to ransom often
-for considerable sums. To-day, if the knights of the road are still to
-be met with occasionally, they are for the most part paltry pilferers
-bent on stealing small sums from the poorer folk returning from market,
-or in rare cases holding up some solitary vehicle and its defenceless
-passengers. These are of the type of the old fashioned _salteadores_
-or "jumpers," so named because they jumped out from behind a rock and
-dropped suddenly on their prey with the old peremptory summons of
-"_Boca abajo!_" "_Boca à tierra!_" "Faces down! Mouth to the ground!"
-The cry may still be heard, and it means mischief when backed as of old
-by the muzzle of a gun protruding from the bushes in some narrow pass
-or defile. They are courageous too, these Spanish road agents, ready
-to fight at need as well as to rob, to overbear resistance and to meet
-the officers of the law with their own weapons. A story is told of one
-daring ruffian, Rullo de Zancayro, who, in 1859, murdered the alcalde
-of his village and was followed by two _guardias civiles_. At the end
-of a long chase they went too near some brushwood, when one was shot
-dead and the fugitive made good his escape.
-
-In the year 1870 brigandage was general throughout Spain, but the
-heart and centre of it was the province of Andalusia, with branches
-and ramifications everywhere, spreading dismay and apprehension
-among all peaceable people. This was in the interregnum that followed
-the revolution which drove Queen Isabella from the throne. There
-was safety for no one. Respectable landowners dared not visit nor
-reside upon their estates for fear of attack, dreading robbery with
-violence or seizure of their persons, and they constantly received
-threatening letters demanding the purchase of immunity on the payment
-of considerable sums. The roads were more than ever insecure, trains
-and diligences were repeatedly held up, and small parties of travellers
-or solitary wayfarers were certain to be laid under contribution. It
-was claimed that the _guardias civiles_, the fine rural police, were
-no longer active but were diverted from their legitimate duties by
-political party leaders in power. So many bitter complaints, so many
-indignant demands for protection, reached the central government in
-Madrid, that the authorities resolved to put down brigandage with a
-strong hand. A new governor of Cordova was appointed, a man of vigour
-and determination, armed with full powers to purge the province of its
-desperadoes.
-
-The choice fell upon Don Julian de Zugasti y Saenz, who had been a
-member of the Cortes and employed as civil administrator, first as
-governor of Teruel, where he had restored order in a period of grave
-disorder, and at Burgos, where he had laid bare a formidable conspiracy
-against the government. When Zugasti undertook the task, it was high
-time to adopt energetic measures. There was no security for life or
-property as robberies on a large scale were perpetrated both in town
-and country. Well-to-do citizens were seized in the public streets and
-carried off to sequestration; farmers and cultivators were compelled to
-share their produce, their harvests, and their herds with the brigands
-who swooped down on them; the police were impotent or too much overawed
-to interfere in the interest of honest folk. The prevailing anarchy
-and widespread lawlessness were a disgrace to any country that called
-itself civilised. Zugasti did a great work in restoring order and
-giving security to the disturbed districts. The whole story is told
-at some length in his book on "Bandolerismo,"[24] which deals with
-brigandage in Spain from its very beginnings, describing the principal
-feats of the banditti.
-
-[24] "Bandolerismo estudo social y memorias historicas," by Don Julian
-de Zugasti. Madrid, 1876.
-
-At the outset he was faced with a most difficult situation. Crimes
-in great number had been committed with impunity. Many of their
-perpetrators were wholly hidden from the authorities, while others
-were perfectly well known. A crowd of spies were ever on the watch and
-ready, whether from greed or to curry favour, with abundant information
-of openings that offered for attempts at crime. On the other hand the
-_guardias civiles_ were greatly discouraged and far too weak in numbers
-for the onerous duties they were expected to perform. Judges were
-dishonest and had been known to accept bribes, the ordinary police were
-torpid, nearly useless and generally despised. A complete reform in the
-administration of justice was a crying need, as the power and authority
-of the law were completely broken down.
-
-The new governor was helpless and handicapped on every side. His
-representations to the government for support were but coldly
-received and he had to rely on such scanty means as he had at hand.
-He looked carefully into the character of all police employés and
-dismissed all of doubtful reputation. He established a system of
-supplying the _guardias civiles_ at all stations with photographs of
-criminals at large whom they could identify and arrest, and insisted
-on strictly revising the permits issued to carry arms, allowing none
-but respectable persons to do so. The prohibition was extended to all
-kinds of knives, many of them murderous weapons of the well known type.
-The quarters of all evil doers he heard of were broken up, including
-the farm which had come to be called Ceuta because it harboured a
-mob of ex-convicts, escaped prisoners who were eager to resume their
-depredations by joining themselves to the plans and projects of others.
-
-These active measures were bitterly resented and vigorously resisted by
-all evil doers, who went so far as to seek the removal of the governor,
-and it was falsely announced in more than one newspaper that he had
-sent in his resignation. The disastrous consequence was the immediate
-revival of brigandage in various forms. Horses and cattle were once
-more stolen in the open country and a house in the town of Estado
-was broken into and a large amount in cash and securities with much
-valuable jewelry was seized. At the same time ten prisoners escaped
-in a body from the gaol of that city. On the highroad between Posadas
-and Villaviciosa, seven armed men robbed nineteen travellers, and a
-party had the audacity to carry off a child of nine and hold him to
-ransom. The police and well-disposed people were greatly disheartened,
-the _guardias civiles_, which had done excellent service in capturing
-more than a hundred prisoners in a short time, slackened in their
-endeavours, while the municipal police, which had forty captures to
-its credit, also held their hand. The whole situation was greatly
-aggravated and crime gained the ascendancy. But Zugasti rose to the
-occasion, publicly denied the report of his resignation; the government
-published a complimentary decree commending his conduct, and his
-pursuit of wrong doers was continued with renewed energy. Naturally he
-incurred the bitterest hostility and went constantly in danger of his
-life. He received anonymous letters containing the most bloodthirsty
-threats and was warned by his friends that they could not possibly
-support or protect him. Undeterred he held his way, bravely and wisely
-organised an association akin to the "Regulators" of the wild days
-in the Western States of the United States to patrol the country and
-insure the general safety, and employed a large force of secret police
-agents to perambulate the country, keeping close watch upon suspicious
-persons, travelling by all trains, patrolling all roads, visiting
-taverns in low quarters, entering the prisons in disguise and gaining
-the confidence of the fellow prisoners. Zugasti himself spent long
-periods in the various gaols, observing, investigating and interviewing
-notable offenders.
-
-The thoroughness of his proceedings might be gathered from the choice
-he made of his agents. One of the most useful was an idiot boy, whose
-weak-mindedness was relieved by some glimmerings of sense and who
-passed entirely unsuspected by those upon whom he spied. His foolish
-talk and silly ways gained him ready admission into cafés and clubs,
-where he was laughed at and treated as a butt upon whom food, drink
-and unlimited cigars were generously bestowed. He had the gift of
-remaining wide awake while seeming to be sound asleep, his ears ever on
-the stretch to pick up compromising facts which were openly mentioned
-before him. He had also a prodigious memory and seldom forgot what he
-heard, storing up everything to be produced later when he attended
-upon the governor. In this way Zugasti often heard of crimes almost
-as soon as they were planned, and could hunt up their perpetrators
-without delay. On one occasion a mysterious crime was unravelled by
-placing the idiot in the same cell with two of the suspected actors,
-who entirely believed in the imbecility of their cell companion and
-unguardedly revealed the true inwardness of the whole affair.
-
-The _ladron en grande_, the "robber chief" at the head of a numerous
-band, is still to be met with, although rarely representing the type
-of the famous José Maria. These leaders rose to the command of their
-lawless fellows by force of superior will, and they were unhesitatingly
-obeyed and followed with reckless devotion in the constant commission
-of crime. One or two noted specimens have survived till to-day and some
-account of them may be extracted from recent records.
-
-Vizco el Borje was long a terror to the peaceable people in northern
-Andalusia. He was originally an officer of _carabineros_, the "custom
-house" regiment of Spain, but had been, in his own judgment, unjustly
-dismissed and found himself deprived of the means of subsistence.
-Falling lower and lower, step by step he became an outcast, an
-Ishmaelite consumed with an intense hatred of all social arrangements,
-with his hand against every man. He began business as a smuggler and
-soon took to worse, following the Spanish proverb:--
-
- "De contrabandista e ladron
- No haymas que un escalon."
-
-"There is only one short step from smuggler to thief," and Vizco
-quickly crossed the narrow space and became a notorious criminal. He
-carried on the war against law and order with constantly increasing
-recklessness and more and more daring outrages. His strong personal
-character, his iron will, his unbounded courage and boldness gave
-him a great ascendancy over the men who collected around him and who
-served him with the greatest loyalty and unstinting effort. One of his
-exploits may be quoted at some length as exhibiting his methods and the
-success that generally attended them.
-
-A certain landowner, Don Pedro de M----, whose estates were in the
-neighbourhood of the mountain village of Zahrita, was in the habit of
-providing bulls free of charge for the amusement of the villagers, at
-the annual festival of their patron saint. Amateur bull fighters are
-always to be found to take part in the performance of a _novillos_,
-or game with young bulls. Don Pedro like many of his class was also
-an _aficionado_, an amateur devoted to bull fighting, and he loved to
-pick out himself the animals he gave from his herds, trying first their
-temper and their aptitude for the so-called sport of _tauromaquia_.
-He was thus engaged, assisted by his steward and a herdsman, and had
-dismounted with the steward to walk round the herd, when the ominous
-cry was raised, "_Boca abajo!_" and they found themselves covered
-by the rifles of three brigands who had crept upon them unobserved.
-Resistance was hopeless, though they also were armed, for their guns
-hung at the saddles of their horses, which they led at the full length
-of their reins, and to have made any hostile move would have drawn
-down a murderous fire. The chance soon passed, for one of the robbers
-quickly took possession of both horses and guns. The seizure was
-complete and the captors proceeded to carry off their prize.
-
-All remounted by order of the chief of the band, who took the lead,
-and the party started in single file along the narrow mountain path,
-an armed escort bringing up the rear. They made straight for the
-upper sierra, avoiding the frequented track until they reached a
-dense thicket, where a halt was called and a scout sent on ahead.
-After an interchange of whistled signals, nine other horsemen rode
-up, the two prisoners were ordered to dismount, their eyes closely
-bandaged, and they were warned that their lives depended upon their
-implicit obedience to the orders they received. Then the march was
-resumed. The road led constantly upward, becoming more and more rugged
-and precipitous till from the utter absence of brushwood and the
-stumbling of their horses they knew that they were climbing through
-a mountainous region. Another halt was called, all again dismounted,
-and the prisoners were led on foot along a narrow passage, that from
-the echoing sounds and the closeness of the air evidently penetrated
-far into the hill. It opened presently into an extensive cavern,
-probably the long-abandoned workings of some ancient Roman mine.
-Here their bandages were removed and Don Pedro saw that he was in the
-presence of the three bandits who had first made him prisoner. The cave
-contained nothing but a few empty boxes, on one of which was a light,
-a flickering wick in a saucerful of oil. Another box was offered Don
-Pedro as a seat, writing materials were produced and he was desired to
-write from dictation as follows:--
-
- "DEAR FATHER, I am in the power of the 'Sequestradores,' who make good
- plans and bind fast. It is madness to put the government on their
- track--they will escape and you will lose your son. Your secrecy and
- your money can at once free me. You can send the silver by Diego our
- steward, who is the bearer of this. Let him appear on the mountain
- between Grazalema and El Bosque, riding a white donkey and bringing
- ten thousand dollars."
-
-Here the prisoner stopped short and point blank refused to demand so
-large a sum, declaring that to pay it his brothers would be robbed of
-their patrimony and that he had no right to ask even when his life was
-at stake for more than his individual share as one member of a large
-family. It was a fair argument and he held out so staunchly that the
-brigand was pleased to reduce the demand to six thousand dollars. The
-letter conveying these terms was then completed, signed and delivered
-to Diego, who was told to make the best of his way to Xeres, and as
-dawn had now broken he had no difficulty in finding the road.
-
-Don Pedro was hospitably entertained. A wine skin (_borracha_) was
-broached and a plentiful supper laid out. The day was spent in sleep,
-but at nightfall the march was resumed. The prisoner was once more
-blindfolded, the weary pilgrimage, halting by day, travelling by
-night for three nights in succession, was resumed. On one occasion he
-seemed near rescue. A cry of "Civiles! Civiles!" was raised, an alarm
-of the near approach of the much dreaded _guardias civiles_. Orders
-were promptly issued to prepare for action. The brigands closed their
-ranks, sent their prisoner to the rear and took post to open fire. In
-the confusion Don Pedro, keenly alert for the deliverance that seemed
-so near, managed to lift the bandage over his eyes sufficiently to
-peep around. The party stood on a narrow ledge of the mountain side,
-straight cliff above, sheer drop below: movement forward or back was
-alone feasible. Meanwhile the increasing clatter of hoofs betrayed
-the enemy's approach, nearer and nearer, and the brigands barring the
-narrow road hoped to take them at a disadvantage and, after shooting
-them down, make good their retreat. But the sight of the first horse
-showed that it had been a false alarm. These were not "_Civiles_" but
-"_Contrabandistas_," smugglers not policemen, friends not foes. A long
-train of animals, heavily laden with goods that had paid no duty, were
-being guided across the mountains. Don Pedro's hopes were crushed
-out of him when he heard the interchange of friendly greetings: "_Muy
-buenas noches!_" on one side and "_Vayan ustedes con Dios_," on the
-other; "Good night!" and "Go in God's keeping," and room was made by
-the robbers for the safe passage of the smuggling train.
-
-On the third day news came that the authorities were on the alert and
-it would be unsafe to meet the messenger returning on his white donkey.
-Another tryst was therefore appointed. Don Pedro's father was desired
-to send half the whole sum demanded to Grazalema and the other half was
-carried by a man on the white donkey to a lonely spot among the hills.
-The father started in person on the long ride from Xeres to Grazalema
-weighted with three thousand dollars in cash, reached his destination
-safely but remained there for a couple of days tortured with suspense.
-On the third morning he was approached by a man leading a pony laden
-with rolls of the rough brown cloth manufactured in Grazalema, who
-said under his breath as he passed, "Follow me." The peddler led the
-way to a small draper's shop where the same cloth was exposed for sale
-and, dismounting, passed into the back premises, where another man,
-also a peddler, was seated waiting. This was Vizco el Borje himself,
-who at once asked for the money, producing Don Pedro's pencil case
-as his credentials. The dollars had been sewn for security into the
-pack saddle of the pony which had brought the old man, and they were
-extracted, counted and handed over. Vizco forthwith climbed on top of
-the pile of cloth carried by his own mount and rode boldly out of the
-town.
-
-Meanwhile Diego, the steward on the white donkey, with the remaining
-three thousand dollars patiently hung about the mountain lair to
-which he had been directed, and at last encountered a goatherd at the
-entrance of the village, who told him to ride on till he met a woman
-dressed in black seated by the side of a well. "She will ask you the
-time, and you will answer twelve o'clock, at which she will guide you
-to the spot where you are expected." It was a cavern in the hill and he
-was met there by his young master Don Pedro safe and sound. The money
-was handed over, but no release was permitted until news came of the
-delivery of the other half, when the prisoners were guided to a path
-familiar to them and they were free to return home. Next evening they
-rode into Xeres after a captivity of fifteen days.
-
-The end of Vizco el Borje was such as might be expected. He was shot
-down by the _guardias civiles_. For a long time he carried his life
-in his hands and had many hairbreadth escapes, saved always by his
-fine pluck and resourcefulness. At last the authorities had positive
-information of his whereabouts, gained through treachery, and he was
-surrendered. He made a gallant defence, but his retreat was cut off
-and he was soon overpowered. When he fell his body had been pierced by
-five rifle bullets.
-
-Another type of brigand was Agua Dulce, who worked on a much smaller
-scale, but was long a terror in the neighbourhood of Xeres. He was
-a mean, contemptible ruffian who preyed upon charcoal burners, poor
-travellers, carriers and workmen returning home with their hard earned
-wages. He had one narrow escape. After securing an unusually large sum,
-the equivalent of £600, all in small coins, he was caught dividing
-these with two accomplices in a wine shop. His arrest and imprisonment
-followed. When called upon to account for his possession of the gold,
-Agua Dulce explained that he had got it in the course of a business
-transaction in Seville and was removed to that city for trial, where he
-was acquitted, although little doubt was entertained of his guilt.
-
-For years he continued his depredations, committing for the most part
-small thefts and petty larcenies. Now and again he made bold coups, as
-when, under threat of damaging a herd of valuable mares, he extorted
-three thousand dollars from a lady who raised horses. He levied a
-thousand dollars on another landowner by using the same menace and a
-third gentleman, who had stoutly refused to be blackmailed and who
-owned a large drove of donkeys, found them all with their throats cut
-lying by the high road. When his misdeeds became too numerous to be
-borne the municipal guard of Gorez swore to put an end to him. A hot
-pursuit was organised and he was found at a ford near a wood belonging
-to the Duke of San Lorenzo, where he was caught hiding among the trees.
-Two guards opened fire, which was returned, with the result that one
-guard was killed and one robber. Agua Dulce, who was still alive, got
-into the covert, and shots were again and again exchanged, ending in
-the destruction of the brigand.
-
-A later affair with brigands occurred at Gibraltar in 1870, when two
-gentlemen, natives of the Rock, much given to hunting and taking long
-rides in the neighbourhood, were waylaid and made prisoners. They were
-carried off to a lonely house in the hills near Ronda and detained
-for ransom, which was advanced by the British government through the
-governor of the fortress of Gibraltar, and eventually repaid by the
-Spanish authorities. After the money had been paid over the _guardias
-civiles_ intercepted the robbers and shot them down.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY
-
- Wonderful results achieved by Colonel Montesinos in the presidio
- at Valencia--Montesinos repairs and reconstructs the prison with
- convict labour--His system of treatment--Period--Marvellous success
- in reforming criminals--Convicts entrusted with confidential
- despatches in civil war--Armed to resist attack on the prison
- by insurgents--Employed to hunt down brigands--Movement towards
- prison reform in 1844--Three new model prisons planned for
- Madrid--Executions--The "garrote"--Account of the trial and execution
- of José de Rojas--The condemned cell at the Saladero--An Englishman's
- description of a Spanish execution.
-
-
-The reader who has followed this detailed description of Spanish penal
-methods has realised the hideous shortcomings of Spanish prisons, the
-horrible practices so constantly prevailing within the walls, the
-apparently incurable nature of the criminals who regularly fill them,
-and he might reasonably doubt that definite and substantial amendment
-was possible. Yet the contrary is true and to the most marked and
-astonishing degree if we are to believe the facts on record. In one
-instance the personal character of one man, backed by his unshaken
-determination and the exercise of a resolute and inflexible will,
-brought a large mass of convicts into an admirable condition of
-self-control and good behaviour. The story reads like a fairy tale,
-as set forth in contemporary chronicles. One of the most interesting
-accounts is to be found in a book of travels entitled "Spain as It
-Is," by a Mr. Hoskins, in which he gives his personal observations
-of the results achieved in the prison at Valencia by the enlightened
-administration of its Governor, Colonel Montesinos. A brief account of
-the man himself should precede our appreciation of his work.
-
-Montesinos was a soldier, trained to arms, whose education and
-experience were entirely military. He had no previous acquaintance
-with or insight into prison systems, although he had travelled far
-and wide in many countries. He had never visited or inspected their
-penal establishments nor had he penetrated into any single prison in
-his native Spain. He served in the Spanish army, beginning as a cadet
-at fourteen, was actively engaged in the war of Independence, and was
-carried off as a prisoner into France. When set free at the conclusion
-of peace, he accepted a post in the secretariat of the War Office at
-Madrid, where he remained for five years. Then came the political
-troubles which ended in the fall of the constitutional government
-in 1823 and the surrender of Cadiz. With many other soldiers and
-citizens, he left Spain and wandered through Europe and America, with
-no very definite idea of examining into the laws and customs of other
-countries, but gaining knowledge and breadth of views. On his return
-to Spain when close on forty years of age he was appointed governor of
-the convict prison in Valencia.
-
-Montesinos entered upon his duties with a firm conviction of the
-paramount importance of military discipline, of that passive and
-unquestioning obedience to authority, the absolute surrender of
-individual volition, the complete subjection of the many to the single
-will of one superior master, which he believed to be the essence of all
-personal government and more particularly in a prison. To enforce such
-discipline was the only effectual method of securing good order and
-the due subordination of the rough and possibly recalcitrant elements
-under his command. In this he entirely succeeded and established an
-extraordinary influence over his charges. He became an autocrat but
-in the best sense; his prisoners resigned themselves submissively and
-unhesitatingly to his control, anxious to gain his good will by their
-exemplary demeanour and their unvarying desire to behave well. What
-he actually made of his charges, how he succeeded in changing their
-very natures, in transforming lawbreakers and evil doers into honest,
-trustworthy persons, successfully restraining their evil instincts,
-will be best realised by a few strange facts which, if not positively
-vouched for, would be considered beyond belief. But before relating
-these marvellous results it will be well to describe in some detail the
-processes adopted by him and the principles on which he acted.
-
-When Colonel Montesinos was appointed governor of the Valencian convent
-prison, it was located in an ancient mediæval edifice known as the
-"_Torres de Cuarte_," two towers flanking the great gate which gave
-upon the suburb known as "_El Cuarte_." This semi-ruinous building,
-dating from the fifteenth century, lodged about a thousand prisoners,
-herded together in a number of dark, dirty, ill-kept and insecure
-chambers, wholly unfit for human habitation. They were on several
-floors communicating by narrow passages and tortuous staircases, below
-which were deep underground cellars divided up into obscure foul
-dungeons, which were always humid from the infiltration from the city
-ditch and into which neither sunlight nor fresh air came to dry up the
-damp pavement and the streaming walls. Montesinos saw at once that it
-would be impossible to introduce reforms in such a building and he
-laboured hard to move into better quarters, securing at length, after
-a long correspondence, new quarters in the monastery of St. Augustine,
-which indeed was but little better. Here also the buildings had fallen
-into disrepair. A large part was without roof, there was little
-flooring, and many broken windows and decayed walls offered numerous
-facilities for escape. Extensive repairs were indispensable, yet funds
-were wanting, for the Spanish government was sorely taxed to meet the
-expenses of the civil war (Carlist) now in full swing. Nevertheless
-Montesinos, strenuous and indefatigable, a host in himself, transferred
-his people, a thousand convicts of dangerous character, into their new
-abode and set them to work to repair and reconstruct the old building.
-He meant to succeed, by drawing upon his own limitless energies,
-creating means from his own native resources, and was backed by the
-ready response of those he brought under the dominion of an indomitable
-will.
-
-All difficulties yielded before his intense spirit. He was the very
-incarnation of activity and it was enough to look at him to be
-spurred on to assiduous effort. His personal traits and their effect
-upon his surroundings are thus described by his biographer, Vincente
-Boix,--"There can be no doubt that his martial air, his tall figure
-and the look in his face, a mixture of imperious command with great
-kindliness and shrewd appreciation of willing effort, had a marked
-effect upon his people, and convicts who had been once coerced and
-driven by the fear of punishment yielded much more readily to his
-moral force. His obvious determination and strength of character got
-more out of them than threats or penalties, although, if needs were,
-he was ready enough to appeal to the strong arm. They acknowledged
-his superiority, and rough undisciplined men, quite capable of rising
-against authority when unchecked or weakly held, succumbed to his
-lightest word like children to their father. They yielded even against
-the grain absolute compliance to his lightest wish without needing a
-sharp look or a cross word."
-
-It will be interesting to follow Montesinos' procedure. Under his
-system the treatment was progressive and divided into three periods;
-first, that of chains; second, that of labour; and third, that of
-conditional liberation. This arrangement is in some respects akin to
-that generally known as the "Irish" system as practised many years ago
-with conspicuous success.
-
-(1) The wearing of irons at that time was general in Spain, although
-now the practice has fallen into disuse. With Montesinos the rule was
-to impose irons of varying weight graduated to the length of sentence.
-A two years' man carried them of four pounds' weight; a four years'
-man of six pounds, while between six and eight years they were of
-eight pounds. They consisted of a single chain fastened to a fetter on
-the right ankle, while the other end was attached to a waist belt, a
-method supposed to cause no great inconvenience. With Montesinos the
-period of wearing them was of short duration. It terminated on the
-day that the convict petitioned for regular employment, for on first
-reception, after having entered the first courtyard, which was kept
-bright with garden flowers and the songs of many birds in cages hanging
-around, the new arrival was given no work. He remained at the depot
-idle and silent, for no conversation was permitted, although he was
-associated with others, and if he put a question to a neighbour he
-got no reply. Weariness and boredom soon supervened in this period of
-first probation and the convict was keen to pass on. He appealed to his
-officer, who told him to seek employment at some trade. "I know none."
-"Then learn one, you cannot get quit of your irons in any other way."
-If the convict hesitated he was left studiously to himself, unhappy
-and ashamed, for his condition was deemed disgraceful. He could not
-hold his head up, for a wide gulf separated him from others who had
-escaped the chain. He was a marked man, shunned and sneered at, and was
-required to work from the second day at ignominious and humiliating
-labour, such as sweeping, cleaning, and so forth. They were the helots
-and scavengers of the prison. Their lot was the more unbearable because
-they were debarred from many privileges conferred on those who were
-at regular labour, and who were earning wages to spend in part upon
-themselves. These regular labourers might buy toothsome food and
-cigars, the delight of every Spaniard's heart. Meanwhile the governor
-had been watching him closely, noting his disposition and whether
-or not he was desirous of taking up work which was so much to his
-advantage and of which he would be speedily deprived unless he applied
-himself to it with zeal and unflagging industry.
-
-(2) A wide choice of labour obtained in Valencia. Trades and
-handicrafts were varied and numerous. Carpenters, turners, saddlers,
-shoemakers, fanmakers, workers with esparto grass, weavers of
-palm straw hats, silk spinners, tailors, basket makers, were all
-represented, and the total was some forty trades, with seven hundred
-artisans. To-day there would be nothing remarkable in this industrial
-activity, which may be seen in well governed prisons, but in Valencia
-at that date (1835-40) it was a novelty due very largely to Montesinos'
-initiative, and he could boast that out of three thousand convicts,
-barely a fourth left prison without having acquired some smattering
-of a trade. Stress must not be laid upon the exact amount of skill
-possessed by these prison taught artisans, and it is to be feared
-that it was no more thorough than in these latter days of ours, when
-the same principles as those of Montesinos have actuated prison
-administration. This is the crux of the system of prison instruction.
-It cannot be expected to turn out workmen sufficiently well trained and
-expert to go out into the open labour market, so generally overcrowded,
-and compete for wages against the free labourer who has had the benefit
-of full apprenticeship. Adults cannot easily acquire knowledge and
-dexterity in the use of tools, and inevitable waste of materials
-accompanies the experiments made by unskilled hands. We have no record
-of how far these drawbacks affected Montesinos' well-meant practice.
-
-(3) We have no facts to show how far the third period, that of
-conditional liberation, was successful at Valencia. There is no
-possibility of knowing definitely whether it was really tried or
-went beyond the enunciation of the theory so long in advance of our
-modern practice. It is little likely, however, that the effective
-and elaborate method of police supervision on which it is absolutely
-dependent was in existence or even understood in Spain in the days of
-Montesinos.
-
-No permanent results seemed to have been achieved by the Montesinos
-system. There is no record that it survived the man who created it
-or that the government sought to extend the admirable principles
-on which it rested. It was essentially a one man system, depending
-entirely for success on the personal qualities of the individual
-called upon to carry it out. Montesinos was not, however, singular in
-his remarkable achievement. The German Obermaier did much the same
-in the prison of Kaiserslautern, and Captain Maconochie in Norfolk
-Island exercised a notable mastery over the Australian convicts. The
-effects produced by Montesinos were little less than phenomenal. He so
-developed the probity of his convicts that he could rely implicitly
-upon their honesty and good faith. During the civil war he sent them
-with confidential despatches to commanders in the field and never had
-cause to regret the trust placed in them. They were sent out as scouts
-seeking information of the enemy's movements and brought in news with
-punctuality and despatch. A message was brought one day to the governor
-directing him to send a clerk to fetch a thousand dollars from the
-provincial Treasury. Montesinos forthwith summoned one of his convicts
-and despatched him, carrying with him the receipt for the money. Within
-half an hour the man returned with the dollars. Whenever a convict
-escaped from the presidio, a rare occurrence indeed, other convicts
-were despatched in pursuit and seldom failed to bring in the fugitive.
-
-At one time the Spanish government decided to build a new prison in
-the capital and to employ convict labour in the construction. The
-Governor of the presidio of Valencia was ordered to send up a number
-of prisoners, and next day at daylight they marched, taking with
-them a quantity of material, the whole escorted by a small body of
-_cabos_, "prisoner warders," and commanded by a veteran overseer. The
-journey was safely made to Madrid without the smallest mishap, not a
-sign or symptom of misbehaviour shown on the road, and the alcaldes
-of the towns on the route, after anticipating the worst evils, were
-agreeably surprised and were satisfied to lodge the travellers at
-night in private houses if there was no prison accommodation. A second
-experiment of the kind was made in the same year.
-
-On a previous occasion Valencia was threatened by a strong force of
-Carlists under that distinguished Carlist general, Cabrera, and it was
-feared that he would capture a large body of convicts at that time
-employed on a new road, Las Cabrillas, a little distance from the city.
-There were hardly any troops in the capital except the city militia
-only recently organised and barely equal to the duties and dangers
-imposed upon them. Great fears were entertained that Cabrera would
-seize the convicts and incorporate with his own force. Montesinos was
-desired to prevent this, and he turned up in person one evening at Las
-Cabrillas, where he assumed command and drew off the greater number,
-happily escaping without attack or interference by the enemy. So loyal
-was the demeanour of the Valencian prisoners that under the direction
-of Montesinos at another time they were armed and resisted an attack
-made upon the gates of their convent prison by the insurgents in a
-rising in Valencia. The following extraordinary story is related in an
-official publication by the well known poet Don Ramon de Campoamor,
-at that time governor of the province of Valencia. A formidable band
-of brigands was devastating the neighbourhood of Valencia and a reign
-of terror prevailed. The governor sent for Colonel Montesinos and
-inquired whether there were any old brigands among the convicts in
-custody and who were willing to atone for past misdeeds by coming to
-the assistance of the authorities. Montesinos, who made it a rule to
-know all his prisoners by heart, their present dispositions, and indeed
-their inmost thoughts, spoke confidently of one as quite a reformed
-character, and at the governor's request entrusted him with the special
-mission of clearing out the country. The convict, after receiving
-his instructions, went out with a sufficient escort, hunted down the
-brigands, broke up their bands, killing or capturing the whole. Here
-the commanding influence of Montesinos was paramount even beyond the
-walls of the presidio. By the power of his strong will he called out
-fine qualities and exacted loyal service from the worst materials whom
-he had won to a high sense of discipline.
-
-A minor and more sentimental instance is recorded of the confidence
-he could repose in his reformed criminals. The mother of one of the
-convicts was at the point of death. The man was summoned to the
-governor's office and informed of her desperate condition. "Do you wish
-to see her in her last moments?" asked the governor. "Can I trust you
-to return if I give you permission to leave the prison for a time?"
-The man much moved solemnly promised not to misuse his liberty. He was
-allowed to exchange his prison uniform for a peasant's dress; he went
-without escort to his mother's cottage, received her blessing, and went
-back to durance as had been agreed.
-
-The experience of Valencia was unique and short-lived. A commendable
-effort was made to extend the principles on which Montesinos had acted,
-and decrees embodying them and recommending them for general adoption
-were issued but soon became a dead letter. Excellent in theory, their
-success depended entirely on the man to give them effect. A second
-Montesinos did not appear and Spanish prisons continued to exhibit the
-worst features down to the present day.
-
-A movement towards prison reform had been commenced as early as 1844,
-when three new "model" prisons were planned for Madrid, but their
-construction was long delayed. About the same date a model convict
-prison was planned at Valladolid, but slow progress was made with
-this and with other new prisons, including that of Saragossa, and
-at the Casa de Galera of Alcalá de Henares. A penitentiary was also
-projected on the island of Cabrera, opposite Cadiz. The chief effort
-was concentrated on the model prison of Madrid, which was undertaken
-in 1876 after much debate and discussion. It was to be an entirely
-new building, to which were devoted all the funds that might have
-been expended upon the impossible reform and repair of the hideous
-old Saladero. Several years passed before the building began, and not
-until 1884 did the tenants of the dismantled Saladero move into the new
-prison. It is for the most part on the cellular or separate system,
-by which each individual is held strictly apart from his fellows,
-according to the most modern ideas, which have claimed to have exerted
-a potent effect in the reformation of offenders and the diminution of
-crime. Nevertheless the system is still in its trial and its beneficial
-results are by no means universally conceded. The new prison is a very
-distinct improvement on the old, and the former horrors and atrocities
-are fast disappearing, but the secluded solitary life has its own
-peculiar terrors which press hardly on transgressors, with results that
-are very distinctly deterrent if not very largely reformatory.
-
-What those actually subjected to the treatment feel we may read in
-their own effusions. The literary quality of prison writers does not
-rank high but they sometimes put their views forcibly. One says of the
-"model":--"If I leave this trying place alive I can at least declare
-that I have been buried underground and had made the acquaintance of
-the grave diggers." Another writer:--"If you wish to know what life is
-like here, come and take your lodging inside. They are handsome, but
-curious, well provided with means to drive you out of your mind. There
-is a water tap which overflows in drought and runs dry in wet weather;
-a pocket handkerchief and a towel; a plate, a basin and a wooden spoon,
-a broom, a dust box, one blanket and a mattress with four straws that
-gives you pain in every limb: many things more, but one alone much
-needed is absent, a rope by which you commit suicide."
-
-It has been said that the worst use to which a man may be put is to
-shut him up in a prison. A still more wasteful extravagance is to put
-him out of the world. The penalties known to Spanish law have been
-very various; there have been many forms of imprisonment, perpetual
-imprisonment, greater or less detention, exile, the application of
-fetters of several sorts, handcuffs, shackles, the _guarda amigo_ or
-"holdfriend," the "persuader" or "come along with me"; the leg irons
-and waist chains of varying weights. Penal labour was enforced in
-_maniobras infimas_ by convicts chained together on public works,
-fortifications, harbours and mines. All forms of secondary punishment
-have been inflicted, winding up with capital, the death sentence
-inflicting the extreme penalty of the law. This last irrevocable act
-does not find favour with all Spanish legists, whose chief objection
-is the familiar one that when a judicial error has been committed,
-rectification is altogether impossible. Spain can add one to the many
-well known cases such as those of Callas and Lesurques, and it may be
-quoted here as it is probably little known.
-
-The case occurred in Seville and grew out of a sudden quarrel in a
-tavern followed by a fight to the death with knives. The combatants
-went on the ground and attacked each other in the regular fashion when
-one dropped to the ground mortally wounded and the other with his
-second ran away. The wounded man's second went up to see whether his
-principal was dying or already dead, when he got up and declared that
-he was entirely unhurt. He had slipped upon a stone and fallen with
-the obviously cowardly desire to escape from his antagonist's attack.
-The second was furiously angry and rated his man soundly. He retorted
-fiercely and another quarrel and another encounter ensued, also with
-knives, in which the first man again fell and this time was killed
-outright, by his own second, who at once made off. The body lay where
-it had fallen until next morning, when the police found it. The story
-of the original quarrel but nothing of the second had become known, and
-it was naturally concluded that death had been inflicted by the first
-combatant. On the face of it the evidence was conclusive against him,
-and he did not attempt to deny the facts as they appeared when arrested
-and put upon his trial. At that time the law treated homicide in a duel
-as murder and the victim suffered the extreme penalty without protest,
-believing himself to be guilty. The truth was never known, until the
-real offender, years after, confessed the part he had played, but too
-late of course to prevent the judicial murder of the innocent man.
-This case has naturally been added to give weight to the many powerful
-arguments against capital punishment.
-
-The extreme penalty of the law is nowadays inflicted in Spain by the
-_garrote_, a method of strangulation by the tightening of an iron
-collar, the substitute for hanging introduced by King Ferdinand VII
-(1820). Till then the hanging was carried out in the clumsiest and most
-brutal manner. The culprits were dragged by the executioner up the
-steps of a ladder leaning against the scaffold. At a certain height
-he mounted on the victim's shoulders and thus seated flung himself off
-with his victim underneath. As they swung to and fro the hangman's
-fingers were busily engaged in choking the convict so as to complete
-the strangulation. The _garrote_ is a very simple contrivance. The
-condemned man sits on a stool or low seat, leaning his back against a
-strong, firm upright post to which an iron collar is fixed. This, when
-opened, encircles his neck, and is closed and tightened by a powerful
-screw, worked by a lever from behind. Death is instantaneous.
-
-Public executions must prove very popular performances with a people
-who still revel in a bull fight and flock to look at the hairbreadth
-escapes of human beings from hardly undeserved death by the horns
-of a fierce beast tortured into madness. De Foresta, an Italian
-traveller,[25] tells us that never was a greater concourse seen in
-Madrid than that which collected in 1877 to witness the execution of
-two murderers, Mollo and Agullar, when it was estimated that 80,000
-people were present. Ford describes an execution in Seville in 1845
-when the crowd was enormous and composed largely of the lower orders,
-of the humbler ranks, "who hold the conventions of society very cheap
-and give loose rein to their morbid curiosity to behold scenes of
-terror, which operates powerfully on the women, who seem irresistibly
-impelled to witness sights the most repugnant to their nature and to
-behold sufferings which they would most dread to undergo," and many of
-whom "brought in their arms young children at the beginning of life
-to witness its conclusion." "They desire to see how the criminal will
-conduct himself, they sympathise with him if he displays coolness and
-courage, and despise him on the least symptom of unmanliness."
-
-[25] La Spagna; Da Irun a Malaga, by Adolfo de Foresta, Bologna, 1879.
-
-Ford in his "Gatherings from Spain" gives a graphic account of the
-execution of a highway robber, one of the band of the famous José
-Maria already mentioned. The culprit, José de Rojas, was nicknamed
-"Veneno," poison, from his venomous qualities and had made a desperate
-resistance before he was finally overcome by the troops who captured
-him. He fell wounded with a bullet in his leg, but killed the soldier
-who ran forward to secure him. When in custody he turned traitor and
-volunteered to betray his old associates and give such information as
-would lead to their arrest if his own life was spared. The offer was
-accepted and he was sent out with a sufficient force to seize them.
-Such was the terror of his name that all surrendered, but not to him.
-On this quibble the indemnity promised him was withdrawn, he was
-brought to trial, condemned, and in due course executed on the Plaza
-San Francisco, which adjoins the prison in Seville and is commonly used
-for public executions.
-
-Ford was admitted within the walls and describes Veneno "_en
-capilla_," a small room set apart as a condemned cell, the approach to
-which was thronged with officers, portly Franciscan friars and "members
-of a charitable brotherhood collecting alms from the visitors to be
-expended in masses for the eternal repose of the soul of the criminal.
-The levity of those assembled without, formed a heartless contrast with
-the gloom and horror of the melancholy interior of the _capilla_. At
-the head of the cell was placed a table with a crucifix, an image of
-the Virgin and two wax tapers, near which stood a silent sentinel with
-a drawn sword. Another soldier was stationed at the door with a fixed
-bayonet. In a corner of this darkened compartment lay Veneno curled up
-like a snake, with a striped coverlet drawn closely over his mouth,
-leaving visible only a head of matted locks, and a glistening dark
-eye rolling restlessly out of its deep socket. On being approached he
-sprang up and seated himself on a stool. He was almost naked, but a
-chaplet of beads hung across his exposed breast and contrasted with
-the iron chains around his limbs.... The expression of his face though
-low and vulgar was one which, once seen, was not easily forgotten.
-His sallow complexion appeared more cadaverous in the uncertain light
-and was heightened by a black unshorn beard, growing vigorously on a
-half-dead countenance. He appeared to be reconciled to his fate and
-repeated a few sentences, the teaching of the monks, as by rote. His
-situation was probably more painful to the spectator than himself, an
-indifference to death arising rather from an ignorance of its dreadful
-import than from high moral courage."
-
-When Veneno came out to die he was clad in a coarse yellow baize gown,
-the colour which in Spain denotes the crime of murder and appropriated
-always to Judas Iscariot in Spanish paintings, the colour, too, of
-the _sanbenito_ or penitential cloak worn by the victims of the
-Inquisition at an _auto da fé_. He walked slowly, stopping often to
-kiss the crucifix held to his lips by the attendant confessor, a monk
-of the Franciscan order, whom it was the convict's privilege to choose
-for himself to accompany him to the scaffold. He was met there by the
-executioner, a young man dressed in black who proceeded to bind his
-naked legs and arms so tightly that they swelled and turned black:
-a necessary precaution, as this very executioner's father had been
-killed when struggling with a convict unwilling to die. Veneno made
-no resistance, but he spoke with supreme contempt of this degraded
-functionary, saying, "_Mi delito me mata no ese hombre_" (My crime
-kills me and not this creature). He uttered many pious ejaculations,
-and his dying cry was, "Viva la Virgen Santisima." The last scene was
-ghastly in the extreme. While the priest stood by, "a bloated corpulent
-man more occupied in shading the sun from his face than in his ghostly
-office," the robber sat with a writhing look of agony, grinding his
-clenched teeth. The executioner took the lever of the screw in both
-hands, gathered himself up for a strong muscular effort, drew the iron
-collar tight while an attendant threw a black handkerchief over the
-face. A convulsive pressure of the hands and a heaving of the chest
-were the only visible signs of the passing of the convict's spirit.
-
-"After a pause of a few moments the executioner cautiously peeped under
-the handkerchief and, after having given another turn of the screw,
-lifted it off, carefully put it in his pocket and proceeded to light
-a cigar. The face of the dead man was slightly convulsed, the mouth
-open, the eye balls turned into their sockets from the wrench. A black
-bier with two lanterns fixed on staves was now set down before the
-scaffold. A small table and a dish into which alms were again collected
-to be paid to the priests who sang masses for his soul was also brought
-forward.... The body remained on the scaffold till after noon. It was
-then thrown into a scavenger's cart and led by the _pregonero_ or
-common crier beyond the jurisdiction of the city to a square platform
-called the "mesa del Rey," the king's table, where it was to be
-quartered and cut up. Here the carcass was hewed and hacked into pieces
-by the bungling executioner and his assistants."
-
-The condemned cell at the Saladero was a part of the prison chapel in
-which the Spanish convict spent the last twenty-four hours of life and
-was a horrible and painfully gruesome hole. The _capilla_ is described
-by de Foresta, who saw it when it was on the eve of abolition. It was
-of narrow dimensions, damp, dark, windowless and lighted only with one
-or two small candles burning upon the altar which occupied a large
-space filling all one wall. In a corner cut off by a black iron railing
-from the rest of the chapel was a small space fitted with a bed or
-stone shelf with rings to which the convict's chains were fastened and
-where he knelt close to the bars to converse with or confess to the
-ministering priests. The chapel was dimly lighted by a hanging lamp and
-one or two wax candles. Its walls and floor were damp and it received
-light and air only through the door. This gruesome den rejoiced in the
-name _el confortador_, or the "place of comfort."
-
-Another traveller gives the following graphic account of a Spanish
-execution:--
-
-"At seven we find ourselves in the crowd immediately beneath the prison
-walls. Large bodies of troops are drawn up on either side of the
-_plaza_ and there is a tolerably large concourse of male spectators
-present. In a few minutes the mournful cortége appears upon the wall.
-First comes the executioner, the Spanish Calcraft, a wiry looking
-fellow, carrying a coil of rope; next comes a very stout padre armed
-with a baton, and bawling out prayers at the top of his voice; he is
-followed by the convict, who walks on in prison uniform, with his
-neck bare and arms pinioned, clasping the cross in his hands and
-looking literally in a blue fright; a couple more priests and two armed
-sentries complete the group, who range themselves along the wall, the
-criminal in the centre. The terrible scene is long protracted. The fat
-padre roars out _Ave Marias_, exhortations and prayers, waving his
-baton frantically in the air and making the miserable wretch repeat
-after him. He then clasps him in his arms, and sitting down on chairs
-opposite each other, they are covered with a large black pall held
-by the supernumerary priests; under this they remain for some time
-perfectly motionless, while the poor creature is unburdening his soul
-and pouring forth his load of crimes into the ear of his confessor.
-
-"The nerves of the spectators are strained to an intense pitch during
-the awful pause, as is evident from the oppressive silence which
-prevails and the anxious looks directed at the scaffold. At length the
-pall is removed and the executioner proceeds to business. The culprit
-is made to sit against an upright post to which he is firmly lashed;
-the _garrote_, a machine consisting of an iron collar worked back by
-a powerful screw and a long lever, is carefully adjusted round his
-neck, a small handkerchief thrown over his face and all is ready. The
-priest recommences shouting while the executioner, preparing himself
-for a mighty effort, suddenly turns the handle two or three times as
-quick as lightning; the head of the victim drops, the knees and arms
-quiver for a few seconds and all is over. Priests and sentries retire,
-Calcraft peeps under the handkerchief and, whipping it off with a
-jerk, immediately disappears, leaving the ghastly corpse exposed to
-open view. It is a sickening and disgusting sight: the face is of a
-livid hue, the tongue protruding, and shedding saliva on the breast;
-the bystanders shudder, the troops march off with drums gaily beating
-and the crowd slowly disperses. I make a rapid sketch of the body and
-return to the hotel fully satisfied that, were it not for the cruel
-state of suspense in which the criminal is kept before the execution,
-the punishment of the _garrote_ is far more merciful and expeditious
-than the less speedy death by hanging in this country."
-
-The profession of hangman does not entitle those who practise it to
-the very highest honour, although in France in the case of the Sansons
-it was an hereditary office in which son succeeded father for many
-generations and the family took considerable pride in their functions.
-In Spain the _verdugo_ is by no means a popular person. De Foresta, the
-Italian traveller already quoted, tells us that in several towns he saw
-a person of forbidding aspect who was walking about with a camp stool
-under his arm and generally shunned. On enquiry he was informed that
-this was the gentleman who administered the _garrote_. He was strictly
-forbidden to take a seat at a café or in any place of public resort,
-hence the camp stool on which he rested himself when tired. No one
-recognised or addressed to him a single word. De Foresta's comment on
-this is a story of the French executioner who, when called to Nice to
-guillotine a criminal, was unable to find anywhere to lay his head.
-He was turned away from every door, was refused a mouthful of food
-and was obliged to dine on what he could find at the railway station
-restaurant, and he spent the night in walking up and down the platform.
-It may not be generally known that in England the executioner is
-provided with board and lodging in the gaol where his victim is waiting
-to be "finished."
-
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes:
-
-Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
-
-Superscript text is represented with carat and brackets (i.e. E=MC^{2} )
-
-Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History and Romance of Crime;
-Spanish Prisons, by Arthur Griffiths
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History and Romance of Crime; Spanish +Prisons, by Arthur Griffiths + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The History and Romance of Crime; Spanish Prisons + +Author: Arthur Griffiths + +Release Date: May 21, 2016 [EBook #52114] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY AND ROMANCE OF CRIME *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Christopher Wright, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + The History and Romance of Crime + + FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY + + [Illustration] + + THE GROLIER SOCIETY + LONDON + + [Illustration] + + + + + Spanish Prisons + + + THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD + PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT + + _by_ + + MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS + _Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain_ + + _Author of + "The Mysteries of Police and Crime + "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc._ + + + _The Inquisitor-General and the Catholic Sovereigns_ + + The mandate of expulsion of the Jews from Spain was + issued by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. This edict no doubt + originated with Torquemada, who was very bitter against the + Jews. When he learned that a number of their leaders were + in conference with the King and Queen, and offering an immense + ransom, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing + a crucifix on high and crying in stentorian tones that the + sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas Iscariot. + "Here He is!" he exclaimed. "Sell Him again, not for + thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging + the crucifix on the table he ran out in a frenzy. This turned + the tables and the decree for expulsion was confirmed. + + THE GROLIER SOCIETY + + + + + Spanish Prisons + + + THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD + PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT + _by_ + + MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS _Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain_ + + _Author of "The Mysteries of Police and Crime + "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc._ + + [Illustration] + + THE GROLIER SOCIETY + + EDITION NATIONALE + + Limited to one thousand registered and numbered sets. + + NUMBER 307 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +A considerable portion of this volume is devoted to the Spanish +Inquisition, which was, for three centuries, the most important force +in Spain. Thousands were condemned by its tribunals, and its prisons +and punishments make up a large part of the penal history of that +country. Much exaggeration has crept into the popular accounts, but the +simple truth must cause a shudder, when read to-day. + +The institution was created to deal with heresy, that is, with a +departure from the accepted canons. The idea that there can be unity +in diversity was not understood. The spiritual and the temporal powers +were closely related, and bishop and king, pope and emperor, all +believed that uniformity was necessary. Hence, heresy was everywhere +treated as high treason not only to the Church but to the State +as well. The Spanish Inquisition was a state affair as well as an +ecclesiastical court. + +We shall see that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition was not confined +to the suppression of heresy. Many crimes which to-day are purely +state concerns, were then punished by it, including bigamy, blasphemy, +perjury, unnatural crimes, and witchcraft. The Spanish Inquisition +deserves credit for discouraging persecution of the last named offence, +and thereby saved the lives of thousands, who, in any other state would +have been executed. + +The adaptation to penal purposes of ancient buildings, to be found +throughout the length and breadth of Spain, was very common, as these +were immediately available although generally unsuitable. Chief among +them are the many monastic buildings vacated when the laws broke up +religious houses in Spain and which were mostly converted into prisons, +but little deserving the name. Some of these houses have been utilised +as gaols pure and simple; some have served two or more purposes as at +Huelva, where the convent-prison was also a barrack. + +Spain has been slow in conforming to the movements towards prison +reform. She could not afford to spend money on new constructions +along modern lines, and the introduction of the cellular system is +only of recent date. The model prison of Madrid, which has replaced +the hideous Saladero, was only begun in 1887. But a few separate +prisons had already been created, such as those of Loja, Pontevedra, +Barcelona, Vittoria and Naval Carnero. These establishments are new to +Spain but their methods and aims are too well known to call for fresh +description. More interest attaches to the older forms that have so +long served as places of durance. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION 5 + + I. THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN 11 + + II. PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS 32 + + III. PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS 63 + + IV. THE INQUISITION ABROAD 91 + + V. THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA 110 + + VI. EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS 123 + + VII. PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD 150 + + VIII. LIFE IN CEUTA 182 + + IX. BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE 212 + + X. A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY 236 + + + + +List of Illustrations + + + THE GRAND INQUISITOR AND THE CATHOLIC + SOVEREIGNS _Frontispiece_ + + THE ALHAMBRA PALACE, GRANADA _Page_ 52 + + THE QUESTION " 116 + + CASTEL DELL' OVO " 150 + + + + +SPANISH PRISONS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN + + Beginning and growth of religious persecution--Temporal power of the + Papacy--Pope Innocent III creates the first "Inquisitors"--Domingo de + Guzman founder of the Inquisition--Founder of the Dominican Order of + Friars--The "ancient" Inquisition--Penances inflicted--Persecution + of the Jews in Spain--Institution of the "modern" Inquisition under + Ferdinand and Isabella--Headquarters at Seville--Frequent _autos da + fé_--Thomas de Torquemada the first Inquisitor-General--The privileges + of the office--Torquemada's life and character--Sufferings of accused + persons. + + +The record of religious persecution furnishes some of the saddest +pages in the world's history. It began with the immediate successors +of Constantine the Great, the first Christian prince. They promulgated +severe edicts against heretics with such penalties as confiscation, +banishment and death against breaches of Catholic unity. In this +present tolerant age when every one may worship God after his own +fashion, it is difficult to realise how recent a growth is toleration. +For more than six centuries the flames of persecution burned fiercely +throughout Christendom, lighted by the strong arm of the law, and +soldiers were constantly engaged to extirpate dissent from the accepted +dogmas with fire and sword. The growth of the papacy and the assumption +of the temporal power exalted heresy into treason; independence of +thought was deemed opposition to authority and resistance to the +universal supremacy of the Church. The popes fighting in self-defence +stimulated the zeal of their followers unceasingly to stamp out heresy. +Alexander III in the 12th century solemnly declared that every secular +prince who spared heretics should be classed as a heretic himself and +involved in the one common curse. + +When the temporal power of the popes was fully established and +acknowledged, the papacy claimed universal sovereignty over all +countries and peoples and was in a position to enforce it by systematic +procedure against its foes. Pope Innocent III, consumed with the +fervour of his intolerant faith, determined to crush heresy. His +first step was to appoint two "inquisitors" (the first use of the +name) and two learned and devout friars, who were really travelling +commissioners, were sent to perambulate Christendom to discover heresy. +They were commended to all bishops, who were strictly charged to +receive them with kindness, treat them with affection, and "help them +to turn heretics from the error of their way or else drive them out +of the country." The same assistance was expected from the rulers of +states who were to aid the inquisitors with equal kindness. + +The mission began in the south of France and a crusade was undertaken +against the Albigensians and Waldensians, those early dissidents from +the Church of Rome, who drew down on themselves the unappeasable +animosity of the orthodox. The campaign against these original heretics +raged fiercely, but persecution slackened and might have died out +but for the appearance of one devoted zealot whose intense hatred of +heresy, backed by his uncompromising energy, revived the illiberal +spirit and organised fresh methods of attack. This was Domingo de +Guzman, a Spanish monk who accompanied Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse, +when he left his desolated diocese to take part in the fourth Lateran +Council, assembled at Rome in 1215. This Domingo, historically known as +St. Dominic, was the founder of the Dominican order of friars. + +Though generally accepted as such by Church historians, it is +now argued that St. Dominic was not really the founder of the +Inquisition[1] and that although he spent the best years of his life +in combating heresy he took no more prominent part in persecution than +hundreds of others. His eulogistic biographer describes him as "a man +of earnest, resolute purpose, of deep and unalterable convictions, full +of burning zeal for the propagation of the faith, yet kindly in heart, +cheerful in temper and winning in manner.... He was as severe with +himself as with his fellows.... His endless scourgings, his tireless +vigils, his almost uninterrupted prayer, his superhuman fasts, are +probably only harmless exaggerations of the truth." The Dominicans +boasted that their founder exhaled "an odour of sanctity" and, when his +tomb was opened, a delicious scent issued forth, so penetrating that it +permeated the whole land, and so persistent that those who touched the +holy relics had their hands perfumed for years. + +[1] Lea. History of the Inquisition. Vol. I. p. 299. + +Whatever the personal character of Dominic and whether or no he +laboured to carry out the work himself, there can be no doubt that +his Order was closely identified with the Inquisition from the first. +Its members were appointed inquisitors, they served in the prisons as +confessors, they assisted the tribunals as "qualificators," or persons +appointed to seek out proof of guilt, or estimate the extent or quality +of the heretical opinions charged against the accused; the great +ceremonials and _autos da fé_ were organised by them; they worked the +"censure" and prepared the "Index" of prohibited books. The Dominicans +were undoubtedly the most active agents in the Inquisition and they +owed their existence to him, even if he did not personally take part in +its proceedings. + +The following quotation from Prescott's "History of Ferdinand and +Isabella" may well be inserted here. "Some Catholic writers would +fain excuse St. Dominic from the imputation of having founded +the Inquisition. It is true he died some years before the perfect +organisation of that tribunal; but as he established the principles +on which, and the monkish militia by whom it was administered, it is +doing him no injustice to regard him as its real author." The Sicilian +writer, Paramo, indeed, in his heavy quarto, traces it up to a much +more remote antiquity. According to him God was the first inquisitor +and his condemnation of Adam and Eve furnished the models of the +judicial forms observed in the trials of the Holy Office. The sentence +of Adam was the type of the Inquisitional "reconciliation," his +subsequent raiment of skins of animals was the type of the _sanbenito_, +and the expulsion from Paradise, the precedent for the confiscation of +the goods of heretics. This learned personage deduces a succession of +inquisitors through the patriarchs, Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, and King +David, down to John the Baptist, and he even includes our Saviour in +whose precepts and conduct he finds abundant authority for the tribunal. + +The "Ancient Inquisition," as that first established in Spain is +generally called, had many of the features of the "modern" which dates +from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and which will presently be +described at some length. Its proceedings were shrouded in the same +impenetrable secrecy, it used the same insidious modes of accusation, +supported them by similar tortures, and punished them with similar +penalties. A manual drawn up in the fourteenth century for the guidance +of judges of the Holy Office prescribes the familiar forms of artful +interrogation employed to catch the unwary, and sometimes innocent +victim. The ancient Inquisition worked on principles less repugnant to +justice than the better known, but equally cruel modern institution, +but was less extensive in its operations because in the earlier days +there were fewer heretics to persecute. + +The ancient Inquisition was so unsparing in its actions that it almost +extirpated the Albigensian heresy. The punishments it inflicted were +even more severe than in the modern. Upon such as escaped the stake +and were "reconciled," as it was styled, a terrible "penance" was +imposed. One is cited by Llorente[2] as laid down in the ordinances of +St. Dominic. The penitent, it was commanded, should be stripped of his +clothes and beaten by a priest three Sundays in succession from the +gate of the city to the door of the church; he must not eat any kind of +meat during his whole life; must abstain from fish, oil and wine three +days in the week during life, except in case of sickness or excessive +labour; must wear a religious dress with a small cross embroidered on +each breast; must attend mass every day, if he has the means of doing +so, and vespers on Sundays and festivals; must recite the service for +the day and night and repeat the paternoster seven times in the day, +ten times in the evening, and twenty times at midnight. If he failed in +any of these requirements, he was to be burned as a "relapsed heretic." + +[2] History of the Inquisition. + +Chief among the causes that produced the new or "modern" Inquisition +was the envy and hatred of the Jews in Spain. Fresh material was +supplied by the unfortunate race of Israel, long established in the +country, and greatly prosperous. They had come in great numbers after +the Saracenic invasion, which indeed they are said to have facilitated, +and were accepted by some of the Moorish rulers on nearly equal terms, +and were treated with a tolerance seldom seen among Mahometans, though +occasional outbursts of fanaticism rendered their position not quite +secure. Under these generally favourable auspices the Jews developed +in numbers and importance. Their remarkable instinct for money making +and their unstinting diligence brought them great wealth. Their love of +letters and high intelligence gave them preëminence in the schools of +the Moorish cities of Cordova, Toledo and Granada, where they helped +to keep the flame of learning bright and shining through the darkest +ages. They became noted mathematicians, learned astronomers, devoted +labourers in the fields of practical and experimental science. Their +shrewdness in public affairs and their financial abilities commended +them to the service of the state, and many rose to the highest civic +dignities at both Christian and Moorish courts. Often, despite +prohibitory laws, they collected the revenues and supervised the +treasuries of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, while in private life +they had nearly unlimited control of commerce and owned most of the +capital in use. + +After the Christian conquest, their success drew down upon them the +envy and hatred of their less flourishing fellow subjects, who resented +also that profuse ostentation of apparel and equipage to which the +Jewish character has always inclined. Their widespread practice of +usury was a still more fruitful cause for detestation. Often large sums +were loaned, for which exorbitant rates of interest were charged, owing +to the scarcity of specie and the great risk of loss inherent to the +business. As much as twenty, thirty-three, and even forty per cent. +per annum was exacted and paid. The general animosity was such that a +fanatical populace, smarting under a sense of wrong, and urged on by a +no less fanatical clergy broke out at times into violence, and fiercely +attacked the Jews in the principal cities. The _Juderías_, or Jewish +quarters, were sacked, the houses robbed of their valuable contents, +precious collections, jewels and furniture were scattered abroad, and +the wretched proprietors were massacred wholesale, irrespective of sex +and age. According to the historian, Mariana, fifty thousand Jews were +sacrificed to the popular fury in one year, 1391, alone. + +This was the turning point in Spanish history. Fanaticism once aroused, +did not die until all Jews were driven out of Spain. It brought into +being another class also, the _Conversos_, or "New Christians," _i. e._ +Jews who accepted Christian baptism, though generally without any +spiritual change. At heart and in habits they remained Jews. + +The law was invoked, too, to aggravate their condition. Legislative +enactments of a cruel and oppressive kind were passed. Jews were +forbidden to mix freely with Christians, their residence restricted +to certain limited quarters, they were subject to irksome, sumptuary +regulations, debarred from all display in dress, forbidden to carry +valuable ornaments or wear expensive clothes, and they were held up to +public scorn by being compelled to appear in a distinctive, unbecoming +garb, the badge or emblem of their social inferiority. They were also +interdicted from following certain professions and callings. They might +not study or practise medicine, might not be apothecaries, nurses, +vintners, grocers or tavern keepers, were forbidden to act as stewards +to the nobility or as farmers or collectors of the public revenues, +although judging from repeated re-enactments, these laws were evidently +not strictly enforced, and often in some districts were not enforced at +all. + +Fresh fuel was added to the fiery passions vented on the Jews by the +unceasing denunciation of their heresy and dangerous irreligion, and +public feeling was further inflamed by grossly exaggerated stories +of their hideous and unchristian malpractices. The curate of Los +Palacios has detailed some of these in his "Chronicle," and they +will serve, when quoted, to show what charges were brought against +the Jew in his time. "This accursed race (the Israelites)," he says, +speaking of the proceedings taken to bring about their conversion, +"were either unwilling to bring their children to be baptised, or if +they did, they washed away the stain on the way home. They dressed +their stews and other dishes with oil instead of lard, abstained from +pork, kept the passover, ate meat in Lent, and sent oil to replenish +the lamps of their synagogues, with many other abominable ceremonies +of their religion. They entertained no respect for monastic life, and +frequently profaned the sanctity of religious houses by the violation +or seduction of their inmates. They were an exceedingly politic and +ambitious people, engrossing the most lucrative municipal offices, and +preferring to gain their livelihood by traffic, in which they made +exorbitant gains, rather than by manual labour or mechanical arts. They +considered themselves in the hands of the Egyptians whom it was a merit +to deceive and rob. By their wicked contrivances they amassed great +wealth, and thus were able often to ally themselves by marriage with +noble Christian families." + +The outcry against the Jews steadily increased in volume. The clergy +were the loudest in their protests against the alleged abominations, +and one Dominican priest, Alonso de Hojeda, prior of the monastery of +San Pablo in Seville, with another priest, Diego de Merlo, vigorously +denounced the "Jewish leprosy" so alarmingly on the increase and +besought the Catholic sovereigns to revive the Holy Office with +extended powers as the only effective means of healing it. The appeal +was strongly supported by the papal nuncio at the Court of Castile. +Ferdinand and Isabella, as devout Catholics, deplored the prevalence +of heresy, which they acknowledged to be rampant, and yet they +hesitated to surrender any of their independence. No other state in +Europe was so free from papal control or interference. Some of the +Conversos held high places about the court and they, of course, used +every effort to strengthen the reluctance of the queen, particularly. +On the other hand, the Dominican monk, Thomas de Torquemada, her +confessor in her youth, strove to instil the same spirit of unyielding +fanaticism that possessed himself, and earnestly entreated her to +devote herself to the "extirpation of heresy for the glory of God and +the glorification of the Catholic faith." She long resisted but yielded +at last to the unceasing importunities of the priests around her, and +consented to solicit a bull from the pope, Sixtus IV, to introduce +the Modern Inquisition into Castile. It was issued, under the date of +November 1st, 1478, and authorised the appointment of two or three +ecclesiastical inquisitors for the detection and suppression of heresy +throughout Spain. + +One difference from the usual form establishing such tribunals was the +location of the power of appointment of inquisitors, which was vested +in the king and queen instead of in Provincials of the Dominican or +Franciscan Orders. Heretofore the appointment of inquisitors had been +considered a delegation of the authority of the Holy See, something +entirely independent of the secular power. But so jealous of outside +interference were the Spanish rulers and the Spanish people, that the +pope was forced to give way. Though he and his successors vainly strove +to recover the power thus granted, they were never entirely successful, +and the Spanish Inquisition remained to a large extent a state affair, +and this fact explains much which otherwise is inexplicable. For +example the confiscations passed into the royal instead of into the +papal treasury. + +At first mild measures were to be tried. Cardinal Mendoza, Archbishop +of Seville, had drawn up a catechism instructing his clergy to spare no +pains in illuminating the benighted Israelites by a candid exposition +of the true principles of Christianity. Progress was slow, and after +two years the results were so meagre that it was thought necessary to +proceed to the nomination of inquisitors, and two Dominican monks, Fra +Miguel de Morillo, and Juan de San Martin, were appointed with full +powers, assisted by an assessor and a procurator fiscal. + +The Jews played into the hands of their tormentors. Great numbers +had been terrified into apostasy by the unrelenting hostility of the +people. Their only escape from the furious attacks made upon them had +been conversion to Christianity, often quite feigned and unreal. The +proselytising priests, however, claimed to have done wonders; one, St. +Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican of Valencia, had by means of his eloquence +and the miraculous power vouchsafed him, "changed the hearts of no less +than thirty-five thousand of house of Judah." These numerous converts +were of course unlikely to be very tenacious in their profession of +the new faith, and not strangely laid themselves open to constant +suspicion. Many were denounced and charged with backsliding, many more +boldly reverted to Judaism, or secretly performed their old rites. +Now uncompromising war was to be waged against the backsliding "new +Christians" or Conversos. + +The inquisitors installed themselves in Seville, and made the Dominican +convent of San Pablo their first headquarters, but this soon proved +quite insufficient in size and they were allowed to occupy the fortress +of the Triana, the great fortress of Seville, on the right bank of +the Guadalquivir, the immense size and gloomy dungeons of which were +especially suitable. This part of the city was much exposed to +inundations, and when, in 1626, it was threatened with destruction by +an unusually high flood, the seat of the tribunal was removed to the +palace of the Caballeros Tellos Taveros in the parish of San Marco. In +1639 it returned to the Triana which had been repaired, and remained +there till 1789, when further encroachments of the river caused it to +be finally transferred to the College of Las Beccas. The Triana is now +a low suburb, inhabited principally by gipsies and the lower classes. +It was at one time the potters' quarter where the famous _azulejo_ +tiles were made, and its factories to-day produce the well known +majolica vases and plates with surface of metallic lustre. + +One of the first steps of the Inquisition was to put a summary check to +the exodus of the Jews who had been fast deserting the country. All the +magnates of Castile, dukes, counts, hidalgos and persons in authority, +were commanded to arrest all fugitives, to sequestrate their property +and send them prisoners to Seville. Any who disobeyed or failed to +execute this order were to be excommunicated as abettors of heresy, to +be deposed from their dignities and deprived of their estates. Such +orders were strange to the ears of the turbulent nobles who had been +accustomed to pay little heed to pope or king. A new force had arisen +in the land. + +On the Castle of the Triana,[3] already described, a tablet was +erected over the portals with an inscription, celebrating the +inauguration of the first "modern Inquisition" in Western Europe. +The concluding words were:--"God grant that for the protection and +augmentation of the faith it may abide unto the end of time. Arise oh +Lord, judge Thy cause! Catch yet the foxes (heretics)!" + +[3] The counts of San Lucar were hereditary alcaldes of Triana, and in +return for surrendering the castle, they were granted the dignity of +Alguazil Mayor of the Inquisition. It was worth 150,000 maravedis a +year and the holder of the office provided a deputy. The maravedi, once +a gold coin of some value, latterly represented only 3/8 of a cent. + +Just now, by an ill-advised move, the Conversos lost the sympathy of +all. Diego de Susan, one of the richest citizens of Seville, called +a meeting of the "New Christians" in the church of San Salvador. It +was attended by many high officials, and even ecclesiastics of Jewish +blood. Susan suggested that they collect a store of arms, and that at +the first arrest, they rise and slay the inquisitors. The plan was +adopted but was betrayed by a daughter of Susan, who had a Christian +lover. The plotters were arrested at once, and on February sixth, 1481, +six men and women were burned and others were severely punished. + +The hunt was cunningly organised. An "Edict of Grace" was published +promising pardon to all backsliders if they would come voluntarily +and confess their sins. Many sought indulgence and were plied with +questions by the inquisitors to extract evidence against others. On +the information thus obtained the suspected were marked down, seized +and carried off to the prisons. Any adherence to Jewish customs gave +opportunity for denunciation, and the severe measures rapidly reduced +the numbers of the backsliding Jewish-Christians. In Seville alone, +according to Llorente, two hundred and ninety-eight persons were burnt +in less than a year, and seventy-nine were condemned to perpetual +imprisonment. Great sums ought to have passed into the treasury, then +and afterwards, from the confiscated property of rich people who +perished at the stake or were subjected to fine and forfeiture. But the +great engine of the Inquisition was excessively costly. The pageants +at the frequent _autos da fé_ were lavishly expensive, a great staff +of officials, experts, familiars and guards was maintained, and, in +addition, the outlay on the place of execution, the "_quemadero_" or +burning place, a great pavement on a raised platform adorned with fine +pillars and statues of the prophets, was very considerable, while the +yearly bill for fuel, for faggots and brush wood rose to a high figure. +Undoubtedly there was considerable embezzlement also. + +There was evidently too much work for two men, so in February, 1482, +seven additional inquisitors were commissioned by the pope on the +nomination of the sovereigns, and some of these were exceedingly +zealous. There was, however, much confusion because of the lack +of a unifying authority. The sovereigns were determined that the +institution must be kept under the control of the state, and so a +council of administration usually called _la Suprema_ was added to +those already existing, and was charged with jurisdiction over all +measures concerning the faith. At the head was placed a new officer, +later called the inquisitor-general. The inquisitor-general was hardly +a subject. He had direct access to the sovereign and exercised absolute +and unlimited power over the whole population and was superior to +all human law. No rank, high or low escaped his jurisdiction. Royal +personages were not exempt from his control, for the Holy Office +invaded the prince's palace as well as the pauper's hovel. There was +no sanctity in the grave, for corpses of heretics were ruthlessly +disinterred, mutilated and burned. + +The first inquisitor-general under the new organisation was Thomas +de Torquemada, who has won for himself dreadful immortality from the +signal part he played in the great tragedy of the Inquisition. He was +a Dominican monk, a native of old Castile, who had been confessor and +keeper of the Queen's conscience to Isabella in her early days and +constantly sought to instil his fiery spirit into her youthful mind. +"This man," says Prescott, "who concealed more pride under his monastic +weeds than might have furnished forth a convent of his order, was one +of that class with whom zeal passes for religion and who testify their +zeal by a fiery persecution of those whose creed differs from their +own; who compensate for their abstinence from sensual indulgence by +giving scope to those deadlier vices of the heart, pride, bigotry +and intolerance which are no less opposed to virtue and are far more +extensively mischievous to society." The cruelties which he perpetrated +grew out of a pitiless fanaticism, more cruel than the grave. He was +rigid and unbending and knew no compromise. Absolutely fearless, +he directed his terrible engine against the suspect no matter how +high-born or influential. + +Torquemada was appointed in 1483 and was authorised from Rome to frame +a new constitution for the Holy Office. He had been empowered to create +permanent provincial tribunals under chief inquisitors which sat at +Toledo, Valladolid, Madrid and other important cities, and his first +act was to summon some of these to Seville to assist him in drawing +up rules for the governance of the great and terrible engine that +was to terrorise all Spain for centuries to come. The principles of +action, the methods of procedure, the steps taken to hunt up victims +and bring them under the jurisdiction of the court, secure conviction +and enforce penalties, are all set out at length in the record of the +times. "A bloody page of history," says the historian, "attests the +fact that fanaticism armed with power is the sorest evil that can +befall a nation." For generations the Spanish people, first the Jews, +then the Moriscos, lastly the whole native born community lay helpless +in the grip of this irresponsible despotism. Few, once accused, +escaped without censure of some sort. Llorente declares with his usual +exaggeration that out of a couple of thousand cases, hardly one ended +in acquittal and the saying became proverbial that people if not +actually roasted by the Inquisition were at least singed. + +In order to appreciate fully the harshness of the Spanish Inquisition +and the cruelties perpetrated for several centuries, under the guise of +religion, we must trace the steps taken by the Holy Office, its guiding +principles and its methods of procedure. + +The great aim at the outset was to hunt up heretics and encourage the +denunciation of presumed offenders. Good Catholics were commanded by +edicts published from the pulpits of all churches to give information +against every person they knew or suspected of being guilty of heresy, +and priests were ordered to withhold absolution from any one who +hesitated to speak, even when the suspected person was a near relation, +parent, child, husband or wife. All accusations whether signed or +anonymous were accepted, but the names of witnesses were also required. +On this sometimes meagre inculpation victims might be at once arrested, +though in some cases, censors must first pass upon the evidence. Often +not a whisper of trouble reached the accused until the blow actually +fell. + +Kept thus in solitary imprisonment, cut off entirely from his friends +outside, denied the sympathy or support he might derive from their +visits or communications, he was left to brood despairingly, a prey +to agonised doubts, in ignorance even of the charges brought against +him. A few brief extracts from the depositions of witnesses might be +read to him, but the statements were so garbled that he could get no +clue to names or identities. If there were any facts favourable to him +in the testimony they were withheld from him. If he could, however, +name as mortal enemies some of the witnesses, their testimony was +much weakened. Facts of time, place and circumstance in the charges +preferred were withheld from him and he was so confused and embarrassed +that unless a man of acuteness and presence of mind he might become +involved in inextricable contradictions when he attempted to explain +himself. + +On the other hand judges were guided and supported by the most minute +instructions. "It is the high and peculiar privilege of the tribunal +that its officers are not required to act with formality; they need +observe no strict forensic rules and therefore the omission of what +ordinary justice might exact does not invalidate its actions, provided +only that nothing essential to the proof be wanting." The first +essential of justice, as we understand it, was ignored. An accused +person arraigned for heresy was expected to incriminate himself, to +furnish all necessary particulars for conviction. Testimony could +be received from persons of any class or character. "They might be +excommunicate, infamous, actual accomplices, or previously convicted +of any crime." The evidence of Jews and infidels might be taken also, +even in a question of heretical doctrine. Wife, children, relatives, +servants, might depose against a heretic. "A brother may declare +against a brother and a son against a father." The witnesses met with +no mercy. If any one did not say all he could, or seemed reluctant to +speak, the examiners occasionally ruled that torture should be applied. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS + + Increased persecution of the Jews--Accusations made against + them--Ferdinand introduces the modern Inquisition into the Kingdom + of Aragon in 1484--Fray Gaspar Juglar and Pedro Arbués appointed + Inquisitors--Assassination of Pedro Arbués--Punishment of his + murderers--Increased opposition against the Holy Office--Arrest of the + Infante Don Jaime for sheltering a heretic--Expulsion of the Jews from + Spain--Appeal to the King to revoke this edict--Ferdinand inclined + to yield, but Torquemada over-rules him--Sufferings of the Jews on + the journey--Death of Torquemada--Hernando de Talavera appointed + archbishop of Granada--His success with the Moors--Don Diego Deza new + Inquisitor-General--Succeeded by Ximenes de Cisneros--His character + and life--Appointed Primate of all Spain--His severity with the + Moors--University of Alcalá founded by Ximenes--Accession of Charles + V--Persecution of Moors--Expulsion. + + +The fires of the modern Inquisition, it was said, had been lighted +exclusively for the Jews. The fiery zeal of Torquemada and his +coadjutors was first directed against the Spanish children of Israel. +The Jews constantly offered themselves to be harassed and despoiled. +They were always fair game for avaricious greed. The inquisitors +availed themselves of both lines of attack. Jewish wealth steadily +increased as their financial operations and their industrial +activities extended and flourished. When the Catholic Kings embarked +upon the conquest of Granada, the Jews found the sinews of war; Jewish +victuallers purveyed rations to the armies in the field; Jewish +brokers advanced the cash needed for the payments of troops; Jewish +armourers repaired the weapons used and furnished new tools and warlike +implements. + +At the same time the passions of the populace were more and more +inflamed against the Jews by the dissemination of scandalous stories +of their blasphemous proceedings. It was seriously asserted by certain +monks that some Jews had stolen a consecrated wafer with the intention +of working it into a paste with the warm blood of a newly killed +Christian child and so produce a deadly poison to be administered to +the hated chief inquisitor. Another report was to the effect that +crumbs from the holy wafer had been detected between the leaves of +a Hebrew prayer book in a synagogue. One witness declared that this +substance emitted a bright effulgence which gave clear proof of its +sanctity and betrayed the act of sacrilege committed. Other tales were +circulated of the diabolical practices of these wicked Jewish heretics. + +Ferdinand in 1484 proceeded to give the modern Inquisition to the +Kingdom of Aragon, where the "ancient" had once existed but had lost +much of its rigour. It was a comparatively free country and the Holy +Office had become little more than an ordinary ecclesiastical court. +But King Ferdinand was resolved to reëstablish it on the wider basis it +had assumed in Castile and imposed it upon his people by a royal order +which directed all constituted authorities to support it in carrying +out its new extended functions. A Dominican monk, Fray Gaspar Juglar, +and a canon of the church, Pedro Arbués, were appointed by Torquemada +to be inquisitors for the diocese of Saragossa. The new institution +was most distasteful to the Aragonese, a hardy and independent people. +Among the higher orders were numbers of Jewish descent, filling +important offices and likely to come under the ban of the Inquisition. +The result was a deputation to the pope and another to the king +representing the general repugnance of the Aragonese to the institution +and praying that its action might be suspended. Neither pope nor king +would listen to the appeal and the Holy Office began its work. Two +_autos da fé_ were celebrated in Saragossa, the capital, in 1484, when +two men were executed. + +Horror and consternation seized the Conversos and a fierce desire for +reprisals developed. They were resolved to intimidate their oppressors +by some appalling act of retaliation and a plot was hatched to make +away with one of the inquisitors. The conspirators included many of +the principal "New Christians," some of whom were persons of note in +the district. A considerable sum was subscribed to meet expenses and +pay the assassins. Pedro Arbués was marked down for destruction but, +conscious of his danger, continually managed to evade his enemies. He +wore always a coat of mail beneath his robes when he attended mass in +the Cathedral, and every avenue by which he could be approached in his +house was also carefully guarded. + +At length he was taken by surprise when at his devotions. He was on his +knees before the high altar saying his prayers at midnight, when two +men crept up behind him unobserved and attacked him. One struck him +with a dagger in the left arm, the other felled him with a violent blow +on the back of the neck by which he was laid prostrate and carried off +dying. With his last breath he thanked God for being selected to seal +so good a cause with his blood. His death was deemed a martyrdom and +caused a reaction in favour of the Inquisition as a general rising of +the New Christians was feared. The storm was appeased by the archbishop +of Saragossa who gave out publicly that the murderers should be +rigorously pursued and should suffer condign punishment. The promise +was abundantly fulfilled. A stern recompense was exacted from all who +were identified with the conspiracy. The scent was followed up with +unrelenting pertinacity, several persons were taken and put to death, +and a larger number perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. All +the perpetrators of the murder were hanged after their right hands had +been amputated. The sentence of one who had given evidence against the +rest was commuted in that his hand was not cut off till after his death. + +A native of Saragossa had taken refuge in Tudela where he found +shelter and concealment in the house of the Infante, Don Jaime, the +illegitimate son of the Queen of Navarre, and nephew of King Ferdinand +himself. The generous young prince could not reject the claims of +hospitality and helped the fugitive to escape into France. But the +Infante was himself arrested by the inquisitors and imprisoned as +an "impeder" of the Holy Office. His trial took place in Saragossa, +although Navarre was outside its jurisdiction, and he was sentenced +to do open penance in the cathedral in the presence of a great +congregation at High Mass. The ceremony was carried out before the +Archbishop of Saragossa, a boy of seventeen, the illegitimate son +of King Ferdinand, and this callow stripling in his primate's robes +ordered his father's nephew to be flogged round the church with rods. + +The second story is much more horrible. One Gaspar de Santa Cruz of +Saragossa had been concerned in the rebellion, but escaped to Toulouse +where he died. He had been aided in his flight by a son who remained +in Saragossa, and who was arrested as an "impeder" of the Holy Office. +He was tried and condemned to appear at an _auto da fé_, where he was +made to read an act which held up his father to public ignominy. Then +the son was transferred to the custody of the inquisitor of Toulouse +who took him to his father's grave, forced him to exhume the corpse and +burn it with his own hands. + +The bitter hatred of the Jews culminated in the determination of the +king and queen, urged on by Torquemada, to expel them entirely from +Spain. The germ of this idea may be found in the capitulation of +Granada by the Moors, when it was agreed that every Jew found in the +city was to be shipped off forthwith to Barbary. It was now argued +that since all attempts to convert them had failed, Spain should be +altogether rid of them. The Catholic King and Queen were induced to +sign an edict dated March 30th, 1492, by which it was decreed that +every Jew should be banished from Spain within three months, save and +except those who chose to apostasise and who, on surrendering the faith +of their fathers, might be suffered to remain in the land of their +adoption, with leave to enjoy the goods they had inherited or earned. +No doubt this edict originated with Torquemada. + +Dismay and deep sorrow fell upon the Spanish Jews. The whole country +was filled with tribulation. All alike cried for mercy and offered +to submit to any laws and ordinances however oppressive, to accept +any terms, to pay any penalties if only they might escape this cruel +exile. Leading Jews appeared before King Ferdinand and pleaded abjectly +for mercy for their co-religionists, offering an immediate ransom +of six hundred thousand crowns in gold. The king was inclined to +clemency, but the queen was firm. He saw the present advantage, the +ready money, and doubted whether he would get as much from the fines +and confiscations promised by the inquisitors. But at that moment, so +the story goes, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing a crucifix +on high and cried in stentorian tones that the sovereigns were about +to act the part of Judas Iscariot. "Here he is! Sell Him again, not +for thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging +the crucifix on to the table, he ran out in a frenzy. This turned the +tables, and the decree for expulsion was confirmed. + +The terms of the edict were extremely harsh and peremptory. As a +preamble the crimes of the Jews were recited and the small effect +produced hitherto by the most severe penalties. It was asserted that +they still conspired to overturn Christianity in Spain and recourse +to the last remedy, the decree of expulsion, under which all Jews and +Jewesses were commanded to leave Spain and never return, even for a +passing visit, on pain of death, was therefore necessary. The last day +of July, 1492, or four months later, was fixed for the last day of +their sojourn in Spain. After that date they would remain at the peril +of their lives, while any person of whatever rank or quality who should +presume to receive, shelter, protect or defend a Jew or Jewess should +forfeit all his property and be discharged from his office, dignity +or calling. During the four months, the law allowed the Jews to sell +their estates, or barter them for heavy goods, but they were forbidden +to remove gold or silver or take out of the kingdom other portable +property which was already prohibited by law from exportation. + +During the preparation for, and execution of this modern exodus, the +condition of the wretched Israelites was heart-rending. Torquemada had +tried hard to proselytise, had sent out preachers offering baptism and +reconciliation, but at first few listened to the terms proposed. All +owners of property and valuables suffered the heaviest losses. Enforced +sales were so numerous that purchasers were not to be easily found. +Fine estates were sold for a song. A house was exchanged for an ass +or beast of burden; a vineyard for a scrap of cloth or linen. Despite +the prohibition much gold and silver were carried away concealed in +the stuffing of saddles and among horse furniture. Some exiles at +the moment of departure swallowed gold pieces, as many as twenty and +thirty, and thus evaded to some extent the strict search instituted at +the sea ports and frontier towns. + +At last in the first week of July, all took to the roads travelling +to the coast on foot, on horse or ass-back or were conveyed in +country carts. According to an eye-witness, "they suffered incredible +misfortunes by the way, some walking feebly, some struggling manfully, +some fainting, many attacked with illness, some dying, others coming +into the world, so that there was not a Christian who did not feel +for them and entreat them to be baptised." Here and there under the +pressure of accumulated miseries a few professed to be converted, but +such cases were very rare. The rabbis encouraged the people as they +went and exhorted the young ones to raise their voices and the women to +sing and play on pipes and timbrels to enliven them and keep up their +spirits. + +Ships were provided by the Spanish authorities at Cadiz, Gibraltar, +Carthagena, Valencia and Barcelona on which fifteen hundred of the +wealthy families embarked and started for Africa, Italy and the Levant, +taking with them their dialect of the Spanish language, such as is +still talked at the places where they landed. Of those who joined in +the general exodus some perished at sea, by wreck, disease, violence +or fire, and some by famine, exhaustion or murder on inhospitable +shores. Many were sold for slaves, many thrown overboard by savage +ship captains, while parents parted with their children for money +to buy food. On board one crowded ship a pestilence broke out, and +the whole company was landed and marooned on a desert island. Other +infected ships carried disease into the port of Naples, where it grew +into a terrible epidemic, by which twenty thousand native Neapolitans +perished. Those who reached the city found it in the throes of famine, +but were met in landing by a procession of priests, led by one who +carried a crucifix and a loaf of bread, and who intimated that only +those who would adore the first would receive the other. In papal +dominions alone was a hospitable reception accorded. The pope of the +time, Alexander VI, was more tolerant than other rulers. + +The total loss of population is now difficult to ascertain, but +undoubtedly it has been greatly exaggerated. The most trustworthy +estimate fixes the number of emigrants at one hundred and sixty-five +thousand, and the number dying of hardships and grief before leaving at +about twenty thousand. Probably fifty thousand more accepted baptism +as a consequence of the edict. The loss entailed in actual value was +incalculable and a vast amount of potential earnings was sacrificed by +the disappearance of so large a part of the most industrious members +of the population. The king and queen greatly impoverished Spain in +purging it of Hebrew heresy. Their action however was greeted with +applause by other rulers who did not go to the same lengths on account +of economic considerations. They were praised because they were willing +to sacrifice revenue for the sake of the faith. + +Open Judaism no longer existed in Spain. There were left only the +apostates, or New Christians. That many of these were Christians in +name and kept the Mosaic law in every detail is undoubted. As Jews they +were not subject to the Inquisition. As professing Christians, any +departure from the established faith subjected them to the penalties +imposed upon heretics. In spite of the high positions which many +achieved, they were objects of suspicion, and with the increasing +authority of the Inquisition their lot grew harder. + +Torquemada had been active not only against the Jews, but against +all suspected of any heresy, no matter how influential. The odium he +incurred raised up constant accusations against him, and he was obliged +on three occasions to send an agent to Rome to defend his character. +Later his arbitrary power was curtailed by the appointment of four +coadjutors, nominally, to share the burthens of office, but really to +check his action. On the whole he may be said to take rank among those +who have been the authors of evil to their species. "His zeal was of +such an extravagant character that it may almost shelter itself under +the name of insanity." His later days were filled with constant dread +of assassination, and when he moved to and fro his person was protected +by a formidable escort, a bodyguard of fifty familiars of the Holy +Office mounted as dragoons and a body of two hundred infantry soldiers. +Yet he reached a very old age and died quietly in his bed. + +Estimates of the numbers convicted and punished during his +administration differ widely. Llorente, who is, however, much given +to exaggeration, states that eight thousand eight hundred were burned +alive, and that the total number condemned was more than one hundred +and five thousand. On the other hand Langlois,[4] whose estimate is +accepted by Vancandard, and other Catholic writers, thinks that the +number put to death was about two thousand. + +[4] Langlois, L'Inquisition d'après des tableaux recénts (1902), quoted +by Vancandard (Conway's translation, 1908). + +Death overtook him when a fresh campaign against heresy was imminent. +The conquest of the Kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella opened +up a new field for the proselytising fervour of the Inquisition, which +was now resolved to convert all Mahometan subjects to the Christian +faith. A friar of the order of St. Jerome, Hernando de Talavera, a +man of blameless life, a ripe scholar, a persuasive preacher, deeply +read in sacred literature and moral philosophy, had been one of the +confessors to Royalty, and had been raised to the bishopric of Avila. +But he had begged to be allowed to resign it and devote himself +entirely to the conversion of the Moors. The pope granted his request +and appointed him archbishop of Granada with a smaller revenue than +that of the diocese he left, but he was humble minded, had no craving +to exhibit the pomp and display of a great prelate and devoted himself +with all diligence to the duties of his new charge. + +He soon won the hearts of the Moors who loved and venerated him. He +proceeded with great caution, made no open show of his desire to +convert them, and strictly refrained from any coercive measures, +trusting rather to reason them out of their heterodox belief. He +caused a translation to be made of the Bible into Arabic, distributed +it, encouraged the Moors to attend conferences, and come to him in +private to listen to his arguments. Being thus busily engaged, he +withdrew to a great extent from the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, +who came more and more under the influence of fiery bigots, to whom +the mild measures of the archbishop became profoundly displeasing. +The inquisitors, with Don Diego Deza who had succeeded Torquemada, at +their head, incessantly entreated the sovereigns to proceed with more +severity, and went the length of advising the immediate expulsion of +all Moors who hesitated to accept conversion and baptism forthwith. +They urged that it was for the good of their souls to draw them into +the fold and insisted that it would be utterly impossible for Christian +and Moslem to live peacefully and happily side by side. The king and +queen demurred, temporising as they had done with the revival of the +Inquisition. It might be dangerous, they argued, to enforce penalties +that were too harsh. Their supremacy was hardly as yet consolidated +in Granada; the Moors had not yet entirely laid aside their arms and +unwise oppression might bring about a resumption of hostilities. They +hoped that the Moors, like other conquered peoples, would in due course +freely adopt the religion of their new masters. Loving kindliness and +gentle persuasion would more surely gain ground than fierce threats and +arbitrary decrees. + +So for seven or more years the conciliatory methods of Archbishop +Talavera prevailed and met with the approval of Ferdinand and Isabella. +But now a remarkable man of very different character appeared upon the +scene and began to advocate sterner measures. This was a Franciscan +monk, Ximenes de Cisneros, one of the most notable figures in Spanish +history, who became in due course inquisitor-general and regent of +Spain. A sketch of his life may well be given to enable us better to +understand the times. + +Ximenes de Cisneros better known, perhaps, under his first name alone, +was the scion of an ancient but decayed family and destined from his +youth for the Church. He studied at the University of Salamanca and +evinced marked ability. After a stay in Rome, the best field for +preferment, he returned to Spain with the papal promise of the first +vacant benefice in the See of Toledo. The archbishop had other views, +however, and when Ximenes claimed the cure of Uceda, he was sent to +prison in its fortress and not to the presbytery. For six years Ximenes +asserted his pretensions unflinchingly and was at last nominated, when +he exchanged to a chaplaincy in another diocese, that of Siguenza, +where he continued his theological studies and acquired Hebrew and +Chaldee. Here he came under the observation of the Bishop Mendoza, +who afterwards became Cardinal Primate of Spain, and who enjoyed the +unbounded confidence of Queen Isabella. Mendoza when invited to +recommend to her a new confessor, in succession to Talavera on his +translation to the See of Granada, fixed upon Ximenes of whom he had +never lost sight since their first acquaintance at Siguenza. + +Ximenes, meanwhile, had become more and more devoted to his sacred +calling. His marked business aptitudes had gained for him the post +of steward to a great nobleman, the Conde de Cifuentes, who had been +taken prisoner by the Moors. But secular concerns were distasteful +to him and Ximenes resigned his charge. His naturally austere and +contemplative disposition had deepened into stern fanatical enthusiasm +and he resolved to devote himself more absolutely to the service of the +Church. He entered the Franciscan order, threw up all his benefices +and employments, and became a simple novice in the monastery of San +Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, where his cloister life was signalised +by extreme severity and self-mortification. He wore haircloth next +his skin, slept on the stone floor with a wooden pillow under his +head, tortured himself with continual fasts and vigils, and flogged +himself perpetually. At last he became a professed monk, and because +of the fame of his exemplary piety, great crowds were attracted to +his confessional. He shrank now from the popular favour and retired +to a lonely convent in a far off forest, where he built himself a +small hermitage with his own hands and where he passed days and +nights in solemn abstraction and unceasing prayer, living like +the ancient anchorites on the green herbs he gathered and drinking +water from the running streams. Self centred and pondering deeply on +spiritual concerns, constantly in a state of mental exaltation and +ecstasy, he saw visions and dreamed dreams, believing himself to be +in close communication with celestial agencies and was no doubt on +the eve of going mad, when his superiors ordered him to reside in the +convent of Salceda, where he became charged with its administration +and management, and was forced to exercise his powerful mind for the +benefit of others. + +It was here that the call to court found him and he was summoned to +Valladolid and unexpectedly brought into the presence of the queen. +Isabella was greatly prepossessed in his favour by his simple dignity +of manner, his discretion, his unembarrassed self-possession and +above all his fervent piety in discussing religious questions. Yet he +hesitated to accept the office of her confessor, and only did so on +the condition that he should be allowed to conform to the rules of his +order and remain at his monastery except when officially on duty at the +court. + +Soon afterwards, he was appointed Provincial of the Franciscans +in Castile and set himself to reform their religious houses, +the discipline of which was greatly relaxed. Sloth, luxury and +licentiousness prevailed and especially in his own order, which was +wealthy and richly endowed with estates in the country, and stately +dwellings in the towns. These monks, styled "conventuals," wasted large +sums in prodigal expenditure, and were often guilty of scandalous +misconduct which Ximenes, as an Observantine, one of a small section +pledged to rigid observance of monastic rules, strongly condemned. He +was encouraged and supported in the work of reform by Isabella and a +special bull from Rome armed him with full authority. His rigorous and +unsparing action met with fierce opposition, but he triumphed in the +end and won a notable reward. When the archbishop of Toledo died, in +1495, Ximenes, unknown to himself, was selected for the great post of +primate of all Spain and Lord High Chancellor of Castile. + +The right to nominate was vested in the Queen, and Ferdinand in this +instance begged her to appoint his natural son, Alfonso, already +archbishop of Saragossa, but a child almost in years. She firmly and +unhesitatingly refused and recommended her confessor to the pope as +the most worthy recipient of the honour. When the bull making the +appointment arrived from Rome, the queen summoned Ximenes to her +presence handed him the letter and desired him to open it before her. +On reading the address, "To our venerable brother, Francisco Ximenes +de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo," he changed colour, dropped the +letter, and crying, "There must be some mistake," ran out of the room. +The queen, in surprise, waited, but he did not return and it was found +that he had taken horse and fled to his monastery. Two grandees were +despatched in hot haste to ride after him, overtake him and bring him +back to Madrid. He returned but still resisted all the entreaties of +his friends and the clearly expressed wishes of his sovereign. Finally +his persistent refusal was overborne, but only by the direct command of +the pope, who ordered him to accept the post for which his sovereigns +had chosen him. He has been sharply criticised for his apparent +humility, but it is generally admitted that he was sincere in his +refusal. He was already advanced in years, ambition was dying in him, +he had become habituated to monastic seclusion and his thoughts were +already turned from the busy turmoil of this world to the life beyond +the grave. + +However reluctant to accept high office, Ximenes was by no means slow +to exercise the power it gave him. He ruled the Spanish Church with +a rod of iron, bending all his energies to the work of reforming the +practices of the clergy, enforcing discipline and insisting upon the +maintenance of the strictest morality. He trod heavily, made many +enemies, and stirred so much ill feeling that the malcontents combined +to despatch a messenger to lay their grievances before the pope. The +officious advocate, however, got no audience but went home to Spain, +where twenty months' imprisonment taught him not to offend again the +masterful archbishop of Toledo. + +Ximenes in insisting upon a strict observance of propriety and +the adoption of an exemplary life, was in himself a model to the +priesthood. He never relaxed the personal mortifications which had +been his rule when a simple monk. He kept no state and made no +show, regulating his domestic expenditure with the strictest and +most parsimonious economy, until reminded by the Holy See that the +dignity of his great office demanded more magnificence. Still, when he +increased his display and the general style of living in household, +equipages and the number of his retainers, he continued to be as harsh +as ever to himself. + +In spite of all opposition and discontent he pursued his course with +inflexible purpose. His spirit was unyielding, and his energetic +proceedings were unremittingly directed to the amelioration and +improvement in the morals of the clergy with marked success. And now +he set himself with the same uncompromising zeal to extirpate heresy. +Having begged Archbishop Talavera to allow him to join in the good work +at Granada, he took immediate advantage of the consent given and began +to attack the Moorish unbelievers in his own vigorous fashion. His +first step was to call together a great conference of learned Mussulman +doctors, to whom he expounded with all the eloquence he had at his +command, the true doctrines of the Catholic faith and their superiority +to the law of Mahomet. He accompanied his teaching with liberal gifts, +chiefly of costly articles of apparel, a specious though irresistible +bribery, which had the desired effect. Great numbers of the Moorish +doctors came over at once and their example was speedily followed by +many of their illiterate disciples. So great was the number of converts +that no less than three thousand presented themselves for baptism in +one day, and as the rite could not be administered individually, they +were christened wholesale by sprinkling them from a mop or hyssop which +had been dipped in holy water, and from which the drops fell upon the +proselytes as it was twirled over the heads of the multitude. These +early successes stimulated the primate's zeal and he next adopted more +violent measures by proceeding to imprison and impose penalties upon +all Moors who still stood out against conversion. He was resolved +not merely to exterminate heresy, but to destroy the basis of belief +contained in the most famous Arabic manuscripts, large quantities of +which were collected into great piles and burned publicly in the great +squares of the city. Many of these were beautifully executed copies +of the Koran; others, treasured theological and scientific works, and +their indiscriminate destruction is a blot upon the reputation of the +cultivated prelate who had created the most learned university in Spain. + +More temperate and cautious people besought Ximenes to hold his hand. +But he proceeded pertinaciously, declaring that a tamer policy might +serve in temporal matters, but not where the interests of the soul were +at stake. If the unbeliever could not be drawn he must be driven into +the way of salvation, and he continued with unflinching resolution +to arrest all recusants, and throw them into the prisons which were +filled to overflowing. Discontent grew rapidly and soon broke into +open violence. When an _alguazil_ in Granada was leading a woman away +as a prisoner, the people rose and released her from custody. The +insurrection became general in the city and assumed a threatening +aspect. Granada was full of warlike Moors and a mob besieged Ximenes in +his house until he was rescued by the garrison of the Alhambra. + +The king and queen were much annoyed with Ximenes and condemned his +zealous precipitancy, but he was clever enough to vindicate his action +and bring the sovereigns to believe that it was imperative that the +rebellious Moors must be sharply repressed. Now a long conflict began. +Forcible conversion became the order of the day; baptism continued to +be performed in the gross upon thousands, the alternative being exile, +and numbers were actually deported to Barbary in the royal ships. A +fierce civil conflict broke out in the Alpujarras beyond Granada, which +required a royal army to quell. The object sought was the welfare of +the state by producing uniformity of faith. + +[Illustration: _Peint par Benjamin Constant_ +_Photogravure Goupil & C^{ie}._ + +_The Alhambra Palace, Granada_ + +The beautiful Moorish stronghold during the time of the supremacy +of the Moors was often made the home of slaves captured in near-by +frontier towns of Andalusia, who endured hateful bondage under the +rule of the Mohammedan monarch. Granada and its palace were finally +captured by Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Alhambra is to-day the +finest example of Moorish architecture, with its delicate elaboration +of detail.] + +Ximenes found a strenuous supporter in Diego Deza, the +inquisitor-general, who was eager to emulate the strictness of +his predecessor, Torquemada. Deza was a Dominican who had been at +one time professor of theology and confessor to the queen. He was by +nature and predilection exactly fitted for his new office upon which he +entered with extensive powers. A bull from Pope Alexander VI dated 1499 +invested him with the title of "Conservator of the Faith" in Spain. + +Deza gave a new constitution to the Holy Office and prescribed that +there should be a general "Inquest" in places not yet visited, and +that edicts should be republished requiring all persons to lay +information against suspected heretics. He stirred up the zeal of +all subordinate inquisitors and was well served by them, especially +by one, Lucero, commonly called _el Tenebroso_, "the gloomy," whose +savage and ruthless proceedings terrorised Cordova where he presided. +He made a general attack upon the most respectable inhabitants and +arrested great numbers, many of whom were condemned and executed. +Informers crowded Lucero's ante-chamber bringing monstrous tales of +heretical conspiracies to reëstablish Judaism and subvert the Church. +His familiars dragged the accused from their beds to answer to these +charges and the prisons overflowed. Cordova was up in arms and many +would have offered armed resistance to the Inquisition, but the more +circumspect people, the Bishop and Chapter, some of the nobility and +the municipal council appealed to Deza praying him to remove Lucero. +The inquisitor-general however turned furiously upon the complainants +and caused them to be arrested as abettors of heresy. Philip I, acting +for his wife Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was +inclined to listen to the complainants, and suspended both Deza and +Lucero from their functions. But his sudden death stayed the relief +he had promised, and the tormenting officials returned to renew their +oppression. + +The Cordovese would not tamely submit and appealed to force. A strong +body of men under the Marques de Priego attacked the "Holy House," +broke open the prison and liberated many of those detained, shutting up +the officers of the Inquisition in their place. Lucero took to flight +upon a swift mule and escaped. Though for a time Deza continued to +keep his influence, he was shortly forced to resign and Cordova became +tranquil. Deza's persecution had spared no one. In the eight years +during which he held office, one account, probably greatly exaggerated, +says that 2,592 persons were burned alive, some nine hundred were +burned in effigy, and thirty-five thousand were punished by penance, +fines and confiscations. + +The fall of Deza and the hostile attitude of the people warned the +authorities that the affairs of the Inquisition must be managed +more adroitly. New inquisitors must be appointed and choice fell +upon Ximenes de Cisneros, who had already played a foremost part +in proselytising, but who now was willing to adopt more moderate +measures. The Pope in giving his approval sent him a cardinal's hat +as a recompense for past services, and as an encouragement to act +wisely in the future. He had a difficult task. Disaffection, strongly +pronounced, prevailed through the kingdom and the Inquisition was +everywhere cordially detested. Ximenes strove to appease the bitter +feeling by instituting a searching inquiry into the conduct of his +immediate predecessor, Deza, and promising to hear all complaints and +redress all grievances. He created a "Catholic Congregation" as a +special court to investigate the actions of Lucero in the proceedings +growing out of the charges against Archbishop Talavera and his +family. This court in due course pronounced a verdict of acquittal +and rehabilitation of the Talaveras. Ruined houses were rebuilt, the +memory of the dead restored to honour and fame, and this act of grace +was published at Valladolid with great solemnity in the presence of the +kings, bishops and grandees. + +Nevertheless Ximenes had no desire to remodel the Holy Office or +limit its operations to any considerable extent. On the contrary, +he bent all his efforts to develop its influence and make it an +engine of government, utilising it as a political as well as a +religious agency. It was as rigorous as ever but he set his face +like a flint against dishonesty. He systematised the division of the +realm into inquisitorial provinces, each under its own inquisitor +with headquarters in the principal cities, such as Seville, Toledo, +Valladolid, Murcia, and in Sardinia and Sicily beyond the seas. His +personal ascendancy became extraordinary. He enjoyed the unbounded +confidence and favour of the sovereign. He had been created Cardinal of +Spain, a title rarely conferred. As archbishop of Toledo, he was the +supreme head of the Spanish clergy, and as inquisitor-general, he was +the terror of every priest and every layman within his jurisdiction. +He had, in fact, reached the highest ecclesiastical rank, short of the +papacy and as he rose higher and higher he wielded powers little short +of an independent absolute monarch, and his zeal in the cause of his +religion grew more and more fervent and far-reaching. No doubt in an +earlier age he would have turned crusader, but now he sought to crush +the fugitive Moors who had escaped into Northern Africa, whence they +made constant descents upon the south of Spain, burning to avenge the +wrongs of their co-religionists, and were a constant scourge and source +of grievous trouble. + +The evils centred in the province of Oran, a fortified stronghold--the +most considerable of the Moslem possessions on the shores of the +Mediterranean--whence issued a swarm of pirate cruisers, manned by the +exiles driven out of Spain, who had sought and found a welcome refuge +in Oran. Ximenes was resolved to seize and sweep out this hornets' +nest and undertook its conquest on his own account. Much ridicule +was levelled at this "monk about to fight the battles of Spain," but +he went forth undeterred at the head of a powerful army, conveyed by +a strong fleet from Cartagena, which he landed at the African port of +Mazalquivir, and after some desperate fighting made himself master of +Oran. After his successful African campaign he resumed his duties of +chief inquisitor, and the Holy Office under his fierce and vigorous +rule became more than ever oppressive. Ximenes pursued his unwavering +course and encouraged his inquisitors in their unceasing activity. +He desired to extend the power and influence of the Inquisition, and +established it in the new countries recently added to the Spanish +dominion. A branch was set up in the newly conquered province of Oran, +and another farther afield in the recently discovered new world beyond +the Atlantic. On the initiative of Ximenes Fray Juan Quevedo, Bishop of +Cuba, was appointed chief inquisitor in the kingdom of Terrafirma, as +the territories of the new world were styled. + +The energetic pursuit of heresy did not monopolise the exertions of +Ximenes. He founded the great University of Alcalá, a vast design, a +noble seat of learning richly endowed with magnificent buildings and +a remarkable scheme of education, which produced the ablest and most +eminent scholars. Another great monument is the well known polyglot +Bible, designed to exhibit the scriptures in their various ancient +languages, a work of singular erudition upon which the munificent +cardinal expended vast sums. + +Ximenes lived to the advanced age of eighty-one, long enough to act as +regent of Spain during the interregnum preceding the arrival of Charles +I, better known as the Emperor Charles V. The immediate cause of his +death was said to have been the receipt of a letter from the Emperor in +which he was coldly thanked for his services and desired to retire to +his diocese, to "seek from heaven that reward which heaven alone could +adequately bestow." In his last moments he is reported to have said, +"that he had never intentionally wronged any man; but had rendered to +every one his due, without being swayed, as far as he was conscious, by +fear or affection." + +He combined a versatility of talent usually found only in softer and +more flexible characters. Though bred in the cloister, he distinguished +himself both in the cabinet and the camp. For the latter, indeed, so +repugnant to his regular profession, he had a natural genius, according +to the testimony of his biographer; and he evinced his relish for it +by declaring that "the smell of gunpowder was more grateful to him +than the sweetest perfume of Arabia!" In every situation, however, he +exhibited the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern lineaments +of the monk were never wholly concealed under the mask of the statesman +or the visor of the warrior. He had a full measure of the religious +bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had melancholy scope for +displaying it, as chief of that dread tribunal over which he presided +during the last ten years of his life. + +The accession of the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish +throne as Charles I (better known as the Emperor Charles V), seemed +to foreshadow a change in the relations of the Inquisition and the +state. The young sovereign was born in Ghent and was more Fleming than +Spaniard. Though his grandfather left in his will solemn injunctions +"to labour with all his strength to destroy and extirpate heresy" and +to appoint ministers "who will conduct the Inquisition justly and +properly for the service of God and the exaltation of the Catholic +faith, and who will also have great zeal for the destruction of the +sect of Mahomet," it was reported that he sympathised with the critics +of the Inquisition and was disposed to curtail its activity. The +influence of his old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, whom he commissioned +inquisitor-general, first of Aragon, and, after the death of Ximenes, +of Castile also, changed him however into a strong friend and staunch +supporter of the institution. + +Cardinal Manrique, who followed as inquisitor-general, was a man of +more kindly disposition, charitable and a benefactor to the poor. +He was inclined to relax the severities of the Holy Office but it +was urged upon him that heresy was on the increase on account of the +appearance of Lutheran opinions and the bitterest persecution was +more than ever essential. Protestants began to appear sporadically and +called for uncompromising repression. The writings of Luther, Erasmus, +Melancthon, Zwingli, and the rest of the early reformers were brought +into Spain, but the circulation was adjudged a crime, though Erasmus +had once been a favourite author. + +The Inquisition later prepared an _Index Expurgandorum_, or list of +condemned and prohibited literature. All books named on it were put +under the ban of the law. Possession of a translation of the Bible in +the vulgar tongues was forbidden in 1551, and the prohibition was not +lifted until 1782. By that time there was no longer such keen interest +in its contents, and the Book was little circulated. In 1825 the +British and Foreign Bible Society sent one of its agents into Spain to +distribute it, and his adventures are described autobiographically in +that interesting work, George Borrow's "Bible in Spain." + +In spite of all the efforts to make good Catholics and good Spaniards +of the Moriscos, little real progress was made. They had accepted +baptism under compulsion, not realising that thereby they were brought +under control of the Church. Little effort was made to instruct them, +moreover, and as a result thousands, nominally Christians, observed +scrupulously the whole Moslem ritual, used the old language, and kept +their old costume. Some, to be sure, were hardly to be distinguished +from the Spaniards with whom they had intermarried, but, on the whole, +they seemed an unassimilable element in the population. + +When Philip II succeeded his father, Charles V, in 1556, he determined +to take strong measures. A decree proclaimed in Granada in 1566 forbade +the use of the distinctive dress and of the Moorish names. The old +customs were to be abandoned, and all the baths were to be destroyed. +Rebellion followed this edict, and, for a time, it was doubtful whether +it could be crushed. Finally open resistance was overcome, and several +thousand were transferred to the mountains of Northern Spain. Meanwhile +the Inquisition was active, and thousands were brought to trial for +pagan practices. + +Prejudice continued to grow, and fanatics declared that Spain could +never prosper until the "evil seed" was destroyed or expelled from +the Christian land. Jealousy of the prosperity of the Moriscos led +the populace to agree with the bigots, and finally expulsion was +unanimously decreed by the Council of State, in 1609, during the +reign of Philip III. Valencia was first purged, and next Murcia, +Granada, Andalusia, Old and New Castile and Aragon. Afterward vigorous +attempts to root out individuals of Moorish blood, who had become +indistinguishable because of their strict conformity, were made. Great +suffering was incurred by the unfortunate exiles and many died. Those +who reached Africa carried with them a hatred which persists to the +present. + +The number driven out is uncertain. The estimates vary from three +hundred thousand to three million. Probably the most accurate estimate +is that of six hundred thousand. In this number were included the most +skilful artisans, and the most industrious and most thrifty portion of +the population. It was a mistake from which Spain has never recovered. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS + + Prisons, usually, a part of the building occupied by court--Better + than civil prisons--Torture inflicted--No new methods + invented--Description of various kinds--Two Lutheran congregations + broken up--Description of some famous _autos da fé_--Famous + victims--Englishmen punished--Archbishop Carranza's trial. + + +The prisons of the Inquisition fall under two great heads, the +"secret prisons" in which those awaiting trial were confined, and the +"penitential prisons" where sentences were served. Generally there were +also _cárceles de familiares_ where officers of the institution charged +with wrong-doing were confined. In some tribunals there were others +variously called _cárceles medias_, _cárceles comunes_, and _cárceles +públicas_, where offenders not charged with heresy might be confined. + +The secret prisons, however, have most fired the imagination. A +man might disappear from his accustomed haunts, and for years his +family and friends be ignorant of his condition, or even of his very +existence, until one day he might appear at an _auto da fé_. What +went on within the walls was a mystery. Seldom did any hint of the +proceedings leak out. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, and the arm of the +Inquisition was long, if the luckless witness or attendant failed to +heed his instructions. + +These prisons were almost invariably a part of the building occupied +by the tribunal. In Valencia, it was the archbishop's palace; in +Saragossa, the royal castle; in Seville, the Triana; in Cordova, the +Alcázar, and so on. In some, there were cells and dungeons already +prepared, in others, they were constructed. There was no common +standard of convenience or sanitation. In many cases, generally, +perhaps, they were superior to the common jails in which ordinary +prisoners were confined. Yet we know that some were entirely dark and +very damp. Others were so small that a cramped position was necessary, +and were hardly ventilated at all. Sometimes they were poorly cared +for, and loathsome filth and vermin made them unendurable. Many +places were used for prisons during the three hundred years of the +Inquisition, and no statement is broad enough to cover them all. The +mortality was high, yet not so high as in the prisons generally. Since +many were unsuitable and often unsafe, the wearing of fetters was +common. Prisoners often, incidentally, speak of their chains. + +Occasionally more than one prisoner occupied the same room, and much +evidence was secured in this way, as each hoped to lighten his own +punishment by inculpating others. Writing materials were permitted, +though every sheet of paper must be accounted for and delivered into an +official's hands. Lights were not permitted however. + +Yet entire secrecy was not always secured. Attendants were sometimes +bribed, and by various ingenious methods, communications occasionally +found their way in or out. Again in cases of severe sickness, the +prisoner might be transferred to a hospital, which however must account +for him if he recovered. Cardinal Adrian, the inquisitor-general, +reminded the tribunals that the prison was for detention, not for +punishment, that prisoners must not be defrauded of their food, and +that the cells must be carefully inspected. + +These and similar instructions issued at intervals were not always +obeyed, for inquisitors were often negligent. According to Lea, "no +general judgment can be formed as to the condition of so many prisons +during three centuries, except that their average standard was +considerably higher than that in other jurisdictions, and that, if +there were abodes of horror, such as have been described by imaginative +writers they were wholly exceptional."[5] Again the same author quotes +instances where prisoners speak of improved health, due to better +food in prison than they were accustomed to at home, and in summing +up declares that the general management was more humane than could be +found elsewhere, either in or out of Spain. + +[5] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. II. p. 526. + +We may briefly recapitulate the various processes of the Inquisition +in order, as they obtained. First came the denunciation, followed +by seizure and the commencement of an inquiry. The several offences +imputed were next submitted to those logical experts named "qualifiers" +who decided, so to speak, "whether there was a true bill," in which +case the procurator fiscal committed the accused to durance. Three +audiences were given him, and the time was fully taken up with cautions +and monitions. The charges were next formulated but with much prolixity +and reduplication. They were not reduced to writing and delivered to +the accused for slow perusal and reply, but were only read over to him, +hurriedly. On arraignment he was called upon to reply, then and there, +to each article, to state at once whether it was true or false. The +charges were usually originated by an informer and resort was had, if +necessary, to "inquiry," the hunting up of suspicious or damaging facts +on which evidence was sought, in any quarter and from any one good or +bad. If the accused persisted in denial he was allowed counsel, but +later the counsel became an official of the Inquisition and naturally +made only a perfunctory defence. An appeal to torture was had if the +prisoner persisted in denying his guilt, in the face of plausible +testimony, or if he confessed only partially to the charges against +him, or if he refused to name his accomplices. A witness who had +retracted his testimony or had contradicted himself, might be tortured +in order that the truth might be made known. + +It was admitted, however, that torture was by no means an infallible +method for bringing out the truth. "Weak-hearted men, impatient of the +first pain, will confess crimes they never committed and criminate +others at the same time. Bold and strong ones will bear the most severe +torments. Those who have been already on the rack are likely to bear +it with greater courage, for they know how to adapt their limbs to it +and can resist more powerfully." It may be admitted that the system +was so far humane that the torture was not applied until every other +effort had been tried and had failed. The instruments of torture +were first exhibited with threats, but when once in use, it might be +repeated day after day, "in continuation," as it was called, and if any +"irregularity" occurred, such as the death of a victim, the inquisitors +were empowered to absolve one another. Nobles were supposedly exempted +from torture, and it was not permissible by the civil laws in Aragon, +but the Holy Office was nevertheless authorised to torture without +restriction all persons of all classes. + +Torture was not inflicted as a punishment by the Inquisition, nor was +it peculiar to its trials. Until a comparatively recent date it was +a recognised method of securing testimony, accepted in nearly all +courts of Europe as a matter of course. The Inquisition seems to have +invented no new methods, and seldom used the extreme forms commonly +practised. In fact in nearly every case, torture was inflicted by the +regular public executioner who was called in for the purpose and sworn +to secrecy. The list of tortures practised on civil prisoners was +long, and they seem to us now fiendish in their ingenuity. A complete +course would require many hours, and included apparently the infliction +of pain to every organ or limb and to almost every separate muscle +and nerve. The records of the Inquisition show almost invariably the +infliction of a few well known sorts. + +Some sorts were abandoned because of the danger of permanent harm, and +others less violent, but probably no less painful, were substituted. +Often the record states that the prisoner "overcame the torture," +_i. e._ was not moved to confess. Evidently, though the whole idea is +abhorrent to us to-day, torture as inflicted was less awful than some +writers would have us believe.[6] + +[6] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. III. + +A curious memento of the methods employed by the Holy Office has been +preserved in an ancient "Manual of the Inquisition of Seville," a +thin quarto volume bound in vellum, with pages partly printed, partly +in manuscript. It bears the date 1628, and purports to be compiled +from ancient and modern instructions for the order of procedure. It +was found in the Palace of the Inquisition at Seville, when it was +sacked in the year 1820. One part of this manual details the steps to +be taken, "when torture has to be performed." The criminal having +been brought into the audience, was warned that he had not told the +entire truth, and as he was believed to have kept back and hidden many +things, he was about to be "tormented" to compel him to speak out. +Formal sentence to the torture chamber was then passed, after "invoking +the name of Christ." It was announced that the "question" would be +administered. The method of infliction was detailed whether by pulleys +or by water or cords, or by all, to be continued for "as long a time as +may appear well," with the proviso that if in the said torment, "he (or +she) should die or be wounded, or if there be any effusion of blood or +mutilation of member, the blame should be his (or hers) not ours." + +Here follows in manuscript the description of the torments applied to +one unfortunate female whose name is not given. + +"On this she was ordered to be taken to the chamber of Torment whither +went the Lords Inquisitors, and when they were there she was admonished +to tell the truth and not to let herself be brought into such great +trouble. + +"Her answer is not recorded. + +"Carlos Felipe, the executor of Justice, was called and his oath taken +that he would do his business well and faithfully and that he would +keep the secret. All of which he promised. + +"She was told to tell the truth or orders would be given to strip her. +She was commanded to be stripped naked. + +"She was told to tell the truth or orders would be given to cut off her +hair. It was taken off and she was examined by the doctor and surgeon +who certified that there was no reason why she should not be put to the +torture. + +"She was commanded to mount the rack and to tell the truth or her +body should be bound; and she was bound. She was commanded to tell +the truth, or they would order her right foot to be made fast to the +_trampazo_."[7] + +[7] _Trampazo_ means, exactly, an "extreme tightening of cords": _La +ultima de las vueltas que se dan en el tormento de las cuerdas_. + +After the _trampazo_ of the right foot that of the left followed. Then +came the binding and stretching of the right arm, then that of the +left. After that the _garrote_ or the compression of the fleshy parts +of the arms and thighs with fine cords, a plan used to revive any +person who had fainted under the torture. Last of all the _mancuerda_ +was inflicted, a simultaneous tension of all the cords on all the limbs +and parts. + +The water torture was used to extort confession. The patient was +tightly bound to the _potro_, or ladder, the rungs of which were +sharp-edged. The head was immovably fastened lower than the body, and +the mouth was held open by an iron prong. A strip of linen slowly +conducted water into the mouth, causing the victim to strangle and +choke. Sometimes six or eight jars, each holding about a quart, were +necessary to bring the desired result. This is the "water-cure" found +in the Philippines by American soldiers when the islands were captured. + +If these persuasions still failed of effect, or if the hour was late, +or "for other considerations" the torment might be suspended with the +explanation that it had been insufficiently tried and the victim was +taken back to his prison to be brought out again after a respite. If, +on the other hand, a confession was secured, it was written down word +for word and submitted to the victim for ratification after at least +twenty-four hours had elapsed. If he revoked the confession, he might +be tortured again. + +When a number of cases had been decided, the Suprema appointed a day, +usually a Sunday or a feast day, for pronouncing sentence. This was +an _auto da fé_, literally an "act of faith." The greater festivals, +Easter day, Christmas day, or Sundays in Advent or Lent were excepted +because these holy days had their own special musical or dramatic +entertainments in the churches. The day fixed was announced from all +the pulpits in the city (Seville or Madrid or Cordova as the case might +be) and notice given that a representative of the Inquisition would +deliver a "sermon of the faith" and that no other preacher might raise +his voice. The civil authorities were warned to be ready to receive +their victims. At the same time officials unfurled a banner and +made public proclamation to the effect that "no person whatever his +station or quality from that hour until the completion of the _auto_ +should carry arms offensive or defensive, under pain of the greater +excommunication and the forfeiture of such arms; nor during the same +period should any one ride in coach, or sedan chair, or on horseback, +through the streets in the route of the procession, nor enter the +enclosure in which the place of execution (_quemadero_) was erected," +which was usually beyond the walls. + +On the eve of the great day a gorgeous procession was organised, for +which all the communities of friars in the city and neighbourhood +assembled at the Holy House of the Inquisition, together with the +commissaries and familiars of the Holy Office. They sallied forth in +triumphal array, followed by the "qualifiers" and experts, all carrying +large white tapers, lighted. In their midst a bier was borne covered +with a black pall, and, bringing up the rear, was a band, instrumental +and vocal, performing hymns. In this order the procession reached the +public square, when the pall was removed from the bier and a green +cross disclosed which was carried to the altar on the platform, and +there erected surrounded by a dozen candles. The white cross was +carried to the burning place. Now a strong body of horse and a number +of Dominican friars took post to watch through the night and the rest +of the actors dispersed. At the same time those who were to suffer +were prepared for the fatal event. All were shaved close, both head +and beard, so that they might present an appearance of nakedness and +humiliation suitable to their forlorn condition. At sunrise on their +last day they were arrayed in the prescribed garb and brought from +their cells into the chapel or great hall. The least heinous offenders +were in coarse black blouses and pantaloons, and were bare-footed and +bare-headed. The worst culprits were in the _sanbenito_ or penitential +sack of yellow canvas, adorned with a St. Andrew's cross in bright red +paint, and they often carried a halter round their necks as a badge +of ignominy. Those to die at the stake were distinguished by black +_sanbenitos_ with painted flames and wore on their heads a conical +paper headdress in the shape of a bishop's mitre, but also resembling +somewhat a fool's cap. This was called the _coroza_, a contemptuous +form of _corona_ or crown. To make the clothing more hideous, it was +decorated by coarse pictures of devils in flames. The condemned as +they passed on their way were assailed to the last with importunate +exhortations to repent, and a promise was held out to them that if +they yielded they would be rewarded by a less painful death, and would +be strangled before the flames reached them. All the penitents were +obliged to sit upon the ground in profound silence and without so much +as moving a limb, while the slow hours dragged themselves along. In the +morning a sumptuous meal was set before them, and they were suffered +to eat their fill. All the officials and visitors were also regaled +before the day's business began. + +After the sermon, the secretary read to all the people the oath +pledging them to support the Inquisition. Then sentences were +pronounced, beginning with the lesser offenders and proceeding to the +graver. The punishments ranged from a reprimand, through abjuration, +fines, exile, for a longer or shorter period, destruction of residence, +penance, scourging, the galleys, imprisonment, wearing the _sanbenito_ +or penitential garment, up to "relaxation to the secular arm;" _i. e._ +death by fire. These penalties carried with them civil disability, and +tainted the blood of the descendants of the condemned as well. + +Penance might be inflicted in various forms. The condemned, perhaps, +might be required to fast one day in every week, to recite a specified +number of prayers on appointed days, or to appear at the church door +with a halter around his neck on successive Sundays. When scourging was +inflicted, the penitent, naked to the waist, was placed astride an ass, +and paraded through the principal streets preceded by the town crier. +Meanwhile the executioner, accompanied by a clerk to keep tally, plied +the _penca_ or leather strap, but was charged most solemnly not to draw +blood. Usually two hundred lashes was the limit. + +Theoretically a heretic who escaped the stake by confession was +sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. This penalty might be served in +a prison, a monastery, or in a private house. As a matter of fact, +comparatively few were kept in prisons as the expense of maintenance +was a heavy burden, and the sentences were usually changed to +deportation to the colonies, or assignment to the galleys, or else the +sentence was shortened. + +The trial and sentence of the bodies of the dead was common, but it +was not peculiar to the Inquisition. As late as 1600, in Scotland, the +bodies of the Earl of Gowrie and his brother were brought into court, +and sentenced to be hanged, quartered and gibbeted. Logan of Restalrig, +in 1609, three years after his death, was tried on the charge of being +concerned in the same conspiracy, was found guilty and his property was +confiscated. + +In recounting the punishments imposed by the Inquisition, we must not +forget that it assumed jurisdiction over many crimes which to-day +are tried by the civil courts. Bigamy was punished as, by a second +marriage, the criminal denied the authority of the Church which makes +marriage a sacrament. Certain forms of blasphemy also were brought +before it, and perjury as well. Personation of the priesthood, or +of officials of the Inquisition, was punished, and later it gained +jurisdiction over unnatural crimes. Sorcery and witchcraft, which in +other states, including the American colonies, were considered subjects +for the secular courts, were within the jurisdiction of the Spanish +Inquisition. + +Strange as it may appear at first thought, the attitude of the +Inquisition toward the witchcraft delusion was one of skepticism almost +from the beginning. Individual inquisitors, influenced by the well nigh +universal belief, were occasionally active, but the Suprema moderated +their zeal. In 1610 an _auto_ was held at Logroño, which was the centre +of wild excitement. Twenty-nine witches were punished, six of whom were +burned, and the bones of five others who had died in prison were also +consumed. The eighteen remaining were "reconciled." In 1614, however, +the Suprema drew up an elaborate code of instructions to the tribunals. +While not denying the existence of witchcraft, these instructions +treated it as a delusion and practically made proof impossible. As a +result of this policy the victims of the craze in Spain can be counted +almost by the score, while in almost every other country of Europe, +they are numbered by the thousand. In Great Britain the best estimate +fixes the number of victims at thirty thousand, and as late as 1775 +the great legal author, Sir William Blackstone, says that to deny +"the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery is at once flatly to +contradict the revealed word of God."[8] + +[8] Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. IV. + +Heresy, of course, according to the views not only of Catholics but +of Protestants, deserved death as a form of treason. Tolerance is a +modern idea. Calvin burned Servetus at Geneva and was applauded for +it. Protestants in England persecuted other Protestants as well as +Catholics. The impenitent heretic in Spain was burned alive. That +one, who after conviction, expressed his repentance, and his desire +to die in the Church was usually strangled before the flames touched +him. Before going on to describe some famous _autos da fé_ and the +subsequent infliction of the death penalty, a word of explanation is in +order. + +Protestant doctrines were introduced into Spain either by foreigners +or by natives who travelled or studied in foreign lands, but made slow +headway. In 1557 a secret organisation, comprising about one hundred +and twenty members, was discovered in Seville. The next year another +little band of about sixty was found in Valladolid. + +The almost simultaneous exposure of these two heretical organisations, +both of which included some prominent people, created great commotion. +Charles V, then living at San Yuste, whither he had retired after his +abdication, wrote to his daughter Juana, who was acting as regent +in the absence of Philip II, urging the most stringent measures and +advocating that the heretics be pursued mercilessly. Little stimulation +of the Inquisition was necessary, and the two little congregations were +destroyed. + +A part of those condemned at Valladolid were sentenced at a great +_auto da fé_ held on Trinity Sunday, May 21st, 1559, in Valladolid, +not before Philip II, who was abroad, but his sister, Princess +Juana, presided and with her was the unhappy Prince, Don Carlos. +It was a brilliant gathering, a great number of grandees of Spain, +titled noblemen and gentlemen untitled, ladies of high rank in +gorgeous apparel, all seated in great state to watch the arrival of +the penitential procession. Fourteen heretics were to die, sixteen +more to be "reconciled" but to be branded with infamy and suffer +lesser punishments. Among the sufferers were many persons of rank +and consideration such as the two brothers Cazalla and their sister, +children of the king's comptroller, one of them a canon of the Church, +the other a presbyter, and all three members of the little Lutheran +congregation. Their mother had died in heresy and on this occasion her +effigy, clad in her widow's weeds and wearing a mitre with flames, was +paraded through the streets and then burned publicly. Her house, where +Lutherans had met for prayer, was razed to the ground and a pillar +erected with an inscription setting forth her offence and sentence. +Another victim was the licentiate, Antonio Herrezuelo, an impenitent +Lutheran, the only one who went to the stake unmoved, singing psalms by +the way, and reciting passages of scripture. They gagged him at last +and a soldier in his zeal stabbed him with his halberd, but the wound +was not mortal and bleeding and burning, he slowly expired. + +The sixteen who survived the horrors of the day were haled back to +the prison of the Inquisition to spend one more night in the cells. +Next morning they were again taken before the inquisitors who exhorted +them afresh, and their sentences were finally read to them. Some +destined to the galleys were transferred first to the civil prison to +await removal, after they had been flogged through the streets and +market places. Others clad in the _sanbenito_ and carrying ropes were +exposed to the hoots and indignities of the ribald crowd. All who +passed through the hands of the Holy Office were sworn to seal up in +everlasting silence whatever they had seen, heard or suffered, on peril +of a renewed prosecution. + +Philip II was present at the second great _auto_ in Valladolid in +October of the same year, when the remainder of the Protestants were +sentenced. His wife, Queen Mary of England, was dead, and he returned +to Spain by way of the Netherlands, embarking at Flushing for Laredo. +Rough weather and bad seamanship all but wrecked his fleet in sight of +port, and Philip vowed if he were permitted to set foot on shore, to +prosecute the heretics of Spain unceasingly. He was saved from drowning +and went at once to Valladolid to carry out his vow. + +The ceremony was organised with unprecedented pomp and splendour. The +king came in state, rejoicing that several notable heretics had been +reserved to die in torments, for his especial delectation. His heir, +Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, was also present but under compulsion; +he was, at that time, no more than fourteen years of age and had +writhed with agony at the sight of the suffering at the former _auto_. +Moreover, when called upon to swear fidelity to the Inquisition, he +had taken the oath with great reluctance. Not so King Philip, who when +called upon to take the same oath at the second _auto da fé_, rose in +his place, drew his sword and brandished it as he swore to show every +favour to the Holy Office and support its ministers against whomsoever +might directly or indirectly impede its efforts or affairs. "_Asi lo +juro_," he said with deep feeling. "Thus I swear." + +The victims at this great _auto da fé_ were many and illustrious. +One was Don Carlos de Seso, an Italian of noble family, the son of +a bishop, a scholar who had long been in the service of the Emperor +Charles V, and was chief magistrate of Toro. He had married a Spanish +lady and resided at Logroño, where he became an object of suspicion +as a professor of Lutheranism, and was arrested. They took him to the +prison of Valladolid, where he was charged, tortured and condemned to +die. When called upon to make confession, he wrote two full sheets +denouncing the Catholic teaching, claiming that it was at variance with +the true faith of the gospel. The priests argued with him in vain, +and he was brought into church next morning, gagged, and so taken to +the burning place, "lest he should speak heresy in the hearing of the +people." At the stake the gag was removed and he was again exhorted to +recant but he stoutly refused and bade them light up the fire speedily +so that he might die in his belief. + +Much grief was felt by the Dominicans at the lapse of one of their +order, Fray Domingo de Rojas, who was undoubtedly a Lutheran. On his +way to the stake he strove to appeal to the king who drove him away +and ordered him to be gagged. More than a hundred monks of his order +followed him close entreating him to recant, but he persisted in a +determined although inarticulate refusal until in sight of the flames. +He then recanted and was strangled before being burned. One Juan +Sanchez, a native of Valladolid, had fled to Flanders, but was pursued, +captured and brought back to Spain to die on this day. When the cords +which had bound him snapped in the fire, he bounded into the air with +his agony but still repelled the priests and called for more fire. Nine +more were burned in the presence of the king, who was no merely passive +spectator, but visited the various stakes and ordered his personal +guard to assist in piling up the fuel. + +The congregation at Seville were sentenced at _autos_ held in 1559 and +1560. On December 22d of the latter year, there were fourteen burned in +the flesh and three in effigy. The last were notable people. One was +Doctor Egidio, who had been a leading canon of Seville Cathedral, and +who had been tried and forced to recant his heresies in 1552. After +release he renewed his connection with the Lutherans, but soon died +and was buried at Seville. His corpse was exhumed, brought to trial, +and burnt with his effigy; all his property was confiscated and his +memory declared infamous. Another was Doctor Ponce de la Fuente, a man +of deep learning and extraordinary eloquence who had been chaplain and +preacher to the emperor. He followed the Imperial Court into Germany, +then returned to charm vast congregations in Seville, but his sermons +were reported by spies to be tainted with the Reformed doctrines. He +was seized by the Inquisition and many incriminating papers were also +taken. When cast into a secret dungeon and confronted with these proofs +of his heresy, he would make no confession, nor would he betray any +of his friends. He was transferred to a subterranean cell, damp and +pestiferous, so narrow he could barely move himself, and was deprived +of the commonest necessaries of life. Existence became impossible under +such conditions, and he died, proclaiming with his last breath that +neither Scythians nor cannibals could be more cruel and inhuman than +the barbarians of the Holy Office. The third effigy consumed was that +of Doctor Juan Pérez de Pineda, then a fugitive in Geneva. + +Chief among the living victims was Julian Hernandez, commonly called +_el Chico_, "the little," from his diminutive stature. Yet his heart +was of the largest and his courage extraordinary. He was a deacon +in the Reformed Church and dared to penetrate the interior of Spain, +disguised as a muleteer, carrying merchandise in which Lutheran +literature was concealed. Being exceedingly shrewd and daring he +travelled far and wide, beyond Castile into Andalusia, distributing his +books among persons of rank and education in all the chief cities. His +learning, skill in argument, and piety, were not less remarkable than +the diligence and activity by which he baffled all efforts to lay hold +of him. At last he was caught and imprisoned. Relays of priests were +told off to controvert his opinions, and he was repeatedly tortured to +extract the names of those who had aided him in his long and dangerous +pilgrimage through the Peninsula, but he was staunch and silent to the +last. + +A citizen of London, one Nicholas Burton, was a shipmaster who traded +to Cadiz in his own vessel. He was arrested on the information of a +"familiar" of the Inquisition, charged with having spoken in slighting +terms of the religion of the country. No reason was given him, and +when he protested indignantly, he was thrown into the common gaol +and detained there for a fortnight, during which he was moved to +administer comfort and preach the gospel to his fellow-prisoners. +This gave a handle to his persecutors and he was removed on a further +charge of heresy to Seville, where he was imprisoned, heavily ironed +in the secret gaol of the Inquisition in the Triana. At the end he was +condemned as a contumacious Lutheran, and was brought out, clad in +the _sanbenito_ and exposed in the great hall of the Holy Office with +his tongue forced out of his mouth. Last of all, being obdurate in his +heresy, he was burned and his ship with its cargo was taken possession +of by his persecutors. + +The story does not end here. Another Englishman, John Frampton, an +attorney of Bristol, was sent to Cadiz by a part-owner to demand +restoration of the ship. He became involved in a tedious law suit and +was at last obliged to return to England for enlarged powers. Bye and +bye he went out a second time to Spain, and on landing at Cadiz was +seized by the servants of the Inquisition and carried to Seville. He +travelled on mule back "tied by a chain that came three times under its +belly and the end whereof was fastened in an iron padlock made fast to +the saddle bow." Two armed familiars rode beside him, and thus escorted +and secured, he was conveyed to the old prison and lodged in a noisome +dungeon. The usual interrogatories were put to him and it was proved +to the satisfaction of the Holy Office that he was an English heretic. +The same evidence sufficed to place him on the rack, and after fourteen +months, he was taken to be present as a penitent at the same _auto da +fé_ which saw Burton, the ship's captain, done to death. Frampton went +back to prison for another year and was forbidden to leave Spain. He +managed to escape and returned to England to make full revelation of +his wrongs, but the ship was never surrendered and no indemnity was +obtained. + +Other Englishmen fell from time to time into the hands of the +Inquisition. Hakluyt preserved the simple narratives of two English +sailors, who were brought by their Spanish captors from the Indies as +a sacrifice to the "Holy House" of Seville, though the authenticity of +the statement has been attacked. One, a happy-go-lucky fellow, Miles +Phillips, who had been too well acquainted in Mexico with the dungeons +of the Inquisition, slipped over the ship's side at San Lucar, near +Cadiz, made his way to shore, and boldly went to Seville, where he +lived a hidden life as a silk-weaver, until he found his chance to +steal away and board a Devon merchantman. The other, Job Hortop, added +to his two years of Mexican imprisonment, two more years in Seville. +Then "they brought us out in procession," as he tells us, "every one of +us having a candle in his hand and the coat with S. Andrew's cross on +our backs; they brought us up on an high scaffold, that was set up in +the place of S. Francis, which is in the chief street in Seville; there +they set us down upon benches, every one in his degree and against +us on another scaffold sate all the Judges and the Clergy on their +benches. The people wondered and gazed on us, some pitying our case, +others said, 'Burn those heretics.' When we had sat there two hours, we +had a sermon made to us, after which one called Bresina, secretary to +the Inquisition, went up into the pulpit with the process and called +on Robert Barret, shipmaster, and John Gilbert, whom two familiars of +the Inquisition brought from the scaffold in front of the Judges, and +the secretary read the sentence, which was that they should be burnt, +and so they returned to the scaffold and were burnt. + +"Then, I, Job Hortop and John Bone, were called and brought to the same +place, as the others and likewise heard our sentence, which was, that +we should go to the galleys there to row at the oar's end ten years +and then to be brought back to the Inquisition House, to have the coat +with St. Andrew's cross put on our backs and from thence to go to the +everlasting prison remediless. + +"I, with the rest were sent to the Galleys, where we were chained +four and four together.... Hunger, thirst, cold and stripes we lacked +none, till our several times expired; and after the time of twelve +years, for I served two years above my sentence, I was sent back to +the Inquisition House in Seville and there having put on the above +mentioned coat with St. Andrew's cross, I was sent to the everlasting +prison remediless, where I wore the coat four years and then, upon +great suit, I had it taken off for fifty duckets, which Hernandez de +Soria, treasurer of the king's mint, lent me, whom I was to serve for +it as a drudge seven years." This victim, too, escaped in a fly-boat at +last and reached England. + +The records of the Inquisition of this period contain the name of an +eminent Spanish ecclesiastic who offended the Holy Office and felt +the weight of its arm. This was Bartolome de Carranza, Archbishop of +Toledo, Primate of Spain, a Dominican,--whose rise had been rapid and +who was charged with leanings toward Lutheranism. In early life he +had passed through the hands of the Inquisition and was censured for +expressing approval of the writings of Erasmus, but no other action +was taken. His profound theological knowledge indeed commended him to +the Councils of the Church, for which he often acted as examiner of +suspected books. + +Carranza's connection with English history is interesting. At the +time of Queen Mary's marriage with Philip II, he came to London to +arrange, in conjunction with Cardinal Pole, for the reconciliation +of England to Rome. He laboured incessantly to win over British +Protestants, "preached continually, convinced and converted heretics +without number, ... guided the Queen and Councils and assisted in +framing rules for the governance of the English Universities." He +was particularly anxious for the persecution of obstinate heretics, +and was in a measure responsible for the burning of Thomas Cranmer, +Archbishop of Canterbury. His zeal and his great merits marked him down +as the natural successor to the archbishopric of Toledo, when it became +vacant, and he was esteemed as a chief pillar of the Catholic Church, +destined in due course to the very highest preferment. He might indeed +become cardinal and even supreme pontiff before he died. + +Yet when nearing the topmost pinnacle he was on the verge of falling +to the lowest depths. He had many enemies. His stern views on Church +discipline, enunciated before the Council of Trent, alienated many of +the bishops, who planned his ruin and secretly watched his discourses +and writings for symptoms of unsoundness. Valdés, the chief inquisitor, +was a leading opponent and industriously collected a mass of evidence +tending to inculpate Carranza. He had used "perilous language" when +preaching in England, especially in the hearing of heretics, and one +witness deposed that some of his sermons might have been delivered +by Melancthon himself. He had affirmed that mercy might be shown to +Lutherans who abjured their errors, and had frequently manifested +scandalous indulgence to heretics. Valdés easily framed a case against +Carranza, strong enough to back up an application to the pope to +authorise the Inquisition to arrest and imprison the primate of Spain. +Paul IV, the new pope, permitted the arrest. Great circumspection was +shown in making it because of the prisoner's rank. Carranza was invited +to come to Valladolid to have an interview with the king, and, with +some misgivings, the archbishop set out. A considerable force of men +was gathered together by the way--all loyal to the Inquisition--and at +the town of Torrelaguna, the arrest was made with great formality and +respect. + +On reaching Valladolid the prisoner begged he might be lodged in the +house of a friend. The Holy Office consented but hired the building. +The trial presented many serious difficulties. Here was no ordinary +prisoner; Carranza was widely popular, and the Supreme Council of the +Kingdom was divided as to the evidences of his guilt. Nearly a hundred +witnesses were examined, but proof was not easily to be secured. +Besides, Carranza had appealed to the Supreme Pontiff. Year after year +was spent in tiresome litigation and a fierce contest ensued between +Rome and the Spanish court which backed up the Inquisition. At length, +after eight years' confinement, the primate was sent to Cartagena to +take ship for Rome, accompanied by several inquisitors and the Duke of +Alva, that most notorious nobleman, the scourge and oppressor of the +Netherlands. All landed at Civita Vecchia and the party proceeded to +the Holy City, when Carranza was at once lodged in the Castle of St. +Angelo, the well known State prison. He was detained there nine years, +until released by Pope Gregory XIII. He was censured for his errors, +and required to abjure the Lutheran principles found in his writings, +and was relieved from his functions as archbishop, to which, however, +his strength, impaired by age and suffering, was no longer equal. While +visiting the seven churches as a penance, he was taken ill, April 23d, +1576, and soon died. Before his death, however, the pope gave him full +indulgence. + +Those who saw him in his last days record that he bore his trials with +dignity and patience. But this learned priest who had been called to +the highest rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, only to be himself +assailed and thrown down, was the same who had sat in cruel judgment +upon Thomas Cranmer and compassed his martyrdom. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE INQUISITION ABROAD + + Fresh field for the Inquisition in Spanish America--Operations begun + by Ximenes and more firmly established by Charles V--Spanish Viceroys' + complaints--Zeal of the Inquisitors checked for a while--Revived + under Philip II--Royal Edict forbidding heretics to emigrate to + Spanish America--Inquisition extended to the Low Countries--Dutch + rebellion proceedings--The Inquisition of the Galleys instituted by + Philip--Growing dislike of the Inquisition--Experiences of Carcel, a + goldsmith--His account of an _auto da fé_--Decline of the powers of + the Inquisition. + + +The acquisition of Spanish America opened a fresh field for the +activity of the Inquisition. Besides the natives there were the New +Christians who had fled across the seas seeking refuge from intolerance +in the old country. Although the emigration of heretics was forbidden +after a time, lest they should spread the hateful doctrines, Cardinal +Ximenes, when inquisitor-general, resolved that the New World should +have its own Holy Office, and appointed Fray Juan de Quevedo, then +Bishop of Cuba, as inquisitor-general of the "Tierra Firma" as the +Spanish mainland was commonly called. The Inquisition was more broadly +established by Charles V, who empowered Cardinal Adrian to organise +it and appoint new chiefs. The Dominicans were supreme, as in the +old country, and proceeded with their usual fiery vigour, wandering +at large through the new territories and spreading dismay among the +native population. The Indians retreated in crowds into the interior, +abandoned the Christianity they had never really embraced, and joined +the other native tribes still unsubdued. The Spanish viceroys alarmed +at the general desertion complained to the king at home and the +excessive zeal of the inquisitors was checked for a time. But when +Philip II came into power he would not agree with this milder policy, +and although the inquisitors were no longer permitted to perambulate +the country districts hunting up heretics, the Holy Office was +established with its palaces and prisons in the principal cities and +acted with great vigour. Three great central tribunals were created at +Panama, Lima, and at Cartagena de las Indias, and persecution raged +unceasingly, chiefly directed against Jews and Moors. In the city of +Mexico also there was an inquisitor-general. A royal edict proclaimed +that "no one newly converted to our Holy Faith from being Moor or Jew +nor his child shall pass over into our Indies without our express +license." At the same time the prohibition was extended to any who had +been "reconciled," and to the child or grandchild of anyone who had +worn the _sanbenito_ or of any person burnt or condemned as a heretic +... "all, under penalty of loss of goods and peril of his person, shall +be perpetually banished from the Indies, and if he have no property +let them give him a hundred lashes, publicly." + +The emperor, Charles V, is responsible for the extension of the +Inquisition from Spain to the Low Countries, by which he repaid the +loyal service and devotion the Dutch people had long rendered him. +This Inquisition was headed at first however by a layman, and then +four inquisitors chosen from the secular clergy were named. The +Netherlanders resisted stoutly its establishment and its operation, +and in 1646 it was provided that no sentence should go into effect +unless approved by some member of the provincial council. Heretics +were condemned of course, but the number was not large, though in some +way grossly exaggerated reports of the numbers of victims have gained +credence. Finally, on the application of the people of Brabant, who +declared that the name would injure commercial prosperity in their +district, the name was dropped altogether. At best it was a faint and +feeble copy of the Spanish institution, and during the reign of Charles +was little feared. In proof we may cite the fact that eleven successive +edicts were necessary to keep the Inquisition at work between 1620 and +1650. + +Philip II, on his accession, attempted to increase the power of the +institution, with the hope of uprooting the reformed doctrines. The +assertion, often made, however, that the Inquisition is responsible for +the revolt of the Netherlands is entirely too broad. Other factors than +religious differences entered into the complex situation. The terrible +war which finally resulted in the independence of the Protestant +Netherlands, falls outside the plan of this volume. + +Philip wished to extend the sway of the Inquisition and planned a +naval tribunal to take cognisance of heresy afloat. He created the +Inquisition of the Galleys, or, as it was afterwards styled, of the +Army and Navy. In every sea port a commissary general visited the +shipping to search for prohibited books and make sure of the orthodoxy +of crews and passengers. Even cargoes and bales of merchandise were +examined, lest the taint of heresy should infect them. This marine +inspection was most active in Cadiz, at that time the great centre +of traffic with the far West. A visitor from the Holy Office with a +staff of assistants and familiars boarded every ship on arrival and +departure and claimed that their authority should be respected, so that +nothing might be landed or embarked without their certificate. The +merchants resented this system which brought substantial commercial +disadvantages, and the ships' captains disliked priestly interference +with their crews, whose regular duties were neglected. The men were +kept below under examination, when they were wanted on deck to make or +shorten sail or take advantage of a change in the wind or a turn in the +tide. By degrees the marine Inquisition was thought to impede business +on the High Seas and fell into disuse. + +Under succeeding sovereigns the Holy Office was still favoured and +supported, but the reign of Philip III witnessed loud and frequent +remonstrances against its operation. The Cortes of Castile implored +the king to put some restraint upon the too zealous inquisitors, but +they still wielded their arbitrary powers unchecked, and Philip sought +further encouragement for them from Rome. The accession of Philip IV to +the throne was celebrated by an _auto da fé_, but no victim was put to +death, and the only corporal punishment inflicted was the flogging of +an immoral nun who professed to have made a compact with the devil. She +was led out gagged, and, wearing the _sanbenito_, received two hundred +lashes followed by perpetual imprisonment. Philip IV strove for a time +to check the activity of the Inquisition, but he was too weak and +wavering to make permanent headway against an institution, the leaders +of which knew precisely what they were striving for, and pertinaciously +pursued it. + +A graphic account of what purport to have been the painful experiences +of a poor soul who fell at a later date into the clutches of the +inquisitors is related by himself in a curious pamphlet printed in +Seville, by one Carcel, who was a goldsmith in that city. Evidently +there is the work of another hand in it, however, as it is written with +too much regard for the dramatic to have been his own composition. The +description of the _auto_ is also unusual, and not according to the +usual procedure. + +He says that he was arrested on the 2nd of April, 1680, at ten o'clock +in the evening, as he was finishing a gold necklace for one of the +queen's maids of honour. A week after his first arrest Carcel was +examined. We will quote his own words:-- + +"In an ante-room," he says, "a smith frees me of my irons and I pass +from the ante-chamber to the 'Inquisitor's table,' as the small inner +room is called. It is hung with blue and citron-coloured taffety. +At one end, between the two grated windows, is a gigantic crucifix +and on the central estrade (a table fifteen feet long surrounded by +arm-chairs), with his back to the crucifix, sits the secretary, and on +my right, Francisco Delgado Ganados, the Grand Inquisitor, who is a +secular priest. The other inquisitors had just left, but the ink was +still wet in their quills, and I saw on papers before their chairs some +names marked with red ink. I am seated on a low stool opposite the +secretary. The inquisitor asks my name and profession and why I come +there, exhorting me to confess as the only means of quickly regaining +my liberty. He hears me, but when I fling myself weeping at his knees, +he says coolly there is no hurry about my case; that he has more +pressing business than mine waiting, (the secretary smiles), and he +rings a little silver bell which stands beside him on the black cloth, +for the alcaide who leads me off down a long gallery, where my chest is +brought in and an inventory taken by the secretary. They cut my hair +off and strip me of everything, even to my ring and gold buttons; +but they leave me my beads, my handkerchief and some money I had +fortunately sewn in my garters. I am then led bareheaded into a cell, +and left to think and despair till evening when they bring me supper. + +"The prisoners are seldom put together. Silence perpetual and strict is +maintained in all the cells. If any prisoner should moan, complain or +even pray too loud, the gaolers who watch the corridors night and day +warn them through the grating. If the offence is repeated, they storm +in and load you with blows to intimidate the other prisoners, who, in +the deep grave-like silence, hear your every cry and every blow. + +"Once every two months the inquisitor, accompanied by his secretary +and interpreter, visits the prisoners and asks them if their food is +brought them at regular hours, or if they have any complaint to make +against the gaolers. But this is only a parade of justice, for if a +prisoner dares to utter a complaint, it is treated as mere fanciful +ravings and never attended to. + +"After two months' imprisonment," goes on Carcel, "one Saturday, +when, after my meagre prison dinner, I give my linen, as usual, to +the gaolers to send to the wash, they will not take it and a great +cold breath whispers at my heart--to-morrow is the _auto da fé_. When, +immediately after the vespers at the cathedral, they ring for matins, +which they never do but when rejoicing on the eve of a great feast, +I know that my horrid suspicions are right. Was I glad at my escape +from this living tomb, or was I paralysed by fear, at the pile perhaps +already hewn and stacked for my wretched body? I know not. I was torn +in pieces by the devils that rack the brains of unhappy men. I refused +my next meal, but, contrary to their wont, they pressed it more than +usual. Was it to give me strength to bear my torture? Do God's eyes not +reach to the prisons of the Inquisition? + +"I am just falling into a sickly, fitful sleep, worn out with +conjecturing, when, about eleven o'clock at night, the great bolts of +my cell grind and jolt back and a party of gaolers in black, in a flood +of light, so that they looked like demons on the borders of heaven, +come in. + +"The alcaide throws down by my pallet a heap of clothes, tells me to +put them on and hold myself ready for a second summons. I have no +tongue to answer, as they light my lamp, leave me and lock the door +behind them. Such a trembling seizes me for half an hour, that I cannot +rise and look at the clothes which seem to me shrouds and winding +sheets. I rise at last, throw myself down before the black cross I had +smeared with charcoal on the wall, and commit myself, as a miserable +sinner, into God's hands. I then put on the dress, which consists of a +tunic with long, loose sleeves and hose drawers, all of black serge, +striped with white. + +"At two o'clock in the morning the wretches came and led me into a long +gallery where nearly two hundred men, brought from their various cells, +all dressed in black, stood in a long silent line against the wall of +the long, plain vaulted, cold corridor where, over every two dozen +heads, swung a high brass lamp. We stood silent as a funeral train. +The women, also in black, were in a neighbouring gallery, far out of +our sight. By sad glimpses down a neighbouring dormitory I could see +more men dressed in black, who, from time to time, paced backwards and +forwards. These I afterwards found were men doomed also to be burnt, +not for murder--no, but for having a creed unlike that of the Jesuits. +Whether I was to be burnt or not I did not know, but I took courage, +because my dress was like that of the rest and the monsters could not +dare to put two hundred men at once into one fire, though they did hate +all who love doll-idols and lying miracles. + +"Presently, as we waited sad and silent, gaolers came round and handed +us each a long yellow taper and a yellow scapular, or tabard, crossed +behind and before with red crosses of Saint Andrew. These are the +_sanbenitos_ that Jews, Turks, sorcerers, witches, heathen or perverts +from the Roman Catholic Church are compelled to wear. Now came the +gradation of our ranks--those who have relapsed, or who were obstinate +during their accusations, wear the _zamarra_, which is gray, with +a man's head burning on red faggots painted at the bottom and all +round reversed flames and winged and armed black devils horrible to +behold. I, and seventy others, wear these, and I lose all hope. My +blood turns to ice; I can scarcely keep myself from swooning. After +this distribution they bring us, with hard, mechanical regularity, +pasteboard conical mitres (_corozas_) painted with flames and devils +with the words '_sorcerer_' and '_heretic_' written round the rim. Our +feet are all bare. The condemned men, pale as death, now begin to weep +and keep their faces covered with their hands, round which the beads +are twisted. God only--by speaking from heaven--could save them. A +rough, hard voice now tells us we may sit on the ground till our next +orders come. The old men and boys smile as they eagerly sit down, for +this small relief comes to them with the refreshment of a pleasure. + +"At four o'clock they bring us bread and figs, which some drop by their +sides and others languidly eat. I refuse mine, but a guard prays me to +put it in my pocket for I may yet need it. It is as if an angel had +comforted me. At five o'clock, at daybreak, it was a ghastly sight to +see shame, fear, grief, despair, written on our pale livid faces. Yet +not one but felt an undercurrent of joy at the prospect of any release, +even by death. + +"Suddenly, as we look at each other with ghastly eyes, the great bell +of the Giralda begins to boom with a funeral knell, long and slow. It +was the signal of the gala day of the Holy Office, it was the signal +for the people to come to the show. We are filed out one by one. As +I pass the gallery in the great hall, I see the inquisitor, solemn +and stern, in his black robes, throned at the gate. Beneath him is +his secretary, with a list of the citizens of Seville in his wiry +twitching hands. The room is full of the anxious frightened burghers, +who, as their names are called and a prisoner passes through, move +to his trembling side to serve as his godfather in the Act of Faith. +The honest men shudder as they take their place in the horrible death +procession. The time-serving smile at the inquisitor, and bustle +forward. This is thought an honourable office and is sought after by +hypocrites and suspected men afraid of the Church's sword. + +"The procession commences with the Dominicans. Before them flaunts the +banner of the order in glistening embroidery that burns in the sun +and shines like a mirror, the frocked saint, holding a threatening +sword in one hand, and in the other, an olive branch with the motto, +'Justitia et misericordia' (Justice and mercy). Behind the banner +come the prisoners in their yellow scapulars, holding their lighted +torches, their feet bleeding with the stones and their less frightened +godfathers, gay in cloak and sword and ruff tripping along by their +side, holding their plumed hats in their hands. The street and windows +are crowded with careless eyes, and children are held up to execrate +us as we pass to our torturing death. The _auto da fé_ was always a +holiday sight to the craftsmen and apprentices; it drew more than even +a bull fight, because of the touch of tragedy about it. Our procession, +like a long black snake, winds on, with its banners and crosses, its +shaven monks and mitred bare-footed prisoners, through street after +street, heralded by soldiers who run before to clear a way for us--to +stop mules and clear away fruit-stalls, street-performers and their +laughing audiences. We at last reach the Church of All the Saints, +where, tired, dusty, bleeding and faint we are to hear mass. + +"The church has a grave-vault aspect and is dreadfully like a charnel +house. The great altar is veiled in black, and is lit with six silver +candlesticks, whose flames shine like yellow stars with clear twinkle +and a soft halo round each black, fire-tipped wick. On each side of +the altar, that seems to bar out God and his mercy from us and to +wrap the very sun in a grave cloak, are two thrones, one for the +grand-inquisitor and his counsel, another for the king and his court. +The one is filled with sexton-like lawyers, the other with jewelled and +feathered men. + +"In front of the great altar and near the door where the blessed +daylight shines with hope and joy, but not for us, is another altar, +on which six gilded and illuminated missals lie open; those books of +the Gospels, too, in which I had once read such texts as--God is love; +Forgive as ye would be forgiven; Faith, hope, charity: these three, +but the greatest of these is charity. Near this lesser altar the monks +had raised a balustraded gallery, with bare benches, on which sat +the criminals in their yellow and flame-striped tabards with their +godfathers. The doomed ones came last, the more innocent first. Those +who entered the black-hung church first, passing up nearest to the +altar sat there, either praying or in a frightened trance of horrid +expectancy. The trembling living corpses wearing the mitres, yellow and +red, came last, preceded by a gigantic crucifix, the face turned from +them. + +"Immediately following these poor mitred men came servitors of the +Inquisition, carrying four human effigies fastened to long staves, +and four chests containing the bones of those men who had died before +the fire could be got ready. The coffers were painted with flames and +demons and the effigies wore the dreadful mitre and the crimson and +yellow shirt all a-flame with paint. The effigies sometimes represented +men tried for heresy since their death and whose estates had since been +confiscated and their effigies doomed to be burnt as a warning; for no +one within their reach may escape if they differ in opinion with the +Inquisition. + +"Every prisoner being now in his place--godfathers, torchmen, pikemen, +musketeers, inquisitors, and flaunting court--the Provincial of the +Augustins mounted the pulpit, followed by his ministrant and preached +a stormy, denouncing, exulting sermon, half an hour long (it seemed +a month of anguish), in which he compared the Church with burning +eloquence to Noah's ark; but with this difference, that those animals +who entered it before the deluge came out of it unaltered, but the +blessed Inquisition had, by God's blessing, the power of changing those +whom its walls once enclosed, turning them out meek as the lambs he saw +around him so tranquil and devout, all of whom had once been cruel as +wolves and savage and daring as lions. + +"This sermon over, two readers mounted the pulpit to shout the list of +names of the condemned, their crimes (now, for the first time, known to +them) and their sentences. We grew all ears and trembled as each name +was read. + +"As each name was called the alcaide led out the prisoner from his pen +to the middle of the gallery opposite the pulpit, where he remained +standing, taper in hand. After the sentence he was led to the altar +where he had to put his hand on one of the missals and to remain there +on his knees. + +"At the end of each sentence, the reader stopped to pronounce in a +loud, angry voice, a full confession of faith, which he exhorted us, +the guilty, to join with heart and voice. Then we all returned to +our places. My offence, I found, was having spoken bitterly of the +Inquisition, and having called a crucifix a mere bit of cut ivory. I +was therefore declared excommunicated, my goods confiscated to the +king, I was banished Spain and condemned to the Havana galleys for +five years with the following penances: I must renounce all friendship +with heretics and suspected persons; I must, for three years, confess +and communicate three times a month; I must recite five times a day, +for three years, the Pater and Ave Maria in honour of the Five Wounds; +I must hear mass and sermon every Sunday and feast day; and above all, +I must guard carefully the secret of all I had said, heard, or seen +in the Holy Office (which oath, as the reader will observe, I have +carefully kept). + +"The inquisitor then quitted his seat, resumed his robes and followed +by twenty priests, each with a staff in his hand, passed into the +middle of the church and with divers prayers some of us were relieved +from excommunication, each of us receiving a blow from a priest. +Once, such an insult would have sent the blood in a rush to my head, +and I had died but I had given a return buffet; now, so weak and +broken-spirited was I, I burst into tears. + +"Now, one by one, those condemned to the stake, faint and staggering, +were brought in to hear their sentences, which they did with a +frightened vacancy, inconceivably touching, but the inquisitors were +gossiping among themselves and scarcely looked at them. Every sentence +ended with the same cold mechanical formula: That the Holy Office being +unhappily unable to pardon the prisoners present, on account of their +relapse and impenitence, found itself obliged to punish them with all +the rigour of earthly law, and therefore delivered them with regret +to the hands of secular justice, praying it to use clemency and mercy +towards the wretched men, saving their souls by the punishment of +their bodies and recommending death, but not effusion of blood. Cruel +hypocrites! + +"At the word blood the hangmen stepped forward and took possession of +the bodies, the alcaide first striking each of them on the chest to +show that they were now abandoned to the rope and fire." Then he goes +on to describe the scene at the _quemadero_, which, however, included +nothing of importance not already mentioned elsewhere. + +After the death of Philip IV, and during the minority of his son, +Charles II, Father Nithard, a Jesuit, who combined the two forces +long in opposition, the disciples of Loyola and the descendants of +Torquemada, was for a time inquisitor-general. The Holy Office was +hotly opposed by Don John of Austria, a natural son of Philip IV, +who rose to political power and would have fallen a victim to the +Inquisition had not popular indignation sided with him against Nithard, +who fled from Spain to Rome. He was stripped of all his offices but +still kept the favour of the queen-mother who finally secured for him +from Pope Clement X the coveted cardinal's hat. Don John was unequal +to the task of curbing the power of the Inquisition, however, and the +institution claimed wider and wider jurisdiction. + +Growing dissatisfaction prevailed, and in 1696, the king, Charles II, +summoned a conference or Grand Junta to enquire into the complaints +that poured in from all quarters against the Inquisition. It was +composed of two councillors of state from Castile, Aragon, the Indies, +and the Spanish provinces in Italy, with two members of the religious +orders. It reported that the Holy Office exercised illegal powers, +still arrogated the right to throw persons of rank into prison and +cover their families with disgrace. It punished with merciless severity +the slightest opposition or disrespect shown to dependents or familiars +who had come to enjoy extensive and exorbitant privileges. They claimed +secular jurisdiction in matters nowise appertaining to religion, +and set aside restrictions contained in their own canon law. The +Junta strongly recommended that these restrictions should be rigidly +enforced, and that no one should be thrown into the prisons of the +Inquisition, save on charges of an heretical nature. It urged the right +of appeal to the throne, and the removal of all causes to the royal +courts for trial. It detailed the privileges granted to the servants +of the Holy Office. Even a coachman or a lackey demanded reverence and +might conduct himself with unbounded insolence. If a servant girl were +not treated obsequiously in a shop she might complain and the offender +was liable to be cast into the dungeons of the Inquisition. So great +was the discontent, so many tumults arose, that the Junta would have +all such unrighteous privileges curtailed, and would authorise the +civil courts to keep the encroachments of the Holy Office in check. + +With the eighteenth century the authority of the Holy Office visibly +waned. Philip V, a French prince, and a grandson of Louis XIV, whose +succession produced the long protracted war of the Spanish Succession, +declined to be honoured with an _auto da fé_ at his coronation, but he +maintained the Inquisition as an instrument of despotic government, +and actually used it to punish as heretics those who had any doubt +concerning his title to the crown. Yet he rather used the Inquisition +than supported it; for he deprived of his office an inquisitor-general +who had presumed to proceed for heresy against a high officer. The +Cortes of Castile again, (1714), recorded their condemnation, but +without any further benefit than that which must eventually result +from the disclosure of a truth. The same body reiterated their +disapproval a few years afterwards, (1720). But while Philip V used the +Inquisition for his own service, and the heretical doctrine which had +prevailed two centuries before no longer left a trace behind, there +were multitudes of persons accused of attempting to revive Judaism and +others gave offence by their efforts to promote Freemasonry. This gave +the inquisitors abundant pretext for the discharge of their political +mission. + +During the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV, a revival of +literature and an advance in political science guided the attention +of the clergy and the government to the position of the court of Rome, +as well as to the proceedings of the inquisitors. The former of these +monarchs nearly yielded to the advice of his councillors to suppress +the Inquisition, as well as to expel the Jesuits. He banished the +Society, but, in regard to the Inquisition, said: "The Spaniards want +it and it gives me no trouble." + +Meanwhile death sentences nearly ceased, and once when a good man was +sentenced to be delivered to the secular arm, in compliance with the +letter of the law, the inquisitors let him go free. By this contrivance +Don Miguel Solano, priest of Esco, a town in Aragon, walked out of +the prison of the Inquisition in Saragossa, as a maniac, forgiven his +heresy, and lived on as a maniac, exempted from priestly ministrations, +while every one knew him to be a reasonable man and treated him +accordingly. In the end he died, refusing Extreme Unction, and was +buried in unconsecrated ground within the walls of the Inquisition on +the banks of the Ebro. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA + + The Inquisition in Spain abolished by Napoleon's invasion--Its + revival--Persecution of the Freemasons--The "Tribunal of Faith" + established--Inquisition in Portugal--The case of an Englishman + who is arrested, tortured and burnt alive--Difference between + the Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal--The supreme power of the + Holy Office in Portugal in the eighteenth century--The terrible + earthquake at Lisbon--Establishment of the Holy Office in India at + Goa--Description of the Inquisition prison at Goa by M. Dellon--Case + of Father Ephrem--His arrest and rescue by the English from the hands + of the inquisitors. + + +Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the removal of the young king, +Ferdinand VII, to France, put an end to the Inquisition. When the +Emperor took possession of Madrid, he called upon all public bodies +to submit to his authority, but the Holy Office refused. Whereupon he +issued an order to arrest the inquisitors, abolish the Inquisition, +and sequestrate its revenues. All Spain did not readily yield to the +French conqueror, and when the Cortes met in Cadiz they empowered one +of the inquisitors, who had escaped, to reconstitute the tribunal, but +it was never really restored. At the same time, the governing powers +appointed a special commission to enquire into the legal status of the +ancient body, and to decide whether the Inquisition had any legal right +to exist. A report was published in 1812, reviewing its whole history +and condemning it as incompatible with the liberties of the country. +The indictment against it was couched in very vigorous language. It was +held to have been guilty of the most harsh and oppressive measures; to +have inflicted the most cruel and illegal punishments; "in the darkness +of the night it had dragged the husband from the side of his wife, the +father from the children, the children from their parents, and none may +see the other again until they are absolved or condemned without having +had the means of contributing to their defence or knowing whether they +had been fairly tried." The result was a law passed by the Cortes to +suppress the Inquisition in Spain. + +The restoration of Ferdinand VII, at the termination of the war in +1814, gave the Inquisition fresh life. He resented the action taken by +the Cortes, arrested its members, and cast them into prison, declaring +them to be infidels and rebels, and forthwith issued a decree reviving +the tribunal of the Holy Office. Its supreme council met in Seville and +persecution was renewed under the new inquisitor-general, Xavier Mier y +Campillo, who put out a fresh list of prohibited books, tried to raise +revenues and issued a new Edict of Faith. There might have been another +_auto da fé_ even in the nineteenth century, but informers would +not come forward and latter-day victims could not be found. Dread, +nevertheless, prevailed, and numbers fled for refuge into foreign +lands. Fierce energy was directed against the Freemasons, for during +the French occupation, the palace of the Inquisition at Seville had +been used, partly as a common gaol and partly as a Freemasons' lodge. +The members of the craft who were found in Spain were dealt with as +heretics, and all Freemasons were excommunicated. + +For a time the Inquisition languished, although favoured by the +arbitrary régime introduced by Ferdinand VII, who sought to reinstate +it on its former lines. It was destroyed or at least suspended by +the Revolution of 1820, and on his restoration, the king did not +reëstablish it, though the officials still hoped for a better day and +continued to draw their salaries. Some of the bishops established +_juntas de fé_, which took up much the same work, and July 26th, 1826, +a poor schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll, was hanged for heresy--the last +execution for this crime in Spain. Finally, January 4th, 1834, the +Inquisition was definitely abolished, and the _juntas de fé_ were +abolished the next year. + +The Inquisition extended its influence into the neighbouring country of +Portugal, which was an independent kingdom until conquered by Philip +II in 1580. Here persecution prevailed from the fifteenth century, +chiefly of the Jews and new Christians, who flocked into the country +from Spain, and were treated with great severity. The Holy Office +was set up in Lisbon under an inquisitor-general, Diego de Silva, and +Portugal was divided into inquisitional districts. _Autos da fé_ were +frequent, and on a scale hardly known in Spain, though the records are +fragmentary. + +From among the cases reported, we may quote that of an Englishman, a +native of Bristol, engaged in commerce in Lisbon, who boldly assaulted +the cardinal archbishop in the act of performing mass. Gardiner, +as fiercely intolerant as those of the dominant religion who were +worshipping according to their own rites, attacked the priest when he +elevated the host, "snatched away the cake with one hand, trod it under +his feet, and with the other overthrew the chalice." The congregation, +at first utterly astounded, raised one great cry and fell bodily upon +the sacrilegious wretch, who was promptly stabbed in the shoulder and +haled before the king, who was present in the cathedral, and forthwith +interrogated. It was thought that he had been instigated by the English +Protestants to this outrageous insult, but he declared that he had been +solely moved by his abhorrence of the idolatry he had witnessed. He was +imprisoned and with him all the English in Lisbon. So soon as his wound +was healed, he was examined by the Holy Office, tortured and condemned. +Then he was carried to the market place on an ass and his left hand +was cut off; thence he was taken to the river side and by a rope and +pulley hoisted over a pile of wood which was set on fire. "In spite +of the great torment he continued in a constant spirit and the more +terribly he burned the more vehemently he prayed." He was in the act of +reciting a psalm, when by the use of exceeding violence, the burning +rope broke and he was precipitated into the devouring flames. + +A fellow lodger of Gardiner was detained in the Inquisition for two +years, and was frequently tortured to elicit evidence against other +Englishmen, but without avail. A Scotch professor of Greek in the +university of Coimbra was charged with Lutheranism, and imprisoned for +a year and a half, after which he was committed to a monastery so that +he might be instructed by the monks in the true religion. They did not +change his views and he was presently set free. Another, an English +shipmaster, was less fortunate and was burned alive as a heretic at +Lisbon. + +It has been observed that, on comparison of the Inquisitions of Spain +and Portugal, a certain marked difference was disclosed between them. +The same precise rigour of the Spanish inquisitors was not exhibited +by the Portuguese. In Portugal the discipline was more savage yet +more feeble. Yet in the latter country there was a brutal and more +wanton excess in inflicting pain at the _autos da fé_. When convicts +were about to suffer they were taken before the Lord Chief Justice to +answer the enquiry as to what religion they intended to die in. If +the answer was "in the Roman Catholic Apostolic," the order was given +that they should be strangled before burning. If in the Protestant, or +in any other religion, death in the flames was decreed. At Lisbon the +place of execution, as has been said, was at the waterside. A thick +stake was erected for each person condemned, with a wide crosspiece +at the top against which a crosspiece was nailed to receive the tops +of two ladders. In the centre the victim was secured by a chain, with +a Jesuit priest on either side, seated on a ladder, who proceeded to +exhort him to repentance. If they failed they declared they left him +to the devil and the mob roared, "Let the dog's beard be trimmed," in +other words, "his face scorched." This was effected by applying an +ignited furze bush at the end of a long pole till his face was burned +and blackened. The record of the Portuguese Inquisition to 1794 shows a +total of one thousand, one hundred and seventy-five relaxed in person, +_i. e._ executed, six hundred and thirty-three relaxed in effigy, and +twenty-nine thousand, five hundred and ninety penanced. + +The Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade with the Far East +and, after Vasco de Gama had discovered India, Albuquerque annexed and +occupied Goa, which might have become the seat and centre of the great +empire which fell at length into British hands. + +Portugal sacrificed all power and prosperity to the extirpation of +heresy in its new possessions and was chiefly concerned in the +establishment of the Holy Office in India. The early Portuguese +settlers in the East clamoured loudly for the Inquisition; the Jesuit +fathers who were zealous in their propaganda in India declared that +the tribunal was most necessary in Goa, owing to the prevailing +licentiousness and the medley of all nations and superstitions. It +was accordingly established in 1560, and soon commenced its active +operations with terrific vigour. General baptisms were frequent in +this the ecclesiastical metropolis of India, and so were _autos da fé_ +conducted with great pomp with many victims. + +A light upon the proceedings of the Holy Office in Goa is afforded by +the story told by a French traveller, M. Dellon, who was arrested at +the instance of the Portuguese governor at Damaum, and imprisoned at +Goa in the private prison of the archbishop. "The most filthy," says +Dellon, "the darkest and most horrible of any I had ever seen.... It +is a kind of cave wherein there is no day seen but by a very little +hole. The most subtle rays of the sun cannot enter it and there is +never any true light in it. The stench is extreme...." M. Dellon +was dragged before the Board of the Holy Office, seated in the Holy +House, which is described as a great and magnificent building, "one +side of a great space before the church of St. Catherine." There were +three gates. The prisoners entered by the central or largest, and +ascending a stately flight of steps, reached the great hall. Behind the +principal building was another very spacious, two stories high +and consisting of a double row of cells. Those on the ground floor +were the smallest, due to the greater thickness of the walls, and +had no apertures for light or air. The upper cells were vaulted and +whitewashed, and each had a small strongly grated window without glass. +The cells had double doors, the outer of which was kept constantly +open, an indispensable plan in this climate or the occupant must have +died of suffocation. + +[Illustration: _Peint par D. F. Laugée_ +_Photogravure Goupil & C^{ie}._ + +_The Question_ + +One of the forms of torture before a tribunal of the Inquisition, used +in the examination of the accused. Lighted charcoal was placed under +the victim's feet, which were greased over with lard, so that the heat +of the fire might more quickly become effective.] + +The régime was, to some extent, humane. Water for ablutions was +provided and for drinking purposes, food was given sparingly in three +daily meals, but was wholesome in quality. Physicians were at hand +to attend the sick and confessors to wait on the dying, but they +administered no unction, gave no viaticum, said no mass. If any died, +as many did, his death was unknown to all without. He was buried within +the walls with no sacred ceremony, and if it was decided that he had +died in heresy, his bones were exhumed to be burnt at the next act of +Faith. While alive he lived apart in all the strictness of the modern +solitary cell. Alone and silent, for the prisoner was forbidden to +speak, he was not allowed even to groan or sob or sigh aloud. + +The Holy Office in Goa was worked on the same lines as that of Spain as +already described and by the same officers. There was the _Inquisidor +Mor_ or grand-inquisitor, a secular priest, a second or assistant +inquisitor, a Dominican monk, with many deputies; "qualifiers," to +examine books and writings; a fiscal and a procurator; notaries and +familiars. The authority of the tribunal was absolute in Goa except +that the great officials, archbishop and his grand-vicar, the viceroy +and the governor, could not be arrested without the sanction of the +supreme council in Lisbon. The procedure, the examination and use of +torture was exactly as in other places. + +M. Dellon was taxed with having spoken ill of the Inquisition, and +was called upon to confess his sins, being constantly brought out and +again relegated to his cell and continually harassed to make him accuse +himself, until in a frenzy of despair he resolved to commit suicide +by refusing food. The physician bled him and treated him for fever, +but he tore off the bandages hoping to bleed to death. He was taken up +insensible, restored by cordials, and carried before the inquisitor, +where he lay on the floor and was assailed with bitter reproaches, +heavily ironed and sent back to languish in his cell in a wild access +of fury approaching madness. + +At last the great day of the Act of Faith approached, and Dellon heard +on every side the agonised cries of both men and women. During the +night the alcaide and warders came into his cell with lights bringing +a suit of clothes, linen, best trousers, black striped with white. He +was marched to join a couple of hundred other penitents squatted on +the floor along the sides of a spacious gallery, all motionless but +in an agony of apprehension, for none knew his doom. A large company +of women were collected in a neighbouring chamber and a third lot in +_sanbenitos_, among whom the priests moved seeking confessions and if +made the boon of strangulation was conceded before "tasting the fire." + +Shortly before sunrise the great bell of the Cathedral tolled and +roused the city into life. People filled the chief streets, lined the +thoroughfares and crowded into places whence they might best see the +procession. With daylight Dellon saw from the faces of his companions +that they were mostly Indians with but a dozen white men among them. M. +Dellon went barefoot with the rest over the loose flints of the badly +paved streets, and, at length, cut and bleeding, entered the church of +St. Francisco, for the ceremony could not be performed under the fierce +sky of this torrid climate. Dellon's punishment was confiscation of all +his property, and banishment from India, with five years' service in +the galleys of Portugal. + +The rest of his sad adventures may be told briefly. He was brought +back to Lisbon and worked at the oar with other convicts for some +years, when at the intercession of friends in France the Portuguese +government consented to release him. There is no record that the French +authorities made any claim or reclamation for the ill-usage of a French +subject. + +It was otherwise with their neighbours, the English, who even before +their power in India was established, would not suffer the Portuguese +authorities in Goa to ill-treat a person who could claim British +protection. A French Capuchin, named Father Ephrem, had visited Madras +when on his way to join the Catholic mission in Pegu. He was invited to +remain in Madras and was promised entire liberty with respect to his +religion, and permitted to minister to the Catholics already settled +in the factory. In the course of his preaching he laid down a dogma +offensive, as it was asserted, to the Mother of God, and information +thereof was laid with the inquisitors at Goa, who made their plans to +kidnap Father Ephrem and carry him off to Goa, some six hundred miles +distant from Madras. The plot succeeded and the French Capuchin was +lodged in the prison of the Holy Office at Goa. This was not to be +brooked by the English in Madras. An English ship forthwith proceeded +to Goa and a party of ten determined men, well-armed, landed and +appeared at the gates of the Inquisition and demanded admittance. +Leaving a couple of men on guard at the gate, the rest entered the gaol +and insisted at the point of the sword that Father Ephrem should be +forthwith surrendered to them. An order thus enforced was irresistible, +and the prisoner was released, taken down to the ship's boat, +reëmbarked and carried back in safety to Madras. + +The aims of the Inquisition are no longer those of modern communities. +So widely has the idea of toleration extended, that we often forget +how recent it is. The relations of Church and State are so changed in +the last two centuries, that it is difficult to understand the times +of the Spanish Inquisition. Then it was universally believed that +orthodoxy in faith was intimately connected with loyalty to the state. +As a matter of fact, nearly all the earlier heretical movements were +also social or political revolts. It is, therefore, easy to see how +heresy and high treason came to appear identical. + +Some of the inquisitors were corrupt, others were naturally cruel, +others, drunk with power, were more zealous in exerting that power +than they were in deciding between guilt and innocence. On the other +hand many were zealous because of their honesty. If a man believes +that he knows the only hope of salvation, it is perfectly logical +to compel another by force, if necessary, to follow that hope. Any +physical punishment is slight compared with the great reward which +reconciliation brings. On the other hand, if he is firm in his heresy, +he is as dangerous as a wild beast. We are more tolerant now, less +certain, perhaps, of our ground, but three or four hundred years ago +these points were a stern reality. + +That many inquisitors were more concerned with the Church as an +institution than as a means of salvation is also true. They punished +disrespect to an officer or to a law more severely than they did +a doctrinal error, but that was, perhaps, inevitable. The Spanish +Inquisition, which, as has been said, was to some extent a state +affair, punished many for what we might call trifling offences, or, +indeed, no offence at all, but it was an intolerant age, in and out of +Spain. + +The number punished has been grossly exaggerated, but it was enough to +injure Spain permanently, to crush out freedom of thought and action to +an unwarrantable extent. The historian must attribute much of Spain's +decadence to the work of the mistaken advocate of absolute uniformity. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS + + Slow development of Prison Reform in Spain--Description of the old + Saladero--George Borrow's account of his arrest and imprisonment + there--Balseiro's escape and subsequent escapades--He seizes the two + sons of a wealthy Basque and holds them for ransom--His capture and + execution--The _valientes_ or bullies--The cruelties they practised + upon their weaker fellow prisoners--Don Rafael Salillas' description + of the Seville prison. + + +The prisons in Spain have been generally divided into three categories: +First, the _depositos correcionales_, the _cárceles_ or common gaols, +one in the capital of each province, to which were sent accused persons +and all sentenced to two years or less; second, the _presidios_ of +the Peninsula for convicts between two years and eight years; and +third, the African penal settlements for terms beyond eight years. +The character and condition of the bulk of these places of durance +long continued most unsatisfactory. In 1888 in an official report, the +Minister of Grace and Justice said, "The present state of the Spanish +prisons is not enchanting. They are neither safe nor wholesome, nor +adapted to the ends in view." This criticism was fully borne out by +the result of a general inquiry instituted. It was found that of a +total of four hundred and fifty-six of the correctional prisons only +one hundred and sixty-six were really fit for the purpose intended and +the remainder were installed in any buildings available. Some were very +ancient, dating back to the 16th century; and had once been palaces, +religious houses, castles or fortresses. + +Many of these buildings were ancient monuments which suffered much +injury from the ignoble rôle to which they were put. A protest was +published by a learned society of Madrid against the misuse of the +superb ex-convents of San Gregorio in Valladolid and San Isidro del +Campo near Seville, and the mutilation by its convict lodgers of the +very beautiful gateway of the Templo de la Piedad in Guadalajara. The +installation of the prison at Palma de Mallorca all but hopelessly +impaired the magnificent cloisters of the convent of San Francisco, a +thirteenth century architectural masterpiece, and a perfect specimen of +the ogival form, like nothing else in Spain. Within a short period of +ten years several of these interesting old buildings were ruined. The +entire convent prison at Coruña sank, causing many casualties, loss of +life and serious wounds. + +Sometimes the authorities hired private dwellings to serve as prisons, +or laid hands on whatever they could find. At Granada a slice of the +Court House was used, a dark triangle to which air came only from the +interior yard. The prison of Allariz at Orense was on the ground floor +of a house in the street, having two windows looking directly on to +it, guarded by a grating with bars so far apart that a reasonably thin +man could slip through. One of the worst features of many of these +ancient prisons was their location in the very heart of the towns with +communication to the street. Friends gathered at the _rejas_ outside, +and the well known picture of flirtation at the prison window was +drawn from life. A common sight also was the outstretched hand of the +starving prisoner imploring alms from the charitable, for there was no +regular or sufficient supply of provisions within. Free access was also +possible when the domestic needs of the interior took the prisoners to +the public well in the street. + +The Carmona gaol in Seville was for years half in ruins; no sunlight +reached any part of it with the exception of two of the yards; the +dungeons had no ventilation except by a hole in their doors; an open +sewer ran through the gaol, the floors were always wet, fleas abounded, +as also rats, beetles and cockroaches; cooking was done in one corner +of the exercising yard and clothes were washed in the other. The +removal of the gaol was ordered and plans for a new building prepared +in 1864, but they were pigeon-holed until 1883, then sent back to be +revised, and the project is still delayed. The Colmenar prison of +Malaga was always under water in heavy rain, and although simple +repairs would have rectified this, nothing was done. The prison of Leon +was condemned in 1878 as unfit for human habitation, and its alcalde +(governor) stated that it had been reported for a century or more that +it wanted light, air and sanitary arrangements; typhoid was endemic +and three alcaldes had died of zymotic disease in a few years. It +was generally denounced as "a poisonous pesthouse, a judicial burial +ground." The Totana prison of Murcia was not properly a prison, but +only a range of warehouses and shops fit for the storage of grain +and herbs, but wholly unsuitable to lodge human beings. The district +governor speaking of the Infiesto prison at Oviedo in 1853 wrote: +"Humanity shudders at the horrible aspect of this detestable place." + +At Cartagena the common gaol was on the ground floor of the _presidio_ +or convict prison. Here the innocent, still untried prisoners occupied +a dark, damp den, enduring torments of discomfort, speedily losing +health and strength, and exposed by its ruinous condition to the +extremes of heat and cold in the varying seasons. Females were lodged +on a lower floor, darker and closer and even exposed to the worst +temptations. The convicts of the _presidio_ had free access to their +prison and immorality could not be prevented; no amount of supervision +(and there was really none) could have checked the moral contamination +more easily conveyed than the physical. These painful facts may be +read in an official report dated October, 1877, and are practically the +same as those detailed in the famous indictment of John Howard just a +century earlier.[9] + +[9] "Vida Penal en Espana," by Rafael Salillas, Madrid, 1888. + +Many of the makeshift prisons mentioned above were located in the very +heart of towns and were without boundary walls or means of separation +from the public, and two hundred and sixty-four had windows giving upon +the streets. It was impossible to ensure safe custody so limited was +the supervision, so insecure and ruinous the state of these imperfect +prisons. Escapes had been of very frequent occurrence, but the total +number could not be stated owing to the absence of accurate records +from year to year. One authority gave the annual average of escapes +as thirty-four, ranging over five successive years. They were greatly +facilitated by the slack, slipshod system of discipline and the +careless guard kept at the gates through which crowds constantly passed +in and out. Friends admitted wholesale to visit prisoners brought in +disguises and easily helped them to evade the vigilance of warders and +keepers. Escapes were most numerous in the small gaols,--about three +to one when compared to those from the _presidios_,--and were often +effected on the way to gaol through the neglect or connivance of the +escort, especially when the journey was made on foot and officers in +charge willingly consented to linger on the road in order to enjoy +themselves in the taverns and drinking shops. They even allowed their +prisoners to pay lengthened visits to their own homes if situated +anywhere near. + +A famous escape took place, _en masse_, in one of the prisons on the +occasion of a theatrical performance given by the prisoners in honour +of the governor's birthday. Permission had been duly accorded and the +function was organised on an imposing scale. The stage was erected in +an open space, scenery provided and a fine curtain or act drop behind +which the usual preparations were made. These had not gone beyond +rehearsal, however. All was ready to "ring up," the prison audience all +seated, enduring with increased impatience and dissatisfaction the long +wait which seemed and was actually endless. At last the authorities +interposed and the governor sent a messenger behind the curtain with +a peremptory order to begin. There was no company. Every single soul, +manager and actors had disappeared under cover of the curtain. A great +hole or gap had been made in the outer wall, through which all of the +performers had passed out to freedom. + +Numerous as are the escapes, recaptures are also frequent. That fine +corps, the _guardias civiles_, which constitutes the rural police of +Spain, always so active in the prevention and suppression of crime, has +been highly successful in the pursuit of fugitives, few of whom remain +at large for any length of time. Travellers in Spain, especially in +the country districts, must have been struck with the fine appearance +of these stalwart champions of the law. They are all old soldiers, well +trained and disciplined, ever on the side of order, never mixing in +politics, and conspicuous for their loyalty to the existing régime. + +The most disgraceful of the old prisons were in Madrid. The Saladero +which survived until very recently had been once an abattoir and +salting place of pigs. But it replaced one more ancient and even worse +in every aspect. The earlier construction is described by a Spanish +writer, Don Francisco Lastres, as the most meagre, the darkest, +dirtiest place imaginable. It had yet a deeper depth, an underground +dungeon, commonly called "el Infierno," hell itself, in which light was +so scarce that when new comers arrived, the old occupants could only +make out their faces by striking matches, manufactured from scraps of +linen steeped in grease saved from their soup or salad oil. When the +gaol was emptied it was so encrusted with abominable filth that to +clean it was out of the question and the whole place was swept bodily +out of existence. + +This must have been the prison in which George Borrow was confined when +that enterprising Englishman was arrested for endeavouring to circulate +the Bible in Spain, as the agent and representative of the British +Bible Society in 1835 and the following years. His experiences as told +by himself constitute one of the most thrilling books of adventure in +the English language, and his strangely interesting personality will +long be remembered and admired. He had led a very varied life, had +wandered the world over as the friend and associate of those curious +people, the gipsies, whose "crabbed" language he spoke with fluency +and to whose ways and customs he readily conformed. Readers whom his +"Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" have delighted will bear witness to the +daring and intrepid character which carried him safely through many +difficult and dangerous situations. He was a man of great stature, well +trained in the art of self defence, as he proved by his successful +contest with the "Flaming Tinker" described in "Lavengro." The bigoted +Spanish authorities caught a Tartar in Borrow. It was easy to arrest +him as he was nothing loth to go to gaol; he had long been thinking, as +he tells us, "of paying a visit to the prison, partly in the hope of +being able to say a few words of Christian instruction to the criminals +and partly with a view to making certain investigations in the robber +language of Spain." But, once in, he refused to come out. He took +high ground; his arrest had been unlawful; he had never been tried +or condemned and nothing would satisfy him but a full and complete +apology from the Spanish government. He was strongly backed up by the +British Ambassador and he was gratified in the end by the almost abject +surrender of the authorities. But he spent three weeks within the +walls and we have to thank his indomitable spirit for a glimpse into +the gloomy recesses of the Carcel de la Corte, the chief prison, at +that time, of the capital of Spain. + +The arrest was made openly in one of the principal streets of Madrid by +a couple of _alguazils_ who carried their prisoner to the office of the +_corregidor_, or chief magistrate, where he was abruptly informed that +he was to be forthwith committed to gaol. He was led across the Plaza +Mayor, the great square so often the scene in times past of the _autos +da fé_. Borrow, as he went, cast his eyes at the balcony of the city +hall where, on one occasion, "the last of the Austrian line in Spain +(Philip II) sat, and, after some thirty heretics of both sexes had been +burnt by fours and fives, wiped his face perspiring with heat and black +with smoke and calmly inquired, '_No hay mas?_'" (No more to come?) for +which exemplary proof of patience he was much applauded by his priests +and confessors, who subsequently poisoned him. + +"We arrived at the prison," Borrow goes on, "which stands in a narrow +street not far from the great square. We entered a dusty passage at +the end of which was a wicket. There was an exchange of words and in a +few moments I found myself within the prison of Madrid, in a kind of +corridor which overlooked at a considerable altitude what appeared to +be a court from which arose a hubbub of voices and occasional wild +shouts and cries...." Several people sat here, one of whom received the +warrant of committal, perused it with attention and, rising, advanced +towards Borrow. + +"What a figure! He was about forty years of age and ... in height might +have been some six feet two inches had his body not been curved much +after the fashion of the letter S. No weasel ever appeared lanker; +his face might have been called handsome, had it not been for his +extraordinary and portentous meagreness; his nose was like an eagle's +bill, his teeth white as ivory, his eyes black (oh, how black!) and +fraught with a strange expression; his skin was dark and the hair +of his head like the plumage of a raven. A deep quiet smile dwelt +continually on his features, but with all the quiet it was a cruel +smile, such a one as would have graced the countenance of a Nero. + +"'_Caballero_,' he said, 'allow me to introduce myself as the alcaide +of this prison.... I am to have the honour of your company for a time, +a short time doubtless, beneath this roof; I hope you will banish +every apprehension from your mind. I am charged to treat you with all +respect, a needless charge and _Caballero_, you will rather consider +yourself here as a guest than as a prisoner. Pray issue whatever +commands you may think fit to the turnkeys and officials as if they +were your own servants. I will now conduct you to your apartment. We +invariably reserve it for cavaliers of distinction. No charge will be +made for it although the daily hire is not unfrequently an ounce of +gold.' + +"This speech was delivered in pure sonorous Castilian with calmness, +gravity and almost dignity and would have done honour to a gentleman +of high birth. Now, who in the name of wonder, was this alcaide? One +of the greatest rascals in all Spain. A fellow who more than once by +his grasping cupidity and his curtailment of the miserable rations of +the prisoners caused an insurrection in the court below only to be +repressed by bloodshed and the summoning of military aid; a fellow of +low birth who five years previously had been a drummer to a band of +Royalist volunteers." + +The room allotted to Borrow was large and lofty, but totally destitute +of any kind of furniture except a huge wooden pitcher containing +the day's allowance of water. But no objection was made to Borrow's +providing for himself and a messenger was forthwith despatched to his +lodgings to fetch bed and bedding and all necessaries, with which +came a supply of food, and the new prisoner soon made himself fairly +comfortable. He ate heartily, slept soundly and rejoiced next day to +hear that this illegal arrest and confinement of a British subject +was already causing the high-handed minister who had ordered it, much +uneasiness and embarrassment. Borrow steadfastly refused to go free +without full and ample reparation for the violence and injustice +done to him. "Take notice," he declared, "that I will not quit this +prison till I have received full satisfaction for having been sent +hither uncondemned. You may expel me if you please, but any attempt +to do so shall be resisted with all the bodily strength of which I am +possessed." In the end the _amende_ was made in an official document +admitting that he had been imprisoned on insufficient grounds, and +Borrow went out after three weeks' incarceration, during which he +learned much concerning the prison and the people it contained. + +He refrains from a particular description of the place. "It would +be impossible," he says, "to describe so irregular and rambling an +edifice. Its principal features consisted of two courts, the one +behind the other, in which the great body of the prisoners took air +and recreation. Three large vaulted dungeons or _calabozos_ occupied +the three sides of the (first) court ... roomy enough to contain +respectively from one hundred to one hundred and fifty prisoners who +were at night secured with lock and bar, but during the day were +permitted to roam about the courts as they thought fit. The second +court was considerably larger than the first, though it contained but +two dungeons, horribly filthy and disgusting, used for the reception of +the lower grades of thieves. Of the two dungeons one was if possible +yet more horrible than the other. It was called the _gallinería_ or +'chicken coop' because within it every night were pent up the young +fry of the prison, wretched boys from seven to fifteen years of age, +the greater part almost in a state of nudity. The common bed of all +the inmates of these dungeons was the ground, between which and their +bodies nothing intervened save occasionally a _manta_ or horse cloth or +perhaps a small mattress; this latter luxury was however of exceedingly +rare occurrence. + +"Besides the _calabozos_ connected with the courts were other dungeons +in various parts of the prison, some of them quite dark, intended for +the reception of those whom it might be deemed expedient to treat with +peculiar severity. There was likewise a ward set apart for females. +Connected with the principal corridor were many small apartments where +resided prisoners confined for debt or for political offences, and, +lastly, there was a small _capilla_ or chapel in which prisoners cast +for death passed the last three days of their existence in the company +of their ghostly advisers. + +"I shall not forget my first Sunday in prison. Sunday is the gala +day ... and whatever robber finery is to be found in it is sure to +be exhibited on that day of holiness. There is not a set of people +in the world more vain than robbers in general, more fond of cutting +a figure whenever they have an opportunity. The famous Jack Sheppard +delighted in sporting a suit of Genoese velvet and when he appeared in +public generally wore a silver hilted sword by his side.... Many of the +Italian bandits go splendidly decorated, the cap alone of the Haram +Pacha, the head of the cannibal gipsy band which infested Hungary at +the conclusion of the 18th century, was adorned with gold and jewels to +the value of several thousand guilders.... The Spanish robbers are as +fond of display as their brethren of other lands, and whether in prison +or out are never so happy as when decked out in a profusion of white +linen in which they can loll in the sun or walk jauntily up and down." + +To this day, snow-white linen is an especial mark of foppery in the +Spanish peasant. To put on a clean shirt is considered a sufficient +and satisfactory substitute for a bath and in the humblest house a +white table cloth is provided for meals and clean sheets for the +beds. Borrow gives a graphic picture of the "tip-top thieves" he came +across. "Neither coat nor jacket was worn over the shirt, the sleeves +of which were wide and flowing, only a waistcoat of green or blue silk +with an abundance of silver buttons which are intended more for show +than use, as the waistcoat is seldom buttoned. Then there are wide +trousers something after the Turkish fashion; around the waist is a +crimson _faja_ or girdle and about the head is tied a gaudily coloured +handkerchief from the loom of Barcelona. Light pumps and silk stockings +complete the robber's array. + +"Amongst those who particularly attracted my attention were a father +and son; the former a tall athletic figure, of about thirty, by +profession a housebreaker and celebrated through Madrid for the +peculiar dexterity he exhibited in his calling. He was in prison for +an atrocious murder committed in the dead of night in a house in +Carabanchel (a suburb of Madrid), in which his only accomplice was his +son, a child under seven years of age. The imp was in every respect the +counterpart of his father though in miniature. He too wore the robber +shirt sleeves, the robber waistcoat with the silver buttons, the robber +kerchief round his brow and, ridiculously enough, a long Manchegan +knife in the crimson faja. He was evidently the pride of the ruffian +father who took all imaginable care of him, would dandle him on his +knee, and would occasionally take the cigar from his own mustachioed +lips and insert it in the urchin's mouth. The boy was the pet of the +court, for the father was one of the 'bullies' of the prison and those +who feared his prowess and wished to pay their court to him were always +fondling the child." + +Borrow when in the "Carcel de la Corte" renewed his acquaintance with +one, Balseiro, whom he had met in a low tavern frequented by thieves +and bull fighters on a previous visit to Madrid. One of these, Sevilla +by name, professed deep admiration for the Englishman and backed him to +know more than most people of the "crabbed" Gitano language. A match +was made with this Balseiro who claimed to have been in prison half +his life and to be on most intimate terms with the gipsies. When Borrow +came across him for the second time he was confined in an upper story +of the prison in a strong room with other malefactors. There was no +mistaking this champion criminal with his small, slight, active figure +and his handsome features, "but they were those of a demon." He had +recently been found guilty of aiding and abetting a celebrated thief, +Pepe Candelas, in a desperate robbery perpetrated in open daylight on +no less a person than the Queen's milliner, a Frenchwoman, whom they +bound in her own shop, from which they took goods to the amount of five +or six thousand dollars. Candelas had already suffered for his crime, +but Balseiro, whose reputation was the worse of the two, had saved his +life by the plentiful use of money, and the capital sentence had in his +case been commuted to twenty years' hard labour in the _presidio_ of +Malaga. + +When Borrow condoled with him, Balseiro laughed it off, saying that +within a few weeks he would be transferred and could at any time escape +by bribing his guards. But he was not content to wait and joined with +several fellow convicts who succeeded in breaking through the roof of +the prison and getting away. He returned forthwith to his evil courses +and soon committed a number of fresh and very daring robberies in and +around Madrid. At length dissatisfied with the meagre results and the +smallness of the plunder he secured, Balseiro planned a great stroke +to provide himself with sufficient funds to leave the country and live +elsewhere in luxurious idleness. + +A Basque named Gabira, a man of great wealth, held the post of +comptroller of the Queen's household. He had two sons, handsome boys +of twelve and fourteen years of age respectively, who were being +educated at a school in Madrid. Balseiro, well aware of the father's +strong affection for his children, resolved to make it subservient +to his rapacity. He planned to carry off the boys and hold them for +ransom at an enormous price. Two of his confederates, well-dressed and +of respectable appearance, drove up to the school and presenting a +forged letter, purporting to be written by the father, persuaded the +schoolmaster to let them go out for a jaunt in the country. They were +carried off to a hiding place of Balseiro's in a cave some five miles +from Madrid in a wild unfrequented spot between the Escorial and the +village of Torre Lodones. Here the two children were sequestered in +the safekeeping of their captors, while Balseiro remained in Madrid to +conduct negotiations with the bereaved father. But Gabira was a man +of great energy and determination and altogether declined to agree to +the terms proposed. He invoked the power of the authorities instead, +and, at his request, parties of horse and foot soldiers were sent to +scour the country and the cave was soon discovered, with the children, +who had been deserted by their guards in terror at the news of the +rigorous search instituted. Further search secured the capture of the +accomplices and they were identified by their young victims. Balseiro, +when his part in the plot became known, fled from the capital but was +speedily caught, tried, and with his associates suffered death on the +scaffold. Gabira with his two children was present at the execution. + +A brief description of the old Saladero, which has at last disappeared +off the face of the earth, may be of interest. It stood at the top +of the Santa Barbara hill on the left hand side, in external aspect +a half-ruined edifice tottering to its fall, propped and buttressed, +at one corner quite past mending, at another showing rotten cement +and plaster with its aged weather-worn walls stained with great black +patches of moisture and decay. A poor and wretched place outside with +no architectural pretensions, its interior was infinitely worse. It +was entered by a wide entrance not unlike that of an ancient country +inn or hostelry with a broken-down wooden staircase, leading to a +battered doorway of rotten timbers. The portals passed, the prison +itself was reached, a series of underground cellars with vaulted roofs +purposely constructed, as it seemed, to exclude light and prevent +ventilation, permeated constantly with fetid odours and abominable +foul exhalations from the perpetual want of change of atmosphere or +circulation of fresh air. Yet human beings were left to rot in these +nauseous and pestiferous holes for two or three years continuously. At +times the detention lasted five years on account of the disgracefully +slow procedure in the law courts and this although trials often ended +in acquittal or a verdict of non-responsibility for the criminal +act charged. Many of the unfortunate wretches subjected to these +interminable delays and waiting judgment, therefore still innocent in +the eyes of the law, were yet herded with those already convicted of +the most heinous offences. + +This neglect of the rules, generally accepted as binding upon civilised +governments in the treatment of those whom the law lays by the heels, +produced deplorable results. The gaol fever, that ancient scourge which +once ravaged ill-kept prisons and swept away thousands, but long ago +eliminated from proper places of durance, survived in the Saladero +of Madrid until quite a recent date. Forty cases occurred as late as +1876 and zymotic disease was endemic in the prison. It was also a +hotbed of vice, where indiscriminate association of all categories, +good, bad and indifferent--the worst always in the ascendent, fostered +and developed criminal instincts and multiplied criminals of the +most daring and accomplished kind. When, with a storm of indignant +eloquence, an eminent Spanish deputy, Don Manuel Silvela, denounced +the Saladero in the Cortes and took the lead in insisting upon its +demolition, he pointed out its many shortcomings. It was in the last +degree unhealthy; it was nearly useless as a place of detention, for +the bold or ingenious prisoner laughed at its restraints and escapes +took place daily to the number of fourteen and sixteen at a time. If, +however, with increased precautions it was possible to keep prisoners +secure within the walls, nothing could save them from one another. +Contamination was widespread and unceasing in a mass of men left +entirely to themselves without regular occupation, without industrial +labour or improving education and with no outlet for their energies but +demoralising talk and vicious practices. Not strangely the Saladero +became a great criminal centre, a workshop and manufactory of false +money, where strange frauds were devised, such as the _entierro_[10] or +suggested revelation of hidden treasure, the well known Spanish swindle +which has had ramifications almost all over the world. + +[10] See _post_, p. 161. + +An independent witness, nevertheless, speaking from experience, the +same George Borrow already quoted, has a good word to say for the +inmates of Spanish gaols. He was greatly surprised at their orderly +conduct and quiet demeanour. "They had their occasional bursts of +wild gaiety; their occasional quarrels which they were in the habit +of settling in a corner of the interior court with their long knives, +the result not infrequently being death or a dreadful gash in the face +or abdomen; but upon the whole their conduct was infinitely superior +to what might have been expected from the inmates of such a place. +Yet this was not the result of coercion or any particular care which +was exercised over them; for perhaps in no part of the world are +prisoners so left to themselves and so utterly neglected as in Spain, +the authorities having no further anxiety about them than to prevent +their escape, not the slightest attention being paid to their moral +conduct,--not a thought bestowed on their health, comfort or mental +improvement whilst within the walls. Yet in this prison of Madrid, and +I may say in Spanish prisons in general (for I have been an inmate +of more than one), the ears of the visitor are never shocked with +horrid blasphemy and obscenity as in those of some other countries and +more particularly in civilised France, nor are his eyes outraged or +himself insulted as he would assuredly be were he to look down upon the +courts from the galleries of the Bicêtre (in Paris)." And yet in this +prison of Madrid were some of the most desperate characters in Spain; +ruffians who had committed acts of cruelty and atrocity sufficient to +make one shudder with horror. Gravity and sedateness are the leading +characteristics of the Spaniards, and the worst robber, except in those +moments when he is engaged in his occupation, (and then no one is +more sanguinary, pitiless and wolfishly eager for booty), is a being +who can be courteous and affable and who takes pleasure in conducting +himself with sobriety and decorum. Borrow thought so well of these +fellow-prisoners that he was willing to entertain them at dinner in his +own private apartment in the gaol, and the governor made no objection +to knocking off their irons temporarily so that they might enjoy the +meal in comfort and convenience. + +A more intimate acquaintance with the inner life of the Spanish +gaols has been accorded by a modern writer, Don Rafael Salillas. He +summarises all its evils in the single word "money." All disorders +and shortcomings, the corruption, the absence of discipline, the +cruelties perpetrated, the prevailing license, the shameful immorality +constantly winked at or openly permitted, have had one and the same +origin, the use and misuse of the private funds the prisoners have at +their disposal. Until quite a recent date, everything, even temporary +liberty, had its price in Spanish prisons. This vicious system dated +from the times when the "alcaide" or head of an establishment, the +primary purpose of which was the safe custody of offenders, bought +his place and was permitted to recoup himself as best he could out +of his charges. The same abominable practice was at one time almost +a world-wide practice, but nowhere has it flourished so largely as +in Spain. No attempt was made to check it; it was acknowledged and +practically deemed lawful. + +In an ancient work on the prison of Seville, dating from the sixteenth +century, the writer, Christobal de Chaves, classifies the interior +under three heads; the spaces entered respectively by three doors +of gold, silver or copper, each metal corresponding to the profits +drawn from each. Imprisonment might be made more tolerable by payment +regulated according to a fixed tariff. For a certain sum any prisoner +might go home to sleep, he might purchase food where little, if any, +was provided, he might escape fetters or purchase "easement of irons," +as in the old English prisons. To enhance the value of the relief +afforded worse hardships were inflicted at the outset. Restraint was +made most irksome in the beginning of imprisonment. The fetters were +then the heaviest and most varied, the deepest and vilest dungeons were +the first quarters allotted. A plain hint of relaxation and alleviation +was given, to be obtained at a price and the converse made equally +certain. Increased pain and discomfort were the penalty for those who +would not, or, worse still, who could not produce the extortionate sums +demanded. Tasks imposed were rendered more difficult; it was a common +practice to oil or grease the rope by which water was raised from a +well, so that it should slip through the fingers and intensify the +labour. + +When authority had sold its good will or wrung the life blood from its +victims they were handed over to the tender mercies of their fellow +prisoners, the self-constituted masters and irresponsible tyrants in +the place. The most brutal and overbearing ruled supreme within the +walls and levied taxes by the right of the strongest. The "garnish" of +the old British prisons, the enforced payments to gain a first footing, +was exacted to the last in Spain from all new arrivals and was called +"_cobrar el patente_," _i. e._ collecting the dues. To hesitate or +refuse payment was promptly punished by cruel blows; the defaulters +were flogged; they got the _culebrazo_ (whipping) with a rope kept for +the purpose. The quite penniless were despoiled of their clothing and +consoled with the remark that it was better for them to take to their +beds because they were naked, than on account of injuries and wounds, +or they wrapped themselves up in some ragged cloak infested with fleas. +The bullies or _valientes_ were not interfered with by the authorities +but rather supported by them. In fact they played into each other's +hands. Both worked their wicked will upon their victims and in their +own way,--the authorities by right of the legal powers they wielded, +the master-prisoners by force of character and the strength of their +muscles. Both squeezed out money like juice from a lemon, robbed, +swindled or stole all that came in their way. + +Guzman de Alfarache, the typical thief of the time of Philip II, whose +life and adventures are told by the author of the most famous of the +picaresque novels, describes his journey from Seville to Cadiz to +embark upon one of the galleys which made up the naval power of Spain. +"As we started on the road, we came upon a swine-herd with a number of +young pigs, which we surrounded and captured, each of us taking one. +The man howled to our commissary that he should make us restore them, +but he turned a deaf ear and we stuck to our plunder. At the first +halt we laid hands on other goods and concealed them inside one of the +pigs when the commissary interposed, discovered the things and took +possession of them himself." + +The alcaide of the prison turned everything to profit. He sold the +Government stores, bedding and clothing to the prison bullies who +retailed the pieces to individual prisoners. He trafficked in the +disciplinary processes, accepting bribes to overlook misconduct, and +pandered to the worst vices of the inmates by allowing visitors of +both sexes to have free access to them and to bring in all manner of +prohibited articles, unlimited drink, and dangerous weapons, knives and +daggers and other arms for use in attack and defence in the quarrels +and murderous conflicts continually occurring. + +A fruitful source of profit was the sale of privileged offices, permits +to hawk goods and to trade within the precincts of the prison. Salillas +when he visited the Seville prison not many years ago, saw numbers of +prisoners selling cigars and cigarettes in the yards, various articles +of food, such as _gazpacho_, the popular salad of Andalusia, compounded +of oil and bread soaked in water, and drinks including _aguardiente_, +that powerful Spanish spirit akin to Hollands. Some kept gaming tables +and paid a tax on each game and its profits and especially when the +"King" was turned up at "Monte." + +Salillas publishes a list of prices that ruled for places, privileges +and boons conceded to the prisoners. To become a "_cabo de vara_," a +"corporal carrying the stick" or wand of office, cost from eight to +sixteen dollars. "Who and what was the _Cabo de Vara_?" he asks and +answers the question. "A hybrid creature the offspring of such diverse +parents as the law and crime; half murderer, half robber, who after +living in defiance of the law is at least prevented from doing further +harm in freedom, is locked up and entrusted with executive authority +over companions who have passed through the same evil conditions and +are now at his mercy. He is half galley-slave chained to the oar, half +public functionary wearing the badge of officialdom and armed with a +stick to enforce his authority. He represents two very opposite sets of +ideas; on the one hand that of good order and the maintenance of penal +discipline, on the other that of a natural inclination towards the +wrong doing in which he has been a practitioner and for which he is, in +a way, enduring the penalty. To succeed he must possess some strongly +marked personal qualities; he should be able to bully and impose his +will upon those subjected to his influence, overbearing, masterful, +swaggering, ready to take the law into his own hands and insist upon +its observance as he chooses to interpret its dictates." + +The post of hospital orderly or cook or laundry-man could be secured +for about the same price, while a small fee to the prison surgeon +gained a perfectly sound man admission to hospital for treatment he +did not need, but in which he was much more comfortable than in the +ordinary prison. The place of prison barber was to be bought for +four dollars; employment as a shoemaker two dollars; relief from a +punishment ordered three dollars; permission to pay a visit home, four +dollars. These prices were not definitely settled and unchangeable. +Where a certain profit could be extracted from a particular post such +as the charge of the canteen it was put up to auction and knocked down +to the highest bidder. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD + + The presidio or convict prison--Stations at home and in + Northern Africa--Convict labour--Cruelties inflicted on the + presidiarios employed in road making--Severity of the régime at + Valladolid--Evils of overcrowding--Ceuta--Its fortifications--Early + history--The _entierro_ or "Spanish swindle"--Several interesting + instances--Monsignor X--Armand Carron--M. Elked--Credulity of the + victims--Boldness of the swindlers--Attempt to dupe a Yorkshire + squire--Discovery of the fraud. + + +The Spanish "presidios" or penal establishments for offenders sentenced +to long terms are the counterpart of the English convict prisons. +They are of two classes, those at home in provincial capitals or in +fortresses and strongholds, and those abroad installed in North Africa, +as the alternative or substitute for the penal colonies beyond the +sea established by Italy and France. Home presidios are at Burgos, +Cartagena, Granada, Ocana, Santona, Valladolid and Saragossa. There are +two at Valencia, one at Tarragona and two more at Alcalá de Henares. +Of the foregoing that of Cartagena was especially constructed to meet +the needs of the arsenal and dockyard and is spoken of as deplorably +deficient by those who visited it. Four hundred convicts were +lodged miserably in one dormitory; their bedding consisted of a rough +mattress and one brown rug; clothing was issued only every two years; +the dietaries were supplied by a thievish contractor who supplied +a soup consisting of beans boiled in water, abstracting the ration +of oil and bacon. A presidio of ancient date was installed in the +arsenal of La Carraca near Cadiz, a survival really of the _galera_ or +galleys planted on shore when human motive power ceased to be used in +propelling warships. + +[Illustration: _Castel dell' Ovo_ + +Situated on a high rocky island near the shore of Naples, it was a +place of great security. A number of the islands in the bay of Naples +have been utilised as prisons and as penal settlements.] + +A terrible story is preserved of the cruelties inflicted on a number +of these _presidiarios_ employed to make the road between San Lucar de +Barrameda and Puerto Santa Maria. Their labour was leased to an inhuman +contractor who worked them literally to death. They were half-starved, +over-burthened with chains and continually flogged so that within one +year half their whole number of one thousand had disappeared; they had +died "of privation, of blows, hunger, cold, insufficient clothing and +continuous neglect." The contractor cleared a large profit, but lost it +and died in extreme poverty after having been arraigned and tried for +his life as a murderer. + +The presidio of Valladolid was also condemned for the severity of +its régime. The climate alternated between great summer heat and +extreme cold in winter, but the convicts worked in the quarries in +all weathers. The death record rose in this prison to such a high +figure that a third of the average total population of three thousand +perished within eighteen months. The general average of the presidios +was low but as a rule the death rate was not high. Even when twenty +per cent. of males and twenty-five per cent. of the females were sick +and hospital accommodation was scarce and imperfect, the deaths did +not exceed two and a half per cent. per annum and this included the +fatal results of quarrels ending in duels to the death. One of the +most serious evils was overcrowding. Official figures give the prison +population as about nineteen thousand and the available house-room was +for not more than twelve thousand. Salillas puts it at a much lower +total, asserting there was barely room for three thousand. + +While the prisons of Cuba are not strictly within the scope of this +work, one of historic and particular interest may be mentioned. This is +Morro Castle, which still guards the Harbour of Havana. It was begun +in 1589, soon after the unsuccessful attack on Havana by Drake, and +was finished in 1597. In 1862 it was partly destroyed by the English +who captured it and remained in possession of the city for a year. The +arms of the city, granted by royal decree, were appropriately three +castles of silver on a blue field, and a golden key. The castles were +La Fuerza, El Morro and La Punta, guarding the harbour. + +The ancient fortress has been described as a "great mass of dun +coloured rock and tower and battlement and steep, of which the various +parts seem to have grown into one another." It contains cells as +damp, dark and unwholesome as those in the notorious dungeons of the +old world. This is testified to by a California journalist, Charles +Michelson, who was arrested by mistake and thrown into a cell in the +castle just before the Spanish-American War. Although he was liberated +in two days, his experience was not soon forgotten. The cell was an +arch of heavy masonry, damp with the moisture of years. The only window +was high up in the arch, and there was no furniture--no bed, blanket or +chair. He was not without company of a kind, however, for the place was +full of cockroaches and rats. When he clambered up and tried to look +out of the window, which commands a fine view of the harbour, a guard +outside poked at him with a bayonet. The soup brought him was, he said, +"strong and scummy, and the can had been so recently emptied of its +original contents that there was a film of oil over the top of it." His +interpreter, who was arrested at the same time, fared worse, for he was +bound and kept in even a fouler cell. + +In the days of Spanish sovereignty, many Cuban prisoners were shot +and their bodies were hurled from the outer wall of the castle to the +sharks of the so-called "shark's nest," forty feet below, on the gulf +side. + +There are said to be many caverns in the castle through which the rush +and noise of the waves make music, but this is probably due to the +winds rather than the tides. + +Spain maintains several presidios beyond sea, chiefly on the North +African coast, and there is one also at Palma de Mallorca, one of +the Balearic islands. Those in Africa are Alhucemas, Melilla, Peñon +de Velez de la Gomera, Chaferinas and Ceuta, immediately opposite +Gibraltar, which is no doubt the first and original of all Spanish +presidios. The expression when first used was taken to convey the +meaning of a penal settlement, established within a fortress under +military rule and guardianship, with its personnel constantly employed +on the fortifications, constructing, repairing and making good wear +and tear, and answering, if need be, the call to arms in reinforcement +of the regular garrison. The early records of Ceuta prove this. This +stronghold, on one side rising out of the sea, with its landward +defences ever confronting a fierce hostile power, was exposed at all +times to siege and incursion. When the Moorish warriors became too +bold the Spanish general sallied forth to beat up their quarters, +destroy their batteries and drive them back into the mountains. Working +parties of _presidiarios_, armed, accompanied the troops and did +excellent service, eager, as the old chronicler puts it, to clear their +characters by their heroism, "always supposing that blood may wash out +crime." + +Ceuta was a type of the military colony beyond sea, held by a strong +garrison against warlike natives who resisted the invasion and would +have driven out the intruders. The settlement was secured by continual +fortification in which the abundant penal labour was constantly +employed. Its social conditions were precisely similar to those which +obtained in the early days of Australian transportation and such +as prevail to-day in the French penal colony of New Caledonia. The +population is made up of two principal classes, bond and free. The +first are convicts serving their sentences and the second the officials +who guard them. Ordinary colonists have not settled to any large extent +in these North African possessions. A few traders and agriculturists +have come seeking such fortune as offers and the number of residents is +increased by released convicts, the counterpart of the emancipist class +in the Antipodes, who remain with the prospect of earning a livelihood +honestly, instead of lapsing into evil courses on their return to the +mother country. + +Ceuta is essentially a convict city, not exactly founded by penal +labour but enlarged and improved by it and served by it in all the +needs of daily domestic life. The first period of close confinement +on arrival is comparatively brief and is spent in the prison proper +outside the city at hard labour in association on the fortifications, +in the workshops and quarries. In the second period the convicts +are permitted to enter the city and are employed under supervision +in warehouses, offices and in water carrying. In the third period, +commonly called from "gun to gun," extending daily from the morning +gun fire until the evening, the convicts are allowed to go freely into +the city and work there on their own account. The fourth and last, +entered when two thirds of the whole sentence has been completed, is +called "under conditions," that is to say, in conditional freedom, and +the convicts are let out to private employers precisely as they were +"assigned" in old Australian days. They may live with their masters, +sleep out, and are only obliged to report at the prison once a month +for muster. More than a third of the total number are thus employed. + +The result is that Ceuta offers the singular spectacle that it is +nominally a prison, but the bulk of the prisoners live beyond the +walls, quite unguarded and really in the streets forming part of the +ordinary population. Convicts are to be met with at every corner, they +go in and out through the front doors of houses, no one looks at them +in surprise, no one draws aside to let them pass. The situation is +described graphically by Salillas. "Who is the coachman on the box? A +convict. Who is the man who waits at table? A convict. The cook in the +kitchen? A convict. The nursemaid in charge of the children? A convict +(male). Are their employers afraid of being robbed or murdered? Not in +the least." + +Another eye witness[11] writes:-- + +[11] Relosillas, "Four Months in Ceuta." + +"Could this happen in any other city in Spain? If the inhabitants found +themselves rubbing shoulders with the scum of the earth, with the worst +malefactors, with criminals guilty of the most heinous offences, would +they have enjoyed one moment's peace? Could they overcome the natural +repugnance felt by honest and respectable people for those whom the law +has condemned to live apart? The fact is that at Ceuta no one objects. +The existing state of things is deemed the most natural thing in the +world. It has been too long the rule and it is claimed seriously that +no evil consequences have resulted. The utmost confidence is reposed +in these ex-criminals whose nature has been seemingly quite changed +by relegation to the African presidio. They wash and get up linen +without losing more pieces than a first class washerwoman, they wait +on the children with the tenderest concern, they perform all sorts of +household service, go to market, run messages, polish the floors and +the furniture with all the zeal and industry of the best servants in +the world. The most cordial relations exist between employers and their +convict attendants and cases have been known where the former have +carried the latter back to Spain to continue their service. One was a +Chinese cook who was excused ten years' supervision to go back with his +master." + +It is claimed by the champions of Ceuta that despite the freedom +accorded to the convicts their conduct is exemplary. "I can certify," +says Relosillas[12] "that during a whole year there were but three +or four instances of crime amongst the convicts employed in domestic +service." Others however are not so laudatory. An independent witness, +Doña Concepcion Arenal, has little good to say of the prisons. "In +them justice is punished or rather crucified," she wrote, "and with +it hygiene, morality, decency, humanity, all, in a word, which every +one who is not himself hateful and contemptible, respects. It is +impossible to give any idea of the _cuartel principal_ or chief convict +barrack in the place. We can only refer to its terrible and revolting +demoralisation." Yet she is inclined to contradict herself and argues +that the convict when trusted will behave well. His life on the whole +is light and easy; he has sufficient food, congenial company, and can +better his position by steady industry; he wears no chains, performs no +rude or laborious tasks and is driven neither into insubordination nor +crime. + +[12] "Four Months in Ceuta." + +The statements just quoted are hardly credible and cannot be reconciled +with the reports of others, from personal experience. Mr. Cook, an +English evangelist, who has devoted himself to extensive prison +visitation, has drawn a dark picture of this ideal penal settlement as +he saw it in 1892. At that date general idleness was the rule. Hundreds +hung about with no work to do. Criminals with the worst antecedents +were included in the prison population. One had been a _bandido_ or +brigand who had been guilty of seven murders; another had four murders +to his credit and one assassin was in a totally dark cell, confined +hand and foot, condemned to death and daily expecting to be shot. No +fewer than one hundred and twelve slept in one large room without +more supervision than that exercised by their fellows discharging the +functions of warders. Mr. Cook expresses his wonder that they did not +break out oftener into rebellion. As a matter of fact and as against +the statement given above, outbreaks were not uncommon with fierce +attacks upon officers and murderous affrays among the prisoners. Crime +and misconduct are certainly not unknown in Ceuta. + +A gruesome description was given by a correspondent writing to the +_London Times_ in the year 1876. When he visited the citadel prison he +found from eight hundred to one thousand convicts lodged there in a +wretched condition, clad only in tattered rags, the cast off uniforms +of soldiers, generally insufficient for decency. They tottered in and +out of the ruinous sheds supposed to shelter them, quarrelled like +hyenas over their meagre and repulsive rations, which were always short +through the dishonesty of the thieving contractor, and fought to the +death with the knives which every one carried. Each shed contained +from one to two hundred where they lay like beasts upon the ground. +Vermin crept up the wall and dirt abounded on all sides. "No words of +mine," said this outspoken eye-witness, "can paint the darkness, the +filth, the seething corruption of these dens of convicts, dens into +which no streak of sunlight, divine or human, ever finds its way, and +where nothing is seen or heard but outrage and cruelty on the one hand, +misery and starvation and obscenity on the other." There was a worse +place, the "Presidio del Campo," or field prison in which the hard +labour gangs[13] employed on the fortifications were housed in still +filthier hovels, with less food and more demoralisation. This same +correspondent when he enquired his way to the presidio was told by a +Spanish officer: "They are not presidios but the haunts of wild beasts +and nurseries of thieves." Obviously there is much discrepancy in the +various accounts published. + +[13] Irons are not carried by the convicts, not even by those sentenced +to imprisonment "in chains," _con la cadena_. They were considered an +interference with the efforts and strength of the labourer. + +The true state of the case may best be judged by examining and setting +forth the conditions prevailing. On the surface the convicts may seem +to abstain from serious misconduct, but even this may be doubted from +the facts in evidence. "It is a wild beasts' cage," writes one well +informed authority. It may be to some extent a cage without bars, or +in which the wild beasts are so tamed that they may be allowed to go +at large and do but little harm, but evil instincts are at times in +the ascendancy as shown in the quarrels and disorders that occur, but +to no greater extent says the apologist than in any of the prisons on +the Spanish mainland. It may be that the régime is so mild that the +convicts yield willingly to it without a murmur and seldom rise against +it. But the very atmosphere of the place is criminal. There may be few +prison offences where rules are easy but if serious offences against +discipline are but rarely committed within the limits, others against +society are constantly prepared for execution beyond. Ceuta is a hot +bed of crime, the seed is sown there, nourished and developed to bear +baleful fruit afterwards. It is a first class school for the education +of thieves, swindlers, coiners, and forgers who graduate and take +honours in the open world of evil doing. It is the original home, some +say, of the famous fraud, peculiarly Spanish, called the _entierro_, +which still flourishes and draws profit as ever, not from Spain alone, +but from far and wide in nearly all civilised countries. + +The _entierro_, or the "burial" literally translated, means an artful +and specious proposal to reveal the whereabouts of a buried treasure. +It is another form of the well known "confidence trick" or, as the +French call it, the "_vol à l'americaine_," and we cannot but admire +the ingenuity and inventiveness so often displayed in its practice, +while expressing surprise at the credulity and gullibility of those +who are deluded by it. It originates as a rule in a letter addressed +from the prison to some prominent person in Spain or elsewhere, for the +astute practitioner is well provided with lists of names likely to be +useful to him in his business. It is on record that a seizure was made +in the presidio of Granada of a whole stock in trade, a great mass of +information secretly collected from all parts of the world to serve in +carrying out the fraud of the _entierro_, and with it a number of forms +of letters in various European languages. The invitation is marked +"very private and confidential" and conveys with extreme caution and +mystery the suggestion that for a sufficient consideration the secret +hiding place of a very valuable treasure will be confided to the person +addressed. Colour is given to the proposal by some plausible but not +always probable story on which it is based. + +In one case the writer pretended to be a Spanish officer who had +received from the hands of Napoleon III himself, when flying to England +in September, 1870, a casket of jewels which he was charged to convey +to the Countess of Montijo, mother of the Empress Eugenie, in Madrid. +The messenger had however become involved in a Carlist or revolutionary +movement and was now in prison, but he had succeeded before arrest +in burying the jewels in a remote spot so cleverly concealed that he +alone possessed the secret. The liberal offer was made to the person +addressed of a fourth share of the total value provided he would +transmit to the prisoner correspondent through a sure hand, indicated, +the sum of three hundred pounds in cash by means of which he could +secure release and proceed to unearth the treasure. + +Another story is as follows: + +One day the regular mail boat brought to Ceuta an Italian ecclesiastic, +a high dignitary of the Church, of grave and venerable appearance, who +proceeded at once to make a formal call upon the commandant or general +commanding for the time being. He was in search of certain information +and he more particularly desired to be directed to an address he +sought, that of a small house in a retired spot in one of the small +little-frequented streets in the hilly town. He carried with him a +heavy and rather bulky handbag which when he started from the general's +he begged he might leave in his charge on the plea that its contents +were valuable. + +After the lapse of two or three hours the Monsignor returned with +terrified aspect and evidently in the greatest distress of mind. He +entreated that a priest might be summoned to whom he might confess, and +his wish was forthwith gratified. The moment he had unbosomed himself +to his ghostly adviser, he seized his handbag and ran down to the port +just in time to catch the return mail boat to Algeciras. The priest who +had heard his confession was to be released from the secret confided +to him and reveal it to the authorities as soon as the safe arrival of +the mail boat at the mainland was signalled across to Ceuta. Then the +whole story came out. + +Monsignor X was one of the most trusted and confidential chaplains of +his Holiness the Pope and he had gone to Ceuta in the interests of an +ex-Carlist general who had the misfortune to be detained there as a +political prisoner. A sum of money was needed to compass his escape +from the presidio and help him to reach in safety the burying place +of a vast treasure, to disinter it and apply it to the furtherance of +the civil war in progress. This general seems to have satisfied the +papal dignitaries of his identity and good faith; his communication +was endorsed with plans and statements pointing to the whereabouts of +the hidden treasure, and the method by which the money he needed for +his enterprise was to be used, was minutely described. He said he was +too closely watched to allow any messenger to reach him direct, but he +had friends in Ceuta, two titled ladies, near relatives who had been +permitted to live in the prison town and to visit him from time to time +and who would pass the money to him when it was brought to Ceuta. + +Monsignor X landed as we have seen and learned where he was to go, +but with commendable caution he hesitated to take his money with him. +He would hand it over when he had made the personal acquaintance of +the general's aristocratic friends. They did not prove very desirable +acquaintances. He found the house he was to visit, was admitted +without question, but then the door was shut behind him and he was +murderously assailed by half a dozen convicts, knife in hand. He was +ordered to give up the money he had brought, and when on searching him +it was found missing, he was rifled of everything he carried in his +pockets, both his watch and a considerable sum in cash. His life was +spared because it was certain that his prolonged absence would lead to +a hue and cry, but he was obliged to swear that he would not attempt +to leave the house for one clear hour so that the robbers might make +good their escape. Moreover he was warned if he gave the alarm he +would certainly be assassinated. Hence his desire to pass beyond the +Straits of Gibraltar before the outrage became known. When the house +was visited it was found empty and unfurnished with not a sign of life +on the premises. The most interesting feature in the story is that the +swindlers should fly at such high game, but it is founded on undoubted +fact. The Carlist insurrection was often used to father the attempt to +defraud. + +In another case a letter conveyed to the proprietor of a vineyard at +Maestrazgo the alluring news that a large sum in gold was hidden on +his ground, the accumulated contributions of Carlist supporters in +the neighbourhood. The exact position would be revealed and a plan +forwarded in exchange for a sum of four thousand dollars in hard +cash, which was to be forwarded to Ceuta according to certain precise +instructions. The money was sent but no reply came. Days and weeks +passed and at last, weary of waiting and a little unhappy, the easily +duped victim made up his mind to cross to Ceuta in person and bring his +disappointing correspondent to book. The wine grower unhappily landed +in the presidio on the day they were baiting a bull in the streets, a +game constantly played and with more danger to the passers-by than the +players. The bull goaded into a state of fury attacked the new comer +and tossed him so that he fell to the ground with both legs broken. The +poor man got no plan and no news of his dollars. All he gained was two +months in bed lying between life and death. + +The writer Relosillas, who filled the place of an inspector or surveyor +of works at Ceuta, has given some of his personal experiences in that +convict prison.[14] He describes how on one occasion he was present +at a free fight among the convicts in the barracks which had been +originally a Franciscan convent. He was in his own office at a late +hour, hard by, when he heard a terrible uproar in the great dormitory +and ran over to exercise his authority and prevent bloodshed. Knives +were out and being freely used by combatants ranged on two sides, one +lot backing up a friend who had been robbed of a photograph of his +sister, the other lot defending the thief, who had stolen the portrait +for use in a buried treasure swindle. He had created her a marchioness +and intended to forward it as a bait to show his intimacy with the +aristocracy and prepare the way for the fraud. The case may be quoted +to show how minutely the practitioners in the _entierro_ studied their +ground and acquired the means of operating. In all Spanish prisons and +notably in Ceuta, cunning convicts are to be found, men of ability +and experience, who have travelled far and wide, who are conversant +with many languages and well acquainted with prominent people in other +countries and the leading facts and particulars of their lives. + +[14] _Catorce Meses en Ceuta_, Malaga, 1886. + +A few additional stories of swindles akin to the _entierro_ are of much +interest. + +A French landowner by name Armand Carron, a resident of a small town +in the Department of Finistère, received, some time ago, a letter from +Ceuta, signed Santiago (or James) Carron. The writer explained that he +was a native of Finistère where the Frenchman resided; that he was a +namesake and a member of the landowner's family, son of a first cousin +of his who had left France many years before and settled in Spain with +wife and three sons, of whom he, Santiago Carron, now alone survived. +This Santiago, the letter went on, had been placed by his father in +the military college at Segovia, had served through all the subaltern +grades as an artillery officer, had risen to the rank of brigadier +and in that capacity had been sent out in command of the district of +the Cinco Villas in Cuba, where he had married the daughter of Don +Diego Calderon, a wealthy Havana merchant, and the owner of vast +sugar plantations. His wife had brought him a dowry of four million +reales (£40,000) and had died leaving him a daughter called after her +mother, Juanita, now about 17 years old. This girl, the only object of +her father's love and care, had been by him sent to Europe and placed +for her education at the convent of the Sacre Coeur at Chamartin near +Madrid. + +His career in the army had been for many years very fortunate and his +wedded life in Cuba exceedingly happy. He had been laden with honours +by a grateful Government and received many proofs of his country's +trust, but lately the officer in charge of the chest of the military +district at Cinco Villas had absconded and run away to New York with +a sum of two million reales. As he, the brigadier, was answerable for +his subaltern's conduct and was not willing to sacrifice one half of +his wife's--now his daughter's--fortune to pay for the defaulter, he +had been summoned to Spain and then relegated, or sent as a prisoner +on parole to the fortress at Ceuta to take his trial before a court +martial, which owing to the dilatoriness of all things in Spain might +sit till doomsday. + +After thus giving an account of himself and his belongings the +brigadier proceeded to explain the reasons which induced him to address +himself to his unknown French relative. Having suffered much from long +exposure to the heat of a tropical climate he felt old before his time, +and his hereditary enemy, the gout, had by several sharp twinges made +him aware of the precariousness of his tenure of life. He had only that +one daughter in the world, the sole heiress of a considerable patrimony +who might at any moment be deprived of her natural protector and for +whose final education and introduction into society it was his duty to +provide. The girl had great natural gifts, had inherited her mother's +Creole beauty, and the accounts of her proficiency, given by the nuns +at Chamartin were most flattering to his paternal pride. He was anxious +to appoint a guardian to his daughter and he could think of no one +fitter in every respect for that charge than his only relative, M. +Armand Carron. + +He (the brigadier) had lately been diligently looking over his father's +papers; had found among them very numerous and interesting family +documents--ample evidence that a hearty and loving correspondence had +for many years been kept up between his father, Vincent Carron, and the +father of M. Armand Carron, also called Armand, and he followed up the +narrative with frequent allusions to several incidents occurring in the +early youth of the two cousins, with descriptions of localities, common +acquaintances and the usual joys and sorrows alternating in their +domestic circles. Altogether it was a well contrived, plausible story +verging so closely upon probability as to avoid shipwreck upon the rock +of truth. + +M. Armand Carron of Finistère did not think it right or expedient to +cast doubt on the genuineness of the communication. He answered the +brigadier's appeal by calling him "My dear cousin," saying he had a +perfect recollection of his father's frequent allusions to Vincent +Carron, the cousin who had grown up with him in their own home and only +left their native town on arriving at man's estate. After heartily +congratulating the brigadier on his conspicuous career which reflected +so much lustre on their own name, and condoling with him about the +momentary cloud that had now--undeservedly he felt sure--settled upon +it, he assured his newly found relative of his sympathy and of his +readiness to look upon the brigadier's daughter as his own child, +to receive her into the bosom of his family and take that care of +her which so precious a jewel as she was described to be, must fully +deserve. + +So the matter was settled. The correspondence between the two newly +found relatives continued for six or seven months and became very +affectionate and confidential. The brigadier sent the Frenchman +his photograph and that of his daughter, both taken in Havana and +bearing the name and trade mark of the artist. The one represented a +middle-aged officer of high rank in full uniform and with the Grand +Cross of San Hermengeldo on his breast, a fine manly countenance with +long grey silky moustache; the other exhibiting the arch, pretty +countenance of a brunette in her teens, with smooth bands of raven hair +on either side of her low forehead and the shade of a moonlit night in +her dark eyes; a bright blooming creature with dimples and pouting lips +and a look of humour and frolic and sense in every feature. Together +with the photographs came a letter of Juanita Carron to the brigadier, +her father, from the convent, and bearing the Chamartin postmark, +in which the girl congratulated her father on his discovery of his +Finistère relative, expressed a firm confidence that her loving father +would long be spared to her and concluded that she would for her part, +in the worst event, willingly acknowledge her relative as a second +father and acquiesce in every arrangement that might be made for her +welfare. + +Seven months passed and the post one morning brought M. Armand Carron +a letter with the Ceuta postmark, but no longer in his cousin's +handwriting. The writer who signed himself Don Francisco Muñoz, parish +priest of San Pedro in Ceuta, announced the death of Brigadier Santiago +Carron, which had occurred seven days before the date of the letter. He +stated that the brigadier, brought to the last extremity by a sudden +attack of gout, had been attended, by him, Don Francisco, as priest +in his last hours, and been instructed to wind up all his earthly +affairs both in Ceuta and in Madrid. He was further empowered to remove +the Señorita Juanita, the brigadier's daughter, from the Chamartin +convent and take charge of her during her journey to Finistère where +she should be delivered into the hands of her appointed guardian. The +priest's letter enclosed the printed obituary handbill announcing the +brigadier's decease, according to Spanish custom, the last will and +testament of the deceased appointing M. Armand Carron sole executor, +guardian and trustee of his only daughter Juanita, and entrusting to +him the management of her fortune of one million francs, (£40,000), +mentioning the banks in Paris and Amsterdam in which that sum lay +in good state securities. The whole document was duly drawn up by +a notary, with witnesses' signatures, seals, etc., and even with +certificates of the brigadier's burial, the signatures and stamps of +the civil and military authorities at Ceuta and those of the governor +in command of the place. + +At the close of this minute statement the priest expressed his +readiness to comply with the brigadier's instructions by travelling to +Madrid, receiving the young Juanita from the hands of the Sacre Coeur +nuns and continuing with her the journey to Finistère, immediately +upon hearing from M. Armand Carron that he was prepared to receive +his lovely ward. M. Armand Carron answered by return of post that +his house and arms were open to welcome his relative's orphan child. +Where there came after some time another letter from Don Francisco +Muñoz explaining that the brigadier, although the most methodical and +careful of men, had left some trifling debts at Ceuta and there were +the doctors' and undertakers' bills to be settled: also the travelling +expenses for himself and the young lady which he, the priest, was not +able to defray. Besides all this the papers, deeds, books and other +portable property left by the brigadier, some of it very valuable, but +also bulky--among which were the certificates of the state securities +deposited in the French and Dutch banks--which at the express desire of +the deceased would have at once to be conveyed to Finistère. He, the +priest, would have to be responsible for all this, so that, what with +the boarding money and fees due to the nuns, and the clothes, linen +and other necessaries the young lady might require to fit herself for +appearance in the world, an expense would have to be incurred of which +it was difficult to calculate the exact amount. The conclusion was that +he could not undertake the journey unless M. Armand Carron supplied him +with a round sum of money, say four thousand francs, which he could +forward in French bank notes and in a registered letter addressed not +to him but to a Doña Dolores Mazaredo, a pious woman, whom her reduced +fortunes had compelled to take service as a washerwoman of the Ceuta +state prison. + +The reason alleged by the priest for receiving the money in this +roundabout way was that as the brigadier had died in debt to the +state and the government might suspect that property belonging to the +deceased had come into his, the priest's charge and be subject to the +law of embargo on the brigadier's effects, it was desirable that every +precaution should be taken to disarm suspicion and prevent injury. + +The fraud was entirely successful and in due course the letter from +Finistère enclosing bank notes for four thousand francs was delivered +to the washerwoman and from her passed into the hands of the sharpers +whose deep laid plan and transcendent inventive powers were thus +crowned with full success. M. Armand Carron heard no more of his +orphaned relative. + +The most astonishing feature in the "Spanish Swindle," as it is +commonly and almost universally known, is the extent to which it is +practised and in countries far remote from those in which the trick +originates. In one case a resident in the Argentine Republic received a +letter from Madrid which he communicated to the press stating that he +could not conceive how his name and address had become known. But it +was clear that the Argentine and many other directories were possessed +by the swindler, for similar letters all conveying the usual rosy +stories of hidden treasure had come into the country wholesale. The +fraudulent agent had long discovered that the credulity and cupidity on +which he trades are universal weaknesses and that he is likely to find +victims in every civilised part of the world. At another time Germany +was inundated with typewritten letters from the Spanish prisoner, and +the correspondent cleverly accounted for his use of the machine by +stating that he was employed as a convict clerk in the office of the +governor of the prison. + +An attempt of the same kind was tried on a Swiss gentleman of Geneva, +but it failed signally. The swindler in Barcelona thought he had +beguiled his correspondent into purchasing certain papers at the +price of twelve thousand francs by which a treasure was to be found, +and sent a young woman to Geneva to receive the cash. But the Swiss +police, having been informed of the transaction, were on the alert, +and when she kept her appointment with the proposed dupe she was taken +into custody. An individual staying at the same hotel and said to have +been in communication with her was also arrested. The emissary denied +all complicity in the intended fraud protesting that she had been +commissioned by a stranger she met in Barcelona to convey a letter to +Geneva and bring back another in return. + +The ubiquity of the swindle is proved by the adventures of a certain +M. Elked, a restaurateur of Buda-Pest, who was lured into making a +journey to Madrid, carrying with him a sum of ten thousand francs in +cash. The money was to be used in securing possession of a fortune +of three hundred thousand francs, part of which was lying in a trunk +deposited in the cloak room of a French railway station and part in +the strong room of a Berlin bank. Elked was to get the half in return +for his advance. On arrival in Madrid he met the representative of his +correspondent and was shown bogus receipts from the railway and bank. +To remove all possible doubt it was suggested that telegrams should +be sent to the railway station and to the bank and in due course what +purported to be replies were brought to Elked by a pretended telegraph +messenger. The sham telegrams finally convinced him of the genuineness +of the business and he arranged to meet the swindler in a certain café +to hand over the ten thousand francs. + +All this time an eye was kept upon Elked by a brother Hungarian named +Isray, a commercial traveller, who had come to Madrid by the same train +and who on hearing the purpose of the restaurateur's visit had vainly +tried to persuade him that the affair was a fraud. Isray followed his +infatuated compatriot to the café in a very low quarter of Madrid +and arrived just in time to see three men attempting to hustle Elked +into a carriage. He had apparently hesitated to hand over the money +at the last moment and the ruffians were attempting to get him away +to a spot where he could be conveniently searched and robbed. Isray +drew his revolver and fired two or three shots at Elked's assailants, +but did not succeed in hitting any one. He contrived however to +injure the horse and the struggle ended in the three bandits running +away, leaving Elked still in possession of his money. No passers-by +offered the Hungarians any assistance during the fight, nor did any +police appear on the scene. When Elked subsequently complained to the +police authorities they simply laughed at him for displaying so much +credulity. The victims of the "Spanish Swindle" are certainly not +entitled to much sympathy. Although arrests are occasionally made, the +Spanish police have never been able to cope very successfully with the +ancient and ever flourishing fraud. + +Some of the Spanish prisoner's lies are the crudest and most +transparent attempts at fraud, but a few are really very fine works of +art. An English country gentleman once received the following letter: + + "DEAR SIR AND RELATIVE: Not having the honour to know you but for + the reference which my dead wife, Mary--your relative--gave me, who + in detailing the various individuals of our family warmly praised + the honest and good qualities which distinguished you, I now address + myself to you for the first time and perhaps for the last one + considering the grave state of my health, explaining my sad position + and requesting your protection for my only daughter, a child of + fourteen years old whom I keep as a pensioner in a college--" + +This is the prelude to a really clever and picturesque story of the +writer's adventures in Cuba, where, after having been secretary and +treasurer to Martinez Campos, he had subsequently been driven by +General Weyler to join the insurgents, and was eventually forced to +flee the country taking with him his fortune of thirty-seven thousand +pounds. Subsequently being summoned to Spain by the illness of his +"only daughter child" he deposited the money in a London bank under the +form of "security document." After this we are introduced to the old +mechanism of this venerable swindle. The deposited note was concealed +in a secret drawer of the prisoner's portmanteau. The prisoner had +been arrested on his arrival in Spain, but a trusty friend at large +was willing to assist him in recovering the money for the benefit +of his child, if only the dear relative in England "would advance +the necessary funds for expenses." It is possible to imagine that +anyone who had never heard of these ingenious frauds might be taken +in by such a plausible narrative, but it is difficult to understand +such ignorance. A letter was received from the Castle of Montjuich +in Barcelona by a man in Dublin, who showed it to several friends in +the city explaining the process. It was new to them all, and arrests +of persons who had all but succeeded in completing this well-worn +confidence trick are constantly made in London. The boldness of these +attempts may be seen in the case of the swindlers who despatched +three letters identically the same, to three persons who were near +neighbours, residing at North Berwick near Edinburgh. The letter dated +from Madrid and said:-- + + "SIR, Detained here as a bankrupt, I ask if you would help me to + withdraw the sum of fr. 925,000 (£37,000) at present lodged in a + secure place in France. It would be necessary for you to visit Madrid + and obtain possession of my baggage by paying a lien on it. In one + valise concealed in a secret niche is the document which must be + produced as a warrant for the delivery of the above mentioned sum. + I propose to hand you over a third of the whole in return for your + outlay and trouble." + +The rest of the letter simply contained instructions as to telegraphing +an answer to Madrid. The whole was a very stupid and clumsy attempt +to deceive, lacking all the emotional appeals, the motherless child, +the persecuted political adherent of a failing cause. Worse yet it +openly invited co-operation with a bankrupt seeking to defraud his +creditors. Nor is there any effort to explain the selection of these +three particular persons in the same small town as parties to the +fraud, and the only conclusion is that dupes had been found even under +such circumstances who were afterward reluctant to reveal their own +foolishness. + +A more elaborate fraud was perpetrated soon after the fall of +Cartagena; the story ran as follows: Two of the well known +leaders of the hare-brained republican movement that led to that +catastrophe,--General Contreras and Señor Galdez,--both deputies of +the Constituent Cortes, came as fugitives to England and lodged in the +Bank of England a sum amounting to several millions of reales in state +securities, obtaining for them of course the regular certificates and +receipt from the bank. These two Spanish gentlemen afterwards lived for +some time on the continent. General Contreras took up his quarters as +a political exile in France and Señor Galdez ventured under a disguise +into Spain, where he had the misfortune to be recognised, arrested and +shut up in the Saladero. The certificates had been left in England in +trusty hands, in a trunk belonging to Señor Galdez, who from his prison +sent directions that the box should be sent by rail to Madrid addressed +to a person enjoying his full confidence. This person however had some +claim upon Señor Galdez for an old debt of six thousand francs or about +two hundred and forty pounds and insisted upon payment of this sum +before he would either part with the trunk or allow it to be opened and +the precious certificates to be taken from it. + +The matter required delicate handling, for Señor Galdez was a prisoner, +General Contreras an exile, both beyond reach, and about the money +they had placed in the bank there might lie some mystery into which it +was not desirable that enquiry should be made. An easy way of getting +at the contents of the trunk could be found if any one would think it +worth while to supply two hundred and forty pounds, settle the claims +of Señor Galdez's creditor, and laying hold of the certificates, +convey them to England and withdraw the securities from the bank. A +man whose name was given and whose address was in the Calle de la +Abada or Rhinoceros Street, Madrid, would undertake to carry through +the negotiations if any one would call upon him with the needful two +hundred and forty pounds and allow him half an hour to rescue the trunk +and deliver the certificates. The worthy Yorkshire squire to whom +intimation had been conveyed of the coup there was to be made, looked +upon the story as extremely probable. He fancied it was corroborated by +a good deal of circumstantial evidence and thought he might venture on +the speculation. A professional adviser whom he consulted undertook to +do the job for him and carry the two hundred and forty pounds to the +Calle de la Abada, taking a revolver with him, as a precaution, and +intending to deliver the money in Bank of England notes, the numbers +of which should be stopped the moment he found out that any trick was +being played on his good faith. + +Further enquiries were made, however, before any decided steps were +taken, and it was ascertained beyond doubt that Señor Galdez was +no longer a prisoner, that General Contreras had come back from +banishment, that the house in the Calle de la Abada was a notorious +haunt of malefactors and den of thieves, and the whole scheme was +another instance of the criminal ingenuity of the Spanish swindler. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LIFE IN CEUTA + + Dangerous weapons manufactured within the prison walls--Frequent + quarrels--Murderous assaults on warders of constant + occurrence--Disorders and lack of discipline owing to the employment + of prisoners as warders--The "_cabos de vara_"--These posts sold + to the highest bidder--Salillas' description of these convict + warders--Worst criminals often promoted to exercise authority + over their fellows--Terrible evils arising from such a state of + affairs--Description of Ceuta--Life at Ceuta no deterrent to crime + by reason of the pleasant conditions under which the convicts + lived--Popularity of the theatre in Spanish prisons--Escapes from + Ceuta--The case of El Niño de Brenes--The different characteristics + of the Andalusians and Aragonese--Foreigners from Spanish colonies + imprisoned at Ceuta--Chinamen and negroes--Dolores, the negro + convict--His assassination by two fellow convicts--Political + prisoners--Carlists--Different types of murderers. + + +Life is held cheap in Ceuta and indeed in all Spanish presidios and +gaols. The saying "a word and a blow," may be expanded into "a word and +a knife thrust." The possession of a lethal weapon is common to all +prisoners and prevails despite prohibiting regulations. Fatal affrays +are of constant occurrence. At Valladolid five men were wounded in +a fight over cards, which were openly permitted. An official enquiry +followed, with the result that on a search instituted through the +prison, numbers of large knives were discovered and many smaller +daggers. + +It is pretended by the authorities that the introduction of such +weapons as well as of spirits and packs of cards cannot be prevented. +The gate keepers however exercise no vigilance or are readily bribed +to shut their eyes. The ruinous condition of many gaols with their +numerous cracks and openings and holes in the walls is partially +responsible. As a natural consequence blood flowed freely when rage +and unbridled passion were so easily inflamed and the means of seeking +murderous satisfaction were always ready to hand. Quarrels grew at once +into fierce fights which could not be prevented and must be fought +out then and there even to the death. Chains and stone walls and iron +bars were ineffective in imposing order. There could be no semblance +of discipline where the two essentials were absolutely wanting, +supervision and honest service in the keepers. + +Knives were often provided by the ingenious adaptation of all kinds +of material within the walls, such as one-half of a pair of scissors +firmly fixed in a handle bound round with cloth; or a piece of tin +doubled to form a blade and stiffened by two pieces of wood to keep +the point sharp; or the handle of a wooden spoon sharpened and as +formidable as an inflexible fish bone.[15] Other arms carried and +used on occasion for premeditated or unexpected attack or in set, +formal encounters were a razor, a file, a carpenter's adze, a hammer, a +cobbler's awl. + +[15] I have seen a precisely similar weapon in an English convict +prison, the product of an evil-minded prisoner who used it in an +assault upon his officer. + +Some surprising figures have been collected by Salillas to show how +frequent was the appeal to violence and how fatal the consequences +of the bloodthirsty strife so constantly breaking out among the more +reckless members of this hot-tempered Latin race. They had often +their origin in drunken quarrels, for _aguardiente_, the Spanish +equivalent to whiskey or gin, was always plentiful, introduced almost +openly by the warders. Ancient feuds were revived when the opportunity +of settling them was offered by the chance meeting in the gaol. +Occasionally a homicidal lunatic ran loose about the yards and struck +blindly at any inoffensive person he met when the furious fit was on +him. Salillas tells us that in one year sixteen murderous assaults +were committed upon warders,[16] and twenty-four free fights occurred +among the prisoners, eleven of whom were killed outright and forty-two +seriously wounded. One truculent ruffian fell upon an aged wardsman +(a convict also), struck him with a shoemaker's knife and then, +brandishing his weapon, defied interference or the rescue of his victim +whom he "finished" with repeated blows. A Valencian newspaper describes +an encounter between two inmates of the Torres Serranos prison in that +city. "Without warning or suggesting the cause of difference the two +silently hurried to a large empty room, rushed at each other with their +knives, and the only sounds heard were those of blows struck and warded +off and of shuffling feet as they circled round each other. Warders +headed by the governor (alcaide) strove to separate the combatants and +succeeded at last in doing so but at peril of their lives. Both the +antagonists were wounded, one had his cheek laid open and the other's +face was horribly gashed. At Saragossa an old man who complained that +one of his blankets had been stolen was fiercely attacked in the +shoemaker's shop by the thief, who had been cutting out sole leather +with a heavy iron tool. Deadly wounds were inflicted on the victim, +but the infuriated aggressor stood over him, keeping those who would +have interposed at bay until it was clearly evident that death had +supervened. + +[16] An official report dated 1888 gives a total of 221 prisoners in +the whole of the establishments admitted into hospital suffering from +wounds, fractures and contusions received in the gaols. + +The primary cause of the chronic discreditable, disgraceful disorder +that reigned in the Spanish prisons was the prevailing custom of +employing prisoners in the service and discipline of the prisons. This +practice is now universally condemned as reprehensible and it has been +abolished in most civilised countries and even in Spain. The excuse +offered which long passed current in Spain was the expense entailed by +employing a proper staff of officers, a necessity in every well ordered +prison administration. But till quite a recent date the control and +supervision of prisoners in Spanish gaols was practically their own +affair. There were the usual superior officials, assisted by a few free +overseers (_capataces_) but the bulk of the work was entrusted to the +_cabos de vara_. + +The vicious system was the more objectionable from the uncertainty +which prevailed in its working. If the _cabo de vara_ had been +carefully selected from the best and most exemplary prisoners some of +the worst evils might have been avoided. But it was all a matter of +chance. Not only was there no selection of the best but there was no +rejection or elimination of the worst candidates. In some conspicuous +cases the office of _cabo de vara_ was suffered to fall into the hands +of men altogether unfit to hold it. Two in particular may be quoted, +those of Pelufo and Carrillo, who having first committed atrocious +crimes, escaped punishment and were actually promoted. One, Pelufo, +was a convict in the presidio of Cartagena who murdered a _cabo_ and +cut his way out of the St. Augustin prison, knife in hand; the other, +Carrillo, slew a comrade in a duel in the presidio of San Miguel de +los Reyes (Valencia) and both were subsequently appointed _cabos_, "a +reward," as a witty official said, "which they had earned by their +services to penitentiary methods." + +With such examples and under such authorities serious crimes were +naturally numerous. A few may be mentioned. A _cabo_ named Casalta +killed a fellow _cabo_ in St. Augustin prison of Valencia with five +cruel thrusts and afterwards stabbed an officer to the heart. When the +military guard came up he seriously injured one of the soldiers and +wounded two convicts, one in the head, the other in the back. Casalta +was however condemned to a fresh sentence of twelve years. One Ferreiro +Volta cut a comrade's throat for having given evidence against the +man, Pelufo, already mentioned. Many more cases of the same heinous +character where the homicidal instinct had full play may be picked out +of the published lists. In one prison thirteen already guilty of murder +or attempted murder repeated their crimes as prisoners; in another nine +convicted of maliciously wounding, pursued the practice or were guilty +of awful threats to murder in the gaols. The cases might be multiplied +almost indefinitely but it will suffice to indicate the terrible +conditions constantly prevailing. No doubt murderous attacks were often +stimulated by the tyranny of the prisoner _cabos_, against whom their +fellows, goaded to desperation, rose and wreaked vengeance. + +The discipline exercised by these prisoner warders was naturally not +worth much. It was their duty to correct and restrain their comrades, +to assist in their pursuit when they escaped after having originally +most probably facilitated the evasion, to side with the authority in +cases of serious insubordination and disturbance. But they were weak +vessels yielding readily to temptation, accepting bribes hungrily, +swallowing drink greedily when offered, quickly cowed by the threats +of prison bullies and surrendering at discretion when opposed. But +even although there were good and trusty men to be found at times +among them, no real reliance could be placed in them. They generally +represented fifty per cent. of the staff and the necessity for the +substitution of the non-convicted, properly paid, fairly honourable +warders has been very wisely decided upon. The chief danger lay in +their close and intimate association with the rest, day and night +constantly alone when no official supervision was possible. Their +value depended entirely upon their personal qualifications. If they +were weak-kneed and invertebrate, they could apply no check upon the +ill-conditioned, could neither intimidate nor repress: if on the other +hand they were of masterful character with arrogant, overbearing +tempers, they might do immense mischief by tyrannising over their +charges and leading them astray. Men of this class often claimed an +equality with the recognised officials, treated them with off-hand +familiarity, spoke without saluting or removing their caps, while +insolently puffing the smoke of a half-consumed cigarette in faces +of the officers. Salillas sums up the type as "semi-functionary, +semi-convict and all hangman." + +The external aspect of Ceuta is not unpleasing. It is built on seven +hills, the highest of which is topped by the fortress, and in the +word "septem" we may trace the name Ceuta. It still possesses a few +Moorish remains, for it was once an important Moorish city. Some of +the streets show a tesselated pavement of red, white and green tiles, +and house fronts are to be seen in white, black and serpentine marble +with decorated scroll work running in a pattern below the gutter. +It has some claims to be picturesque and possesses certain artistic +architectural features. An imposing barrack, that called Del Valle, +built by prison labour, is considered one of the finest Spanish +military edifices. It has also a cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of +Africa, engineering and artillery yards, a military hospital, another +church, public offices, and above all a palace of the governor and +general commanding. The latter in particular, with its extensive +grounds, handsome façade, and suites of fine rooms, the whole well +mounted and served by a large staff of convict attendants, is the +envy of all other government officials. One wide street traverses the +city from west to east crossed by a network of smaller ways, all airy +and well ventilated by sea breezes and constantly illuminated by a +brilliant sun. From time to time convicts in their distinctive dress +pass along, but scarcely cast a shadow upon the scene, showing few +signs of their thraldom and passing along with light-hearted freedom, +smoking excellent tobacco or singing a gay song. No beggars offend the +eye, for to solicit public charity is strictly forbidden. Generally a +contented well-to-do air is worn by the crowd, and even the convicts +are decently dressed. Other inhabitants, Moors from the mainland, and +Jews long established in commerce seem prosperous and evidently possess +ample means gained by their industry and thrift. + +The presidio or prison proper of Ceuta covers a large part of the +peninsula or promontory and embraces four distinct districts; the first +is situated in the new or modern town; the second lies just outside +it; the third is within the old town and the fourth is beyond the +outer line of walls. The first part is connected with the third by a +drawbridge called _boquete de la sardina_ or the "sardine's entrance"; +the second with the third by a portcullis; the third with the fourth +and last by the outer gate of the city. + +In the first are the artisans' quarters, situated in the cloisters of +an ancient monastery, that of San Francisco, and but for the patching +and whitewashing would look quite ruinous. It is neither secure nor of +sufficient size. The night guards are posted in the old mortuary house, +the bars to many windows are of wood. The building contains offices, +schoolhouse, store for clothing and the workshops, these being in a +sort of patio or courtyard, or in hollow spaces in the cloisters, and +are simply dens and rookeries, in part exactly over the old burial +ground. The handicrafts pursued when I visited it were various: men +were making shoes; fourteen tailors were at work; a blacksmith with +a life sentence constantly hammered out the red hot iron; a tinsmith +produced many useful articles; a turner at his lathe worked admirably +in the old meat bones and fashioned handles for walking sticks and +umbrellas. This turner earned much money and was comfortably lodged. +Convicts at Ceuta are not deprived of their profits and spend their +money buying better food, superior clothing and _aguardiente_ and +using it to bribe their overseers, or they cleverly conceal it, adding +constantly to their store. Industry is a chief source of wealth, but +many political prisoners bring large sums in with them, or it is +smuggled in to them, and a successful hit with the "buried treasure +fraud" will supply plenty of cash. + +Other industries followed are carpentering and the construction of +trunks and boxes which sell well. A number of looms are engaged in +weaving canvas for the manufacture of sails for the local shipping, +rough material for sacking and clothing of the convicts, all in large +quantities and to a really valuable extent. These workshops are +filled by the prisoners in the first stage of their detention. The +water-carriers and clerks in the government office are in the second +period, and on reaching the third the convicts obtain the privilege of +going at large to accept employment in the town "from gun to gun." + +The prison hospital is situated in this first district, an ancient +edifice erected with part of the funds subscribed in times past to +purchase freedom for Christian captives enslaved by the Barbary Moors. +The building is of good size, well ventilated, and enjoys good hygienic +conditions. But the defects and shortcomings in Spanish administration +extend even to Ceuta and the prison hospital, which a local authority +says "is detestably organised and mounted miserably." The roof is so +slight that it affords no proper protection in summer and the intense +heat of the blazing sun striking through is very injurious to the +patients. The medical resources are small and inferior; the beds +few and unclean; the whole of the interior arrangements, furniture +fittings and appliances, insufficient and worn out. There is no +mortuary and to add a small detail in proof of the imperfections, +autopsies were performed in a small den, part of the hospital proper, +without disinfectants and the essential appliances for carrying out +post mortems. Patients seldom made a long stay in the hospital, for +they were rarely admitted until they had reached the last stages of an +illness and came in as a rule only to die. + +The second district contains the principal quarters for convicts. One +is in the chief barrack called _cuartel principal_ and another in the +fortress _el Hacho_.[17] Some further evidence of their evil condition +may be extracted from an account given by Salillas. "It is impossible +to conceive," he writes, "a more unsuitable, unsavoury place for a +prison. The rooms and dormitories occupied by the convicts are dark +and gloomy, always damp, full of pestilential odours and dirty beyond +description. The floors are of beaten earth, ever secure hiding places +for all forbidden articles, weapons, tools for compassing escape, +jars of drink, the fiery and poisonous _aguardiente_. It seems to me +extraordinary," he goes on to say, "that life under such conditions is +possible. A thousand and odd men who seldom if ever wash, who never +change their clothes, are crowded together promiscuously in small, +unclean, ill-ventilated, noisome dens and must surely engender and +propagate loathsome epidemic disease." The fetid air is foul with the +noisome exhalations of many generations of pestiferous people. It is +one sink of concentrated malaria--a reeking hot bed of infection. +The services of supply are carried out with abominable carelessness: +the kitchen is an abode of nastiness: the cooking is performed by +repulsive looking convicts in greasy rags who plunge their dirty arms +deep into the seething mess of soup which they bail out into buckets, a +malodorous compound of the colour and consistency of the mortar used in +building a wall. + +[17] See ante, pp. 159 sqq. + +Close by is another quarter in which convicts are lodged, _el Hacho_, +or the hilly ground or topmost point of Ceuta on which is placed the +citadel which crowns the fortifications. It takes the overflow from +the principal barrack and is moreover generally occupied by the worst +characters, the most insubordinate and incorrigible members of the +prison population. The rooms, as in the barrack below, are dirty, +overcrowded and insecure, but a few windows of the upper story open on +to the Mediterranean and are not always protected by either wooden or +iron bars. _El Hacho_ contains within its limits a certain number of +solitary cells, well known and much dreaded by the habitual criminals +of Spain. They are essentially punishment cells used in the coercion +of the incorrigible and are just as dark, damp and wretched as the +larger rooms. But the solitary inmate in each cell is generally kept +chained to the wall or is as it is styled _amarrado en blanca_, nearly +naked and heavily ironed. The treatment is exemplary in its cruelty, +but does not necessarily cure the subject. There was one irreclaimable +upon whom several years of the _calabozo_ had had no effect. He had +been sentenced to be thus chained up as the penalty for murderously +wounding an overseer in _el Hacho_, but he did not mend his manners. +On one occasion on the arrival of a new governor all under punishment +were pardoned. This convict when sent out forthwith furiously attacked +the first warder he met and was again condemned to be locked up as a +ceaseless danger to the presidio. He is remembered as little more than +a youth, but with a diabolical countenance and indomitable air. + +The district of the _Barcas_ does not contain a barrack properly +speaking, but there is a space cut in the thickness of the line wall +entering a patio or courtyard which gives upon seven rooms, some +high, some low; of these three and part of the yard were filled with +munitions of war, and a battery of artillery was placed over the +dormitories on their upper floor. Many of the convicts are employed as +boatmen and watchmen in the port, others have charge of the walls and +carry water up to the guardhouses on the higher level. They also attend +to the service of the drawbridge between the old and new town. One +who was employed as gatekeeper at the drawbridge was well remembered. +He was trusted to call on all convicts who passed to produce their +permits of free circulation or to enter and leave the fortress. He +had a pleasant rubicund face, was one armed, a little deaf, but with +very sharp eyes, not easily hoodwinked. He was a confirmed gossip who +picked up all the news which he retailed to all who passed in and out. +Escapes were of constant occurrence at Ceuta, but few occurred by the +drawbridge of the _Barcas_. + +Half way up the road from the town to the citadel and the fort of +the Seraglio was the Jadu barrack which was occupied by the convicts +who were engaged in agricultural work, in making tiles and burning +charcoal. Many of these were foreigners and negroes. The bulk of the +residents was made up of those who had completed three fourths of their +sentences and lived "under conditions," or in a state of conditional or +semi-freedom. There was little wrong-doing in Jadu, thefts were rare, +fights and quarrels seldom took place. The Seraglio was a fortified +barrack of rectangular shape occupied by troops of the garrison and +lodging an odd hundred convicts labouring on adjacent farms in private +hands. + +It will be observed that the convicts established in these last-named +quarters beyond the walls do not appear to exhibit all the unpleasant +features attributed to them by some writers in recording their +experiences of Ceuta.[18] No doubt the truth lies somewhere between +the two extremes but it is certain that the chief penal colony of +Spain shares to a marked extent the drawbacks inseparable from all +forms of penal colonisation. We may see, beyond all question, that at +Ceuta no beneficial results are achieved by the system. Criminals who +undergo the penalty are not improved by it; their reformation, too +generally a will-o'-the-wisp under the very best auspices, is not even +attempted, much less assured. On the other hand, it is perfectly clear +that evil is perpetually in the ascendent, that criminal tendencies +are largely encouraged by the facilities given in the education and +practice of wrong doing; that the presidio itself is a criminal centre +where the seeds of crime are sown and their growth fostered despite the +difficulties of distance and inconvenience. The fear of penal exile is +no deterrent to crime for the simple reason that life in Ceuta is not +particularly irksome and that the convict finds many compensations +there. The obligation to hard labour is not strictly enforced. Man +must work, but not hard and chiefly for his own advantage, to gain +the means of softening and bettering his lot. He passes his time very +much as he pleases. Though he rises with the sun, as is the universal +custom of his country, he turns out of bed without giving a thought to +personal cleanliness and proceeds to his appointed labour leisurely, +after disposing of his breakfast, adding perhaps more toothsome +articles of food, including a morning drink of _aguardiente_ bought +from the hawkers and hucksters awaiting him at the prison gates. He is +dressed in prison uniform, but it is sufficient and suitably varied +with the season. He is not hampered by fetters, as the ancient practice +of chaining convicts together in couplets has long since ceased. The +wearing of irons fell into disuse years ago at the building of the +great barrack del Valle, when several deplorable accidents occurred and +it was found that chains interfered with the free movement of workmen +on scaffolding and so forth. The idea was that irons should again +be imposed at the conclusion of the building; "but all who thought +so did not know Spanish ways, nor the despotism of custom when once +established."[19] "To-day (1873)," says same writer, "there are not +fifty suits of chains in the storehouse and not more than twenty are +worn by special penalty and by no means as a general practice." The +convict loafs about the rooms or courtyard or idly handles the tools +of his trade, gossiping freely with his comrades, or taking a hand at +_monte_ or _chapas_ with the full permission of warders not indisposed +to have a "little on the games"; he finds easy means to issue into the +streets to carry on some delectable flirtation; there may be a bull +baiting afoot, a _novillos_ in which all may join, or a theatrical +performance is being given by a convict company in one of the penal +establishments. + +[18] See ante, p. 159. + +[19] Relosillas. + +The theatre is a passion with the average Spaniard and the taste +extends to those in durance. Cases constantly occur in which popular +plays have been reproduced in prisons situated in the principal cities. +Salillas[20] states that almost all the prisons of Spain had their +theatre and he gives the names of Burgos, Ceuta, Ocana, Valladolid, +Saladero (Madrid) and Alcalá de Henares. One writer who visited the +prison performance at Seville of a musical piece, the "Viejas Ricas +de Cadiz," said it was given well and that the vocal talent was +considerable in that and other prisons. At the presidio of San Miguel +de los Reyes the convicts were heard singing a chorus on Christmas Eve +which was perfectly executed and with great feeling. + +[20] "Vida Penal en Espana." + +In the Valladolid gaol the theatre was regularly installed by a +company of forty convicts who had contributed substantial sums for +the purpose. It had working committees with rules and regulations +formally sanctioned by the governor of the province. The theatre with +seats for an audience of four hundred, and four private boxes holding +twelve persons each, was constructed in a building which afterwards +became the blacksmith shops. A refreshment room was provided in which a +contractor dispensed sweets and pastry and strong drink; real actresses +were engaged from outside at a salary of a dollar for each performance; +invitations were issued to the free residents and the convicts paid +two reales for admission. Well known, high class plays were produced, +comedies, dramas and comic operas. + +The whole proceeding was a caricature upon prison discipline and the +authorities who permitted it were very properly sharply and severely +condemned. They exposed themselves to reproof and worse for flagrant +contempt of the most ordinary restrictions in allowing women to pass +in constantly, and in permitting the sale of alcoholic liquors. That a +place of durance, primarily intended for the restraint and punishment +of evil doers should be converted into a show and spectacle was an +intolerable misuse of power and a disgraceful travesty of the fitness +of things. The positive evil engendered was seen in the wholesale +escape of the theatrical company, while the audience patiently waited +in front of the curtain which "went up" eventually on a wholly +unexpected performance.[21] + +[21] See ante, p. 128. + +In the matter of escapes Ceuta was famous. It was not difficult to +get away from that imperfectly guarded stronghold when the convict +had means to bribe officers or buy a boat and had the courage to make +the voyage across the Straits of Gibraltar. The story of one veteran +convict who escaped from Ceuta is interesting because he was driven to +take himself off by what he no doubt deemed the ill-judged severity of +his injudicious keepers. This was an old brigand known as "_El Niño de +Brenes_," (the lad of Brenes), a name he must have earned some time +back for he was a man aged seventy when he "withdrew" (the word is +exact) from Ceuta. He was a well-behaved, well-to-do convict of affable +address who had gained many staunch friends among the officials and +his own comrades. The position he had created for himself was one of +practical ease and comfort; he lived in _el Hacho_ pursuing various +industries, usury among the rest, and gradually grew so rich that he +gained possession of a strip of land which he cultivated profitably and +kept a fine poultry yard as well as many sheep and goats. + +El Niño was a tall well built old man, dark-skinned, with abundant +white hair. He was of highly respectable appearance, very stout and +sleek, and, being on the best of terms with his masters, he took +upon himself to discard the prison uniform and dress himself as an +Andalusian peasant with gaiters and red sash and _sombrero calañes_ +(round hard hat). Not strangely this presumption displeased the +authorities and he was told that he must conform to the rules and +appear in the proper convict clothing and cease to act as a money +lender to his poorer brethren. He received this intimation with +a smiling protest; he pointed out that he used his influence in +pacifying ill-conditioned convicts, in staving off disturbances and +preventing quarrels. If his services were not better appreciated +and he was tied down to the strict observance of the ordinary rules +he would move further away; his remaining in the presidio was quite +a matter of favour and he had always at his disposal the means to +make his escape, and if he were interfered with he would take his +departure. This impudent reply quite exasperated the authorities, +who thereupon resolved to employ sharp measures. The facts as he had +stated them were more or less true and the blame lay really with the +faulty and inefficient régime in force. But the authorities would not +tamely submit to be defied and a peremptory order was issued that he +should dispose of his private property by a certain date, wind up his +financial affairs and renounce all idea of exceptional treatment. El +Niño took this as a threat to which there could be but one reply. +He gathered together his cash and portable property and quietly +disappeared. A hue and cry was raised; the usual signals flew at the +signal staff; all gates and exits were closely watched; the police were +unceasingly active in pursuit, but the fugitive had laid his plans +astutely and was never recaptured. Having the command of ample means he +doubtless used them freely to purchase freedom by taking some sure road +past the frontier or across the sea. + +Allies and auxiliaries were never wanting to the enterprising fugitive +willing to pay liberally for assistance. In one case a convict had the +courage to allow himself to be shut up in a chest half full of tobacco +and to be thus conveyed to Gibraltar, to which it was returned as +containing damaged goods. Gibraltar is a free port and the chest was +landed without question. Then the consignee opened it without delay +and extracted the fugitive convict uninjured. The last part of the +story is somewhat incredible and we may wonder why the fugitive did not +succumb to the discomforts of his narrow receptacle, want of air, the +exhalations of the tobacco and the shakings and bumping of the box as +it made its voyage, albeit a short one, from Ceuta to the Rock. + +An escape on a large scale was effected from the principal barrack when +eighteen convicts descended into the drains, and finding their progress +unimpeded threaded them safely and passing under the outer wall reached +the outlet to the sea. It happened that the water was high and that +there was a great conflict of currents in which that setting inward had +most force and the exit was blocked by the stormy waves. Some of the +convicts committed themselves to the waters but were washed back with +violence against the rocky fortifications and all of them in terror +for their lives raised loud cries, calling for help. The sentries gave +the alarm, the guards ran down and recaptured all the fugitives but +one, a fine swimmer who persisted in his attempt and was swept seaward +clear of the rough water till he was able to regain the shore on the +far side of the Moorish sentries. + +The prison population of Ceuta is made up of a number of motley, +polyglot types of the many diverse families that compose the +Spanish race and of other distinct nationalities. The Spaniards are +generally classified under two principal heads: the Aragonese and the +Andalusians. The first named comprises all from the northern provinces +who are generally coarse, quarrelsome and brutal, sentenced chiefly for +crimes of violence, murders premeditated and committed under aggravated +circumstances, the outcome of furious and ungovernable passion. The +Andalusian is of more generous character, lively and light-hearted, +but of unsettled disposition and much impelled to attempt escapes. He +is a chronic grumbler constantly moved to complain, dissatisfied with +his rations and clamorous for special privileges. The Aragonese on +the other hand suffers long in silence which leads eventually, after +long brooding, into mutinous combination. The Andalusian makes his +grievances heard by word of mouth, the Aragonese rushes without notice +into overt action and organised attack. Another distinct section of +the Spanish race is the Galician and the native of the Asturias, a +sober, quiet and well-conducted people at home, who exhibit great +ferocity as convicts. Sanguinary encounters are little known in these +provinces, but when an Asturian or Galician takes the life of his +enemy, he uses artifice and waylays him, decoying him into an ambush +and murdering him often with horrible mutilation. A criminal feature, +peculiar to the women of these provinces, is their addiction to the use +of poison. Other Spanish females will use violence and inflict lethal +wounds openly, but the Galician woman administers poison secretly, +deliberately choosing her victims among her nearest relatives. + +The colonial empire of Spain, now a thing of the past, contributed +in its time a substantial contingent of yellow and black convicts, +Chinamen from the Philippines and negroes from Cuba. It was a +reprehensible practice to associate these foreigners with the European +convicts and it produced many evils. The Chinaman was often shamefully +ill-treated. He bore it patiently, but at times when goaded beyond +endurance, retaliated with bloodthirsty violence. The story of one +negro convict, a rather remarkable person, is still remembered at +Ceuta. He rejoiced in the somewhat inappropriate feminine name of +Dolores, and despite his colour was a singularly handsome man. He +had a slight, active figure, a highly intelligent face and a clear, +penetrating eye. His mental faculties were of a high order, although +he had received only an indifferent education. He had the fondness +of his race for fine clothes and although conforming to the prison +uniform wore it with a certain distinction, improving and adding to it +where possible and having quite a gentlemanly appearance. He had been +guilty of a hideous murder in Havana for which he had received a nearly +interminable sentence. His behaviour in gaol was orderly and submissive +and he always displayed the utmost loyalty to his masters, who in +return lightened his lot as far as was possible. + +Dolores, as a rule, was of a patient disposition, although he was +easily roused into fits of violent temper and could be at times, +according to his treatment, either a lion or a lamb. It seemed almost +incomprehensible that the mild eyes so calm and peaceable, when he was +unmoved, could blaze with sudden fury or that his small delicately +shaped hands could fasten murderously on a fellow creature's throat. +Tyranny and oppression were intolerable to him and he altogether +declined to submit to be domineered over by the chief bully in the +prison. His defiance led to an embittered conflict--a duel fought out +with knives--in which the black champion conquered after inflicting +many deep wounds upon his antagonist. With his victory Dolores gained +also the implacable ill-will of his fellows. They put him on his trial, +in a corner of the principal barrack and condemned him to death, which +would certainly have been inflicted had not the authorities interposed +to give him their protection. He was removed to _el Hacho_ and placed +in one of the separate cells used generally for the punishment of the +incorrigible.[22] This was fatal to him. Two water-carriers belonging +to the hostile faction entered the cell when Dolores was engaged in +writing with his back to the door, and throwing themselves upon him +gave him two mortal wounds under the left shoulder. In this supreme +moment Dolores put forth his tremendous strength, caught his assailants +by their necks and broke them before the warders could interfere on +either side. Dolores died but he is still remembered in the prison +annals as one of the most valiant and indomitable convicts who had ever +been detained in the presidio. + +[22] See ante, p. 194. + +Another alien convict to whom Relosillas pays a high tribute was his +own Chinese servant, a convict known as "Juan de la Cruz, the Asiatic." +He seems to have been unceasingly loyal and devoted in his service, an +admirable cook, an indefatigable nurse, a faithful watchman who guarded +his effects and secured his privacy. Juan had many accomplishments; +he could weave shade hats of the finest palm fibre, he was as clever +as any seamstress with his needle; he was a first-class housemaid and +laundress; he could make a dollar go further in the market than the +most economical housewife. He drove the most astonishing bargains with +the hucksters and purveyors of food, fish and game, with which Ceuta +was plentifully supplied. He had been condemned to a long term for +a murder committed in Havana at a hotel, of which he was the chief +cook. In appearance he was younger than his years, tall, thin, anæmic +looking, shortsighted, with jet black hair and oblique eyes. He was +a man of great intelligence, a dramatic author in Chinese and was +released before his time to accompany the Director General of Prisons +to Madrid as his cook. In the end he started a fruit shop in the +capital and prospered greatly. + +An entirely different class of prisoners came to Ceuta in considerable +numbers from time to time,--those exiled for political misdeeds. A +whole discipline battalion was composed of military offenders, among +them a number of artillerymen condemned for the rising in Barcelona +and crowds of Carlists and those concerned in the so-called cantonal +risings. One or two politicals were strange characters, such as the +old soldier named "_el Cojo_" (the lame man) of Cariñena, a conceited +veteran very proud of his many campaigns in which he had served, and +who went everywhere on donkey back, being infirm and crippled. Another +was the ex-curé of Berraonda, a Biscayan priest of ferocious aspect, +tall, corpulent, dark-skinned, with an abundant snow white bushy beard, +which grew to his waist and which was left untouched by the prison +barber. + +Speaking in general terms of the whole body all types of character were +represented. Some when in funds liked to pose as dandies with fine +linen, smart shoes or rope sandals tied with ribbons and coloured +sashes (fajas); others, the larger number, were coarse and brutal +ruffians, without private means, or too idle to acquire them by the +labour of their hands, much given to drunkenness and very quarrelsome +in their cups. The attitude of most convicts is mute irritation against +everyone, but they especially hate their warders and superiors; they +are surly and forbidding in manner, silent as to their past, little +disposed to talk of their criminal adventures. Yet they display the +most contradictory traits. Even when they have been guilty of the most +horrible misdeeds they often show a calm, innocent face and are little +vexed by conscience. One who was noted for his submissive demeanour and +who in any trouble always sided with authority, was a parricide who had +killed his father under the most revolting conditions. + +This youth, barely of age at the time of his crime, had sought his +father's consent to his marriage with an unworthy character, and +when refused, he retaliated by beating in his parent's brain with a +pickaxe. The fit of homicidal fury which possessed him drove him to +kill his father's donkey also and the dog which had been at his heels. +Then, having satiated his rage, he went home seemingly undisturbed, +and made some paltry excuse for his father's absence. When the corpse +was found he was arrested on suspicion, but for want of more than +circumstantial evidence escaped the garrote, and was sent to Ceuta +for life. Yet this miscreant betrayed no outward sign of the horrible +passions that sometimes dominated him, but was always placid and +of an engaging countenance. He was lamblike in his demeanour, most +attentive to his religious duties, never missed a mass or failed to +confess. He was devoted to children and his greatest pleasure was to +fondle the baby child of one of the warders which he carried about in +his arms in the streets of Ceuta. He seemed absolutely callous and +insensible to the prickings of conscience, but he showed in two ways +that he was consumed with remorse. When any reference was made to his +crime, at the slightest hint or the vaguest question, a fierce look +came into his eyes, his mouth closed, his hand sought his knife and +he was ready to attempt some fresh act of violence. The other sign of +his mental distress was that he seldom slept and never soundly or for +long, and his nights were disturbed with groans, deep sighs, even yells +of despair. Yet his general health was good, he ate with appetite, +maintained his strength well, and there was no apparent mental +failure. But he was no doubt mad and under a more intelligent system +of jurisprudence he would have been relegated to a criminal lunatic +asylum. There is no record however that at Ceuta he had been seized +again by homicidal mania. + +There were many other types of murderers in Ceuta. The husbands who +had killed their wives formed a distinct group. Jealousy because of +real or fancied injury led to the vindictive thirst for revenge and +this was more frequently found in the peasant than in the higher +and better educated classes. Death had been inflicted in most cases +by violence, but one aggrieved Othello chose poison, rejoicing in +the acute suffering produced by arsenic. Another, who was half a +Frenchman, adopted the French method of dismemberment, and to dispose +of the damning evidence of the corpse, cut it up into small pieces and +distributed them far and wide, but could not hide them effectually. +Extenuating circumstances were allowed him and he went to Ceuta, where +he is said to have lived quite contentedly, never regretting the savage +act that had avenged his dishonour and made him a widower. + +Ceuta made its own murderers. Duels to the death were of constant +occurrence as elsewhere, and the authorities rarely interfered even +when fatal consequences ensued. On this point Relosillas says: "During +my stay of fourteen months in Ceuta hardly an hour passed without a +serious quarrel, not a day when some one was not wounded, not a week +without a violent death in the _Cuartel Principal_. These troubles +were due invariably to the same causes, the admission of _aguardiente_ +and the facility with which knives and lethal weapons could be +obtained--points already noted and discussed at the beginning of this +chapter. The drink was always on tap, as it could be introduced without +difficulty through the dishonesty of the warders and the unlimited +traffic with the townspeople. The weapons were never wanting, as it was +impossible to check their presence, for no convict would be without his +long sharp knife ready for instant use. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE + + Disordered state of Spain at the accession of Isabella--Brigandage + raised into an organised system by lawless nobility and rebels--The + revival of the Santa Hermandad or Holy Brotherhood--This + institution revived again in the 19th century under the name of + "Migueletes"--Attack on the mail coach outside Madrid--The famous + brigand José Maria--His daring robberies in the Serrania--His + early life--English officers from Gibraltar captured and held to + ransom--Beloved and venerated by the peasants--In 1833 appointed an + officer of the Migueletes--Brigandage not extinct in Spain--Don Julian + de Zugasti appointed governor of Cordova--Methods of procedure--The + famous robber Vizco el Borje--His seizure of Don Pedro de M.--Enormous + ransom extorted--Agua Dulce. + + +Brigandage, the form of organised highway robbery practised by bands of +thieves in countries where roads are long and lonely and imperfectly +guarded, has been always popular with the Latin races. It suited the +tastes and temperament of reckless people who defied the law and +laughed at the attempt to protect defenceless wayfarers. Their activity +was stimulated by the long wastes of rugged country that separated the +towns, giving harbourage and security to the robbers who issued forth +to prey upon travellers and easily retired to their rocky fastnesses +and escaped pursuit. These Ishmaelites have been especially active in +Spain and Italy and the aggressive spirit that moved them is not yet +entirely extinct. More settled government has produced a more effective +police in these latter days, but acts of brigandage in its latest +development, that of "holding up" modern means of conveyance, express +trains, bicycles and motor cars, have occurred, and may be reasonably +expected to increase. + +Brigandage is as old as the hills in Spain and some of its earliest +phases are well worth describing before they are forgotten or replaced +by newer processes. We may look back and gather some idea of those +early days in Spain. + +When Isabella, the Catholic, ascended the throne of Castile, she was +called upon to govern a country profoundly demoralised, infested +with evil doers and dominated by a turbulent and vicious nobility. +The throne was an object of contempt, the treasury empty, the +people poverty stricken, and the princes of the Church rebellious +and rejoicing in large revenues. A lawless aristocracy hungry for +independent authority were fighting for their own lands or conspiring +secretly to overawe the Crown. Titled alcaldes, traitors and rebels, +openly raised brigandage into a system, exacted tribute by blackmail +from the lower classes, and made unceasing war upon the higher. Within +the kingdom a rival pretender aimed at the Crown. One near neighbour, +Alfonso V of Portugal, menaced the peace of the country and kept +an army on the frontier; another, Louis XI of France, crafty and +unscrupulous, constantly threatened war and held his army in Guipuscoa. + +In a few short years the whole aspect of the country was changed. +Isabella brought her rebellious nobles to their knees, all of them +asking pardon and promising allegiance; the French army withdrew +hastily to France; the Portuguese was defeated and expelled; the +claimant to the throne was imprisoned and numbers of high-born +criminals suffered on the scaffold. The great ecclesiastics disgorged +much of their wealth to buy forgiveness, the robber haunts were +attacked and destroyed, the high-roads became perfectly safe, thieves +and highwaymen took to honest labour. Now the revenue was largely +improved, the law was respected, crime was actively pursued and +rigorously punished. But for the terrors and cruelties practised by the +Inquisition, Spain would have enjoyed unbroken domestic peace and all +the benefits accruing from general good government. These satisfactory +results were largely achieved by the excellent police organised by +Isabella and her husband, Ferdinand. The revival and consolidation of +the "Santa Hermandad" or Holy Brotherhood which had always existed in +the country districts to secure peace and tranquillity, but heretofore +wielding smaller powers, worked wonders. A comprehensive system was now +introduced by which all parts were patrolled by well-armed guardians +of the law, mounted and on foot, who checked, prevented or punished +misdeeds. In every collection of thirty houses or more two officials +were appointed to deal with all offenders according to a strict code. +Every thief when taken was punished with fine, flogging and exile, in +penalties proportioned to the amount stolen. For more heinous offences +his ears were cut off and he got a hundred lashes, or yet again one of +his feet was amputated and he was peremptorily forbidden to ride on a +horse or mule at peril of his life. A sentence of death was carried out +by shooting with arrows. + +This ancient Hermandad was at one time revived in the _Migueletes_, +a body of men organised early in the nineteenth century to act as +escorts to private travellers, as the regular mails and diligences +were under the protection of troops provided by the Government. The +_Migueletes_ were a semi-military force composed of picked youths of +courageous conduct, wearing uniform and armed with a short gun, with +a sword, a single pistol and carrying a cord by which to secure their +prisoners. The _Migueletes_ took their name from one Miguel de Pratz, +who had been a lieutenant of Caesar Borgia. They were often recruited +from the robbers who were offered service as a condition of pardon when +captured, and afterwards behaved admirably. No one with an escort of +ten or twelve _Migueletes_ need fear attack. + +The mail coach was sometimes attacked, and on one occasion was stopped +at Almuwadiel outside Madrid. It carried several passengers, among +others an Englishman, a German artist and a Spaniard. At the first +appearance of the brigands, the guard threw himself on the ground with +his face in the mud and the postillions did the same. When summoned +to deliver up their possessions, the Englishman gave up his well +filled purse and was warmly thanked; the German artist would have been +ill-treated as a punishment for his empty pockets, but was spared +when his poverty was explained; the Spaniard was caught attempting to +conceal his valuables in the carriage lining and narrowly escaped a +beating. The coach was at last permitted to proceed and at parting the +leader of the band shook hands with the Englishman and said he was a +real gentleman, the German was ignored and the Spaniard was sharply +taken to task for his attempted "fraud." + +To this period (1825-35) belongs the famous brigand, José Maria, the +Spanish Fra Diavolo, whose name is still remembered in the "Serrania" +or mountain country of Ronda and throughout Southern Andalusia, for his +daring robberies and continual defiance of the authorities. A "pass" or +safe conduct granted by him was a better protection than any official +escort. So great was his power that he was known by the proud title +of "El Señor del Campo" (the lord of the country), and he ruled more +absolutely in Andalusia than King Ferdinand in Spain. Travellers paid +him a head tax, blackmail was levied on all public conveyances and, as +has been said, he issued passports at a price to all who chose to pay +for his protection. Strong bodies of troops were sent against him, but +he managed always to elude or oppose them successfully. + +José Maria started in life as a small cultivator in a village near +Antequera, but, unable to earn a decent living, he took to the more +profitable business of smuggling, a profession greatly honoured and +esteemed in Spain. In one of his operations he was drawn into an affray +with the soldiers and unfortunately shot and killed one of them. He at +once fled to the mountains, where he was soon surrounded by other no +less reckless companions, all of them outlaws like himself, and became +the chief and centre of the band which soon spread terror throughout +Southern Spain. His headquarters were in the rugged and lofty mountain +district of Ronda near the little town of Grazalema, but he was +ubiquitous in his rapid movements and traversed the whole of Andalusia. +A story is preserved of an English nobleman who travelled to Spain +for the express purpose of making his acquaintance but long sought +him in vain in his favourite haunts and much disappointed retraced +his steps to Madrid. But on the road between Carmona and Ecija[23] he +had the questionable good fortune to meet José Maria in person, who +thanked him courteously for the compliment he had paid him in seeking +an interview, in return for which he proceeded to relieve his lordship +of his valuables and his baggage so that he might continue his journey +without encumbrance. He had many ways of levying contributions. One was +to send a messenger to some landed proprietor, demanding a large sum of +money, and declaring that if it was not paid he would swoop down to lay +waste his lands and burn his house over his head. Another plan was to +take post with his gang, all of them well mounted and fully armed, on +the highroad just outside some populous city, and "hold up" every one +who passed in or out, seizing all ready money and carrying off to some +secret fastness all persons known to possess means. + +[23] This town of Ecija is renowned in the history of Spanish +brigandage as the home of the "Seven Sons of Ecija," a very daring +and dangerous band whose achievements have been told by the Spanish +novelist, Fernandez y Gonzalez. + +English officers, part of the garrison of the Rock of Gibraltar, did +not escape the exactions of José Maria. Once a shooting party in the +woods near Gibraltar was suddenly attacked and captured, but after +the first surprise they showed fight and a brigand was wounded. The +lives of all of them were in danger but were saved on the persuasion +of José Maria that they would be more valuable as prisoners for whom a +large ransom would be obtained than as corpses. One of the party was +accordingly sent to the Rock to procure the money while the rest were +detained as hostages for his return at a certain hour the next day. +The messenger was warned that if a rescue was attempted, the whole of +the prisoners would be instantly massacred. He reached the Rock after +gunfire, but the gates were presently especially opened to admit him, +the money was collected, not without difficulty, and was conveyed to +the brigands in sufficient time to secure the release of the captives. +For some time later English officers were forbidden to go into Spain +except in sufficient numbers to set the brigands at defiance. In quite +recent years (1871) two gentlemen, natives of the Rock, were carried +off and detained until a large ransom was paid. + +José Maria dominated the country for nearly ten years. The secret of +his long continued impunity may be traced to the fact that many of +the local authorities, influenced either by fear or interest, were in +collusion with him, and that the peasantry all wished him success; +for, as he never oppressed them, but assisted and protected their +smuggling transactions in which they are nearly all, in one way or +other, engaged by opposing the regular troops, he was greatly beloved +and venerated. He was in fact regarded as a hero; for such a life, wild +and adventurous, where there is plenty of plunder and no laborious +duty, has wondrous charms in the eyes of the lower Andalusians, by +whom the laws of _meum_ and _tuum_ have never been well understood. +How long José might have continued in power it is impossible to say, +but like some other great personages he chose to abdicate. In 1833, he +made his own terms with the Queen's government, agreeing to break up +his band on condition of receiving an _indulto_, or pardon for all past +offences, and a salaried appointment as an officer of Migueletes, or +"police." He did not long exercise this honest calling, for soon after, +when attempting to secure some of his former comrades who had taken +refuge in a farmhouse, he was shot dead as he burst open the door. + +With all his bad qualities, José had some of a redeeming character. +Among these were his kindness to his female prisoners, his generosity +to the poor, and his forbearance, for he frequently restrained his +troop from acts of violence, and displayed on occasions a certain +chivalrous nobility of character, hardly to be expected from a robber. +In person he was very small, scarcely more than five feet in height, +with bowed legs; but he was stout, strong and active and made amends +in boldness, determination and talent for his physical deficiencies. +His success and the long continued control which he exercised over the +lawless fellows who composed his band proved that he possessed the +difficult art of command. His courage indeed was proverbial. As an +instance of it, it is reported that he once ventured into the presence +of the Prime Minister at Madrid and dared to beard him in his own house. + +Brigandage has not wholly disappeared in Spain although it no longer +exists on the grand scale of former days when the mountain passes +and lesser highways were infested by robber bands led by daring +and unscrupulous chiefs who stopped travellers, blackmailed landed +proprietors and carried off country folk whom they held to ransom often +for considerable sums. To-day, if the knights of the road are still to +be met with occasionally, they are for the most part paltry pilferers +bent on stealing small sums from the poorer folk returning from market, +or in rare cases holding up some solitary vehicle and its defenceless +passengers. These are of the type of the old fashioned _salteadores_ +or "jumpers," so named because they jumped out from behind a rock and +dropped suddenly on their prey with the old peremptory summons of +"_Boca abajo!_" "_Boca à tierra!_" "Faces down! Mouth to the ground!" +The cry may still be heard, and it means mischief when backed as of old +by the muzzle of a gun protruding from the bushes in some narrow pass +or defile. They are courageous too, these Spanish road agents, ready +to fight at need as well as to rob, to overbear resistance and to meet +the officers of the law with their own weapons. A story is told of one +daring ruffian, Rullo de Zancayro, who, in 1859, murdered the alcalde +of his village and was followed by two _guardias civiles_. At the end +of a long chase they went too near some brushwood, when one was shot +dead and the fugitive made good his escape. + +In the year 1870 brigandage was general throughout Spain, but the +heart and centre of it was the province of Andalusia, with branches +and ramifications everywhere, spreading dismay and apprehension +among all peaceable people. This was in the interregnum that followed +the revolution which drove Queen Isabella from the throne. There +was safety for no one. Respectable landowners dared not visit nor +reside upon their estates for fear of attack, dreading robbery with +violence or seizure of their persons, and they constantly received +threatening letters demanding the purchase of immunity on the payment +of considerable sums. The roads were more than ever insecure, trains +and diligences were repeatedly held up, and small parties of travellers +or solitary wayfarers were certain to be laid under contribution. It +was claimed that the _guardias civiles_, the fine rural police, were +no longer active but were diverted from their legitimate duties by +political party leaders in power. So many bitter complaints, so many +indignant demands for protection, reached the central government in +Madrid, that the authorities resolved to put down brigandage with a +strong hand. A new governor of Cordova was appointed, a man of vigour +and determination, armed with full powers to purge the province of its +desperadoes. + +The choice fell upon Don Julian de Zugasti y Saenz, who had been a +member of the Cortes and employed as civil administrator, first as +governor of Teruel, where he had restored order in a period of grave +disorder, and at Burgos, where he had laid bare a formidable conspiracy +against the government. When Zugasti undertook the task, it was high +time to adopt energetic measures. There was no security for life or +property as robberies on a large scale were perpetrated both in town +and country. Well-to-do citizens were seized in the public streets and +carried off to sequestration; farmers and cultivators were compelled to +share their produce, their harvests, and their herds with the brigands +who swooped down on them; the police were impotent or too much overawed +to interfere in the interest of honest folk. The prevailing anarchy +and widespread lawlessness were a disgrace to any country that called +itself civilised. Zugasti did a great work in restoring order and +giving security to the disturbed districts. The whole story is told +at some length in his book on "Bandolerismo,"[24] which deals with +brigandage in Spain from its very beginnings, describing the principal +feats of the banditti. + +[24] "Bandolerismo estudo social y memorias historicas," by Don Julian +de Zugasti. Madrid, 1876. + +At the outset he was faced with a most difficult situation. Crimes +in great number had been committed with impunity. Many of their +perpetrators were wholly hidden from the authorities, while others +were perfectly well known. A crowd of spies were ever on the watch and +ready, whether from greed or to curry favour, with abundant information +of openings that offered for attempts at crime. On the other hand the +_guardias civiles_ were greatly discouraged and far too weak in numbers +for the onerous duties they were expected to perform. Judges were +dishonest and had been known to accept bribes, the ordinary police were +torpid, nearly useless and generally despised. A complete reform in the +administration of justice was a crying need, as the power and authority +of the law were completely broken down. + +The new governor was helpless and handicapped on every side. His +representations to the government for support were but coldly +received and he had to rely on such scanty means as he had at hand. +He looked carefully into the character of all police employés and +dismissed all of doubtful reputation. He established a system of +supplying the _guardias civiles_ at all stations with photographs of +criminals at large whom they could identify and arrest, and insisted +on strictly revising the permits issued to carry arms, allowing none +but respectable persons to do so. The prohibition was extended to all +kinds of knives, many of them murderous weapons of the well known type. +The quarters of all evil doers he heard of were broken up, including +the farm which had come to be called Ceuta because it harboured a +mob of ex-convicts, escaped prisoners who were eager to resume their +depredations by joining themselves to the plans and projects of others. + +These active measures were bitterly resented and vigorously resisted by +all evil doers, who went so far as to seek the removal of the governor, +and it was falsely announced in more than one newspaper that he had +sent in his resignation. The disastrous consequence was the immediate +revival of brigandage in various forms. Horses and cattle were once +more stolen in the open country and a house in the town of Estado +was broken into and a large amount in cash and securities with much +valuable jewelry was seized. At the same time ten prisoners escaped +in a body from the gaol of that city. On the highroad between Posadas +and Villaviciosa, seven armed men robbed nineteen travellers, and a +party had the audacity to carry off a child of nine and hold him to +ransom. The police and well-disposed people were greatly disheartened, +the _guardias civiles_, which had done excellent service in capturing +more than a hundred prisoners in a short time, slackened in their +endeavours, while the municipal police, which had forty captures to +its credit, also held their hand. The whole situation was greatly +aggravated and crime gained the ascendancy. But Zugasti rose to the +occasion, publicly denied the report of his resignation; the government +published a complimentary decree commending his conduct, and his +pursuit of wrong doers was continued with renewed energy. Naturally he +incurred the bitterest hostility and went constantly in danger of his +life. He received anonymous letters containing the most bloodthirsty +threats and was warned by his friends that they could not possibly +support or protect him. Undeterred he held his way, bravely and wisely +organised an association akin to the "Regulators" of the wild days +in the Western States of the United States to patrol the country and +insure the general safety, and employed a large force of secret police +agents to perambulate the country, keeping close watch upon suspicious +persons, travelling by all trains, patrolling all roads, visiting +taverns in low quarters, entering the prisons in disguise and gaining +the confidence of the fellow prisoners. Zugasti himself spent long +periods in the various gaols, observing, investigating and interviewing +notable offenders. + +The thoroughness of his proceedings might be gathered from the choice +he made of his agents. One of the most useful was an idiot boy, whose +weak-mindedness was relieved by some glimmerings of sense and who +passed entirely unsuspected by those upon whom he spied. His foolish +talk and silly ways gained him ready admission into cafés and clubs, +where he was laughed at and treated as a butt upon whom food, drink +and unlimited cigars were generously bestowed. He had the gift of +remaining wide awake while seeming to be sound asleep, his ears ever on +the stretch to pick up compromising facts which were openly mentioned +before him. He had also a prodigious memory and seldom forgot what he +heard, storing up everything to be produced later when he attended +upon the governor. In this way Zugasti often heard of crimes almost +as soon as they were planned, and could hunt up their perpetrators +without delay. On one occasion a mysterious crime was unravelled by +placing the idiot in the same cell with two of the suspected actors, +who entirely believed in the imbecility of their cell companion and +unguardedly revealed the true inwardness of the whole affair. + +The _ladron en grande_, the "robber chief" at the head of a numerous +band, is still to be met with, although rarely representing the type +of the famous José Maria. These leaders rose to the command of their +lawless fellows by force of superior will, and they were unhesitatingly +obeyed and followed with reckless devotion in the constant commission +of crime. One or two noted specimens have survived till to-day and some +account of them may be extracted from recent records. + +Vizco el Borje was long a terror to the peaceable people in northern +Andalusia. He was originally an officer of _carabineros_, the "custom +house" regiment of Spain, but had been, in his own judgment, unjustly +dismissed and found himself deprived of the means of subsistence. +Falling lower and lower, step by step he became an outcast, an +Ishmaelite consumed with an intense hatred of all social arrangements, +with his hand against every man. He began business as a smuggler and +soon took to worse, following the Spanish proverb:-- + + "De contrabandista e ladron + No haymas que un escalon." + +"There is only one short step from smuggler to thief," and Vizco +quickly crossed the narrow space and became a notorious criminal. He +carried on the war against law and order with constantly increasing +recklessness and more and more daring outrages. His strong personal +character, his iron will, his unbounded courage and boldness gave +him a great ascendancy over the men who collected around him and who +served him with the greatest loyalty and unstinting effort. One of his +exploits may be quoted at some length as exhibiting his methods and the +success that generally attended them. + +A certain landowner, Don Pedro de M----, whose estates were in the +neighbourhood of the mountain village of Zahrita, was in the habit of +providing bulls free of charge for the amusement of the villagers, at +the annual festival of their patron saint. Amateur bull fighters are +always to be found to take part in the performance of a _novillos_, +or game with young bulls. Don Pedro like many of his class was also +an _aficionado_, an amateur devoted to bull fighting, and he loved to +pick out himself the animals he gave from his herds, trying first their +temper and their aptitude for the so-called sport of _tauromaquia_. +He was thus engaged, assisted by his steward and a herdsman, and had +dismounted with the steward to walk round the herd, when the ominous +cry was raised, "_Boca abajo!_" and they found themselves covered +by the rifles of three brigands who had crept upon them unobserved. +Resistance was hopeless, though they also were armed, for their guns +hung at the saddles of their horses, which they led at the full length +of their reins, and to have made any hostile move would have drawn +down a murderous fire. The chance soon passed, for one of the robbers +quickly took possession of both horses and guns. The seizure was +complete and the captors proceeded to carry off their prize. + +All remounted by order of the chief of the band, who took the lead, +and the party started in single file along the narrow mountain path, +an armed escort bringing up the rear. They made straight for the +upper sierra, avoiding the frequented track until they reached a +dense thicket, where a halt was called and a scout sent on ahead. +After an interchange of whistled signals, nine other horsemen rode +up, the two prisoners were ordered to dismount, their eyes closely +bandaged, and they were warned that their lives depended upon their +implicit obedience to the orders they received. Then the march was +resumed. The road led constantly upward, becoming more and more rugged +and precipitous till from the utter absence of brushwood and the +stumbling of their horses they knew that they were climbing through +a mountainous region. Another halt was called, all again dismounted, +and the prisoners were led on foot along a narrow passage, that from +the echoing sounds and the closeness of the air evidently penetrated +far into the hill. It opened presently into an extensive cavern, +probably the long-abandoned workings of some ancient Roman mine. +Here their bandages were removed and Don Pedro saw that he was in the +presence of the three bandits who had first made him prisoner. The cave +contained nothing but a few empty boxes, on one of which was a light, +a flickering wick in a saucerful of oil. Another box was offered Don +Pedro as a seat, writing materials were produced and he was desired to +write from dictation as follows:-- + + "DEAR FATHER, I am in the power of the 'Sequestradores,' who make good + plans and bind fast. It is madness to put the government on their + track--they will escape and you will lose your son. Your secrecy and + your money can at once free me. You can send the silver by Diego our + steward, who is the bearer of this. Let him appear on the mountain + between Grazalema and El Bosque, riding a white donkey and bringing + ten thousand dollars." + +Here the prisoner stopped short and point blank refused to demand so +large a sum, declaring that to pay it his brothers would be robbed of +their patrimony and that he had no right to ask even when his life was +at stake for more than his individual share as one member of a large +family. It was a fair argument and he held out so staunchly that the +brigand was pleased to reduce the demand to six thousand dollars. The +letter conveying these terms was then completed, signed and delivered +to Diego, who was told to make the best of his way to Xeres, and as +dawn had now broken he had no difficulty in finding the road. + +Don Pedro was hospitably entertained. A wine skin (_borracha_) was +broached and a plentiful supper laid out. The day was spent in sleep, +but at nightfall the march was resumed. The prisoner was once more +blindfolded, the weary pilgrimage, halting by day, travelling by +night for three nights in succession, was resumed. On one occasion he +seemed near rescue. A cry of "Civiles! Civiles!" was raised, an alarm +of the near approach of the much dreaded _guardias civiles_. Orders +were promptly issued to prepare for action. The brigands closed their +ranks, sent their prisoner to the rear and took post to open fire. In +the confusion Don Pedro, keenly alert for the deliverance that seemed +so near, managed to lift the bandage over his eyes sufficiently to +peep around. The party stood on a narrow ledge of the mountain side, +straight cliff above, sheer drop below: movement forward or back was +alone feasible. Meanwhile the increasing clatter of hoofs betrayed +the enemy's approach, nearer and nearer, and the brigands barring the +narrow road hoped to take them at a disadvantage and, after shooting +them down, make good their retreat. But the sight of the first horse +showed that it had been a false alarm. These were not "_Civiles_" but +"_Contrabandistas_," smugglers not policemen, friends not foes. A long +train of animals, heavily laden with goods that had paid no duty, were +being guided across the mountains. Don Pedro's hopes were crushed +out of him when he heard the interchange of friendly greetings: "_Muy +buenas noches!_" on one side and "_Vayan ustedes con Dios_," on the +other; "Good night!" and "Go in God's keeping," and room was made by +the robbers for the safe passage of the smuggling train. + +On the third day news came that the authorities were on the alert and +it would be unsafe to meet the messenger returning on his white donkey. +Another tryst was therefore appointed. Don Pedro's father was desired +to send half the whole sum demanded to Grazalema and the other half was +carried by a man on the white donkey to a lonely spot among the hills. +The father started in person on the long ride from Xeres to Grazalema +weighted with three thousand dollars in cash, reached his destination +safely but remained there for a couple of days tortured with suspense. +On the third morning he was approached by a man leading a pony laden +with rolls of the rough brown cloth manufactured in Grazalema, who +said under his breath as he passed, "Follow me." The peddler led the +way to a small draper's shop where the same cloth was exposed for sale +and, dismounting, passed into the back premises, where another man, +also a peddler, was seated waiting. This was Vizco el Borje himself, +who at once asked for the money, producing Don Pedro's pencil case +as his credentials. The dollars had been sewn for security into the +pack saddle of the pony which had brought the old man, and they were +extracted, counted and handed over. Vizco forthwith climbed on top of +the pile of cloth carried by his own mount and rode boldly out of the +town. + +Meanwhile Diego, the steward on the white donkey, with the remaining +three thousand dollars patiently hung about the mountain lair to +which he had been directed, and at last encountered a goatherd at the +entrance of the village, who told him to ride on till he met a woman +dressed in black seated by the side of a well. "She will ask you the +time, and you will answer twelve o'clock, at which she will guide you +to the spot where you are expected." It was a cavern in the hill and he +was met there by his young master Don Pedro safe and sound. The money +was handed over, but no release was permitted until news came of the +delivery of the other half, when the prisoners were guided to a path +familiar to them and they were free to return home. Next evening they +rode into Xeres after a captivity of fifteen days. + +The end of Vizco el Borje was such as might be expected. He was shot +down by the _guardias civiles_. For a long time he carried his life +in his hands and had many hairbreadth escapes, saved always by his +fine pluck and resourcefulness. At last the authorities had positive +information of his whereabouts, gained through treachery, and he was +surrendered. He made a gallant defence, but his retreat was cut off +and he was soon overpowered. When he fell his body had been pierced by +five rifle bullets. + +Another type of brigand was Agua Dulce, who worked on a much smaller +scale, but was long a terror in the neighbourhood of Xeres. He was +a mean, contemptible ruffian who preyed upon charcoal burners, poor +travellers, carriers and workmen returning home with their hard earned +wages. He had one narrow escape. After securing an unusually large sum, +the equivalent of £600, all in small coins, he was caught dividing +these with two accomplices in a wine shop. His arrest and imprisonment +followed. When called upon to account for his possession of the gold, +Agua Dulce explained that he had got it in the course of a business +transaction in Seville and was removed to that city for trial, where he +was acquitted, although little doubt was entertained of his guilt. + +For years he continued his depredations, committing for the most part +small thefts and petty larcenies. Now and again he made bold coups, as +when, under threat of damaging a herd of valuable mares, he extorted +three thousand dollars from a lady who raised horses. He levied a +thousand dollars on another landowner by using the same menace and a +third gentleman, who had stoutly refused to be blackmailed and who +owned a large drove of donkeys, found them all with their throats cut +lying by the high road. When his misdeeds became too numerous to be +borne the municipal guard of Gorez swore to put an end to him. A hot +pursuit was organised and he was found at a ford near a wood belonging +to the Duke of San Lorenzo, where he was caught hiding among the trees. +Two guards opened fire, which was returned, with the result that one +guard was killed and one robber. Agua Dulce, who was still alive, got +into the covert, and shots were again and again exchanged, ending in +the destruction of the brigand. + +A later affair with brigands occurred at Gibraltar in 1870, when two +gentlemen, natives of the Rock, much given to hunting and taking long +rides in the neighbourhood, were waylaid and made prisoners. They were +carried off to a lonely house in the hills near Ronda and detained +for ransom, which was advanced by the British government through the +governor of the fortress of Gibraltar, and eventually repaid by the +Spanish authorities. After the money had been paid over the _guardias +civiles_ intercepted the robbers and shot them down. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY + + Wonderful results achieved by Colonel Montesinos in the presidio + at Valencia--Montesinos repairs and reconstructs the prison with + convict labour--His system of treatment--Period--Marvellous success + in reforming criminals--Convicts entrusted with confidential + despatches in civil war--Armed to resist attack on the prison + by insurgents--Employed to hunt down brigands--Movement towards + prison reform in 1844--Three new model prisons planned for + Madrid--Executions--The "garrote"--Account of the trial and execution + of José de Rojas--The condemned cell at the Saladero--An Englishman's + description of a Spanish execution. + + +The reader who has followed this detailed description of Spanish penal +methods has realised the hideous shortcomings of Spanish prisons, the +horrible practices so constantly prevailing within the walls, the +apparently incurable nature of the criminals who regularly fill them, +and he might reasonably doubt that definite and substantial amendment +was possible. Yet the contrary is true and to the most marked and +astonishing degree if we are to believe the facts on record. In one +instance the personal character of one man, backed by his unshaken +determination and the exercise of a resolute and inflexible will, +brought a large mass of convicts into an admirable condition of +self-control and good behaviour. The story reads like a fairy tale, +as set forth in contemporary chronicles. One of the most interesting +accounts is to be found in a book of travels entitled "Spain as It +Is," by a Mr. Hoskins, in which he gives his personal observations +of the results achieved in the prison at Valencia by the enlightened +administration of its Governor, Colonel Montesinos. A brief account of +the man himself should precede our appreciation of his work. + +Montesinos was a soldier, trained to arms, whose education and +experience were entirely military. He had no previous acquaintance +with or insight into prison systems, although he had travelled far +and wide in many countries. He had never visited or inspected their +penal establishments nor had he penetrated into any single prison in +his native Spain. He served in the Spanish army, beginning as a cadet +at fourteen, was actively engaged in the war of Independence, and was +carried off as a prisoner into France. When set free at the conclusion +of peace, he accepted a post in the secretariat of the War Office at +Madrid, where he remained for five years. Then came the political +troubles which ended in the fall of the constitutional government +in 1823 and the surrender of Cadiz. With many other soldiers and +citizens, he left Spain and wandered through Europe and America, with +no very definite idea of examining into the laws and customs of other +countries, but gaining knowledge and breadth of views. On his return +to Spain when close on forty years of age he was appointed governor of +the convict prison in Valencia. + +Montesinos entered upon his duties with a firm conviction of the +paramount importance of military discipline, of that passive and +unquestioning obedience to authority, the absolute surrender of +individual volition, the complete subjection of the many to the single +will of one superior master, which he believed to be the essence of all +personal government and more particularly in a prison. To enforce such +discipline was the only effectual method of securing good order and +the due subordination of the rough and possibly recalcitrant elements +under his command. In this he entirely succeeded and established an +extraordinary influence over his charges. He became an autocrat but +in the best sense; his prisoners resigned themselves submissively and +unhesitatingly to his control, anxious to gain his good will by their +exemplary demeanour and their unvarying desire to behave well. What +he actually made of his charges, how he succeeded in changing their +very natures, in transforming lawbreakers and evil doers into honest, +trustworthy persons, successfully restraining their evil instincts, +will be best realised by a few strange facts which, if not positively +vouched for, would be considered beyond belief. But before relating +these marvellous results it will be well to describe in some detail the +processes adopted by him and the principles on which he acted. + +When Colonel Montesinos was appointed governor of the Valencian convent +prison, it was located in an ancient mediæval edifice known as the +"_Torres de Cuarte_," two towers flanking the great gate which gave +upon the suburb known as "_El Cuarte_." This semi-ruinous building, +dating from the fifteenth century, lodged about a thousand prisoners, +herded together in a number of dark, dirty, ill-kept and insecure +chambers, wholly unfit for human habitation. They were on several +floors communicating by narrow passages and tortuous staircases, below +which were deep underground cellars divided up into obscure foul +dungeons, which were always humid from the infiltration from the city +ditch and into which neither sunlight nor fresh air came to dry up the +damp pavement and the streaming walls. Montesinos saw at once that it +would be impossible to introduce reforms in such a building and he +laboured hard to move into better quarters, securing at length, after +a long correspondence, new quarters in the monastery of St. Augustine, +which indeed was but little better. Here also the buildings had fallen +into disrepair. A large part was without roof, there was little +flooring, and many broken windows and decayed walls offered numerous +facilities for escape. Extensive repairs were indispensable, yet funds +were wanting, for the Spanish government was sorely taxed to meet the +expenses of the civil war (Carlist) now in full swing. Nevertheless +Montesinos, strenuous and indefatigable, a host in himself, transferred +his people, a thousand convicts of dangerous character, into their new +abode and set them to work to repair and reconstruct the old building. +He meant to succeed, by drawing upon his own limitless energies, +creating means from his own native resources, and was backed by the +ready response of those he brought under the dominion of an indomitable +will. + +All difficulties yielded before his intense spirit. He was the very +incarnation of activity and it was enough to look at him to be +spurred on to assiduous effort. His personal traits and their effect +upon his surroundings are thus described by his biographer, Vincente +Boix,--"There can be no doubt that his martial air, his tall figure +and the look in his face, a mixture of imperious command with great +kindliness and shrewd appreciation of willing effort, had a marked +effect upon his people, and convicts who had been once coerced and +driven by the fear of punishment yielded much more readily to his +moral force. His obvious determination and strength of character got +more out of them than threats or penalties, although, if needs were, +he was ready enough to appeal to the strong arm. They acknowledged +his superiority, and rough undisciplined men, quite capable of rising +against authority when unchecked or weakly held, succumbed to his +lightest word like children to their father. They yielded even against +the grain absolute compliance to his lightest wish without needing a +sharp look or a cross word." + +It will be interesting to follow Montesinos' procedure. Under his +system the treatment was progressive and divided into three periods; +first, that of chains; second, that of labour; and third, that of +conditional liberation. This arrangement is in some respects akin to +that generally known as the "Irish" system as practised many years ago +with conspicuous success. + +(1) The wearing of irons at that time was general in Spain, although +now the practice has fallen into disuse. With Montesinos the rule was +to impose irons of varying weight graduated to the length of sentence. +A two years' man carried them of four pounds' weight; a four years' +man of six pounds, while between six and eight years they were of +eight pounds. They consisted of a single chain fastened to a fetter on +the right ankle, while the other end was attached to a waist belt, a +method supposed to cause no great inconvenience. With Montesinos the +period of wearing them was of short duration. It terminated on the +day that the convict petitioned for regular employment, for on first +reception, after having entered the first courtyard, which was kept +bright with garden flowers and the songs of many birds in cages hanging +around, the new arrival was given no work. He remained at the depot +idle and silent, for no conversation was permitted, although he was +associated with others, and if he put a question to a neighbour he +got no reply. Weariness and boredom soon supervened in this period of +first probation and the convict was keen to pass on. He appealed to his +officer, who told him to seek employment at some trade. "I know none." +"Then learn one, you cannot get quit of your irons in any other way." +If the convict hesitated he was left studiously to himself, unhappy +and ashamed, for his condition was deemed disgraceful. He could not +hold his head up, for a wide gulf separated him from others who had +escaped the chain. He was a marked man, shunned and sneered at, and was +required to work from the second day at ignominious and humiliating +labour, such as sweeping, cleaning, and so forth. They were the helots +and scavengers of the prison. Their lot was the more unbearable because +they were debarred from many privileges conferred on those who were +at regular labour, and who were earning wages to spend in part upon +themselves. These regular labourers might buy toothsome food and +cigars, the delight of every Spaniard's heart. Meanwhile the governor +had been watching him closely, noting his disposition and whether +or not he was desirous of taking up work which was so much to his +advantage and of which he would be speedily deprived unless he applied +himself to it with zeal and unflagging industry. + +(2) A wide choice of labour obtained in Valencia. Trades and +handicrafts were varied and numerous. Carpenters, turners, saddlers, +shoemakers, fanmakers, workers with esparto grass, weavers of +palm straw hats, silk spinners, tailors, basket makers, were all +represented, and the total was some forty trades, with seven hundred +artisans. To-day there would be nothing remarkable in this industrial +activity, which may be seen in well governed prisons, but in Valencia +at that date (1835-40) it was a novelty due very largely to Montesinos' +initiative, and he could boast that out of three thousand convicts, +barely a fourth left prison without having acquired some smattering +of a trade. Stress must not be laid upon the exact amount of skill +possessed by these prison taught artisans, and it is to be feared +that it was no more thorough than in these latter days of ours, when +the same principles as those of Montesinos have actuated prison +administration. This is the crux of the system of prison instruction. +It cannot be expected to turn out workmen sufficiently well trained and +expert to go out into the open labour market, so generally overcrowded, +and compete for wages against the free labourer who has had the benefit +of full apprenticeship. Adults cannot easily acquire knowledge and +dexterity in the use of tools, and inevitable waste of materials +accompanies the experiments made by unskilled hands. We have no record +of how far these drawbacks affected Montesinos' well-meant practice. + +(3) We have no facts to show how far the third period, that of +conditional liberation, was successful at Valencia. There is no +possibility of knowing definitely whether it was really tried or +went beyond the enunciation of the theory so long in advance of our +modern practice. It is little likely, however, that the effective +and elaborate method of police supervision on which it is absolutely +dependent was in existence or even understood in Spain in the days of +Montesinos. + +No permanent results seemed to have been achieved by the Montesinos +system. There is no record that it survived the man who created it +or that the government sought to extend the admirable principles +on which it rested. It was essentially a one man system, depending +entirely for success on the personal qualities of the individual +called upon to carry it out. Montesinos was not, however, singular in +his remarkable achievement. The German Obermaier did much the same +in the prison of Kaiserslautern, and Captain Maconochie in Norfolk +Island exercised a notable mastery over the Australian convicts. The +effects produced by Montesinos were little less than phenomenal. He so +developed the probity of his convicts that he could rely implicitly +upon their honesty and good faith. During the civil war he sent them +with confidential despatches to commanders in the field and never had +cause to regret the trust placed in them. They were sent out as scouts +seeking information of the enemy's movements and brought in news with +punctuality and despatch. A message was brought one day to the governor +directing him to send a clerk to fetch a thousand dollars from the +provincial Treasury. Montesinos forthwith summoned one of his convicts +and despatched him, carrying with him the receipt for the money. Within +half an hour the man returned with the dollars. Whenever a convict +escaped from the presidio, a rare occurrence indeed, other convicts +were despatched in pursuit and seldom failed to bring in the fugitive. + +At one time the Spanish government decided to build a new prison in +the capital and to employ convict labour in the construction. The +Governor of the presidio of Valencia was ordered to send up a number +of prisoners, and next day at daylight they marched, taking with +them a quantity of material, the whole escorted by a small body of +_cabos_, "prisoner warders," and commanded by a veteran overseer. The +journey was safely made to Madrid without the smallest mishap, not a +sign or symptom of misbehaviour shown on the road, and the alcaldes +of the towns on the route, after anticipating the worst evils, were +agreeably surprised and were satisfied to lodge the travellers at +night in private houses if there was no prison accommodation. A second +experiment of the kind was made in the same year. + +On a previous occasion Valencia was threatened by a strong force of +Carlists under that distinguished Carlist general, Cabrera, and it was +feared that he would capture a large body of convicts at that time +employed on a new road, Las Cabrillas, a little distance from the city. +There were hardly any troops in the capital except the city militia +only recently organised and barely equal to the duties and dangers +imposed upon them. Great fears were entertained that Cabrera would +seize the convicts and incorporate with his own force. Montesinos was +desired to prevent this, and he turned up in person one evening at Las +Cabrillas, where he assumed command and drew off the greater number, +happily escaping without attack or interference by the enemy. So loyal +was the demeanour of the Valencian prisoners that under the direction +of Montesinos at another time they were armed and resisted an attack +made upon the gates of their convent prison by the insurgents in a +rising in Valencia. The following extraordinary story is related in an +official publication by the well known poet Don Ramon de Campoamor, +at that time governor of the province of Valencia. A formidable band +of brigands was devastating the neighbourhood of Valencia and a reign +of terror prevailed. The governor sent for Colonel Montesinos and +inquired whether there were any old brigands among the convicts in +custody and who were willing to atone for past misdeeds by coming to +the assistance of the authorities. Montesinos, who made it a rule to +know all his prisoners by heart, their present dispositions, and indeed +their inmost thoughts, spoke confidently of one as quite a reformed +character, and at the governor's request entrusted him with the special +mission of clearing out the country. The convict, after receiving +his instructions, went out with a sufficient escort, hunted down the +brigands, broke up their bands, killing or capturing the whole. Here +the commanding influence of Montesinos was paramount even beyond the +walls of the presidio. By the power of his strong will he called out +fine qualities and exacted loyal service from the worst materials whom +he had won to a high sense of discipline. + +A minor and more sentimental instance is recorded of the confidence +he could repose in his reformed criminals. The mother of one of the +convicts was at the point of death. The man was summoned to the +governor's office and informed of her desperate condition. "Do you wish +to see her in her last moments?" asked the governor. "Can I trust you +to return if I give you permission to leave the prison for a time?" +The man much moved solemnly promised not to misuse his liberty. He was +allowed to exchange his prison uniform for a peasant's dress; he went +without escort to his mother's cottage, received her blessing, and went +back to durance as had been agreed. + +The experience of Valencia was unique and short-lived. A commendable +effort was made to extend the principles on which Montesinos had acted, +and decrees embodying them and recommending them for general adoption +were issued but soon became a dead letter. Excellent in theory, their +success depended entirely on the man to give them effect. A second +Montesinos did not appear and Spanish prisons continued to exhibit the +worst features down to the present day. + +A movement towards prison reform had been commenced as early as 1844, +when three new "model" prisons were planned for Madrid, but their +construction was long delayed. About the same date a model convict +prison was planned at Valladolid, but slow progress was made with +this and with other new prisons, including that of Saragossa, and +at the Casa de Galera of Alcalá de Henares. A penitentiary was also +projected on the island of Cabrera, opposite Cadiz. The chief effort +was concentrated on the model prison of Madrid, which was undertaken +in 1876 after much debate and discussion. It was to be an entirely +new building, to which were devoted all the funds that might have +been expended upon the impossible reform and repair of the hideous +old Saladero. Several years passed before the building began, and not +until 1884 did the tenants of the dismantled Saladero move into the new +prison. It is for the most part on the cellular or separate system, +by which each individual is held strictly apart from his fellows, +according to the most modern ideas, which have claimed to have exerted +a potent effect in the reformation of offenders and the diminution of +crime. Nevertheless the system is still in its trial and its beneficial +results are by no means universally conceded. The new prison is a very +distinct improvement on the old, and the former horrors and atrocities +are fast disappearing, but the secluded solitary life has its own +peculiar terrors which press hardly on transgressors, with results that +are very distinctly deterrent if not very largely reformatory. + +What those actually subjected to the treatment feel we may read in +their own effusions. The literary quality of prison writers does not +rank high but they sometimes put their views forcibly. One says of the +"model":--"If I leave this trying place alive I can at least declare +that I have been buried underground and had made the acquaintance of +the grave diggers." Another writer:--"If you wish to know what life is +like here, come and take your lodging inside. They are handsome, but +curious, well provided with means to drive you out of your mind. There +is a water tap which overflows in drought and runs dry in wet weather; +a pocket handkerchief and a towel; a plate, a basin and a wooden spoon, +a broom, a dust box, one blanket and a mattress with four straws that +gives you pain in every limb: many things more, but one alone much +needed is absent, a rope by which you commit suicide." + +It has been said that the worst use to which a man may be put is to +shut him up in a prison. A still more wasteful extravagance is to put +him out of the world. The penalties known to Spanish law have been +very various; there have been many forms of imprisonment, perpetual +imprisonment, greater or less detention, exile, the application of +fetters of several sorts, handcuffs, shackles, the _guarda amigo_ or +"holdfriend," the "persuader" or "come along with me"; the leg irons +and waist chains of varying weights. Penal labour was enforced in +_maniobras infimas_ by convicts chained together on public works, +fortifications, harbours and mines. All forms of secondary punishment +have been inflicted, winding up with capital, the death sentence +inflicting the extreme penalty of the law. This last irrevocable act +does not find favour with all Spanish legists, whose chief objection +is the familiar one that when a judicial error has been committed, +rectification is altogether impossible. Spain can add one to the many +well known cases such as those of Callas and Lesurques, and it may be +quoted here as it is probably little known. + +The case occurred in Seville and grew out of a sudden quarrel in a +tavern followed by a fight to the death with knives. The combatants +went on the ground and attacked each other in the regular fashion when +one dropped to the ground mortally wounded and the other with his +second ran away. The wounded man's second went up to see whether his +principal was dying or already dead, when he got up and declared that +he was entirely unhurt. He had slipped upon a stone and fallen with +the obviously cowardly desire to escape from his antagonist's attack. +The second was furiously angry and rated his man soundly. He retorted +fiercely and another quarrel and another encounter ensued, also with +knives, in which the first man again fell and this time was killed +outright, by his own second, who at once made off. The body lay where +it had fallen until next morning, when the police found it. The story +of the original quarrel but nothing of the second had become known, and +it was naturally concluded that death had been inflicted by the first +combatant. On the face of it the evidence was conclusive against him, +and he did not attempt to deny the facts as they appeared when arrested +and put upon his trial. At that time the law treated homicide in a duel +as murder and the victim suffered the extreme penalty without protest, +believing himself to be guilty. The truth was never known, until the +real offender, years after, confessed the part he had played, but too +late of course to prevent the judicial murder of the innocent man. +This case has naturally been added to give weight to the many powerful +arguments against capital punishment. + +The extreme penalty of the law is nowadays inflicted in Spain by the +_garrote_, a method of strangulation by the tightening of an iron +collar, the substitute for hanging introduced by King Ferdinand VII +(1820). Till then the hanging was carried out in the clumsiest and most +brutal manner. The culprits were dragged by the executioner up the +steps of a ladder leaning against the scaffold. At a certain height +he mounted on the victim's shoulders and thus seated flung himself off +with his victim underneath. As they swung to and fro the hangman's +fingers were busily engaged in choking the convict so as to complete +the strangulation. The _garrote_ is a very simple contrivance. The +condemned man sits on a stool or low seat, leaning his back against a +strong, firm upright post to which an iron collar is fixed. This, when +opened, encircles his neck, and is closed and tightened by a powerful +screw, worked by a lever from behind. Death is instantaneous. + +Public executions must prove very popular performances with a people +who still revel in a bull fight and flock to look at the hairbreadth +escapes of human beings from hardly undeserved death by the horns +of a fierce beast tortured into madness. De Foresta, an Italian +traveller,[25] tells us that never was a greater concourse seen in +Madrid than that which collected in 1877 to witness the execution of +two murderers, Mollo and Agullar, when it was estimated that 80,000 +people were present. Ford describes an execution in Seville in 1845 +when the crowd was enormous and composed largely of the lower orders, +of the humbler ranks, "who hold the conventions of society very cheap +and give loose rein to their morbid curiosity to behold scenes of +terror, which operates powerfully on the women, who seem irresistibly +impelled to witness sights the most repugnant to their nature and to +behold sufferings which they would most dread to undergo," and many of +whom "brought in their arms young children at the beginning of life +to witness its conclusion." "They desire to see how the criminal will +conduct himself, they sympathise with him if he displays coolness and +courage, and despise him on the least symptom of unmanliness." + +[25] La Spagna; Da Irun a Malaga, by Adolfo de Foresta, Bologna, 1879. + +Ford in his "Gatherings from Spain" gives a graphic account of the +execution of a highway robber, one of the band of the famous José +Maria already mentioned. The culprit, José de Rojas, was nicknamed +"Veneno," poison, from his venomous qualities and had made a desperate +resistance before he was finally overcome by the troops who captured +him. He fell wounded with a bullet in his leg, but killed the soldier +who ran forward to secure him. When in custody he turned traitor and +volunteered to betray his old associates and give such information as +would lead to their arrest if his own life was spared. The offer was +accepted and he was sent out with a sufficient force to seize them. +Such was the terror of his name that all surrendered, but not to him. +On this quibble the indemnity promised him was withdrawn, he was +brought to trial, condemned, and in due course executed on the Plaza +San Francisco, which adjoins the prison in Seville and is commonly used +for public executions. + +Ford was admitted within the walls and describes Veneno "_en +capilla_," a small room set apart as a condemned cell, the approach to +which was thronged with officers, portly Franciscan friars and "members +of a charitable brotherhood collecting alms from the visitors to be +expended in masses for the eternal repose of the soul of the criminal. +The levity of those assembled without, formed a heartless contrast with +the gloom and horror of the melancholy interior of the _capilla_. At +the head of the cell was placed a table with a crucifix, an image of +the Virgin and two wax tapers, near which stood a silent sentinel with +a drawn sword. Another soldier was stationed at the door with a fixed +bayonet. In a corner of this darkened compartment lay Veneno curled up +like a snake, with a striped coverlet drawn closely over his mouth, +leaving visible only a head of matted locks, and a glistening dark +eye rolling restlessly out of its deep socket. On being approached he +sprang up and seated himself on a stool. He was almost naked, but a +chaplet of beads hung across his exposed breast and contrasted with +the iron chains around his limbs.... The expression of his face though +low and vulgar was one which, once seen, was not easily forgotten. +His sallow complexion appeared more cadaverous in the uncertain light +and was heightened by a black unshorn beard, growing vigorously on a +half-dead countenance. He appeared to be reconciled to his fate and +repeated a few sentences, the teaching of the monks, as by rote. His +situation was probably more painful to the spectator than himself, an +indifference to death arising rather from an ignorance of its dreadful +import than from high moral courage." + +When Veneno came out to die he was clad in a coarse yellow baize gown, +the colour which in Spain denotes the crime of murder and appropriated +always to Judas Iscariot in Spanish paintings, the colour, too, of +the _sanbenito_ or penitential cloak worn by the victims of the +Inquisition at an _auto da fé_. He walked slowly, stopping often to +kiss the crucifix held to his lips by the attendant confessor, a monk +of the Franciscan order, whom it was the convict's privilege to choose +for himself to accompany him to the scaffold. He was met there by the +executioner, a young man dressed in black who proceeded to bind his +naked legs and arms so tightly that they swelled and turned black: +a necessary precaution, as this very executioner's father had been +killed when struggling with a convict unwilling to die. Veneno made +no resistance, but he spoke with supreme contempt of this degraded +functionary, saying, "_Mi delito me mata no ese hombre_" (My crime +kills me and not this creature). He uttered many pious ejaculations, +and his dying cry was, "Viva la Virgen Santisima." The last scene was +ghastly in the extreme. While the priest stood by, "a bloated corpulent +man more occupied in shading the sun from his face than in his ghostly +office," the robber sat with a writhing look of agony, grinding his +clenched teeth. The executioner took the lever of the screw in both +hands, gathered himself up for a strong muscular effort, drew the iron +collar tight while an attendant threw a black handkerchief over the +face. A convulsive pressure of the hands and a heaving of the chest +were the only visible signs of the passing of the convict's spirit. + +"After a pause of a few moments the executioner cautiously peeped under +the handkerchief and, after having given another turn of the screw, +lifted it off, carefully put it in his pocket and proceeded to light +a cigar. The face of the dead man was slightly convulsed, the mouth +open, the eye balls turned into their sockets from the wrench. A black +bier with two lanterns fixed on staves was now set down before the +scaffold. A small table and a dish into which alms were again collected +to be paid to the priests who sang masses for his soul was also brought +forward.... The body remained on the scaffold till after noon. It was +then thrown into a scavenger's cart and led by the _pregonero_ or +common crier beyond the jurisdiction of the city to a square platform +called the "mesa del Rey," the king's table, where it was to be +quartered and cut up. Here the carcass was hewed and hacked into pieces +by the bungling executioner and his assistants." + +The condemned cell at the Saladero was a part of the prison chapel in +which the Spanish convict spent the last twenty-four hours of life and +was a horrible and painfully gruesome hole. The _capilla_ is described +by de Foresta, who saw it when it was on the eve of abolition. It was +of narrow dimensions, damp, dark, windowless and lighted only with one +or two small candles burning upon the altar which occupied a large +space filling all one wall. In a corner cut off by a black iron railing +from the rest of the chapel was a small space fitted with a bed or +stone shelf with rings to which the convict's chains were fastened and +where he knelt close to the bars to converse with or confess to the +ministering priests. The chapel was dimly lighted by a hanging lamp and +one or two wax candles. Its walls and floor were damp and it received +light and air only through the door. This gruesome den rejoiced in the +name _el confortador_, or the "place of comfort." + +Another traveller gives the following graphic account of a Spanish +execution:-- + +"At seven we find ourselves in the crowd immediately beneath the prison +walls. Large bodies of troops are drawn up on either side of the +_plaza_ and there is a tolerably large concourse of male spectators +present. In a few minutes the mournful cortége appears upon the wall. +First comes the executioner, the Spanish Calcraft, a wiry looking +fellow, carrying a coil of rope; next comes a very stout padre armed +with a baton, and bawling out prayers at the top of his voice; he is +followed by the convict, who walks on in prison uniform, with his +neck bare and arms pinioned, clasping the cross in his hands and +looking literally in a blue fright; a couple more priests and two armed +sentries complete the group, who range themselves along the wall, the +criminal in the centre. The terrible scene is long protracted. The fat +padre roars out _Ave Marias_, exhortations and prayers, waving his +baton frantically in the air and making the miserable wretch repeat +after him. He then clasps him in his arms, and sitting down on chairs +opposite each other, they are covered with a large black pall held +by the supernumerary priests; under this they remain for some time +perfectly motionless, while the poor creature is unburdening his soul +and pouring forth his load of crimes into the ear of his confessor. + +"The nerves of the spectators are strained to an intense pitch during +the awful pause, as is evident from the oppressive silence which +prevails and the anxious looks directed at the scaffold. At length the +pall is removed and the executioner proceeds to business. The culprit +is made to sit against an upright post to which he is firmly lashed; +the _garrote_, a machine consisting of an iron collar worked back by +a powerful screw and a long lever, is carefully adjusted round his +neck, a small handkerchief thrown over his face and all is ready. The +priest recommences shouting while the executioner, preparing himself +for a mighty effort, suddenly turns the handle two or three times as +quick as lightning; the head of the victim drops, the knees and arms +quiver for a few seconds and all is over. Priests and sentries retire, +Calcraft peeps under the handkerchief and, whipping it off with a +jerk, immediately disappears, leaving the ghastly corpse exposed to +open view. It is a sickening and disgusting sight: the face is of a +livid hue, the tongue protruding, and shedding saliva on the breast; +the bystanders shudder, the troops march off with drums gaily beating +and the crowd slowly disperses. I make a rapid sketch of the body and +return to the hotel fully satisfied that, were it not for the cruel +state of suspense in which the criminal is kept before the execution, +the punishment of the _garrote_ is far more merciful and expeditious +than the less speedy death by hanging in this country." + +The profession of hangman does not entitle those who practise it to +the very highest honour, although in France in the case of the Sansons +it was an hereditary office in which son succeeded father for many +generations and the family took considerable pride in their functions. +In Spain the _verdugo_ is by no means a popular person. De Foresta, the +Italian traveller already quoted, tells us that in several towns he saw +a person of forbidding aspect who was walking about with a camp stool +under his arm and generally shunned. On enquiry he was informed that +this was the gentleman who administered the _garrote_. He was strictly +forbidden to take a seat at a café or in any place of public resort, +hence the camp stool on which he rested himself when tired. No one +recognised or addressed to him a single word. De Foresta's comment on +this is a story of the French executioner who, when called to Nice to +guillotine a criminal, was unable to find anywhere to lay his head. +He was turned away from every door, was refused a mouthful of food +and was obliged to dine on what he could find at the railway station +restaurant, and he spent the night in walking up and down the platform. +It may not be generally known that in England the executioner is +provided with board and lodging in the gaol where his victim is waiting +to be "finished." + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + +Superscript text is represented with carat and brackets (i.e. E=MC^{2} ) + +Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History and Romance of Crime; +Spanish Prisons, by Arthur Griffiths + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY AND ROMANCE OF CRIME *** + +***** This file should be named 52114-8.txt or 52114-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/1/1/52114/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Christopher Wright, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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+ padding-left: 3em; + } + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:smaller; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; } + +/* ePub stylings */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +@media screen +{ + .half-title + { + margin: 6em 0; + } +} + +@media handheld +{ + body + { + margin: 0; + padding: 0; + width: 95%; + } + + .poetry + { + display: block; + margin-left: 1.5em; + } + + .front-matter + { + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; + margin: 0; + padding-top: 6em; + } +} + +@media print +{ + .front-matter + { + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; + margin: 0; + padding-top: 6em; + } +} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History and Romance of Crime; Spanish +Prisons, by Arthur Griffiths + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The History and Romance of Crime; Spanish Prisons + +Author: Arthur Griffiths + +Release Date: May 21, 2016 [EBook #52114] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY AND ROMANCE OF CRIME *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Christopher Wright, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="half-title front-matter"> + + <p class="ph1 oldeng red">The History and + Romance of + Crime</p> + + <p class="center">FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES<br /> + TO THE PRESENT DAY</p> + + <div class="figemblem"> + <img src="images/title-emblem.jpg" alt="Lock Emblem" /> + </div> + + + <p class="ph3">THE GROLIER SOCIETY<br /> + LONDON</p> +</div> + +<div class="front-matter"> + <hr class="chap" /> + + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece">[Frontispiece]</a></span></p> + + <div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/i_frontis.jpg" alt="Frontispiece" /> + </div> + <hr class="chap" /> +</div> + +<p class="ph1 oldeng red mt2"> +Spanish Prisons</p> + +<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD<br /> +PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT</p> + +<p class="ph3"><em>by</em></p> + +<p class="ph2">MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS</p> +<p class="ph3"><em>Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain</em><br /> +<br /> +<cite>Author of<br /> +"The Mysteries of Police and Crime<br /> +"Fifty Years of Public Service," etc.</cite></p> + +<p class="ph2"><em>The Inquisitor-General and the Catholic Sovereigns</em></p> + +<p>The mandate of expulsion of the Jews from Spain was +issued by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. This edict no doubt +originated with Torquemada, who was very bitter against the +Jews. When he learned that a number of their leaders were +in conference with the King and Queen, and offering an immense +ransom, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing +a crucifix on high and crying in stentorian tones that the +sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas Iscariot. +"Here He is!" he exclaimed. "Sell Him again, not for +thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging +the crucifix on the table he ran out in a frenzy. This turned +the tables and the decree for expulsion was confirmed.</p> + + +<p class="ph3 mb2">THE GROLIER SOCIETY</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + + +<div class="front-matter"> + <h1 class="oldeng mt2"> + Spanish Prisons + </h1> + + <p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND ABROAD + PRISONS PAST AND PRESENT + </p> + + <p class="ph3"><em>by</em></p> + + <p class="ph2">MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS</p> + <p class="ph4"><em>Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain</em></p> + + <p class="ph4"><cite>Author of<br /> + "The Mysteries of Police and Crime<br /> + "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc.</cite></p> + + + <div class="figemblem"> + <img src="images/title-emblem.jpg" alt="Lock Emblem" /> + </div> + + + <p class="ph3 mb2">THE GROLIER SOCIETY</p> + + + <hr class="chap" /> + </div> + + <div class="front-matter"> + <p class="ph2">EDITION NATIONALE</p> + + <p class="ph3">Limited to one thousand registered and numbered sets.</p> + + <p class="ph2">NUMBER <span class="u">307</span></p> + + <hr class="chap" /> +</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> +</div> + + +<p>A considerable portion of this volume is devoted +to the Spanish Inquisition, which was, for +three centuries, the most important force in Spain. +Thousands were condemned by its tribunals, and its +prisons and punishments make up a large part of the +penal history of that country. Much exaggeration +has crept into the popular accounts, but the simple +truth must cause a shudder, when read to-day.</p> + +<p>The institution was created to deal with heresy, +that is, with a departure from the accepted canons. +The idea that there can be unity in diversity was +not understood. The spiritual and the temporal +powers were closely related, and bishop and king, +pope and emperor, all believed that uniformity was +necessary. Hence, heresy was everywhere treated +as high treason not only to the Church but to the +State as well. The Spanish Inquisition was a state +affair as well as an ecclesiastical court.</p> + +<p>We shall see that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition +was not confined to the suppression of heresy. +Many crimes which to-day are purely state concerns, +were then punished by it, including bigamy, blasphemy, +perjury, unnatural crimes, and witchcraft.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +The Spanish Inquisition deserves credit for discouraging +persecution of the last named offence, and +thereby saved the lives of thousands, who, in any +other state would have been executed.</p> + +<p>The adaptation to penal purposes of ancient buildings, +to be found throughout the length and breadth +of Spain, was very common, as these were immediately +available although generally unsuitable. Chief +among them are the many monastic buildings vacated +when the laws broke up religious houses in +Spain and which were mostly converted into prisons, +but little deserving the name. Some of these houses +have been utilised as gaols pure and simple; some +have served two or more purposes as at Huelva, +where the convent-prison was also a barrack.</p> + +<p>Spain has been slow in conforming to the movements +towards prison reform. She could not afford +to spend money on new constructions along modern +lines, and the introduction of the cellular system is +only of recent date. The model prison of Madrid, +which has replaced the hideous Saladero, was only +begun in 1887. But a few separate prisons had already +been created, such as those of Loja, Pontevedra, +Barcelona, Vittoria and Naval Carnero. These +establishments are new to Spain but their methods +and aims are too well known to call for fresh description. +More interest attaches to the older forms +that have so long served as places of durance.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class="toc" summary="Contents"> + <tr> + <th class="tdl" colspan='2'>CHAPTER</th> + <th class="tdr">PAGE</th> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom"> </td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">I.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition in Spain</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">II.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Persecution of Jews and Moors</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">III.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Prisons and Punishments</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">IV.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition Abroad</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">V.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Inquisition in Portugal and India</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">VI.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Early Prisons and Prisoners</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">VII.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Presidios at Home and Abroad</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">VIII.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Life in Ceuta</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">IX.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Brigands and Brigandage</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td> + </tr><tr> + <td class="rom">X.</td> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">A Bright Page in Prison History</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a><br /> +<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>List of Illustrations</h2> +</div> + +<table class="toc" summary="Illustrations"> +<tr> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Grand Inquisitor and the Catholic Sovereigns</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Frontispiece"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td> +</tr><tr> + <td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Alhambra Palace, Granada</span></td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_52"><em>Page</em> 52</a></td> +</tr><tr> + <td class="cht">The Question</td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td> +</tr><tr> + <td class="cht">Castel dell' Ovo</td> + <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a><br /> +<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="ph1">SPANISH PRISONS</p> +<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Beginning and growth of religious persecution—Temporal +power of the Papacy—Pope Innocent III creates the first +"Inquisitors"—Domingo de Guzman founder of the Inquisition—Founder +of the Dominican Order of Friars—The +"ancient" Inquisition—Penances inflicted—Persecution +of the Jews in Spain—Institution of the "modern" +Inquisition under Ferdinand and Isabella—Headquarters +at Seville—Frequent <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>—Thomas de Torquemada +the first Inquisitor-General—The privileges of the +office—Torquemada's life and character—Sufferings of +accused persons.</p></div> + + +<p>The record of religious persecution furnishes +some of the saddest pages in the world's history. +It began with the immediate successors of Constantine +the Great, the first Christian prince. They promulgated +severe edicts against heretics with such +penalties as confiscation, banishment and death +against breaches of Catholic unity. In this present +tolerant age when every one may worship God after +his own fashion, it is difficult to realise how recent +a growth is toleration. For more than six centuries +the flames of persecution burned fiercely throughout<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +Christendom, lighted by the strong arm of the law, +and soldiers were constantly engaged to extirpate +dissent from the accepted dogmas with fire and +sword. The growth of the papacy and the assumption +of the temporal power exalted heresy into treason; +independence of thought was deemed opposition +to authority and resistance to the universal supremacy +of the Church. The popes fighting in self-defence +stimulated the zeal of their followers unceasingly +to stamp out heresy. Alexander III in +the 12th century solemnly declared that every secular +prince who spared heretics should be classed as +a heretic himself and involved in the one common +curse.</p> + +<p>When the temporal power of the popes was +fully established and acknowledged, the papacy +claimed universal sovereignty over all countries and +peoples and was in a position to enforce it by systematic +procedure against its foes. Pope Innocent +III, consumed with the fervour of his intolerant +faith, determined to crush heresy. His first step +was to appoint two "inquisitors" (the first use of +the name) and two learned and devout friars, who +were really travelling commissioners, were sent to +perambulate Christendom to discover heresy. They +were commended to all bishops, who were strictly +charged to receive them with kindness, treat them +with affection, and "help them to turn heretics from +the error of their way or else drive them out of the +country." The same assistance was expected from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +the rulers of states who were to aid the inquisitors +with equal kindness.</p> + +<p>The mission began in the south of France and a +crusade was undertaken against the Albigensians +and Waldensians, those early dissidents from the +Church of Rome, who drew down on themselves the +unappeasable animosity of the orthodox. The campaign +against these original heretics raged fiercely, +but persecution slackened and might have died out +but for the appearance of one devoted zealot whose +intense hatred of heresy, backed by his uncompromising +energy, revived the illiberal spirit and organised +fresh methods of attack. This was Domingo +de Guzman, a Spanish monk who accompanied +Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse, when he left +his desolated diocese to take part in the fourth +Lateran Council, assembled at Rome in 1215. This +Domingo, historically known as St. Dominic, was +the founder of the Dominican order of friars.</p> + +<p>Though generally accepted as such by Church +historians, it is now argued that St. Dominic was +not really the founder of the Inquisition<a name="Anchor-1" id="Anchor-1"></a><a href="#Footnote-1" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 1.">[1]</a> and that +although he spent the best years of his life in combating +heresy he took no more prominent part in +persecution than hundreds of others. His eulogistic +biographer describes him as "a man of earnest, +resolute purpose, of deep and unalterable convictions, +full of burning zeal for the propagation of the +faith, yet kindly in heart, cheerful in temper and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>winning in manner.... He was as severe with +himself as with his fellows.... His endless +scourgings, his tireless vigils, his almost uninterrupted +prayer, his superhuman fasts, are probably +only harmless exaggerations of the truth." The +Dominicans boasted that their founder exhaled "an +odour of sanctity" and, when his tomb was opened, +a delicious scent issued forth, so penetrating that it +permeated the whole land, and so persistent that +those who touched the holy relics had their hands +perfumed for years.</p> + +<p>Whatever the personal character of Dominic and +whether or no he laboured to carry out the work +himself, there can be no doubt that his Order was +closely identified with the Inquisition from the first. +Its members were appointed inquisitors, they served +in the prisons as confessors, they assisted the tribunals +as "qualificators," or persons appointed to +seek out proof of guilt, or estimate the extent or +quality of the heretical opinions charged against the +accused; the great ceremonials and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> were +organised by them; they worked the "censure" +and prepared the "Index" of prohibited books. +The Dominicans were undoubtedly the most active +agents in the Inquisition and they owed their existence +to him, even if he did not personally take part +in its proceedings.</p> + +<p>The following quotation from Prescott's "History +of Ferdinand and Isabella" may well be inserted +here. "Some Catholic writers would fain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +excuse St. Dominic from the imputation of having +founded the Inquisition. It is true he died some +years before the perfect organisation of that tribunal; +but as he established the principles on which, +and the monkish militia by whom it was administered, +it is doing him no injustice to regard him as +its real author." The Sicilian writer, Paramo, indeed, +in his heavy quarto, traces it up to a much +more remote antiquity. According to him God was +the first inquisitor and his condemnation of Adam +and Eve furnished the models of the judicial forms +observed in the trials of the Holy Office. The sentence +of Adam was the type of the Inquisitional +"reconciliation," his subsequent raiment of skins of +animals was the type of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i>, and the expulsion +from Paradise, the precedent for the confiscation +of the goods of heretics. This learned personage +deduces a succession of inquisitors through +the patriarchs, Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, and King +David, down to John the Baptist, and he even includes +our Saviour in whose precepts and conduct +he finds abundant authority for the tribunal.</p> + +<p>The "Ancient Inquisition," as that first established +in Spain is generally called, had many of the +features of the "modern" which dates from the +reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and which will +presently be described at some length. Its proceedings +were shrouded in the same impenetrable secrecy, +it used the same insidious modes of accusation, +supported them by similar tortures, and pun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>ished +them with similar penalties. A manual drawn +up in the fourteenth century for the guidance of +judges of the Holy Office prescribes the familiar +forms of artful interrogation employed to catch the +unwary, and sometimes innocent victim. The ancient +Inquisition worked on principles less repugnant +to justice than the better known, but equally +cruel modern institution, but was less extensive in +its operations because in the earlier days there were +fewer heretics to persecute.</p> + +<p>The ancient Inquisition was so unsparing in its +actions that it almost extirpated the Albigensian +heresy. The punishments it inflicted were even +more severe than in the modern. Upon such as escaped +the stake and were "reconciled," as it was +styled, a terrible "penance" was imposed. One is +cited by Llorente<a name="Anchor-2" id="Anchor-2"></a><a href="#Footnote-2" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 2.">[2]</a> as laid down in the ordinances +of St. Dominic. The penitent, it was commanded, +should be stripped of his clothes and beaten by a +priest three Sundays in succession from the gate of +the city to the door of the church; he must not eat +any kind of meat during his whole life; must abstain +from fish, oil and wine three days in the week +during life, except in case of sickness or excessive +labour; must wear a religious dress with a small +cross embroidered on each breast; must attend mass +every day, if he has the means of doing so, and +vespers on Sundays and festivals; must recite the +service for the day and night and repeat the paternoster +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>seven times in the day, ten times in the evening, +and twenty times at midnight. If he failed in +any of these requirements, he was to be burned as a +"relapsed heretic."</p> + +<p>Chief among the causes that produced the new +or "modern" Inquisition was the envy and hatred +of the Jews in Spain. Fresh material was supplied +by the unfortunate race of Israel, long established +in the country, and greatly prosperous. They had +come in great numbers after the Saracenic invasion, +which indeed they are said to have facilitated, and +were accepted by some of the Moorish rulers on +nearly equal terms, and were treated with a tolerance +seldom seen among Mahometans, though occasional +outbursts of fanaticism rendered their position +not quite secure. Under these generally favourable +auspices the Jews developed in numbers +and importance. Their remarkable instinct for +money making and their unstinting diligence +brought them great wealth. Their love of letters +and high intelligence gave them preëminence in the +schools of the Moorish cities of Cordova, Toledo +and Granada, where they helped to keep the flame +of learning bright and shining through the darkest +ages. They became noted mathematicians, learned +astronomers, devoted labourers in the fields of practical +and experimental science. Their shrewdness +in public affairs and their financial abilities commended +them to the service of the state, and many +rose to the highest civic dignities at both Christian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +and Moorish courts. Often, despite prohibitory +laws, they collected the revenues and supervised the +treasuries of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, +while in private life they had nearly unlimited control +of commerce and owned most of the capital in +use.</p> + +<p>After the Christian conquest, their success drew +down upon them the envy and hatred of their less +flourishing fellow subjects, who resented also that +profuse ostentation of apparel and equipage to +which the Jewish character has always inclined. +Their widespread practice of usury was a still more +fruitful cause for detestation. Often large sums +were loaned, for which exorbitant rates of interest +were charged, owing to the scarcity of specie and +the great risk of loss inherent to the business. As +much as twenty, thirty-three, and even forty per +cent. per annum was exacted and paid. The general +animosity was such that a fanatical populace, smarting +under a sense of wrong, and urged on by a no +less fanatical clergy broke out at times into violence, +and fiercely attacked the Jews in the principal cities. +The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Juderías</i>, or Jewish quarters, were sacked, the +houses robbed of their valuable contents, precious +collections, jewels and furniture were scattered +abroad, and the wretched proprietors were massacred +wholesale, irrespective of sex and age. According +to the historian, Mariana, fifty thousand +Jews were sacrificed to the popular fury in one year, +1391, alone.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was the turning point in Spanish history. +Fanaticism once aroused, did not die until all Jews +were driven out of Spain. It brought into being +another class also, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Conversos</i>, or "New Christians," +<em>i. e.</em> Jews who accepted Christian baptism, +though generally without any spiritual change. At +heart and in habits they remained Jews.</p> + +<p>The law was invoked, too, to aggravate their condition. +Legislative enactments of a cruel and oppressive +kind were passed. Jews were forbidden to +mix freely with Christians, their residence restricted +to certain limited quarters, they were subject to irksome, +sumptuary regulations, debarred from all display +in dress, forbidden to carry valuable ornaments +or wear expensive clothes, and they were held up to +public scorn by being compelled to appear in a distinctive, +unbecoming garb, the badge or emblem of +their social inferiority. They were also interdicted +from following certain professions and callings. +They might not study or practise medicine, might +not be apothecaries, nurses, vintners, grocers or +tavern keepers, were forbidden to act as stewards +to the nobility or as farmers or collectors of the +public revenues, although judging from repeated re-enactments, +these laws were evidently not strictly +enforced, and often in some districts were not enforced +at all.</p> + +<p>Fresh fuel was added to the fiery passions vented +on the Jews by the unceasing denunciation of their +heresy and dangerous irreligion, and public feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +was further inflamed by grossly exaggerated stories +of their hideous and unchristian malpractices. The +curate of Los Palacios has detailed some of these in +his "Chronicle," and they will serve, when quoted, +to show what charges were brought against the Jew +in his time. "This accursed race (the Israelites)," +he says, speaking of the proceedings taken to bring +about their conversion, "were either unwilling to +bring their children to be baptised, or if they did, +they washed away the stain on the way home. They +dressed their stews and other dishes with oil instead +of lard, abstained from pork, kept the passover, ate +meat in Lent, and sent oil to replenish the lamps of +their synagogues, with many other abominable ceremonies +of their religion. They entertained no respect +for monastic life, and frequently profaned the +sanctity of religious houses by the violation or seduction +of their inmates. They were an exceedingly +politic and ambitious people, engrossing the most +lucrative municipal offices, and preferring to gain +their livelihood by traffic, in which they made exorbitant +gains, rather than by manual labour or mechanical +arts. They considered themselves in the +hands of the Egyptians whom it was a merit to deceive +and rob. By their wicked contrivances they +amassed great wealth, and thus were able often to +ally themselves by marriage with noble Christian +families."</p> + +<p>The outcry against the Jews steadily increased in +volume. The clergy were the loudest in their pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>tests +against the alleged abominations, and one +Dominican priest, Alonso de Hojeda, prior of the +monastery of San Pablo in Seville, with another +priest, Diego de Merlo, vigorously denounced the +"Jewish leprosy" so alarmingly on the increase and +besought the Catholic sovereigns to revive the Holy +Office with extended powers as the only effective +means of healing it. The appeal was strongly supported +by the papal nuncio at the Court of Castile. +Ferdinand and Isabella, as devout Catholics, deplored +the prevalence of heresy, which they acknowledged +to be rampant, and yet they hesitated to surrender +any of their independence. No other state +in Europe was so free from papal control or interference. +Some of the Conversos held high places +about the court and they, of course, used every effort +to strengthen the reluctance of the queen, particularly. +On the other hand, the Dominican monk, +Thomas de Torquemada, her confessor in her youth, +strove to instil the same spirit of unyielding fanaticism +that possessed himself, and earnestly entreated +her to devote herself to the "extirpation of heresy +for the glory of God and the glorification of the +Catholic faith." She long resisted but yielded at +last to the unceasing importunities of the priests +around her, and consented to solicit a bull from the +pope, Sixtus IV, to introduce the Modern Inquisition +into Castile. It was issued, under the date of +November 1st, 1478, and authorised the appointment +of two or three ecclesiastical inquisitors for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +the detection and suppression of heresy throughout +Spain.</p> + +<p>One difference from the usual form establishing +such tribunals was the location of the power of appointment +of inquisitors, which was vested in the +king and queen instead of in Provincials of the +Dominican or Franciscan Orders. Heretofore the +appointment of inquisitors had been considered a +delegation of the authority of the Holy See, something +entirely independent of the secular power. +But so jealous of outside interference were the +Spanish rulers and the Spanish people, that the pope +was forced to give way. Though he and his successors +vainly strove to recover the power thus +granted, they were never entirely successful, and the +Spanish Inquisition remained to a large extent a +state affair, and this fact explains much which otherwise +is inexplicable. For example the confiscations +passed into the royal instead of into the papal treasury.</p> + +<p>At first mild measures were to be tried. Cardinal +Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville, had drawn up a +catechism instructing his clergy to spare no pains in +illuminating the benighted Israelites by a candid +exposition of the true principles of Christianity. +Progress was slow, and after two years the results +were so meagre that it was thought necessary to +proceed to the nomination of inquisitors, and two +Dominican monks, Fra Miguel de Morillo, and Juan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +de San Martin, were appointed with full powers, +assisted by an assessor and a procurator fiscal.</p> + +<p>The Jews played into the hands of their tormentors. +Great numbers had been terrified into apostasy +by the unrelenting hostility of the people. Their +only escape from the furious attacks made upon +them had been conversion to Christianity, often +quite feigned and unreal. The proselytising priests, +however, claimed to have done wonders; one, St. +Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican of Valencia, had by +means of his eloquence and the miraculous power +vouchsafed him, "changed the hearts of no less +than thirty-five thousand of house of Judah." These +numerous converts were of course unlikely to be +very tenacious in their profession of the new faith, +and not strangely laid themselves open to constant +suspicion. Many were denounced and charged with +backsliding, many more boldly reverted to Judaism, +or secretly performed their old rites. Now uncompromising +war was to be waged against the backsliding +"new Christians" or Conversos.</p> + +<p>The inquisitors installed themselves in Seville, +and made the Dominican convent of San Pablo their +first headquarters, but this soon proved quite insufficient +in size and they were allowed to occupy +the fortress of the Triana, the great fortress of +Seville, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir, the +immense size and gloomy dungeons of which were +especially suitable. This part of the city was much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +exposed to inundations, and when, in 1626, it was +threatened with destruction by an unusually high +flood, the seat of the tribunal was removed to the +palace of the Caballeros Tellos Taveros in the parish +of San Marco. In 1639 it returned to the Triana +which had been repaired, and remained there till +1789, when further encroachments of the river +caused it to be finally transferred to the College of +Las Beccas. The Triana is now a low suburb, inhabited +principally by gipsies and the lower classes. +It was at one time the potters' quarter where the +famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">azulejo</i> tiles were made, and its factories +to-day produce the well known majolica vases and +plates with surface of metallic lustre.</p> + +<p>One of the first steps of the Inquisition was to put +a summary check to the exodus of the Jews who had +been fast deserting the country. All the magnates +of Castile, dukes, counts, hidalgos and persons in +authority, were commanded to arrest all fugitives, +to sequestrate their property and send them prisoners +to Seville. Any who disobeyed or failed to execute +this order were to be excommunicated as abettors +of heresy, to be deposed from their dignities +and deprived of their estates. Such orders were +strange to the ears of the turbulent nobles who had +been accustomed to pay little heed to pope or king. +A new force had arisen in the land.</p> + +<p>On the Castle of the Triana,<a name="Anchor-3" id="Anchor-3"></a><a href="#Footnote-3" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 3.">[3]</a> already described, a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>tablet was erected over the portals with an inscription, +celebrating the inauguration of the first "modern +Inquisition" in Western Europe. The concluding +words were:—"God grant that for the protection +and augmentation of the faith it may abide +unto the end of time. Arise oh Lord, judge Thy +cause! Catch yet the foxes (heretics)!"</p> + +<p>Just now, by an ill-advised move, the Conversos +lost the sympathy of all. Diego de Susan, one of +the richest citizens of Seville, called a meeting of +the "New Christians" in the church of San Salvador. +It was attended by many high officials, and +even ecclesiastics of Jewish blood. Susan suggested +that they collect a store of arms, and that at the first +arrest, they rise and slay the inquisitors. The plan +was adopted but was betrayed by a daughter of +Susan, who had a Christian lover. The plotters +were arrested at once, and on February sixth, 1481, +six men and women were burned and others were +severely punished.</p> + +<p>The hunt was cunningly organised. An "Edict +of Grace" was published promising pardon to all +backsliders if they would come voluntarily and confess +their sins. Many sought indulgence and were +plied with questions by the inquisitors to extract +evidence against others. On the information thus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>obtained the suspected were marked down, seized +and carried off to the prisons. Any adherence to +Jewish customs gave opportunity for denunciation, +and the severe measures rapidly reduced the numbers +of the backsliding Jewish-Christians. In Seville +alone, according to Llorente, two hundred and +ninety-eight persons were burnt in less than a year, +and seventy-nine were condemned to perpetual imprisonment. +Great sums ought to have passed into +the treasury, then and afterwards, from the confiscated +property of rich people who perished at the +stake or were subjected to fine and forfeiture. But +the great engine of the Inquisition was excessively +costly. The pageants at the frequent <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> +were lavishly expensive, a great staff of officials, +experts, familiars and guards was maintained, and, +in addition, the outlay on the place of execution, the +"<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>" or burning place, a great pavement +on a raised platform adorned with fine pillars and +statues of the prophets, was very considerable, while +the yearly bill for fuel, for faggots and brush wood +rose to a high figure. Undoubtedly there was considerable +embezzlement also.</p> + +<p>There was evidently too much work for two men, +so in February, 1482, seven additional inquisitors +were commissioned by the pope on the nomination +of the sovereigns, and some of these were exceedingly +zealous. There was, however, much confusion +because of the lack of a unifying authority. The +sovereigns were determined that the institution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +must be kept under the control of the state, and so +a council of administration usually called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">la Suprema</i> +was added to those already existing, and was +charged with jurisdiction over all measures concerning +the faith. At the head was placed a new +officer, later called the inquisitor-general. The inquisitor-general +was hardly a subject. He had +direct access to the sovereign and exercised absolute +and unlimited power over the whole population +and was superior to all human law. No rank, high +or low escaped his jurisdiction. Royal personages +were not exempt from his control, for the Holy +Office invaded the prince's palace as well as the +pauper's hovel. There was no sanctity in the grave, +for corpses of heretics were ruthlessly disinterred, +mutilated and burned.</p> + +<p>The first inquisitor-general under the new organisation +was Thomas de Torquemada, who has won +for himself dreadful immortality from the signal +part he played in the great tragedy of the Inquisition. +He was a Dominican monk, a native of old +Castile, who had been confessor and keeper of the +Queen's conscience to Isabella in her early days and +constantly sought to instil his fiery spirit into her +youthful mind. "This man," says Prescott, "who +concealed more pride under his monastic weeds +than might have furnished forth a convent of his +order, was one of that class with whom zeal passes +for religion and who testify their zeal by a fiery +persecution of those whose creed differs from their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +own; who compensate for their abstinence from +sensual indulgence by giving scope to those deadlier +vices of the heart, pride, bigotry and intolerance +which are no less opposed to virtue and are far more +extensively mischievous to society." The cruelties +which he perpetrated grew out of a pitiless fanaticism, +more cruel than the grave. He was rigid and +unbending and knew no compromise. Absolutely +fearless, he directed his terrible engine against the +suspect no matter how high-born or influential.</p> + +<p>Torquemada was appointed in 1483 and was authorised +from Rome to frame a new constitution +for the Holy Office. He had been empowered to +create permanent provincial tribunals under chief +inquisitors which sat at Toledo, Valladolid, Madrid +and other important cities, and his first act was to +summon some of these to Seville to assist him in +drawing up rules for the governance of the great +and terrible engine that was to terrorise all Spain +for centuries to come. The principles of action, the +methods of procedure, the steps taken to hunt up +victims and bring them under the jurisdiction of +the court, secure conviction and enforce penalties, +are all set out at length in the record of the times. +"A bloody page of history," says the historian, +"attests the fact that fanaticism armed with power +is the sorest evil that can befall a nation." For +generations the Spanish people, first the Jews, then +the Moriscos, lastly the whole native born community +lay helpless in the grip of this irresponsible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +despotism. Few, once accused, escaped without +censure of some sort. Llorente declares with his +usual exaggeration that out of a couple of thousand +cases, hardly one ended in acquittal and the saying +became proverbial that people if not actually roasted +by the Inquisition were at least singed.</p> + +<p>In order to appreciate fully the harshness of the +Spanish Inquisition and the cruelties perpetrated for +several centuries, under the guise of religion, we +must trace the steps taken by the Holy Office, its +guiding principles and its methods of procedure.</p> + +<p>The great aim at the outset was to hunt up heretics +and encourage the denunciation of presumed +offenders. Good Catholics were commanded by +edicts published from the pulpits of all churches to +give information against every person they knew +or suspected of being guilty of heresy, and priests +were ordered to withhold absolution from any one +who hesitated to speak, even when the suspected +person was a near relation, parent, child, husband +or wife. All accusations whether signed or anonymous +were accepted, but the names of witnesses +were also required. On this sometimes meagre inculpation +victims might be at once arrested, though +in some cases, censors must first pass upon the evidence. +Often not a whisper of trouble reached the +accused until the blow actually fell.</p> + +<p>Kept thus in solitary imprisonment, cut off entirely +from his friends outside, denied the sympathy +or support he might derive from their visits or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +communications, he was left to brood despairingly, +a prey to agonised doubts, in ignorance even of the +charges brought against him. A few brief extracts +from the depositions of witnesses might be read to +him, but the statements were so garbled that he +could get no clue to names or identities. If there +were any facts favourable to him in the testimony +they were withheld from him. If he could, however, +name as mortal enemies some of the witnesses, +their testimony was much weakened. Facts of +time, place and circumstance in the charges preferred +were withheld from him and he was so confused +and embarrassed that unless a man of acuteness +and presence of mind he might become involved +in inextricable contradictions when he attempted to +explain himself.</p> + +<p>On the other hand judges were guided and supported +by the most minute instructions. "It is the +high and peculiar privilege of the tribunal that its +officers are not required to act with formality; they +need observe no strict forensic rules and therefore +the omission of what ordinary justice might exact +does not invalidate its actions, provided only that +nothing essential to the proof be wanting." The +first essential of justice, as we understand it, was +ignored. An accused person arraigned for heresy +was expected to incriminate himself, to furnish all +necessary particulars for conviction. Testimony +could be received from persons of any class or character. +"They might be excommunicate, infamous,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +actual accomplices, or previously convicted of any +crime." The evidence of Jews and infidels might +be taken also, even in a question of heretical doctrine. +Wife, children, relatives, servants, might depose +against a heretic. "A brother may declare +against a brother and a son against a father." The +witnesses met with no mercy. If any one did not +say all he could, or seemed reluctant to speak, the +examiners occasionally ruled that torture should be +applied.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Increased persecution of the Jews—Accusations made against +them—Ferdinand introduces the modern Inquisition into +the Kingdom of Aragon in 1484—Fray Gaspar Juglar and +Pedro Arbués appointed Inquisitors—Assassination of +Pedro Arbués—Punishment of his murderers—Increased +opposition against the Holy Office—Arrest of the Infante +Don Jaime for sheltering a heretic—Expulsion of the +Jews from Spain—Appeal to the King to revoke this edict—Ferdinand +inclined to yield, but Torquemada over-rules +him—Sufferings of the Jews on the journey—Death of +Torquemada—Hernando de Talavera appointed archbishop +of Granada—His success with the Moors—Don Diego +Deza new Inquisitor-General—Succeeded by Ximenes de +Cisneros—His character and life—Appointed Primate of +all Spain—His severity with the Moors—University of Alcalá +founded by Ximenes—Accession of Charles V—Persecution +of Moors—Expulsion.</p></div> + + +<p>The fires of the modern Inquisition, it was said, +had been lighted exclusively for the Jews. The +fiery zeal of Torquemada and his coadjutors was +first directed against the Spanish children of Israel. +The Jews constantly offered themselves to be harassed +and despoiled. They were always fair game +for avaricious greed. The inquisitors availed +themselves of both lines of attack. Jewish wealth +steadily increased as their financial operations and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +their industrial activities extended and flourished. +When the Catholic Kings embarked upon the conquest +of Granada, the Jews found the sinews of +war; Jewish victuallers purveyed rations to the +armies in the field; Jewish brokers advanced the +cash needed for the payments of troops; Jewish +armourers repaired the weapons used and furnished +new tools and warlike implements.</p> + +<p>At the same time the passions of the populace +were more and more inflamed against the Jews by +the dissemination of scandalous stories of their +blasphemous proceedings. It was seriously asserted +by certain monks that some Jews had stolen a consecrated +wafer with the intention of working it into +a paste with the warm blood of a newly killed +Christian child and so produce a deadly poison to +be administered to the hated chief inquisitor. Another +report was to the effect that crumbs from the +holy wafer had been detected between the leaves of +a Hebrew prayer book in a synagogue. One witness +declared that this substance emitted a bright +effulgence which gave clear proof of its sanctity +and betrayed the act of sacrilege committed. Other +tales were circulated of the diabolical practices of +these wicked Jewish heretics.</p> + +<p>Ferdinand in 1484 proceeded to give the modern +Inquisition to the Kingdom of Aragon, where the +"ancient" had once existed but had lost much of +its rigour. It was a comparatively free country and +the Holy Office had become little more than an or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>dinary +ecclesiastical court. But King Ferdinand +was resolved to reëstablish it on the wider basis it +had assumed in Castile and imposed it upon his +people by a royal order which directed all constituted +authorities to support it in carrying out its +new extended functions. A Dominican monk, Fray +Gaspar Juglar, and a canon of the church, Pedro +Arbués, were appointed by Torquemada to be inquisitors +for the diocese of Saragossa. The new +institution was most distasteful to the Aragonese, +a hardy and independent people. Among the higher +orders were numbers of Jewish descent, filling important +offices and likely to come under the ban of +the Inquisition. The result was a deputation to the +pope and another to the king representing the general +repugnance of the Aragonese to the institution +and praying that its action might be suspended. +Neither pope nor king would listen to the appeal +and the Holy Office began its work. Two <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da +fé</i> were celebrated in Saragossa, the capital, in 1484, +when two men were executed.</p> + +<p>Horror and consternation seized the Conversos +and a fierce desire for reprisals developed. They +were resolved to intimidate their oppressors by some +appalling act of retaliation and a plot was hatched +to make away with one of the inquisitors. The +conspirators included many of the principal "New +Christians," some of whom were persons of note in +the district. A considerable sum was subscribed to +meet expenses and pay the assassins. Pedro Arbués<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +was marked down for destruction but, conscious of +his danger, continually managed to evade his enemies. +He wore always a coat of mail beneath his +robes when he attended mass in the Cathedral, and +every avenue by which he could be approached in +his house was also carefully guarded.</p> + +<p>At length he was taken by surprise when at his +devotions. He was on his knees before the high +altar saying his prayers at midnight, when two men +crept up behind him unobserved and attacked him. +One struck him with a dagger in the left arm, the +other felled him with a violent blow on the back of +the neck by which he was laid prostrate and carried +off dying. With his last breath he thanked God for +being selected to seal so good a cause with his blood. +His death was deemed a martyrdom and caused a +reaction in favour of the Inquisition as a general +rising of the New Christians was feared. The storm +was appeased by the archbishop of Saragossa who +gave out publicly that the murderers should be +rigorously pursued and should suffer condign punishment. +The promise was abundantly fulfilled. A +stern recompense was exacted from all who were +identified with the conspiracy. The scent was followed +up with unrelenting pertinacity, several persons +were taken and put to death, and a larger number +perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. All +the perpetrators of the murder were hanged after +their right hands had been amputated. The sentence +of one who had given evidence against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +rest was commuted in that his hand was not cut off +till after his death.</p> + +<p>A native of Saragossa had taken refuge in Tudela +where he found shelter and concealment in the +house of the Infante, Don Jaime, the illegitimate +son of the Queen of Navarre, and nephew of King +Ferdinand himself. The generous young prince +could not reject the claims of hospitality and helped +the fugitive to escape into France. But the Infante +was himself arrested by the inquisitors and imprisoned +as an "impeder" of the Holy Office. His trial +took place in Saragossa, although Navarre was outside +its jurisdiction, and he was sentenced to do open +penance in the cathedral in the presence of a great +congregation at High Mass. The ceremony was +carried out before the Archbishop of Saragossa, a +boy of seventeen, the illegitimate son of King Ferdinand, +and this callow stripling in his primate's +robes ordered his father's nephew to be flogged +round the church with rods.</p> + +<p>The second story is much more horrible. One +Gaspar de Santa Cruz of Saragossa had been concerned +in the rebellion, but escaped to Toulouse +where he died. He had been aided in his flight by +a son who remained in Saragossa, and who was +arrested as an "impeder" of the Holy Office. He +was tried and condemned to appear at an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da +fé</i>, where he was made to read an act which held +up his father to public ignominy. Then the son was +transferred to the custody of the inquisitor of Tou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>louse +who took him to his father's grave, forced him +to exhume the corpse and burn it with his own +hands.</p> + +<p>The bitter hatred of the Jews culminated in the +determination of the king and queen, urged on by +Torquemada, to expel them entirely from Spain. +The germ of this idea may be found in the capitulation +of Granada by the Moors, when it was agreed +that every Jew found in the city was to be shipped +off forthwith to Barbary. It was now argued that +since all attempts to convert them had failed, Spain +should be altogether rid of them. The Catholic +King and Queen were induced to sign an edict +dated March 30th, 1492, by which it was decreed +that every Jew should be banished from Spain +within three months, save and except those who +chose to apostasise and who, on surrendering the +faith of their fathers, might be suffered to remain +in the land of their adoption, with leave to enjoy the +goods they had inherited or earned. No doubt this +edict originated with Torquemada.</p> + +<p>Dismay and deep sorrow fell upon the Spanish +Jews. The whole country was filled with tribulation. +All alike cried for mercy and offered to submit +to any laws and ordinances however oppressive, +to accept any terms, to pay any penalties if only they +might escape this cruel exile. Leading Jews appeared +before King Ferdinand and pleaded abjectly +for mercy for their co-religionists, offering an immediate +ransom of six hundred thousand crowns in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +gold. The king was inclined to clemency, but the +queen was firm. He saw the present advantage, the +ready money, and doubted whether he would get +as much from the fines and confiscations promised +by the inquisitors. But at that moment, so the story +goes, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing +a crucifix on high and cried in stentorian tones that +the sovereigns were about to act the part of Judas +Iscariot. "Here he is! Sell Him again, not for +thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and +flinging the crucifix on to the table, he ran out in +a frenzy. This turned the tables, and the decree for +expulsion was confirmed.</p> + +<p>The terms of the edict were extremely harsh and +peremptory. As a preamble the crimes of the Jews +were recited and the small effect produced hitherto +by the most severe penalties. It was asserted that +they still conspired to overturn Christianity in Spain +and recourse to the last remedy, the decree of expulsion, +under which all Jews and Jewesses were commanded +to leave Spain and never return, even for +a passing visit, on pain of death, was therefore necessary. +The last day of July, 1492, or four months +later, was fixed for the last day of their sojourn in +Spain. After that date they would remain at the +peril of their lives, while any person of whatever +rank or quality who should presume to receive, shelter, +protect or defend a Jew or Jewess should forfeit +all his property and be discharged from his +office, dignity or calling. During the four months,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +the law allowed the Jews to sell their estates, or +barter them for heavy goods, but they were forbidden +to remove gold or silver or take out of the +kingdom other portable property which was already +prohibited by law from exportation.</p> + +<p>During the preparation for, and execution of this +modern exodus, the condition of the wretched Israelites +was heart-rending. Torquemada had tried hard +to proselytise, had sent out preachers offering baptism +and reconciliation, but at first few listened to +the terms proposed. All owners of property and +valuables suffered the heaviest losses. Enforced +sales were so numerous that purchasers were not to +be easily found. Fine estates were sold for a song. +A house was exchanged for an ass or beast of burden; +a vineyard for a scrap of cloth or linen. Despite +the prohibition much gold and silver were carried +away concealed in the stuffing of saddles and +among horse furniture. Some exiles at the moment +of departure swallowed gold pieces, as many as +twenty and thirty, and thus evaded to some extent +the strict search instituted at the sea ports and frontier +towns.</p> + +<p>At last in the first week of July, all took to +the roads travelling to the coast on foot, on horse +or ass-back or were conveyed in country carts. +According to an eye-witness, "they suffered incredible +misfortunes by the way, some walking feebly, +some struggling manfully, some fainting, many +attacked with illness, some dying, others coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +into the world, so that there was not a Christian who +did not feel for them and entreat them to be baptised." +Here and there under the pressure of accumulated +miseries a few professed to be converted, +but such cases were very rare. The rabbis encouraged +the people as they went and exhorted the young +ones to raise their voices and the women to sing +and play on pipes and timbrels to enliven them and +keep up their spirits.</p> + +<p>Ships were provided by the Spanish authorities +at Cadiz, Gibraltar, Carthagena, Valencia and Barcelona +on which fifteen hundred of the wealthy +families embarked and started for Africa, Italy and +the Levant, taking with them their dialect of the +Spanish language, such as is still talked at the places +where they landed. Of those who joined in the +general exodus some perished at sea, by wreck, disease, +violence or fire, and some by famine, exhaustion +or murder on inhospitable shores. Many were +sold for slaves, many thrown overboard by savage +ship captains, while parents parted with their children +for money to buy food. On board one crowded +ship a pestilence broke out, and the whole company +was landed and marooned on a desert island. Other +infected ships carried disease into the port of Naples, +where it grew into a terrible epidemic, by which +twenty thousand native Neapolitans perished. +Those who reached the city found it in the throes +of famine, but were met in landing by a procession +of priests, led by one who carried a crucifix and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +loaf of bread, and who intimated that only those +who would adore the first would receive the other. +In papal dominions alone was a hospitable reception +accorded. The pope of the time, Alexander VI, was +more tolerant than other rulers.</p> + +<p>The total loss of population is now difficult to +ascertain, but undoubtedly it has been greatly exaggerated. +The most trustworthy estimate fixes the +number of emigrants at one hundred and sixty-five +thousand, and the number dying of hardships and +grief before leaving at about twenty thousand. +Probably fifty thousand more accepted baptism as +a consequence of the edict. The loss entailed in +actual value was incalculable and a vast amount of +potential earnings was sacrificed by the disappearance +of so large a part of the most industrious members +of the population. The king and queen greatly +impoverished Spain in purging it of Hebrew heresy. +Their action however was greeted with applause by +other rulers who did not go to the same lengths on +account of economic considerations. They were +praised because they were willing to sacrifice revenue +for the sake of the faith.</p> + +<p>Open Judaism no longer existed in Spain. There +were left only the apostates, or New Christians. +That many of these were Christians in name and +kept the Mosaic law in every detail is undoubted. +As Jews they were not subject to the Inquisition. +As professing Christians, any departure from the +established faith subjected them to the penalties<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +imposed upon heretics. In spite of the high positions +which many achieved, they were objects of +suspicion, and with the increasing authority of the +Inquisition their lot grew harder.</p> + +<p>Torquemada had been active not only against the +Jews, but against all suspected of any heresy, no +matter how influential. The odium he incurred +raised up constant accusations against him, and he +was obliged on three occasions to send an agent to +Rome to defend his character. Later his arbitrary +power was curtailed by the appointment of four coadjutors, +nominally, to share the burthens of office, +but really to check his action. On the whole he may +be said to take rank among those who have been the +authors of evil to their species. "His zeal was of +such an extravagant character that it may almost +shelter itself under the name of insanity." His later +days were filled with constant dread of assassination, +and when he moved to and fro his person was +protected by a formidable escort, a bodyguard of +fifty familiars of the Holy Office mounted as dragoons +and a body of two hundred infantry soldiers. +Yet he reached a very old age and died quietly in +his bed.</p> + +<p>Estimates of the numbers convicted and punished +during his administration differ widely. Llorente, +who is, however, much given to exaggeration, states +that eight thousand eight hundred were burned +alive, and that the total number condemned was +more than one hundred and five thousand. On the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +other hand Langlois,<a name="Anchor-4" id="Anchor-4"></a><a href="#Footnote-4" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 4.">[4]</a> whose estimate is accepted by +Vancandard, and other Catholic writers, thinks that +the number put to death was about two thousand.</p> + +<p>Death overtook him when a fresh campaign +against heresy was imminent. The conquest of the +Kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella +opened up a new field for the proselytising fervour +of the Inquisition, which was now resolved to convert +all Mahometan subjects to the Christian faith. +A friar of the order of St. Jerome, Hernando de +Talavera, a man of blameless life, a ripe scholar, a +persuasive preacher, deeply read in sacred literature +and moral philosophy, had been one of the confessors +to Royalty, and had been raised to the bishopric +of Avila. But he had begged to be allowed to +resign it and devote himself entirely to the conversion +of the Moors. The pope granted his request +and appointed him archbishop of Granada with a +smaller revenue than that of the diocese he left, but +he was humble minded, had no craving to exhibit +the pomp and display of a great prelate and devoted +himself with all diligence to the duties of his new +charge.</p> + +<p>He soon won the hearts of the Moors who loved +and venerated him. He proceeded with great caution, +made no open show of his desire to convert +them, and strictly refrained from any coercive measures, +trusting rather to reason them out of their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>heterodox belief. He caused a translation to be +made of the Bible into Arabic, distributed it, encouraged +the Moors to attend conferences, and come +to him in private to listen to his arguments. Being +thus busily engaged, he withdrew to a great extent +from the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, who came +more and more under the influence of fiery bigots, +to whom the mild measures of the archbishop became +profoundly displeasing. The inquisitors, with +Don Diego Deza who had succeeded Torquemada, +at their head, incessantly entreated the sovereigns +to proceed with more severity, and went the length +of advising the immediate expulsion of all Moors +who hesitated to accept conversion and baptism +forthwith. They urged that it was for the good of +their souls to draw them into the fold and insisted +that it would be utterly impossible for Christian and +Moslem to live peacefully and happily side by side. +The king and queen demurred, temporising as they +had done with the revival of the Inquisition. It +might be dangerous, they argued, to enforce penalties +that were too harsh. Their supremacy was +hardly as yet consolidated in Granada; the Moors +had not yet entirely laid aside their arms and unwise +oppression might bring about a resumption of +hostilities. They hoped that the Moors, like other +conquered peoples, would in due course freely adopt +the religion of their new masters. Loving kindliness +and gentle persuasion would more surely gain +ground than fierce threats and arbitrary decrees.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>So for seven or more years the conciliatory +methods of Archbishop Talavera prevailed and met +with the approval of Ferdinand and Isabella. But +now a remarkable man of very different character +appeared upon the scene and began to advocate +sterner measures. This was a Franciscan monk, +Ximenes de Cisneros, one of the most notable figures +in Spanish history, who became in due course +inquisitor-general and regent of Spain. A sketch +of his life may well be given to enable us better to +understand the times.</p> + +<p>Ximenes de Cisneros better known, perhaps, under +his first name alone, was the scion of an ancient +but decayed family and destined from his youth for +the Church. He studied at the University of Salamanca +and evinced marked ability. After a stay in +Rome, the best field for preferment, he returned to +Spain with the papal promise of the first vacant +benefice in the See of Toledo. The archbishop had +other views, however, and when Ximenes claimed +the cure of Uceda, he was sent to prison in its fortress +and not to the presbytery. For six years +Ximenes asserted his pretensions unflinchingly and +was at last nominated, when he exchanged to a +chaplaincy in another diocese, that of Siguenza, +where he continued his theological studies and acquired +Hebrew and Chaldee. Here he came under +the observation of the Bishop Mendoza, who afterwards +became Cardinal Primate of Spain, and who +enjoyed the unbounded confidence of Queen Isa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>bella. +Mendoza when invited to recommend to her +a new confessor, in succession to Talavera on +his translation to the See of Granada, fixed upon +Ximenes of whom he had never lost sight since their +first acquaintance at Siguenza.</p> + +<p>Ximenes, meanwhile, had become more and more +devoted to his sacred calling. His marked business +aptitudes had gained for him the post of steward to +a great nobleman, the Conde de Cifuentes, who had +been taken prisoner by the Moors. But secular concerns +were distasteful to him and Ximenes resigned +his charge. His naturally austere and contemplative +disposition had deepened into stern fanatical enthusiasm +and he resolved to devote himself more absolutely +to the service of the Church. He entered the +Franciscan order, threw up all his benefices and employments, +and became a simple novice in the monastery +of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, where +his cloister life was signalised by extreme severity +and self-mortification. He wore haircloth next his +skin, slept on the stone floor with a wooden pillow +under his head, tortured himself with continual fasts +and vigils, and flogged himself perpetually. At +last he became a professed monk, and because of the +fame of his exemplary piety, great crowds were +attracted to his confessional. He shrank now from +the popular favour and retired to a lonely convent +in a far off forest, where he built himself a small +hermitage with his own hands and where he passed +days and nights in solemn abstraction and unceasing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +prayer, living like the ancient anchorites on the +green herbs he gathered and drinking water from +the running streams. Self centred and pondering +deeply on spiritual concerns, constantly in a state of +mental exaltation and ecstasy, he saw visions and +dreamed dreams, believing himself to be in close +communication with celestial agencies and was no +doubt on the eve of going mad, when his superiors +ordered him to reside in the convent of Salceda, +where he became charged with its administration +and management, and was forced to exercise his +powerful mind for the benefit of others.</p> + +<p>It was here that the call to court found him and +he was summoned to Valladolid and unexpectedly +brought into the presence of the queen. Isabella +was greatly prepossessed in his favour by his simple +dignity of manner, his discretion, his unembarrassed +self-possession and above all his fervent piety +in discussing religious questions. Yet he hesitated +to accept the office of her confessor, and only did +so on the condition that he should be allowed to +conform to the rules of his order and remain at his +monastery except when officially on duty at the +court.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards, he was appointed Provincial +of the Franciscans in Castile and set himself to reform +their religious houses, the discipline of which +was greatly relaxed. Sloth, luxury and licentiousness +prevailed and especially in his own order, +which was wealthy and richly endowed with estates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +in the country, and stately dwellings in the towns. +These monks, styled "conventuals," wasted large +sums in prodigal expenditure, and were often guilty +of scandalous misconduct which Ximenes, as an +Observantine, one of a small section pledged to rigid +observance of monastic rules, strongly condemned. +He was encouraged and supported in the work of +reform by Isabella and a special bull from Rome +armed him with full authority. His rigorous and +unsparing action met with fierce opposition, but he +triumphed in the end and won a notable reward. +When the archbishop of Toledo died, in 1495, +Ximenes, unknown to himself, was selected for the +great post of primate of all Spain and Lord High +Chancellor of Castile.</p> + +<p>The right to nominate was vested in the Queen, +and Ferdinand in this instance begged her to appoint +his natural son, Alfonso, already archbishop +of Saragossa, but a child almost in years. She +firmly and unhesitatingly refused and recommended +her confessor to the pope as the most worthy recipient +of the honour. When the bull making the +appointment arrived from Rome, the queen summoned +Ximenes to her presence handed him the +letter and desired him to open it before her. On +reading the address, "To our venerable brother, +Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, Archbishop of +Toledo," he changed colour, dropped the letter, and +crying, "There must be some mistake," ran out of +the room. The queen, in surprise, waited, but he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +did not return and it was found that he had taken +horse and fled to his monastery. Two grandees +were despatched in hot haste to ride after him, overtake +him and bring him back to Madrid. He returned +but still resisted all the entreaties of his +friends and the clearly expressed wishes of his +sovereign. Finally his persistent refusal was overborne, +but only by the direct command of the pope, +who ordered him to accept the post for which his +sovereigns had chosen him. He has been sharply +criticised for his apparent humility, but it is generally +admitted that he was sincere in his refusal. He +was already advanced in years, ambition was dying +in him, he had become habituated to monastic seclusion +and his thoughts were already turned from the +busy turmoil of this world to the life beyond the +grave.</p> + +<p>However reluctant to accept high office, Ximenes +was by no means slow to exercise the power it gave +him. He ruled the Spanish Church with a rod of +iron, bending all his energies to the work of reforming +the practices of the clergy, enforcing discipline +and insisting upon the maintenance of the strictest +morality. He trod heavily, made many enemies, +and stirred so much ill feeling that the malcontents +combined to despatch a messenger to lay their grievances +before the pope. The officious advocate, however, +got no audience but went home to Spain, where +twenty months' imprisonment taught him not to +offend again the masterful archbishop of Toledo.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ximenes in insisting upon a strict observance of +propriety and the adoption of an exemplary life, was +in himself a model to the priesthood. He never relaxed +the personal mortifications which had been his +rule when a simple monk. He kept no state and +made no show, regulating his domestic expenditure +with the strictest and most parsimonious economy, +until reminded by the Holy See that the dignity of +his great office demanded more magnificence. Still, +when he increased his display and the general style +of living in household, equipages and the number +of his retainers, he continued to be as harsh as ever +to himself.</p> + +<p>In spite of all opposition and discontent he pursued +his course with inflexible purpose. His spirit +was unyielding, and his energetic proceedings were +unremittingly directed to the amelioration and improvement +in the morals of the clergy with marked +success. And now he set himself with the same +uncompromising zeal to extirpate heresy. Having +begged Archbishop Talavera to allow him to join in +the good work at Granada, he took immediate advantage +of the consent given and began to attack the +Moorish unbelievers in his own vigorous fashion. +His first step was to call together a great conference +of learned Mussulman doctors, to whom he expounded +with all the eloquence he had at his command, +the true doctrines of the Catholic faith and +their superiority to the law of Mahomet. He accompanied +his teaching with liberal gifts, chiefly of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +costly articles of apparel, a specious though irresistible +bribery, which had the desired effect. +Great numbers of the Moorish doctors came over +at once and their example was speedily followed by +many of their illiterate disciples. So great was the +number of converts that no less than three thousand +presented themselves for baptism in one day, and +as the rite could not be administered individually, +they were christened wholesale by sprinkling them +from a mop or hyssop which had been dipped in +holy water, and from which the drops fell upon the +proselytes as it was twirled over the heads of the +multitude. These early successes stimulated the +primate's zeal and he next adopted more violent +measures by proceeding to imprison and impose +penalties upon all Moors who still stood out against +conversion. He was resolved not merely to exterminate +heresy, but to destroy the basis of belief contained +in the most famous Arabic manuscripts, +large quantities of which were collected into great +piles and burned publicly in the great squares of the +city. Many of these were beautifully executed +copies of the Koran; others, treasured theological +and scientific works, and their indiscriminate destruction +is a blot upon the reputation of the cultivated +prelate who had created the most learned university +in Spain.</p> + +<p>More temperate and cautious people besought +Ximenes to hold his hand. But he proceeded pertinaciously, +declaring that a tamer policy might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +serve in temporal matters, but not where the interests +of the soul were at stake. If the unbeliever +could not be drawn he must be driven into the way +of salvation, and he continued with unflinching resolution +to arrest all recusants, and throw them into +the prisons which were filled to overflowing. Discontent +grew rapidly and soon broke into open violence. +When an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">alguazil</i> in Granada was leading +a woman away as a prisoner, the people rose and +released her from custody. The insurrection became +general in the city and assumed a threatening +aspect. Granada was full of warlike Moors and a +mob besieged Ximenes in his house until he was +rescued by the garrison of the Alhambra.</p> + +<p>The king and queen were much annoyed with +Ximenes and condemned his zealous precipitancy, +but he was clever enough to vindicate his action and +bring the sovereigns to believe that it was imperative +that the rebellious Moors must be sharply repressed. +Now a long conflict began. Forcible conversion +became the order of the day; baptism continued +to be performed in the gross upon thousands, +the alternative being exile, and numbers were actually +deported to Barbary in the royal ships. A fierce +civil conflict broke out in the Alpujarras beyond +Granada, which required a royal army to quell. +The object sought was the welfare of the state by +producing uniformity of faith.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/i_052fp.jpg" alt="" /> + <div class="caption"> + <p><cite>Peint par Benjamin Constant</cite> <cite>Photogravure Goupil & C<sup>ie</sup>.</cite></p> + + <p><cite>The Alhambra Palace, Granada</cite></p> + + <p>The beautiful Moorish stronghold during the time of the + supremacy of the Moors was often made the home of slaves + captured in near-by frontier towns of Andalusia, who endured + hateful bondage under the rule of the Mohammedan monarch. + Granada and its palace were finally captured by Ferdinand + and Isabella, and the Alhambra is to-day the finest example + of Moorish architecture, with its delicate elaboration of detail.</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Ximenes found a strenuous supporter in Diego +Deza, the inquisitor-general, who was eager to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>emulate the strictness of his predecessor, Torquemada. +Deza was a Dominican who had been at one +time professor of theology and confessor to the +queen. He was by nature and predilection exactly +fitted for his new office upon which he entered with +extensive powers. A bull from Pope Alexander VI +dated 1499 invested him with the title of "Conservator +of the Faith" in Spain.</p> + +<p>Deza gave a new constitution to the Holy Office +and prescribed that there should be a general "Inquest" +in places not yet visited, and that edicts +should be republished requiring all persons to lay information +against suspected heretics. He stirred up +the zeal of all subordinate inquisitors and was well +served by them, especially by one, Lucero, commonly +called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Tenebroso</i>, "the gloomy," whose savage +and ruthless proceedings terrorised Cordova where +he presided. He made a general attack upon the +most respectable inhabitants and arrested great +numbers, many of whom were condemned and executed. +Informers crowded Lucero's ante-chamber +bringing monstrous tales of heretical conspiracies to +reëstablish Judaism and subvert the Church. His +familiars dragged the accused from their beds to +answer to these charges and the prisons overflowed. +Cordova was up in arms and many would have offered +armed resistance to the Inquisition, but the +more circumspect people, the Bishop and Chapter, +some of the nobility and the municipal council appealed +to Deza praying him to remove Lucero. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +inquisitor-general however turned furiously upon +the complainants and caused them to be arrested +as abettors of heresy. Philip I, acting for his wife +Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was +inclined to listen to the complainants, and suspended +both Deza and Lucero from their functions. But +his sudden death stayed the relief he had promised, +and the tormenting officials returned to renew their +oppression.</p> + +<p>The Cordovese would not tamely submit and appealed +to force. A strong body of men under the +Marques de Priego attacked the "Holy House," +broke open the prison and liberated many of those +detained, shutting up the officers of the Inquisition +in their place. Lucero took to flight upon a swift +mule and escaped. Though for a time Deza continued +to keep his influence, he was shortly forced +to resign and Cordova became tranquil. Deza's +persecution had spared no one. In the eight years +during which he held office, one account, probably +greatly exaggerated, says that 2,592 persons were +burned alive, some nine hundred were burned in effigy, +and thirty-five thousand were punished by +penance, fines and confiscations.</p> + +<p>The fall of Deza and the hostile attitude of the +people warned the authorities that the affairs of the +Inquisition must be managed more adroitly. New +inquisitors must be appointed and choice fell upon +Ximenes de Cisneros, who had already played a +foremost part in proselytising, but who now was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +willing to adopt more moderate measures. The +Pope in giving his approval sent him a cardinal's +hat as a recompense for past services, and as an encouragement +to act wisely in the future. He had a +difficult task. Disaffection, strongly pronounced, +prevailed through the kingdom and the Inquisition +was everywhere cordially detested. Ximenes strove +to appease the bitter feeling by instituting a searching +inquiry into the conduct of his immediate predecessor, +Deza, and promising to hear all complaints +and redress all grievances. He created a "Catholic +Congregation" as a special court to investigate the +actions of Lucero in the proceedings growing out +of the charges against Archbishop Talavera and his +family. This court in due course pronounced a verdict +of acquittal and rehabilitation of the Talaveras. +Ruined houses were rebuilt, the memory of the +dead restored to honour and fame, and this act +of grace was published at Valladolid with great +solemnity in the presence of the kings, bishops and +grandees.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless Ximenes had no desire to remodel +the Holy Office or limit its operations to any considerable +extent. On the contrary, he bent all his +efforts to develop its influence and make it an engine +of government, utilising it as a political as well +as a religious agency. It was as rigorous as ever but +he set his face like a flint against dishonesty. He +systematised the division of the realm into inquisitorial +provinces, each under its own inquisitor with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +headquarters in the principal cities, such as Seville, +Toledo, Valladolid, Murcia, and in Sardinia and +Sicily beyond the seas. His personal ascendancy +became extraordinary. He enjoyed the unbounded +confidence and favour of the sovereign. He had +been created Cardinal of Spain, a title rarely conferred. +As archbishop of Toledo, he was the supreme +head of the Spanish clergy, and as inquisitor-general, +he was the terror of every priest and every +layman within his jurisdiction. He had, in fact, +reached the highest ecclesiastical rank, short of the +papacy and as he rose higher and higher he wielded +powers little short of an independent absolute monarch, +and his zeal in the cause of his religion grew +more and more fervent and far-reaching. No doubt +in an earlier age he would have turned crusader, +but now he sought to crush the fugitive Moors who +had escaped into Northern Africa, whence they +made constant descents upon the south of Spain, +burning to avenge the wrongs of their co-religionists, +and were a constant scourge and source of +grievous trouble.</p> + +<p>The evils centred in the province of Oran, a fortified +stronghold—the most considerable of the +Moslem possessions on the shores of the Mediterranean—whence +issued a swarm of pirate cruisers, +manned by the exiles driven out of Spain, who had +sought and found a welcome refuge in Oran. +Ximenes was resolved to seize and sweep out this +hornets' nest and undertook its conquest on his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +account. Much ridicule was levelled at this "monk +about to fight the battles of Spain," but he went +forth undeterred at the head of a powerful army, +conveyed by a strong fleet from Cartagena, which +he landed at the African port of Mazalquivir, and +after some desperate fighting made himself master +of Oran. After his successful African campaign he +resumed his duties of chief inquisitor, and the Holy +Office under his fierce and vigorous rule became +more than ever oppressive. Ximenes pursued his +unwavering course and encouraged his inquisitors in +their unceasing activity. He desired to extend the +power and influence of the Inquisition, and established +it in the new countries recently added to the +Spanish dominion. A branch was set up in the +newly conquered province of Oran, and another +farther afield in the recently discovered new world +beyond the Atlantic. On the initiative of Ximenes +Fray Juan Quevedo, Bishop of Cuba, was appointed +chief inquisitor in the kingdom of Terrafirma, as +the territories of the new world were styled.</p> + +<p>The energetic pursuit of heresy did not monopolise +the exertions of Ximenes. He founded the +great University of Alcalá, a vast design, a noble +seat of learning richly endowed with magnificent +buildings and a remarkable scheme of education, +which produced the ablest and most eminent scholars. +Another great monument is the well known +polyglot Bible, designed to exhibit the scriptures in +their various ancient languages, a work of singular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +erudition upon which the munificent cardinal expended +vast sums.</p> + +<p>Ximenes lived to the advanced age of eighty-one, +long enough to act as regent of Spain during the +interregnum preceding the arrival of Charles I, +better known as the Emperor Charles V. The immediate +cause of his death was said to have been the +receipt of a letter from the Emperor in which he +was coldly thanked for his services and desired to +retire to his diocese, to "seek from heaven that +reward which heaven alone could adequately bestow." +In his last moments he is reported to have +said, "that he had never intentionally wronged any +man; but had rendered to every one his due, without +being swayed, as far as he was conscious, by +fear or affection."</p> + +<p>He combined a versatility of talent usually found +only in softer and more flexible characters. Though +bred in the cloister, he distinguished himself both +in the cabinet and the camp. For the latter, indeed, +so repugnant to his regular profession, he had a +natural genius, according to the testimony of his +biographer; and he evinced his relish for it by declaring +that "the smell of gunpowder was more +grateful to him than the sweetest perfume of Arabia!" +In every situation, however, he exhibited +the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern +lineaments of the monk were never wholly concealed +under the mask of the statesman or the visor of the +warrior. He had a full measure of the religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had +melancholy scope for displaying it, as chief of that +dread tribunal over which he presided during the +last ten years of his life.</p> + +<p>The accession of the grandson of Ferdinand and +Isabella to the Spanish throne as Charles I (better +known as the Emperor Charles V), seemed to foreshadow +a change in the relations of the Inquisition +and the state. The young sovereign was born in +Ghent and was more Fleming than Spaniard. +Though his grandfather left in his will solemn injunctions +"to labour with all his strength to destroy +and extirpate heresy" and to appoint ministers +"who will conduct the Inquisition justly and properly +for the service of God and the exaltation of the +Catholic faith, and who will also have great zeal +for the destruction of the sect of Mahomet," it was +reported that he sympathised with the critics of the +Inquisition and was disposed to curtail its activity. +The influence of his old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, +whom he commissioned inquisitor-general, first of +Aragon, and, after the death of Ximenes, of Castile +also, changed him however into a strong friend and +staunch supporter of the institution.</p> + +<p>Cardinal Manrique, who followed as inquisitor-general, +was a man of more kindly disposition, +charitable and a benefactor to the poor. He was +inclined to relax the severities of the Holy Office +but it was urged upon him that heresy was on the +increase on account of the appearance of Lutheran<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +opinions and the bitterest persecution was more than +ever essential. Protestants began to appear sporadically +and called for uncompromising repression. +The writings of Luther, Erasmus, Melancthon, +Zwingli, and the rest of the early reformers were +brought into Spain, but the circulation was adjudged +a crime, though Erasmus had once been a favourite +author.</p> + +<p>The Inquisition later prepared an <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Index Expurgandorum</i>, +or list of condemned and prohibited +literature. All books named on it were put +under the ban of the law. Possession of a translation +of the Bible in the vulgar tongues was forbidden +in 1551, and the prohibition was not lifted until +1782. By that time there was no longer such keen +interest in its contents, and the Book was little circulated. +In 1825 the British and Foreign Bible +Society sent one of its agents into Spain to distribute +it, and his adventures are described autobiographically +in that interesting work, George Borrow's +"Bible in Spain."</p> + +<p>In spite of all the efforts to make good Catholics +and good Spaniards of the Moriscos, little real progress +was made. They had accepted baptism under +compulsion, not realising that thereby they were +brought under control of the Church. Little effort +was made to instruct them, moreover, and as a result +thousands, nominally Christians, observed scrupulously +the whole Moslem ritual, used the old language, +and kept their old costume. Some, to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +sure, were hardly to be distinguished from the Spaniards +with whom they had intermarried, but, on the +whole, they seemed an unassimilable element in the +population.</p> + +<p>When Philip II succeeded his father, Charles V, +in 1556, he determined to take strong measures. A +decree proclaimed in Granada in 1566 forbade the +use of the distinctive dress and of the Moorish +names. The old customs were to be abandoned, and +all the baths were to be destroyed. Rebellion followed +this edict, and, for a time, it was doubtful +whether it could be crushed. Finally open resistance +was overcome, and several thousand were transferred +to the mountains of Northern Spain. Meanwhile +the Inquisition was active, and thousands were +brought to trial for pagan practices.</p> + +<p>Prejudice continued to grow, and fanatics declared +that Spain could never prosper until the "evil +seed" was destroyed or expelled from the Christian +land. Jealousy of the prosperity of the Moriscos +led the populace to agree with the bigots, and +finally expulsion was unanimously decreed by the +Council of State, in 1609, during the reign of +Philip III. Valencia was first purged, and next +Murcia, Granada, Andalusia, Old and New Castile +and Aragon. Afterward vigorous attempts to root +out individuals of Moorish blood, who had become +indistinguishable because of their strict conformity, +were made. Great suffering was incurred by the +unfortunate exiles and many died. Those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +reached Africa carried with them a hatred which +persists to the present.</p> + +<p>The number driven out is uncertain. The estimates +vary from three hundred thousand to three +million. Probably the most accurate estimate is +that of six hundred thousand. In this number were +included the most skilful artisans, and the most industrious +and most thrifty portion of the population. +It was a mistake from which Spain has never +recovered.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Prisons, usually, a part of the building occupied by court—Better +than civil prisons—Torture inflicted—No new +methods invented—Description of various kinds—Two +Lutheran congregations broken up—Description of some +famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>—Famous victims—Englishmen punished—Archbishop +Carranza's trial.</p></div> + + +<p>The prisons of the Inquisition fall under two +great heads, the "secret prisons" in which those +awaiting trial were confined, and the "penitential +prisons" where sentences were served. Generally +there were also <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles de familiares</i> where officers +of the institution charged with wrong-doing were +confined. In some tribunals there were others variously +called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles medias</i>, <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles comunes</i>, and +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles públicas</i>, where offenders not charged with +heresy might be confined.</p> + +<p>The secret prisons, however, have most fired the +imagination. A man might disappear from his accustomed +haunts, and for years his family and +friends be ignorant of his condition, or even of his +very existence, until one day he might appear at an +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>. What went on within the walls was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +mystery. Seldom did any hint of the proceedings +leak out. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, and the +arm of the Inquisition was long, if the luckless witness +or attendant failed to heed his instructions.</p> + +<p>These prisons were almost invariably a part of +the building occupied by the tribunal. In Valencia, +it was the archbishop's palace; in Saragossa, the +royal castle; in Seville, the Triana; in Cordova, the +Alcázar, and so on. In some, there were cells and +dungeons already prepared, in others, they were constructed. +There was no common standard of convenience +or sanitation. In many cases, generally, +perhaps, they were superior to the common jails in +which ordinary prisoners were confined. Yet we +know that some were entirely dark and very damp. +Others were so small that a cramped position was +necessary, and were hardly ventilated at all. Sometimes +they were poorly cared for, and loathsome filth +and vermin made them unendurable. Many places +were used for prisons during the three hundred +years of the Inquisition, and no statement is broad +enough to cover them all. The mortality was high, +yet not so high as in the prisons generally. Since +many were unsuitable and often unsafe, the wearing +of fetters was common. Prisoners often, incidentally, +speak of their chains.</p> + +<p>Occasionally more than one prisoner occupied the +same room, and much evidence was secured in this +way, as each hoped to lighten his own punishment +by inculpating others. Writing materials were per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>mitted, +though every sheet of paper must be accounted +for and delivered into an official's hands. +Lights were not permitted however.</p> + +<p>Yet entire secrecy was not always secured. Attendants +were sometimes bribed, and by various +ingenious methods, communications occasionally +found their way in or out. Again in cases of severe +sickness, the prisoner might be transferred to a hospital, +which however must account for him if he +recovered. Cardinal Adrian, the inquisitor-general, +reminded the tribunals that the prison was for detention, +not for punishment, that prisoners must not +be defrauded of their food, and that the cells must +be carefully inspected.</p> + +<p>These and similar instructions issued at intervals +were not always obeyed, for inquisitors were often +negligent. According to Lea, "no general judgment +can be formed as to the condition of so many +prisons during three centuries, except that their +average standard was considerably higher than that +in other jurisdictions, and that, if there were abodes +of horror, such as have been described by imaginative +writers they were wholly exceptional."<a name="Anchor-5" id="Anchor-5"></a><a href="#Footnote-5" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 5.">[5]</a> Again +the same author quotes instances where prisoners +speak of improved health, due to better food in +prison than they were accustomed to at home, and +in summing up declares that the general management +was more humane than could be found elsewhere, +either in or out of Spain.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> +<p>We may briefly recapitulate the various processes +of the Inquisition in order, as they obtained. First +came the denunciation, followed by seizure and the +commencement of an inquiry. The several offences +imputed were next submitted to those logical experts +named "qualifiers" who decided, so to speak, +"whether there was a true bill," in which case the +procurator fiscal committed the accused to durance. +Three audiences were given him, and the time was +fully taken up with cautions and monitions. The +charges were next formulated but with much prolixity +and reduplication. They were not reduced to +writing and delivered to the accused for slow perusal +and reply, but were only read over to him, +hurriedly. On arraignment he was called upon to +reply, then and there, to each article, to state at once +whether it was true or false. The charges were +usually originated by an informer and resort was +had, if necessary, to "inquiry," the hunting up of +suspicious or damaging facts on which evidence was +sought, in any quarter and from any one good or +bad. If the accused persisted in denial he was allowed +counsel, but later the counsel became an official +of the Inquisition and naturally made only a +perfunctory defence. An appeal to torture was had +if the prisoner persisted in denying his guilt, in the +face of plausible testimony, or if he confessed only +partially to the charges against him, or if he refused +to name his accomplices. A witness who had retracted +his testimony or had contradicted himself,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +might be tortured in order that the truth might be +made known.</p> + +<p>It was admitted, however, that torture was by no +means an infallible method for bringing out the +truth. "Weak-hearted men, impatient of the first +pain, will confess crimes they never committed and +criminate others at the same time. Bold and strong +ones will bear the most severe torments. Those +who have been already on the rack are likely to bear +it with greater courage, for they know how to adapt +their limbs to it and can resist more powerfully." +It may be admitted that the system was so far +humane that the torture was not applied until every +other effort had been tried and had failed. The +instruments of torture were first exhibited with +threats, but when once in use, it might be repeated +day after day, "in continuation," as it was called, +and if any "irregularity" occurred, such as the +death of a victim, the inquisitors were empowered +to absolve one another. Nobles were supposedly +exempted from torture, and it was not permissible +by the civil laws in Aragon, but the Holy Office was +nevertheless authorised to torture without restriction +all persons of all classes.</p> + +<p>Torture was not inflicted as a punishment by the +Inquisition, nor was it peculiar to its trials. Until +a comparatively recent date it was a recognised +method of securing testimony, accepted in nearly all +courts of Europe as a matter of course. The Inquisition +seems to have invented no new methods, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +seldom used the extreme forms commonly practised. +In fact in nearly every case, torture was inflicted by +the regular public executioner who was called in for +the purpose and sworn to secrecy. The list of tortures +practised on civil prisoners was long, and they +seem to us now fiendish in their ingenuity. A complete +course would require many hours, and included +apparently the infliction of pain to every organ or +limb and to almost every separate muscle and nerve. +The records of the Inquisition show almost invariably +the infliction of a few well known sorts.</p> + +<p>Some sorts were abandoned because of the danger +of permanent harm, and others less violent, but +probably no less painful, were substituted. Often +the record states that the prisoner "overcame the +torture," <em>i. e.</em> was not moved to confess. Evidently, +though the whole idea is abhorrent to us to-day, +torture as inflicted was less awful than some writers +would have us believe.<a name="Anchor-6" id="Anchor-6"></a><a href="#Footnote-6" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 6.">[6]</a></p> + +<p>A curious memento of the methods employed by +the Holy Office has been preserved in an ancient +"Manual of the Inquisition of Seville," a thin +quarto volume bound in vellum, with pages partly +printed, partly in manuscript. It bears the date +1628, and purports to be compiled from ancient and +modern instructions for the order of procedure. It +was found in the Palace of the Inquisition at Seville, +when it was sacked in the year 1820. One part of +this manual details the steps to be taken, "when +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>torture has to be performed." The criminal having +been brought into the audience, was warned that +he had not told the entire truth, and as he was believed +to have kept back and hidden many things, +he was about to be "tormented" to compel him to +speak out. Formal sentence to the torture chamber +was then passed, after "invoking the name of +Christ." It was announced that the "question" +would be administered. The method of infliction +was detailed whether by pulleys or by water or +cords, or by all, to be continued for "as long a time +as may appear well," with the proviso that if in the +said torment, "he (or she) should die or be +wounded, or if there be any effusion of blood or +mutilation of member, the blame should be his (or +hers) not ours."</p> + +<p>Here follows in manuscript the description of the +torments applied to one unfortunate female whose +name is not given.</p> + +<p>"On this she was ordered to be taken to the +chamber of Torment whither went the Lords Inquisitors, +and when they were there she was admonished +to tell the truth and not to let herself be +brought into such great trouble.</p> + +<p>"Her answer is not recorded.</p> + +<p>"Carlos Felipe, the executor of Justice, was +called and his oath taken that he would do his business +well and faithfully and that he would keep the +secret. All of which he promised.</p> + +<p>"She was told to tell the truth or orders would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +be given to strip her. She was commanded to be +stripped naked.</p> + +<p>"She was told to tell the truth or orders would +be given to cut off her hair. It was taken off and +she was examined by the doctor and surgeon who +certified that there was no reason why she should +not be put to the torture.</p> + +<p>"She was commanded to mount the rack and to +tell the truth or her body should be bound; and she +was bound. She was commanded to tell the truth, +or they would order her right foot to be made fast +to the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">trampazo</i>."<a name="Anchor-7" id="Anchor-7"></a><a href="#Footnote-7" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 7.">[7]</a></p> + +<p>After the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">trampazo</i> of the right foot that of the +left followed. Then came the binding and stretching +of the right arm, then that of the left. After +that the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> or the compression of the fleshy +parts of the arms and thighs with fine cords, a plan +used to revive any person who had fainted under the +torture. Last of all the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">mancuerda</i> was inflicted, +a simultaneous tension of all the cords on all the +limbs and parts.</p> + +<p>The water torture was used to extort confession. +The patient was tightly bound to the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">potro</i>, or ladder, +the rungs of which were sharp-edged. The +head was immovably fastened lower than the body, +and the mouth was held open by an iron prong. A +strip of linen slowly conducted water into the mouth, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>causing the victim to strangle and choke. Sometimes +six or eight jars, each holding about a quart, +were necessary to bring the desired result. This +is the "water-cure" found in the Philippines by +American soldiers when the islands were captured.</p> + +<p>If these persuasions still failed of effect, or if the +hour was late, or "for other considerations" the +torment might be suspended with the explanation +that it had been insufficiently tried and the victim +was taken back to his prison to be brought out again +after a respite. If, on the other hand, a confession +was secured, it was written down word for word +and submitted to the victim for ratification after at +least twenty-four hours had elapsed. If he revoked +the confession, he might be tortured again.</p> + +<p>When a number of cases had been decided, the +Suprema appointed a day, usually a Sunday or a +feast day, for pronouncing sentence. This was an +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, literally an "act of faith." The greater +festivals, Easter day, Christmas day, or Sundays in +Advent or Lent were excepted because these holy +days had their own special musical or dramatic entertainments +in the churches. The day fixed was announced +from all the pulpits in the city (Seville or +Madrid or Cordova as the case might be) and notice +given that a representative of the Inquisition would +deliver a "sermon of the faith" and that no other +preacher might raise his voice. The civil authorities +were warned to be ready to receive their victims. +At the same time officials unfurled a banner and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +made public proclamation to the effect that "no +person whatever his station or quality from that +hour until the completion of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> should carry +arms offensive or defensive, under pain of the +greater excommunication and the forfeiture of such +arms; nor during the same period should any one +ride in coach, or sedan chair, or on horseback, +through the streets in the route of the procession, +nor enter the enclosure in which the place of execution +(<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>) was erected," which was usually +beyond the walls.</p> + +<p>On the eve of the great day a gorgeous procession +was organised, for which all the communities of +friars in the city and neighbourhood assembled at +the Holy House of the Inquisition, together with the +commissaries and familiars of the Holy Office. +They sallied forth in triumphal array, followed by +the "qualifiers" and experts, all carrying large +white tapers, lighted. In their midst a bier was +borne covered with a black pall, and, bringing up +the rear, was a band, instrumental and vocal, performing +hymns. In this order the procession +reached the public square, when the pall was removed +from the bier and a green cross disclosed +which was carried to the altar on the platform, and +there erected surrounded by a dozen candles. The +white cross was carried to the burning place. Now +a strong body of horse and a number of Dominican +friars took post to watch through the night and the +rest of the actors dispersed. At the same time those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +who were to suffer were prepared for the fatal event. +All were shaved close, both head and beard, so that +they might present an appearance of nakedness and +humiliation suitable to their forlorn condition. At +sunrise on their last day they were arrayed in the +prescribed garb and brought from their cells into +the chapel or great hall. The least heinous offenders +were in coarse black blouses and pantaloons, and +were bare-footed and bare-headed. The worst culprits +were in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential sack of +yellow canvas, adorned with a St. Andrew's cross +in bright red paint, and they often carried a halter +round their necks as a badge of ignominy. Those +to die at the stake were distinguished by black +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i> with painted flames and wore on their +heads a conical paper headdress in the shape of a +bishop's mitre, but also resembling somewhat a +fool's cap. This was called the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">coroza</i>, a contemptuous +form of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corona</i> or crown. To make the clothing +more hideous, it was decorated by coarse pictures +of devils in flames. The condemned as they +passed on their way were assailed to the last with +importunate exhortations to repent, and a promise +was held out to them that if they yielded they would +be rewarded by a less painful death, and would be +strangled before the flames reached them. All the +penitents were obliged to sit upon the ground in +profound silence and without so much as moving +a limb, while the slow hours dragged themselves +along. In the morning a sumptuous meal was set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +before them, and they were suffered to eat their fill. +All the officials and visitors were also regaled before +the day's business began.</p> + +<p>After the sermon, the secretary read to all the +people the oath pledging them to support the Inquisition. +Then sentences were pronounced, beginning +with the lesser offenders and proceeding to the +graver. The punishments ranged from a reprimand, +through abjuration, fines, exile, for a longer +or shorter period, destruction of residence, penance, +scourging, the galleys, imprisonment, wearing the +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential garment, up to "relaxation +to the secular arm;" <em>i. e.</em> death by fire. These penalties +carried with them civil disability, and tainted the +blood of the descendants of the condemned as well.</p> + +<p>Penance might be inflicted in various forms. The +condemned, perhaps, might be required to fast one +day in every week, to recite a specified number of +prayers on appointed days, or to appear at the +church door with a halter around his neck on successive +Sundays. When scourging was inflicted, the +penitent, naked to the waist, was placed astride an +ass, and paraded through the principal streets preceded +by the town crier. Meanwhile the executioner, +accompanied by a clerk to keep tally, plied +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">penca</i> or leather strap, but was charged most +solemnly not to draw blood. Usually two hundred +lashes was the limit.</p> + +<p>Theoretically a heretic who escaped the stake by +confession was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +This penalty might be served in a prison, a monastery, +or in a private house. As a matter of fact, +comparatively few were kept in prisons as the expense +of maintenance was a heavy burden, and the +sentences were usually changed to deportation to +the colonies, or assignment to the galleys, or else +the sentence was shortened.</p> + +<p>The trial and sentence of the bodies of the dead +was common, but it was not peculiar to the Inquisition. +As late as 1600, in Scotland, the bodies of +the Earl of Gowrie and his brother were brought +into court, and sentenced to be hanged, quartered +and gibbeted. Logan of Restalrig, in 1609, three +years after his death, was tried on the charge of +being concerned in the same conspiracy, was found +guilty and his property was confiscated.</p> + +<p>In recounting the punishments imposed by the +Inquisition, we must not forget that it assumed +jurisdiction over many crimes which to-day are tried +by the civil courts. Bigamy was punished as, by +a second marriage, the criminal denied the authority +of the Church which makes marriage a sacrament. +Certain forms of blasphemy also were brought before +it, and perjury as well. Personation of the +priesthood, or of officials of the Inquisition, was +punished, and later it gained jurisdiction over unnatural +crimes. Sorcery and witchcraft, which in +other states, including the American colonies, were +considered subjects for the secular courts, were +within the jurisdiction of the Spanish Inquisition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<p>Strange as it may appear at first thought, the attitude +of the Inquisition toward the witchcraft delusion +was one of skepticism almost from the beginning. +Individual inquisitors, influenced by the well +nigh universal belief, were occasionally active, but +the Suprema moderated their zeal. In 1610 an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> +was held at Logroño, which was the centre of wild +excitement. Twenty-nine witches were punished, +six of whom were burned, and the bones of five +others who had died in prison were also consumed. +The eighteen remaining were "reconciled." In +1614, however, the Suprema drew up an elaborate +code of instructions to the tribunals. While not +denying the existence of witchcraft, these instructions +treated it as a delusion and practically made +proof impossible. As a result of this policy the +victims of the craze in Spain can be counted almost +by the score, while in almost every other country +of Europe, they are numbered by the thousand. In +Great Britain the best estimate fixes the number of +victims at thirty thousand, and as late as 1775 the +great legal author, Sir William Blackstone, says that +to deny "the actual existence of witchcraft and +sorcery is at once flatly to contradict the revealed +word of God."<a name="Anchor-8" id="Anchor-8"></a><a href="#Footnote-8" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 8.">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Heresy, of course, according to the views not only +of Catholics but of Protestants, deserved death as +a form of treason. Tolerance is a modern idea. +Calvin burned Servetus at Geneva and was ap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>plauded +for it. Protestants in England persecuted +other Protestants as well as Catholics. The impenitent +heretic in Spain was burned alive. That one, +who after conviction, expressed his repentance, and +his desire to die in the Church was usually strangled +before the flames touched him. Before going on to +describe some famous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> and the subsequent +infliction of the death penalty, a word of explanation +is in order.</p> + +<p>Protestant doctrines were introduced into Spain +either by foreigners or by natives who travelled or +studied in foreign lands, but made slow headway. +In 1557 a secret organisation, comprising about one +hundred and twenty members, was discovered in +Seville. The next year another little band of about +sixty was found in Valladolid.</p> + +<p>The almost simultaneous exposure of these two +heretical organisations, both of which included some +prominent people, created great commotion. Charles +V, then living at San Yuste, whither he had retired +after his abdication, wrote to his daughter Juana, +who was acting as regent in the absence of Philip II, +urging the most stringent measures and advocating +that the heretics be pursued mercilessly. Little +stimulation of the Inquisition was necessary, and the +two little congregations were destroyed.</p> + +<p>A part of those condemned at Valladolid were +sentenced at a great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> held on Trinity Sunday, +May 21st, 1559, in Valladolid, not before +Philip II, who was abroad, but his sister, Princess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +Juana, presided and with her was the unhappy +Prince, Don Carlos. It was a brilliant gathering, a +great number of grandees of Spain, titled noblemen +and gentlemen untitled, ladies of high rank in gorgeous +apparel, all seated in great state to watch the +arrival of the penitential procession. Fourteen heretics +were to die, sixteen more to be "reconciled" +but to be branded with infamy and suffer lesser +punishments. Among the sufferers were many persons +of rank and consideration such as the two +brothers Cazalla and their sister, children of the +king's comptroller, one of them a canon of the +Church, the other a presbyter, and all three members +of the little Lutheran congregation. Their mother +had died in heresy and on this occasion her effigy, +clad in her widow's weeds and wearing a mitre with +flames, was paraded through the streets and then +burned publicly. Her house, where Lutherans had +met for prayer, was razed to the ground and a pillar +erected with an inscription setting forth her offence +and sentence. Another victim was the licentiate, +Antonio Herrezuelo, an impenitent Lutheran, the +only one who went to the stake unmoved, singing +psalms by the way, and reciting passages of scripture. +They gagged him at last and a soldier in his +zeal stabbed him with his halberd, but the wound +was not mortal and bleeding and burning, he +slowly expired.</p> + +<p>The sixteen who survived the horrors of the day +were haled back to the prison of the Inquisition to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +spend one more night in the cells. Next morning +they were again taken before the inquisitors who +exhorted them afresh, and their sentences were +finally read to them. Some destined to the galleys +were transferred first to the civil prison to await removal, +after they had been flogged through the +streets and market places. Others clad in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> +and carrying ropes were exposed to the hoots +and indignities of the ribald crowd. All who passed +through the hands of the Holy Office were sworn +to seal up in everlasting silence whatever they had +seen, heard or suffered, on peril of a renewed prosecution.</p> + +<p>Philip II was present at the second great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> in +Valladolid in October of the same year, when the +remainder of the Protestants were sentenced. His +wife, Queen Mary of England, was dead, and he +returned to Spain by way of the Netherlands, embarking +at Flushing for Laredo. Rough weather +and bad seamanship all but wrecked his fleet in sight +of port, and Philip vowed if he were permitted to set +foot on shore, to prosecute the heretics of Spain +unceasingly. He was saved from drowning and +went at once to Valladolid to carry out his +vow.</p> + +<p>The ceremony was organised with unprecedented +pomp and splendour. The king came in state, +rejoicing that several notable heretics had been +reserved to die in torments, for his especial delectation. +His heir, Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +also present but under compulsion; he was, at that +time, no more than fourteen years of age and had +writhed with agony at the sight of the suffering at +the former <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i>. Moreover, when called upon to +swear fidelity to the Inquisition, he had taken the +oath with great reluctance. Not so King Philip, +who when called upon to take the same oath at the +second <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, rose in his place, drew his sword +and brandished it as he swore to show every favour +to the Holy Office and support its ministers against +whomsoever might directly or indirectly impede its +efforts or affairs. "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Asi lo juro</i>," he said with deep +feeling. "Thus I swear."</p> + +<p>The victims at this great <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> were many +and illustrious. One was Don Carlos de Seso, an +Italian of noble family, the son of a bishop, a +scholar who had long been in the service of the +Emperor Charles V, and was chief magistrate of +Toro. He had married a Spanish lady and resided +at Logroño, where he became an object of suspicion +as a professor of Lutheranism, and was arrested. +They took him to the prison of Valladolid, where +he was charged, tortured and condemned to die. +When called upon to make confession, he wrote two +full sheets denouncing the Catholic teaching, claiming +that it was at variance with the true faith of +the gospel. The priests argued with him in vain, +and he was brought into church next morning, +gagged, and so taken to the burning place, "lest +he should speak heresy in the hearing of the peo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>ple." +At the stake the gag was removed and he was +again exhorted to recant but he stoutly refused and +bade them light up the fire speedily so that he might +die in his belief.</p> + +<p>Much grief was felt by the Dominicans at the +lapse of one of their order, Fray Domingo de Rojas, +who was undoubtedly a Lutheran. On his way to +the stake he strove to appeal to the king who drove +him away and ordered him to be gagged. More +than a hundred monks of his order followed him +close entreating him to recant, but he persisted in +a determined although inarticulate refusal until in +sight of the flames. He then recanted and was +strangled before being burned. One Juan Sanchez, +a native of Valladolid, had fled to Flanders, but was +pursued, captured and brought back to Spain to die +on this day. When the cords which had bound him +snapped in the fire, he bounded into the air with his +agony but still repelled the priests and called for +more fire. Nine more were burned in the presence +of the king, who was no merely passive spectator, +but visited the various stakes and ordered his personal +guard to assist in piling up the fuel.</p> + +<p>The congregation at Seville were sentenced at +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos</i> held in 1559 and 1560. On December 22d of +the latter year, there were fourteen burned in the +flesh and three in effigy. The last were notable +people. One was Doctor Egidio, who had been a +leading canon of Seville Cathedral, and who had +been tried and forced to recant his heresies in 1552.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +After release he renewed his connection with the +Lutherans, but soon died and was buried at Seville. +His corpse was exhumed, brought to trial, and +burnt with his effigy; all his property was confiscated +and his memory declared infamous. Another +was Doctor Ponce de la Fuente, a man of deep +learning and extraordinary eloquence who had been +chaplain and preacher to the emperor. He followed +the Imperial Court into Germany, then returned to +charm vast congregations in Seville, but his sermons +were reported by spies to be tainted with the +Reformed doctrines. He was seized by the Inquisition +and many incriminating papers were also +taken. When cast into a secret dungeon and confronted +with these proofs of his heresy, he would +make no confession, nor would he betray any of his +friends. He was transferred to a subterranean cell, +damp and pestiferous, so narrow he could barely +move himself, and was deprived of the commonest +necessaries of life. Existence became impossible +under such conditions, and he died, proclaiming +with his last breath that neither Scythians nor +cannibals could be more cruel and inhuman than the +barbarians of the Holy Office. The third effigy +consumed was that of Doctor Juan Pérez de Pineda, +then a fugitive in Geneva.</p> + +<p>Chief among the living victims was Julian Hernandez, +commonly called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Chico</i>, "the little," from +his diminutive stature. Yet his heart was of the +largest and his courage extraordinary. He was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +deacon in the Reformed Church and dared to penetrate +the interior of Spain, disguised as a muleteer, +carrying merchandise in which Lutheran literature +was concealed. Being exceedingly shrewd and daring +he travelled far and wide, beyond Castile into +Andalusia, distributing his books among persons of +rank and education in all the chief cities. His learning, +skill in argument, and piety, were not less remarkable +than the diligence and activity by which +he baffled all efforts to lay hold of him. At last he +was caught and imprisoned. Relays of priests were +told off to controvert his opinions, and he was repeatedly +tortured to extract the names of those who +had aided him in his long and dangerous pilgrimage +through the Peninsula, but he was staunch and silent +to the last.</p> + +<p>A citizen of London, one Nicholas Burton, was +a shipmaster who traded to Cadiz in his own vessel. +He was arrested on the information of a "familiar" +of the Inquisition, charged with having spoken in +slighting terms of the religion of the country. No +reason was given him, and when he protested indignantly, +he was thrown into the common gaol and +detained there for a fortnight, during which he was +moved to administer comfort and preach the gospel +to his fellow-prisoners. This gave a handle to his +persecutors and he was removed on a further charge +of heresy to Seville, where he was imprisoned, +heavily ironed in the secret gaol of the Inquisition +in the Triana. At the end he was condemned as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +contumacious Lutheran, and was brought out, clad +in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> and exposed in the great hall of +the Holy Office with his tongue forced out of his +mouth. Last of all, being obdurate in his heresy, +he was burned and his ship with its cargo was taken +possession of by his persecutors.</p> + +<p>The story does not end here. Another Englishman, +John Frampton, an attorney of Bristol, was +sent to Cadiz by a part-owner to demand restoration +of the ship. He became involved in a tedious law +suit and was at last obliged to return to England +for enlarged powers. Bye and bye he went out a +second time to Spain, and on landing at Cadiz was +seized by the servants of the Inquisition and carried +to Seville. He travelled on mule back "tied by a +chain that came three times under its belly and the +end whereof was fastened in an iron padlock made +fast to the saddle bow." Two armed familiars rode +beside him, and thus escorted and secured, he was +conveyed to the old prison and lodged in a noisome +dungeon. The usual interrogatories were put to +him and it was proved to the satisfaction of the Holy +Office that he was an English heretic. The same +evidence sufficed to place him on the rack, and after +fourteen months, he was taken to be present as a +penitent at the same <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> which saw Burton, +the ship's captain, done to death. Frampton went +back to prison for another year and was forbidden +to leave Spain. He managed to escape and returned +to England to make full revelation of his wrongs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +but the ship was never surrendered and no indemnity +was obtained.</p> + +<p>Other Englishmen fell from time to time into the +hands of the Inquisition. Hakluyt preserved the +simple narratives of two English sailors, who were +brought by their Spanish captors from the Indies +as a sacrifice to the "Holy House" of Seville, +though the authenticity of the statement has been +attacked. One, a happy-go-lucky fellow, Miles +Phillips, who had been too well acquainted in Mexico +with the dungeons of the Inquisition, slipped +over the ship's side at San Lucar, near Cadiz, made +his way to shore, and boldly went to Seville, where +he lived a hidden life as a silk-weaver, until he +found his chance to steal away and board a Devon +merchantman. The other, Job Hortop, added to his +two years of Mexican imprisonment, two more years +in Seville. Then "they brought us out in procession," +as he tells us, "every one of us having a +candle in his hand and the coat with S. Andrew's +cross on our backs; they brought us up on an high +scaffold, that was set up in the place of S. Francis, +which is in the chief street in Seville; there they +set us down upon benches, every one in his degree +and against us on another scaffold sate all the +Judges and the Clergy on their benches. The people +wondered and gazed on us, some pitying our case, +others said, 'Burn those heretics.' When we had +sat there two hours, we had a sermon made to us, +after which one called Bresina, secretary to the In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>quisition, +went up into the pulpit with the process +and called on Robert Barret, shipmaster, and John +Gilbert, whom two familiars of the Inquisition +brought from the scaffold in front of the Judges, +and the secretary read the sentence, which was that +they should be burnt, and so they returned to the +scaffold and were burnt.</p> + +<p>"Then, I, Job Hortop and John Bone, were +called and brought to the same place, as the others +and likewise heard our sentence, which was, that +we should go to the galleys there to row at the +oar's end ten years and then to be brought back +to the Inquisition House, to have the coat with St. +Andrew's cross put on our backs and from thence +to go to the everlasting prison remediless.</p> + +<p>"I, with the rest were sent to the Galleys, where +we were chained four and four together.... +Hunger, thirst, cold and stripes we lacked none, till +our several times expired; and after the time of +twelve years, for I served two years above my sentence, +I was sent back to the Inquisition House in +Seville and there having put on the above mentioned +coat with St. Andrew's cross, I was sent to the everlasting +prison remediless, where I wore the coat +four years and then, upon great suit, I had it taken +off for fifty duckets, which Hernandez de Soria, +treasurer of the king's mint, lent me, whom I was +to serve for it as a drudge seven years." This victim, +too, escaped in a fly-boat at last and reached +England.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>The records of the Inquisition of this period contain +the name of an eminent Spanish ecclesiastic +who offended the Holy Office and felt the weight of +its arm. This was Bartolome de Carranza, Archbishop +of Toledo, Primate of Spain, a Dominican,—whose +rise had been rapid and who was charged +with leanings toward Lutheranism. In early life +he had passed through the hands of the Inquisition +and was censured for expressing approval of the +writings of Erasmus, but no other action was taken. +His profound theological knowledge indeed commended +him to the Councils of the Church, for +which he often acted as examiner of suspected +books.</p> + +<p>Carranza's connection with English history is interesting. +At the time of Queen Mary's marriage +with Philip II, he came to London to arrange, in +conjunction with Cardinal Pole, for the reconciliation +of England to Rome. He laboured incessantly +to win over British Protestants, "preached continually, +convinced and converted heretics without number, +... guided the Queen and Councils and assisted +in framing rules for the governance of the +English Universities." He was particularly anxious +for the persecution of obstinate heretics, and +was in a measure responsible for the burning of +Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. His +zeal and his great merits marked him down as the +natural successor to the archbishopric of Toledo, +when it became vacant, and he was esteemed as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +chief pillar of the Catholic Church, destined in due +course to the very highest preferment. He might +indeed become cardinal and even supreme pontiff +before he died.</p> + +<p>Yet when nearing the topmost pinnacle he was on +the verge of falling to the lowest depths. He had +many enemies. His stern views on Church discipline, +enunciated before the Council of Trent, alienated +many of the bishops, who planned his ruin and +secretly watched his discourses and writings for +symptoms of unsoundness. Valdés, the chief inquisitor, +was a leading opponent and industriously +collected a mass of evidence tending to inculpate +Carranza. He had used "perilous language" when +preaching in England, especially in the hearing of +heretics, and one witness deposed that some of his +sermons might have been delivered by Melancthon +himself. He had affirmed that mercy might be +shown to Lutherans who abjured their errors, and +had frequently manifested scandalous indulgence to +heretics. Valdés easily framed a case against Carranza, +strong enough to back up an application to +the pope to authorise the Inquisition to arrest and +imprison the primate of Spain. Paul IV, the new +pope, permitted the arrest. Great circumspection +was shown in making it because of the prisoner's +rank. Carranza was invited to come to Valladolid +to have an interview with the king, and, with some +misgivings, the archbishop set out. A considerable +force of men was gathered together by the way—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>all +loyal to the Inquisition—and at the town of +Torrelaguna, the arrest was made with great formality +and respect.</p> + +<p>On reaching Valladolid the prisoner begged he +might be lodged in the house of a friend. The Holy +Office consented but hired the building. The trial +presented many serious difficulties. Here was no +ordinary prisoner; Carranza was widely popular, +and the Supreme Council of the Kingdom was divided +as to the evidences of his guilt. Nearly a +hundred witnesses were examined, but proof was +not easily to be secured. Besides, Carranza had appealed +to the Supreme Pontiff. Year after year was +spent in tiresome litigation and a fierce contest ensued +between Rome and the Spanish court which +backed up the Inquisition. At length, after eight +years' confinement, the primate was sent to Cartagena +to take ship for Rome, accompanied by several +inquisitors and the Duke of Alva, that most notorious +nobleman, the scourge and oppressor of the +Netherlands. All landed at Civita Vecchia and the +party proceeded to the Holy City, when Carranza +was at once lodged in the Castle of St. Angelo, the +well known State prison. He was detained there +nine years, until released by Pope Gregory XIII. He +was censured for his errors, and required to abjure +the Lutheran principles found in his writings, and +was relieved from his functions as archbishop, to +which, however, his strength, impaired by age and +suffering, was no longer equal. While visiting the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +seven churches as a penance, he was taken ill, April +23d, 1576, and soon died. Before his death, however, +the pope gave him full indulgence.</p> + +<p>Those who saw him in his last days record that +he bore his trials with dignity and patience. But +this learned priest who had been called to the highest +rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, only to be himself +assailed and thrown down, was the same who +had sat in cruel judgment upon Thomas Cranmer +and compassed his martyrdom.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION ABROAD</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Fresh field for the Inquisition in Spanish America—Operations +begun by Ximenes and more firmly established by +Charles V—Spanish Viceroys' complaints—Zeal of the +Inquisitors checked for a while—Revived under Philip II—Royal +Edict forbidding heretics to emigrate to Spanish +America—Inquisition extended to the Low Countries—Dutch +rebellion proceedings—The Inquisition of the Galleys +instituted by Philip—Growing dislike of the Inquisition—Experiences +of Carcel, a goldsmith—His account of +an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>—Decline of the powers of the Inquisition.</p></div> + + +<p>The acquisition of Spanish America opened a +fresh field for the activity of the Inquisition. Besides +the natives there were the New Christians who +had fled across the seas seeking refuge from intolerance +in the old country. Although the emigration +of heretics was forbidden after a time, lest they +should spread the hateful doctrines, Cardinal +Ximenes, when inquisitor-general, resolved that the +New World should have its own Holy Office, and +appointed Fray Juan de Quevedo, then Bishop of +Cuba, as inquisitor-general of the "Tierra Firma" +as the Spanish mainland was commonly called. The +Inquisition was more broadly established by Charles +V, who empowered Cardinal Adrian to organise it +and appoint new chiefs. The Dominicans were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +supreme, as in the old country, and proceeded with +their usual fiery vigour, wandering at large through +the new territories and spreading dismay among the +native population. The Indians retreated in crowds +into the interior, abandoned the Christianity they +had never really embraced, and joined the other +native tribes still unsubdued. The Spanish viceroys +alarmed at the general desertion complained to +the king at home and the excessive zeal of the +inquisitors was checked for a time. But when +Philip II came into power he would not agree with +this milder policy, and although the inquisitors were +no longer permitted to perambulate the country districts +hunting up heretics, the Holy Office was established +with its palaces and prisons in the principal +cities and acted with great vigour. Three great +central tribunals were created at Panama, Lima, and +at Cartagena de las Indias, and persecution raged +unceasingly, chiefly directed against Jews and +Moors. In the city of Mexico also there was an +inquisitor-general. A royal edict proclaimed that +"no one newly converted to our Holy Faith from +being Moor or Jew nor his child shall pass over into +our Indies without our express license." At the +same time the prohibition was extended to any who +had been "reconciled," and to the child or grandchild +of anyone who had worn the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or of +any person burnt or condemned as a heretic ... +"all, under penalty of loss of goods and peril of his +person, shall be perpetually banished from the Indies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +and if he have no property let them give him a hundred +lashes, publicly."</p> + +<p>The emperor, Charles V, is responsible for the +extension of the Inquisition from Spain to the Low +Countries, by which he repaid the loyal service and +devotion the Dutch people had long rendered him. +This Inquisition was headed at first however by a +layman, and then four inquisitors chosen from the +secular clergy were named. The Netherlanders resisted +stoutly its establishment and its operation, and +in 1646 it was provided that no sentence should go +into effect unless approved by some member of the +provincial council. Heretics were condemned of +course, but the number was not large, though in +some way grossly exaggerated reports of the numbers +of victims have gained credence. Finally, on +the application of the people of Brabant, who declared +that the name would injure commercial prosperity +in their district, the name was dropped altogether. +At best it was a faint and feeble copy of +the Spanish institution, and during the reign of +Charles was little feared. In proof we may cite the +fact that eleven successive edicts were necessary to +keep the Inquisition at work between 1620 and 1650.</p> + +<p>Philip II, on his accession, attempted to increase +the power of the institution, with the hope of uprooting +the reformed doctrines. The assertion, +often made, however, that the Inquisition is responsible +for the revolt of the Netherlands is entirely +too broad. Other factors than religious differences<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +entered into the complex situation. The terrible war +which finally resulted in the independence of the +Protestant Netherlands, falls outside the plan of this +volume.</p> + +<p>Philip wished to extend the sway of the Inquisition +and planned a naval tribunal to take cognisance +of heresy afloat. He created the Inquisition of the +Galleys, or, as it was afterwards styled, of the Army +and Navy. In every sea port a commissary general +visited the shipping to search for prohibited books +and make sure of the orthodoxy of crews and passengers. +Even cargoes and bales of merchandise +were examined, lest the taint of heresy should infect +them. This marine inspection was most active in +Cadiz, at that time the great centre of traffic with the +far West. A visitor from the Holy Office with a +staff of assistants and familiars boarded every ship +on arrival and departure and claimed that their authority +should be respected, so that nothing might +be landed or embarked without their certificate. +The merchants resented this system which brought +substantial commercial disadvantages, and the ships' +captains disliked priestly interference with their +crews, whose regular duties were neglected. The +men were kept below under examination, when they +were wanted on deck to make or shorten sail or take +advantage of a change in the wind or a turn in the +tide. By degrees the marine Inquisition was +thought to impede business on the High Seas and +fell into disuse.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> + +<p>Under succeeding sovereigns the Holy Office was +still favoured and supported, but the reign of Philip +III witnessed loud and frequent remonstrances +against its operation. The Cortes of Castile implored +the king to put some restraint upon the too +zealous inquisitors, but they still wielded their arbitrary +powers unchecked, and Philip sought further +encouragement for them from Rome. The accession +of Philip IV to the throne was celebrated by +an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>, but no victim was put to death, and +the only corporal punishment inflicted was the flogging +of an immoral nun who professed to have +made a compact with the devil. She was led out +gagged, and, wearing the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i>, received two +hundred lashes followed by perpetual imprisonment. +Philip IV strove for a time to check the activity of +the Inquisition, but he was too weak and wavering +to make permanent headway against an institution, +the leaders of which knew precisely what they were +striving for, and pertinaciously pursued it.</p> + +<p>A graphic account of what purport to have been +the painful experiences of a poor soul who fell at +a later date into the clutches of the inquisitors is +related by himself in a curious pamphlet printed in +Seville, by one Carcel, who was a goldsmith in that +city. Evidently there is the work of another hand +in it, however, as it is written with too much regard +for the dramatic to have been his own composition. +The description of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto</i> is also unusual, +and not according to the usual procedure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + +<p>He says that he was arrested on the 2nd of April, +1680, at ten o'clock in the evening, as he was finishing +a gold necklace for one of the queen's maids of +honour. A week after his first arrest Carcel was +examined. We will quote his own words:—</p> + +<p>"In an ante-room," he says, "a smith frees me +of my irons and I pass from the ante-chamber to +the 'Inquisitor's table,' as the small inner room is +called. It is hung with blue and citron-coloured +taffety. At one end, between the two grated windows, +is a gigantic crucifix and on the central estrade +(a table fifteen feet long surrounded by arm-chairs), +with his back to the crucifix, sits the secretary, +and on my right, Francisco Delgado Ganados, +the Grand Inquisitor, who is a secular priest. The +other inquisitors had just left, but the ink was still +wet in their quills, and I saw on papers before their +chairs some names marked with red ink. I am +seated on a low stool opposite the secretary. The +inquisitor asks my name and profession and why +I come there, exhorting me to confess as the only +means of quickly regaining my liberty. He hears +me, but when I fling myself weeping at his knees, +he says coolly there is no hurry about my case; that +he has more pressing business than mine waiting, +(the secretary smiles), and he rings a little silver +bell which stands beside him on the black cloth, +for the alcaide who leads me off down a long gallery, +where my chest is brought in and an inventory +taken by the secretary. They cut my hair off and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +strip me of everything, even to my ring and gold +buttons; but they leave me my beads, my handkerchief +and some money I had fortunately sewn in +my garters. I am then led bareheaded into a cell, +and left to think and despair till evening when they +bring me supper.</p> + +<p>"The prisoners are seldom put together. Silence +perpetual and strict is maintained in all the cells. +If any prisoner should moan, complain or even pray +too loud, the gaolers who watch the corridors night +and day warn them through the grating. If the +offence is repeated, they storm in and load you with +blows to intimidate the other prisoners, who, in the +deep grave-like silence, hear your every cry and +every blow.</p> + +<p>"Once every two months the inquisitor, accompanied +by his secretary and interpreter, visits the +prisoners and asks them if their food is brought +them at regular hours, or if they have any complaint +to make against the gaolers. But this is only +a parade of justice, for if a prisoner dares to utter +a complaint, it is treated as mere fanciful ravings +and never attended to.</p> + +<p>"After two months' imprisonment," goes on Carcel, +"one Saturday, when, after my meagre prison +dinner, I give my linen, as usual, to the gaolers to +send to the wash, they will not take it and a great +cold breath whispers at my heart—to-morrow is +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i>. When, immediately after the vespers +at the cathedral, they ring for matins, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +they never do but when rejoicing on the eve of a +great feast, I know that my horrid suspicions are +right. Was I glad at my escape from this living +tomb, or was I paralysed by fear, at the pile perhaps +already hewn and stacked for my wretched body? +I know not. I was torn in pieces by the devils that +rack the brains of unhappy men. I refused my next +meal, but, contrary to their wont, they pressed it +more than usual. Was it to give me strength to +bear my torture? Do God's eyes not reach to the +prisons of the Inquisition?</p> + +<p>"I am just falling into a sickly, fitful sleep, worn +out with conjecturing, when, about eleven o'clock at +night, the great bolts of my cell grind and jolt back +and a party of gaolers in black, in a flood of light, +so that they looked like demons on the borders of +heaven, come in.</p> + +<p>"The alcaide throws down by my pallet a heap +of clothes, tells me to put them on and hold myself +ready for a second summons. I have no tongue to +answer, as they light my lamp, leave me and lock +the door behind them. Such a trembling seizes me +for half an hour, that I cannot rise and look at the +clothes which seem to me shrouds and winding +sheets. I rise at last, throw myself down before the +black cross I had smeared with charcoal on the wall, +and commit myself, as a miserable sinner, into God's +hands. I then put on the dress, which consists of +a tunic with long, loose sleeves and hose drawers, +all of black serge, striped with white.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> + +<p>"At two o'clock in the morning the wretches +came and led me into a long gallery where nearly +two hundred men, brought from their various cells, +all dressed in black, stood in a long silent line +against the wall of the long, plain vaulted, cold corridor +where, over every two dozen heads, swung +a high brass lamp. We stood silent as a funeral +train. The women, also in black, were in a neighbouring +gallery, far out of our sight. By sad +glimpses down a neighbouring dormitory I could +see more men dressed in black, who, from time to +time, paced backwards and forwards. These I afterwards +found were men doomed also to be burnt, +not for murder—no, but for having a creed unlike +that of the Jesuits. Whether I was to be burnt +or not I did not know, but I took courage, because +my dress was like that of the rest and the monsters +could not dare to put two hundred men at once into +one fire, though they did hate all who love doll-idols +and lying miracles.</p> + +<p>"Presently, as we waited sad and silent, gaolers +came round and handed us each a long yellow taper +and a yellow scapular, or tabard, crossed behind and +before with red crosses of Saint Andrew. These +are the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i> that Jews, Turks, sorcerers, +witches, heathen or perverts from the Roman Catholic +Church are compelled to wear. Now came the +gradation of our ranks—those who have relapsed, +or who were obstinate during their accusations, +wear the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">zamarra</i>, which is gray, with a man's head<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +burning on red faggots painted at the bottom and +all round reversed flames and winged and armed +black devils horrible to behold. I, and seventy +others, wear these, and I lose all hope. My blood +turns to ice; I can scarcely keep myself from +swooning. After this distribution they bring us, +with hard, mechanical regularity, pasteboard conical +mitres (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corozas</i>) painted with flames and devils +with the words '<em>sorcerer</em>' and '<em>heretic</em>' written +round the rim. Our feet are all bare. The +condemned men, pale as death, now begin to weep +and keep their faces covered with their hands, round +which the beads are twisted. God only—by speaking +from heaven—could save them. A rough, +hard voice now tells us we may sit on the ground +till our next orders come. The old men and boys +smile as they eagerly sit down, for this small relief +comes to them with the refreshment of a pleasure.</p> + +<p>"At four o'clock they bring us bread and figs, +which some drop by their sides and others languidly +eat. I refuse mine, but a guard prays me to put it +in my pocket for I may yet need it. It is as if an +angel had comforted me. At five o'clock, at daybreak, +it was a ghastly sight to see shame, fear, +grief, despair, written on our pale livid faces. Yet +not one but felt an undercurrent of joy at the prospect +of any release, even by death.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly, as we look at each other with ghastly +eyes, the great bell of the Giralda begins to boom +with a funeral knell, long and slow. It was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +signal of the gala day of the Holy Office, it was the +signal for the people to come to the show. We are +filed out one by one. As I pass the gallery in the +great hall, I see the inquisitor, solemn and stern, +in his black robes, throned at the gate. Beneath +him is his secretary, with a list of the citizens of +Seville in his wiry twitching hands. The room is +full of the anxious frightened burghers, who, as +their names are called and a prisoner passes through, +move to his trembling side to serve as his godfather +in the Act of Faith. The honest men shudder +as they take their place in the horrible death procession. +The time-serving smile at the inquisitor, +and bustle forward. This is thought an honourable +office and is sought after by hypocrites and suspected +men afraid of the Church's sword.</p> + +<p>"The procession commences with the Dominicans. +Before them flaunts the banner of the order +in glistening embroidery that burns in the sun and +shines like a mirror, the frocked saint, holding a +threatening sword in one hand, and in the other, an +olive branch with the motto, 'Justitia et misericordia' +(Justice and mercy). Behind the banner +come the prisoners in their yellow scapulars, holding +their lighted torches, their feet bleeding with the +stones and their less frightened godfathers, gay in +cloak and sword and ruff tripping along by their +side, holding their plumed hats in their hands. The +street and windows are crowded with careless eyes, +and children are held up to execrate us as we pass<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +to our torturing death. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> was always +a holiday sight to the craftsmen and apprentices; +it drew more than even a bull fight, because of the +touch of tragedy about it. Our procession, like a +long black snake, winds on, with its banners and +crosses, its shaven monks and mitred bare-footed +prisoners, through street after street, heralded by +soldiers who run before to clear a way for us—to +stop mules and clear away fruit-stalls, street-performers +and their laughing audiences. We at last +reach the Church of All the Saints, where, tired, +dusty, bleeding and faint we are to hear mass.</p> + +<p>"The church has a grave-vault aspect and is +dreadfully like a charnel house. The great altar is +veiled in black, and is lit with six silver candlesticks, +whose flames shine like yellow stars with clear +twinkle and a soft halo round each black, fire-tipped +wick. On each side of the altar, that seems to bar +out God and his mercy from us and to wrap the very +sun in a grave cloak, are two thrones, one for the +grand-inquisitor and his counsel, another for the +king and his court. The one is filled with sexton-like +lawyers, the other with jewelled and feathered +men.</p> + +<p>"In front of the great altar and near the door +where the blessed daylight shines with hope and +joy, but not for us, is another altar, on which six +gilded and illuminated missals lie open; those books +of the Gospels, too, in which I had once read such +texts as—God is love; Forgive as ye would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +forgiven; Faith, hope, charity: these three, but the +greatest of these is charity. Near this lesser altar +the monks had raised a balustraded gallery, with +bare benches, on which sat the criminals in their +yellow and flame-striped tabards with their godfathers. +The doomed ones came last, the more innocent +first. Those who entered the black-hung +church first, passing up nearest to the altar sat there, +either praying or in a frightened trance of horrid +expectancy. The trembling living corpses wearing +the mitres, yellow and red, came last, preceded by a +gigantic crucifix, the face turned from them.</p> + +<p>"Immediately following these poor mitred men +came servitors of the Inquisition, carrying four +human effigies fastened to long staves, and four +chests containing the bones of those men who had +died before the fire could be got ready. The coffers +were painted with flames and demons and the effigies +wore the dreadful mitre and the crimson and +yellow shirt all a-flame with paint. The effigies +sometimes represented men tried for heresy since +their death and whose estates had since been confiscated +and their effigies doomed to be burnt as a +warning; for no one within their reach may escape +if they differ in opinion with the Inquisition.</p> + +<p>"Every prisoner being now in his place—godfathers, +torchmen, pikemen, musketeers, inquisitors, +and flaunting court—the Provincial of the Augustins +mounted the pulpit, followed by his ministrant +and preached a stormy, denouncing, exulting ser<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>mon, +half an hour long (it seemed a month of anguish), +in which he compared the Church with +burning eloquence to Noah's ark; but with this difference, +that those animals who entered it before +the deluge came out of it unaltered, but the blessed +Inquisition had, by God's blessing, the power of +changing those whom its walls once enclosed, turning +them out meek as the lambs he saw around him +so tranquil and devout, all of whom had once been +cruel as wolves and savage and daring as lions.</p> + +<p>"This sermon over, two readers mounted the pulpit +to shout the list of names of the condemned, +their crimes (now, for the first time, known to +them) and their sentences. We grew all ears and +trembled as each name was read.</p> + +<p>"As each name was called the alcaide led out +the prisoner from his pen to the middle of the gallery +opposite the pulpit, where he remained standing, +taper in hand. After the sentence he was led +to the altar where he had to put his hand on one +of the missals and to remain there on his knees.</p> + +<p>"At the end of each sentence, the reader stopped +to pronounce in a loud, angry voice, a full confession +of faith, which he exhorted us, the guilty, to +join with heart and voice. Then we all returned +to our places. My offence, I found, was having +spoken bitterly of the Inquisition, and having called +a crucifix a mere bit of cut ivory. I was therefore +declared excommunicated, my goods confiscated to +the king, I was banished Spain and condemned to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +the Havana galleys for five years with the following +penances: I must renounce all friendship with heretics +and suspected persons; I must, for three years, +confess and communicate three times a month; I +must recite five times a day, for three years, the +Pater and Ave Maria in honour of the Five +Wounds; I must hear mass and sermon every Sunday +and feast day; and above all, I must guard +carefully the secret of all I had said, heard, or seen +in the Holy Office (which oath, as the reader will +observe, I have carefully kept).</p> + +<p>"The inquisitor then quitted his seat, resumed +his robes and followed by twenty priests, each with +a staff in his hand, passed into the middle of the +church and with divers prayers some of us were +relieved from excommunication, each of us receiving +a blow from a priest. Once, such an insult +would have sent the blood in a rush to my head, and +I had died but I had given a return buffet; now, so +weak and broken-spirited was I, I burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Now, one by one, those condemned to the stake, +faint and staggering, were brought in to hear their +sentences, which they did with a frightened vacancy, +inconceivably touching, but the inquisitors +were gossiping among themselves and scarcely +looked at them. Every sentence ended with the +same cold mechanical formula: That the Holy Office +being unhappily unable to pardon the prisoners +present, on account of their relapse and impenitence, +found itself obliged to punish them with all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +rigour of earthly law, and therefore delivered them +with regret to the hands of secular justice, praying +it to use clemency and mercy towards the wretched +men, saving their souls by the punishment of their +bodies and recommending death, but not effusion +of blood. Cruel hypocrites!</p> + +<p>"At the word blood the hangmen stepped forward +and took possession of the bodies, the alcaide +first striking each of them on the chest to show that +they were now abandoned to the rope and fire." +Then he goes on to describe the scene at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">quemadero</i>, +which, however, included nothing of importance +not already mentioned elsewhere.</p> + +<p>After the death of Philip IV, and during the +minority of his son, Charles II, Father Nithard, a +Jesuit, who combined the two forces long in opposition, +the disciples of Loyola and the descendants +of Torquemada, was for a time inquisitor-general. +The Holy Office was hotly opposed by Don John of +Austria, a natural son of Philip IV, who rose to +political power and would have fallen a victim to +the Inquisition had not popular indignation sided +with him against Nithard, who fled from Spain to +Rome. He was stripped of all his offices but still +kept the favour of the queen-mother who finally +secured for him from Pope Clement X the coveted +cardinal's hat. Don John was unequal to the task +of curbing the power of the Inquisition, however, +and the institution claimed wider and wider jurisdiction.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>Growing dissatisfaction prevailed, and in 1696, +the king, Charles II, summoned a conference or +Grand Junta to enquire into the complaints that +poured in from all quarters against the Inquisition. +It was composed of two councillors of state from +Castile, Aragon, the Indies, and the Spanish provinces +in Italy, with two members of the religious +orders. It reported that the Holy Office exercised +illegal powers, still arrogated the right to throw persons +of rank into prison and cover their families +with disgrace. It punished with merciless severity +the slightest opposition or disrespect shown to dependents +or familiars who had come to enjoy extensive +and exorbitant privileges. They claimed secular +jurisdiction in matters nowise appertaining to +religion, and set aside restrictions contained in their +own canon law. The Junta strongly recommended +that these restrictions should be rigidly enforced, +and that no one should be thrown into the prisons +of the Inquisition, save on charges of an heretical +nature. It urged the right of appeal to the throne, +and the removal of all causes to the royal courts +for trial. It detailed the privileges granted to the +servants of the Holy Office. Even a coachman or +a lackey demanded reverence and might conduct +himself with unbounded insolence. If a servant girl +were not treated obsequiously in a shop she might +complain and the offender was liable to be cast into +the dungeons of the Inquisition. So great was the +discontent, so many tumults arose, that the Junta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +would have all such unrighteous privileges curtailed, +and would authorise the civil courts to keep +the encroachments of the Holy Office in check.</p> + +<p>With the eighteenth century the authority of the +Holy Office visibly waned. Philip V, a French +prince, and a grandson of Louis XIV, whose succession +produced the long protracted war of the +Spanish Succession, declined to be honoured with +an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> at his coronation, but he maintained +the Inquisition as an instrument of despotic government, +and actually used it to punish as heretics those +who had any doubt concerning his title to the crown. +Yet he rather used the Inquisition than supported +it; for he deprived of his office an inquisitor-general +who had presumed to proceed for heresy against +a high officer. The Cortes of Castile again, (1714), +recorded their condemnation, but without any +further benefit than that which must eventually result +from the disclosure of a truth. The same body +reiterated their disapproval a few years afterwards, +(1720). But while Philip V used the Inquisition +for his own service, and the heretical doctrine which +had prevailed two centuries before no longer left +a trace behind, there were multitudes of persons +accused of attempting to revive Judaism and others +gave offence by their efforts to promote Freemasonry. +This gave the inquisitors abundant pretext +for the discharge of their political mission.</p> + +<p>During the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV, +a revival of literature and an advance in political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +science guided the attention of the clergy and the +government to the position of the court of Rome, +as well as to the proceedings of the inquisitors. +The former of these monarchs nearly yielded to the +advice of his councillors to suppress the Inquisition, +as well as to expel the Jesuits. He banished the +Society, but, in regard to the Inquisition, said: +"The Spaniards want it and it gives me no trouble."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile death sentences nearly ceased, and +once when a good man was sentenced to be delivered +to the secular arm, in compliance with the letter of +the law, the inquisitors let him go free. By this +contrivance Don Miguel Solano, priest of Esco, a +town in Aragon, walked out of the prison of the +Inquisition in Saragossa, as a maniac, forgiven his +heresy, and lived on as a maniac, exempted from +priestly ministrations, while every one knew him to +be a reasonable man and treated him accordingly. +In the end he died, refusing Extreme Unction, and +was buried in unconsecrated ground within the walls +of the Inquisition on the banks of the Ebro.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND INDIA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The Inquisition in Spain abolished by Napoleon's invasion—Its +revival—Persecution of the Freemasons—The "Tribunal +of Faith" established—Inquisition in Portugal—The +case of an Englishman who is arrested, tortured and burnt +alive—Difference between the Inquisitions of Spain and +Portugal—The supreme power of the Holy Office in Portugal +in the eighteenth century—The terrible earthquake at +Lisbon—Establishment of the Holy Office in India at Goa—Description +of the Inquisition prison at Goa by M. Dellon—Case +of Father Ephrem—His arrest and rescue by the +English from the hands of the inquisitors.</p></div> + + +<p>Napoleon's invasion of Spain and the removal +of the young king, Ferdinand VII, to France, put +an end to the Inquisition. When the Emperor took +possession of Madrid, he called upon all public +bodies to submit to his authority, but the Holy +Office refused. Whereupon he issued an order to +arrest the inquisitors, abolish the Inquisition, and +sequestrate its revenues. All Spain did not readily +yield to the French conqueror, and when the Cortes +met in Cadiz they empowered one of the inquisitors, +who had escaped, to reconstitute the tribunal, but it +was never really restored. At the same time, the +governing powers appointed a special commission<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +to enquire into the legal status of the ancient body, +and to decide whether the Inquisition had any legal +right to exist. A report was published in 1812, reviewing +its whole history and condemning it as +incompatible with the liberties of the country. The +indictment against it was couched in very vigorous +language. It was held to have been guilty of the +most harsh and oppressive measures; to have inflicted +the most cruel and illegal punishments; "in +the darkness of the night it had dragged the husband +from the side of his wife, the father from the +children, the children from their parents, and none +may see the other again until they are absolved or +condemned without having had the means of contributing +to their defence or knowing whether they +had been fairly tried." The result was a law passed +by the Cortes to suppress the Inquisition in Spain.</p> + +<p>The restoration of Ferdinand VII, at the termination +of the war in 1814, gave the Inquisition +fresh life. He resented the action taken by the +Cortes, arrested its members, and cast them into +prison, declaring them to be infidels and rebels, and +forthwith issued a decree reviving the tribunal of +the Holy Office. Its supreme council met in Seville +and persecution was renewed under the new inquisitor-general, +Xavier Mier y Campillo, who put out +a fresh list of prohibited books, tried to raise +revenues and issued a new Edict of Faith. There +might have been another <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto da fé</i> even in the nineteenth +century, but informers would not come for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>ward +and latter-day victims could not be found. +Dread, nevertheless, prevailed, and numbers fled for +refuge into foreign lands. Fierce energy was directed +against the Freemasons, for during the +French occupation, the palace of the Inquisition at +Seville had been used, partly as a common gaol and +partly as a Freemasons' lodge. The members of +the craft who were found in Spain were dealt with +as heretics, and all Freemasons were excommunicated.</p> + +<p>For a time the Inquisition languished, although +favoured by the arbitrary régime introduced by +Ferdinand VII, who sought to reinstate it on its +former lines. It was destroyed or at least suspended +by the Revolution of 1820, and on his restoration, +the king did not reëstablish it, though the +officials still hoped for a better day and continued +to draw their salaries. Some of the bishops established +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">juntas de fé</i>, which took up much the same +work, and July 26th, 1826, a poor schoolmaster +Cayetano Ripoll, was hanged for heresy—the last +execution for this crime in Spain. Finally, January +4th, 1834, the Inquisition was definitely abolished, +and the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">juntas de fé</i> were abolished the next year.</p> + +<p>The Inquisition extended its influence into the +neighbouring country of Portugal, which was an independent +kingdom until conquered by Philip II in +1580. Here persecution prevailed from the fifteenth +century, chiefly of the Jews and new Christians, who +flocked into the country from Spain, and were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +treated with great severity. The Holy Office was +set up in Lisbon under an inquisitor-general, Diego +de Silva, and Portugal was divided into inquisitional +districts. <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Autos da fé</i> were frequent, and on +a scale hardly known in Spain, though the records +are fragmentary.</p> + +<p>From among the cases reported, we may quote +that of an Englishman, a native of Bristol, engaged +in commerce in Lisbon, who boldly assaulted the +cardinal archbishop in the act of performing mass. +Gardiner, as fiercely intolerant as those of the dominant +religion who were worshipping according to +their own rites, attacked the priest when he elevated +the host, "snatched away the cake with one hand, +trod it under his feet, and with the other overthrew +the chalice." The congregation, at first utterly +astounded, raised one great cry and fell bodily upon +the sacrilegious wretch, who was promptly stabbed +in the shoulder and haled before the king, who was +present in the cathedral, and forthwith interrogated. +It was thought that he had been instigated by the +English Protestants to this outrageous insult, but +he declared that he had been solely moved by his +abhorrence of the idolatry he had witnessed. He +was imprisoned and with him all the English in +Lisbon. So soon as his wound was healed, he was +examined by the Holy Office, tortured and condemned. +Then he was carried to the market place +on an ass and his left hand was cut off; thence he +was taken to the river side and by a rope and pulley<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +hoisted over a pile of wood which was set on fire. +"In spite of the great torment he continued in a +constant spirit and the more terribly he burned the +more vehemently he prayed." He was in the act of +reciting a psalm, when by the use of exceeding violence, +the burning rope broke and he was precipitated +into the devouring flames.</p> + +<p>A fellow lodger of Gardiner was detained in the +Inquisition for two years, and was frequently tortured +to elicit evidence against other Englishmen, +but without avail. A Scotch professor of Greek in +the university of Coimbra was charged with Lutheranism, +and imprisoned for a year and a half, after +which he was committed to a monastery so that he +might be instructed by the monks in the true religion. +They did not change his views and he was +presently set free. Another, an English shipmaster, +was less fortunate and was burned alive as a heretic +at Lisbon.</p> + +<p>It has been observed that, on comparison of the +Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal, a certain +marked difference was disclosed between them. +The same precise rigour of the Spanish inquisitors +was not exhibited by the Portuguese. In Portugal +the discipline was more savage yet more feeble. Yet +in the latter country there was a brutal and more +wanton excess in inflicting pain at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i>. +When convicts were about to suffer they were taken +before the Lord Chief Justice to answer the enquiry +as to what religion they intended to die in. If the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +answer was "in the Roman Catholic Apostolic," the +order was given that they should be strangled before +burning. If in the Protestant, or in any other religion, +death in the flames was decreed. At Lisbon +the place of execution, as has been said, was at the +waterside. A thick stake was erected for each person +condemned, with a wide crosspiece at the top +against which a crosspiece was nailed to receive the +tops of two ladders. In the centre the victim was +secured by a chain, with a Jesuit priest on either +side, seated on a ladder, who proceeded to exhort +him to repentance. If they failed they declared they +left him to the devil and the mob roared, "Let the +dog's beard be trimmed," in other words, "his face +scorched." This was effected by applying an ignited +furze bush at the end of a long pole till his +face was burned and blackened. The record of the +Portuguese Inquisition to 1794 shows a total of one +thousand, one hundred and seventy-five relaxed in +person, <em>i. e.</em> executed, six hundred and thirty-three +relaxed in effigy, and twenty-nine thousand, five +hundred and ninety penanced.</p> + +<p>The Portuguese were the first Europeans to trade +with the Far East and, after Vasco de Gama had +discovered India, Albuquerque annexed and occupied +Goa, which might have become the seat and +centre of the great empire which fell at length into +British hands.</p> + +<p>Portugal sacrificed all power and prosperity to +the extirpation of heresy in its new possessions and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +was chiefly concerned in the establishment of the +Holy Office in India. The early Portuguese settlers +in the East clamoured loudly for the Inquisition; +the Jesuit fathers who were zealous in their propaganda +in India declared that the tribunal was most +necessary in Goa, owing to the prevailing licentiousness +and the medley of all nations and superstitions. +It was accordingly established in 1560, and soon +commenced its active operations with terrific vigour. +General baptisms were frequent in this the ecclesiastical +metropolis of India, and so were <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos da fé</i> +conducted with great pomp with many victims.</p> + +<p>A light upon the proceedings of the Holy Office +in Goa is afforded by the story told by a French +traveller, M. Dellon, who was arrested at the instance +of the Portuguese governor at Damaum, and +imprisoned at Goa in the private prison of the archbishop. +"The most filthy," says Dellon, "the darkest +and most horrible of any I had ever seen.... +It is a kind of cave wherein there is no day seen but +by a very little hole. The most subtle rays of the +sun cannot enter it and there is never any true light +in it. The stench is extreme...." M. Dellon was +dragged before the Board of the Holy Office, seated +in the Holy House, which is described as a great +and magnificent building, "one side of a great space +before the church of St. Catherine." There were +three gates. The prisoners entered by the central +or largest, and ascending a stately flight of steps, +reached the great hall. Behind the principal build<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>ing +was another very spacious, two stories high and +consisting of a double row of cells. Those on the +ground floor were the smallest, due to the greater +thickness of the walls, and had no apertures for +light or air. The upper cells were vaulted and whitewashed, +and each had a small strongly grated window +without glass. The cells had double doors, the +outer of which was kept constantly open, an indispensable +plan in this climate or the occupant must +have died of suffocation.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i_116fp.jpg" alt="" /> +<div class="caption"><p><cite>Peint par D. F. Laugée</cite> <cite>Photogravure Goupil & C<sup>ie</sup>.</cite></p> + +<p><em>The Question</em></p> + +<p>One of the forms of torture before a tribunal of the Inquisition, +used in the examination of the accused. Lighted charcoal +was placed under the victim's feet, which were greased +over with lard, so that the heat of the fire might more quickly +become effective.</p></div> +</div> + +<p>The régime was, to some extent, humane. Water +for ablutions was provided and for drinking purposes, +food was given sparingly in three daily meals, +but was wholesome in quality. Physicians were at +hand to attend the sick and confessors to wait on +the dying, but they administered no unction, gave +no viaticum, said no mass. If any died, as many +did, his death was unknown to all without. He was +buried within the walls with no sacred ceremony, +and if it was decided that he had died in heresy, +his bones were exhumed to be burnt at the next +act of Faith. While alive he lived apart in all the +strictness of the modern solitary cell. Alone and +silent, for the prisoner was forbidden to speak, he +was not allowed even to groan or sob or sigh aloud.</p> + +<p>The Holy Office in Goa was worked on the same +lines as that of Spain as already described and by +the same officers. There was the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Inquisidor Mor</i> +or grand-inquisitor, a secular priest, a second or +assistant inquisitor, a Dominican monk, with many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +deputies; "qualifiers," to examine books and writings; +a fiscal and a procurator; notaries and +familiars. The authority of the tribunal was absolute +in Goa except that the great officials, archbishop +and his grand-vicar, the viceroy and the +governor, could not be arrested without the sanction +of the supreme council in Lisbon. The procedure, +the examination and use of torture was exactly +as in other places.</p> + +<p>M. Dellon was taxed with having spoken ill of +the Inquisition, and was called upon to confess his +sins, being constantly brought out and again relegated +to his cell and continually harassed to make +him accuse himself, until in a frenzy of despair he +resolved to commit suicide by refusing food. The +physician bled him and treated him for fever, but +he tore off the bandages hoping to bleed to death. +He was taken up insensible, restored by cordials, +and carried before the inquisitor, where he lay on +the floor and was assailed with bitter reproaches, +heavily ironed and sent back to languish in his cell +in a wild access of fury approaching madness.</p> + +<p>At last the great day of the Act of Faith approached, +and Dellon heard on every side the agonised +cries of both men and women. During the +night the alcaide and warders came into his cell with +lights bringing a suit of clothes, linen, best trousers, +black striped with white. He was marched to join +a couple of hundred other penitents squatted on the +floor along the sides of a spacious gallery, all mo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>tionless +but in an agony of apprehension, for none +knew his doom. A large company of women were +collected in a neighbouring chamber and a third +lot in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenitos</i>, among whom the priests moved +seeking confessions and if made the boon of strangulation +was conceded before "tasting the fire."</p> + +<p>Shortly before sunrise the great bell of the Cathedral +tolled and roused the city into life. People +filled the chief streets, lined the thoroughfares and +crowded into places whence they might best see the +procession. With daylight Dellon saw from the +faces of his companions that they were mostly Indians +with but a dozen white men among them. +M. Dellon went barefoot with the rest over the +loose flints of the badly paved streets, and, at +length, cut and bleeding, entered the church of St. +Francisco, for the ceremony could not be performed +under the fierce sky of this torrid climate. Dellon's +punishment was confiscation of all his property, and +banishment from India, with five years' service in +the galleys of Portugal.</p> + +<p>The rest of his sad adventures may be told +briefly. He was brought back to Lisbon and worked +at the oar with other convicts for some years, when +at the intercession of friends in France the Portuguese +government consented to release him. There +is no record that the French authorities made any +claim or reclamation for the ill-usage of a French +subject.</p> + +<p>It was otherwise with their neighbours, the Eng<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>lish, +who even before their power in India was established, +would not suffer the Portuguese authorities +in Goa to ill-treat a person who could claim +British protection. A French Capuchin, named +Father Ephrem, had visited Madras when on his +way to join the Catholic mission in Pegu. He was +invited to remain in Madras and was promised entire +liberty with respect to his religion, and permitted +to minister to the Catholics already settled in +the factory. In the course of his preaching he laid +down a dogma offensive, as it was asserted, to the +Mother of God, and information thereof was laid +with the inquisitors at Goa, who made their plans +to kidnap Father Ephrem and carry him off to Goa, +some six hundred miles distant from Madras. The +plot succeeded and the French Capuchin was lodged +in the prison of the Holy Office at Goa. This was +not to be brooked by the English in Madras. An +English ship forthwith proceeded to Goa and a +party of ten determined men, well-armed, landed +and appeared at the gates of the Inquisition and +demanded admittance. Leaving a couple of men on +guard at the gate, the rest entered the gaol and insisted +at the point of the sword that Father Ephrem +should be forthwith surrendered to them. An order +thus enforced was irresistible, and the prisoner was +released, taken down to the ship's boat, reëmbarked +and carried back in safety to Madras.</p> + +<p>The aims of the Inquisition are no longer those +of modern communities. So widely has the idea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +toleration extended, that we often forget how recent +it is. The relations of Church and State are so +changed in the last two centuries, that it is difficult +to understand the times of the Spanish Inquisition. +Then it was universally believed that orthodoxy in +faith was intimately connected with loyalty to the +state. As a matter of fact, nearly all the earlier +heretical movements were also social or political revolts. +It is, therefore, easy to see how heresy and +high treason came to appear identical.</p> + +<p>Some of the inquisitors were corrupt, others were +naturally cruel, others, drunk with power, were more +zealous in exerting that power than they were in +deciding between guilt and innocence. On the other +hand many were zealous because of their honesty. +If a man believes that he knows the only hope of +salvation, it is perfectly logical to compel another by +force, if necessary, to follow that hope. Any physical +punishment is slight compared with the great +reward which reconciliation brings. On the other +hand, if he is firm in his heresy, he is as dangerous +as a wild beast. We are more tolerant now, less +certain, perhaps, of our ground, but three or four +hundred years ago these points were a stern reality.</p> + +<p>That many inquisitors were more concerned with +the Church as an institution than as a means of +salvation is also true. They punished disrespect to +an officer or to a law more severely than they did +a doctrinal error, but that was, perhaps, inevitable. +The Spanish Inquisition, which, as has been said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +was to some extent a state affair, punished many +for what we might call trifling offences, or, indeed, +no offence at all, but it was an intolerant age, in and +out of Spain.</p> + +<p>The number punished has been grossly exaggerated, +but it was enough to injure Spain permanently, +to crush out freedom of thought and action to an unwarrantable +extent. The historian must attribute +much of Spain's decadence to the work of the mistaken +advocate of absolute uniformity.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">EARLY PRISONS AND PRISONERS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Slow development of Prison Reform in Spain—Description +of the old Saladero—George Borrow's account of his arrest +and imprisonment there—Balseiro's escape and subsequent +escapades—He seizes the two sons of a wealthy +Basque and holds them for ransom—His capture and execution—The +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">valientes</i> or bullies—The cruelties they practised +upon their weaker fellow prisoners—Don Rafael +Salillas' description of the Seville prison.</p></div> + + +<p>The prisons in Spain have been generally divided +into three categories: First, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">depositos correcionales</i>, +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cárceles</i> or common gaols, one in the capital +of each province, to which were sent accused persons +and all sentenced to two years or less; second, +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidios</i> of the Peninsula for convicts between +two years and eight years; and third, the +African penal settlements for terms beyond eight +years. The character and condition of the bulk of +these places of durance long continued most unsatisfactory. +In 1888 in an official report, the Minister +of Grace and Justice said, "The present state of +the Spanish prisons is not enchanting. They are +neither safe nor wholesome, nor adapted to the ends +in view." This criticism was fully borne out by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +result of a general inquiry instituted. It was found +that of a total of four hundred and fifty-six of the +correctional prisons only one hundred and sixty-six +were really fit for the purpose intended and the remainder +were installed in any buildings available. +Some were very ancient, dating back to the 16th +century; and had once been palaces, religious +houses, castles or fortresses.</p> + +<p>Many of these buildings were ancient monuments +which suffered much injury from the ignoble rôle +to which they were put. A protest was published +by a learned society of Madrid against the misuse +of the superb ex-convents of San Gregorio in Valladolid +and San Isidro del Campo near Seville, and +the mutilation by its convict lodgers of the very +beautiful gateway of the Templo de la Piedad in +Guadalajara. The installation of the prison at +Palma de Mallorca all but hopelessly impaired the +magnificent cloisters of the convent of San Francisco, +a thirteenth century architectural masterpiece, +and a perfect specimen of the ogival form, like nothing +else in Spain. Within a short period of ten +years several of these interesting old buildings were +ruined. The entire convent prison at Coruña sank, +causing many casualties, loss of life and serious +wounds.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the authorities hired private dwellings +to serve as prisons, or laid hands on whatever they +could find. At Granada a slice of the Court House +was used, a dark triangle to which air came only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +from the interior yard. The prison of Allariz at +Orense was on the ground floor of a house in the +street, having two windows looking directly on to +it, guarded by a grating with bars so far apart that +a reasonably thin man could slip through. One of +the worst features of many of these ancient prisons +was their location in the very heart of the towns +with communication to the street. Friends gathered +at the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">rejas</i> outside, and the well known picture +of flirtation at the prison window was drawn +from life. A common sight also was the outstretched +hand of the starving prisoner imploring +alms from the charitable, for there was no regular +or sufficient supply of provisions within. Free access +was also possible when the domestic needs of +the interior took the prisoners to the public well in +the street.</p> + +<p>The Carmona gaol in Seville was for years half +in ruins; no sunlight reached any part of it with +the exception of two of the yards; the dungeons +had no ventilation except by a hole in their doors; +an open sewer ran through the gaol, the floors were +always wet, fleas abounded, as also rats, beetles and +cockroaches; cooking was done in one corner of the +exercising yard and clothes were washed in the +other. The removal of the gaol was ordered and +plans for a new building prepared in 1864, but they +were pigeon-holed until 1883, then sent back to be +revised, and the project is still delayed. The Colmenar +prison of Malaga was always under water<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +in heavy rain, and although simple repairs would +have rectified this, nothing was done. The prison +of Leon was condemned in 1878 as unfit for human +habitation, and its alcalde (governor) stated that +it had been reported for a century or more that it +wanted light, air and sanitary arrangements; typhoid +was endemic and three alcaldes had died of +zymotic disease in a few years. It was generally +denounced as "a poisonous pesthouse, a judicial +burial ground." The Totana prison of Murcia was +not properly a prison, but only a range of warehouses +and shops fit for the storage of grain and +herbs, but wholly unsuitable to lodge human beings. +The district governor speaking of the Infiesto +prison at Oviedo in 1853 wrote: "Humanity shudders +at the horrible aspect of this detestable place."</p> + +<p>At Cartagena the common gaol was on the +ground floor of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> or convict prison. +Here the innocent, still untried prisoners occupied +a dark, damp den, enduring torments of discomfort, +speedily losing health and strength, and exposed +by its ruinous condition to the extremes of heat and +cold in the varying seasons. Females were lodged +on a lower floor, darker and closer and even exposed +to the worst temptations. The convicts of +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> had free access to their prison and immorality +could not be prevented; no amount of +supervision (and there was really none) could have +checked the moral contamination more easily conveyed +than the physical. These painful facts may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +be read in an official report dated October, 1877, +and are practically the same as those detailed in the +famous indictment of John Howard just a century +earlier.<a name="Anchor-9" id="Anchor-9"></a><a href="#Footnote-9" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 9.">[9]</a></p> + +<p>Many of the makeshift prisons mentioned above +were located in the very heart of towns and were +without boundary walls or means of separation +from the public, and two hundred and sixty-four had +windows giving upon the streets. It was impossible +to ensure safe custody so limited was the supervision, +so insecure and ruinous the state of these +imperfect prisons. Escapes had been of very frequent +occurrence, but the total number could not +be stated owing to the absence of accurate records +from year to year. One authority gave the annual +average of escapes as thirty-four, ranging over +five successive years. They were greatly facilitated +by the slack, slipshod system of discipline and the +careless guard kept at the gates through which +crowds constantly passed in and out. Friends admitted +wholesale to visit prisoners brought in disguises +and easily helped them to evade the vigilance +of warders and keepers. Escapes were most numerous +in the small gaols,—about three to one when +compared to those from the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidios</i>,—and were +often effected on the way to gaol through the neglect +or connivance of the escort, especially when the +journey was made on foot and officers in charge +willingly consented to linger on the road in order +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>to enjoy themselves in the taverns and drinking +shops. They even allowed their prisoners to pay +lengthened visits to their own homes if situated anywhere +near.</p> + +<p>A famous escape took place, <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">en masse</i>, in one of +the prisons on the occasion of a theatrical performance +given by the prisoners in honour of the governor's +birthday. Permission had been duly accorded +and the function was organised on an imposing +scale. The stage was erected in an open +space, scenery provided and a fine curtain or act +drop behind which the usual preparations were +made. These had not gone beyond rehearsal, however. +All was ready to "ring up," the prison audience +all seated, enduring with increased impatience +and dissatisfaction the long wait which seemed and +was actually endless. At last the authorities interposed +and the governor sent a messenger behind +the curtain with a peremptory order to begin. +There was no company. Every single soul, manager +and actors had disappeared under cover of the +curtain. A great hole or gap had been made in the +outer wall, through which all of the performers had +passed out to freedom.</p> + +<p>Numerous as are the escapes, recaptures are also +frequent. That fine corps, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>, +which constitutes the rural police of Spain, always +so active in the prevention and suppression of crime, +has been highly successful in the pursuit of fugitives, +few of whom remain at large for any length<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +of time. Travellers in Spain, especially in the country +districts, must have been struck with the fine +appearance of these stalwart champions of the law. +They are all old soldiers, well trained and disciplined, +ever on the side of order, never mixing in +politics, and conspicuous for their loyalty to the existing +régime.</p> + +<p>The most disgraceful of the old prisons were in +Madrid. The Saladero which survived until very +recently had been once an abattoir and salting place +of pigs. But it replaced one more ancient and even +worse in every aspect. The earlier construction is +described by a Spanish writer, Don Francisco Lastres, +as the most meagre, the darkest, dirtiest place +imaginable. It had yet a deeper depth, an underground +dungeon, commonly called "el Infierno," +hell itself, in which light was so scarce that when +new comers arrived, the old occupants could only +make out their faces by striking matches, manufactured +from scraps of linen steeped in grease +saved from their soup or salad oil. When the gaol +was emptied it was so encrusted with abominable +filth that to clean it was out of the question and the +whole place was swept bodily out of existence.</p> + +<p>This must have been the prison in which George +Borrow was confined when that enterprising Englishman +was arrested for endeavouring to circulate +the Bible in Spain, as the agent and representative +of the British Bible Society in 1835 and the following +years. His experiences as told by himself con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>stitute +one of the most thrilling books of adventure +in the English language, and his strangely interesting +personality will long be remembered and admired. +He had led a very varied life, had wandered +the world over as the friend and associate of those +curious people, the gipsies, whose "crabbed" language +he spoke with fluency and to whose ways +and customs he readily conformed. Readers whom +his "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" have +delighted will bear witness to the daring and intrepid +character which carried him safely through +many difficult and dangerous situations. He was +a man of great stature, well trained in the art of +self defence, as he proved by his successful contest +with the "Flaming Tinker" described in "Lavengro." +The bigoted Spanish authorities caught a +Tartar in Borrow. It was easy to arrest him as he +was nothing loth to go to gaol; he had long been +thinking, as he tells us, "of paying a visit to the +prison, partly in the hope of being able to say a +few words of Christian instruction to the criminals +and partly with a view to making certain investigations +in the robber language of Spain." But, once +in, he refused to come out. He took high ground; +his arrest had been unlawful; he had never been +tried or condemned and nothing would satisfy him +but a full and complete apology from the Spanish +government. He was strongly backed up by the +British Ambassador and he was gratified in the end +by the almost abject surrender of the authorities.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +But he spent three weeks within the walls and we +have to thank his indomitable spirit for a glimpse +into the gloomy recesses of the Carcel de la Corte, +the chief prison, at that time, of the capital of +Spain.</p> + +<p>The arrest was made openly in one of the principal +streets of Madrid by a couple of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">alguazils</i> who +carried their prisoner to the office of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">corregidor</i>, +or chief magistrate, where he was abruptly informed +that he was to be forthwith committed to +gaol. He was led across the Plaza Mayor, the great +square so often the scene in times past of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">autos +da fé</i>. Borrow, as he went, cast his eyes at the balcony +of the city hall where, on one occasion, "the +last of the Austrian line in Spain (Philip II) sat, +and, after some thirty heretics of both sexes had +been burnt by fours and fives, wiped his face perspiring +with heat and black with smoke and calmly +inquired, '<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">No hay mas?</i>'" (No more to come?) for +which exemplary proof of patience he was much +applauded by his priests and confessors, who subsequently +poisoned him.</p> + +<p>"We arrived at the prison," Borrow goes on, +"which stands in a narrow street not far from the +great square. We entered a dusty passage at the +end of which was a wicket. There was an exchange +of words and in a few moments I found +myself within the prison of Madrid, in a kind of +corridor which overlooked at a considerable altitude +what appeared to be a court from which arose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +a hubbub of voices and occasional wild shouts and +cries...." Several people sat here, one of whom +received the warrant of committal, perused it with +attention and, rising, advanced towards Borrow.</p> + +<p>"What a figure! He was about forty years of +age and ... in height might have been some six +feet two inches had his body not been curved much +after the fashion of the letter S. No weasel ever +appeared lanker; his face might have been called +handsome, had it not been for his extraordinary +and portentous meagreness; his nose was like an +eagle's bill, his teeth white as ivory, his eyes black +(oh, how black!) and fraught with a strange expression; +his skin was dark and the hair of his +head like the plumage of a raven. A deep quiet +smile dwelt continually on his features, but with all +the quiet it was a cruel smile, such a one as would +have graced the countenance of a Nero.</p> + +<p>"'<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Caballero</i>,' he said, 'allow me to introduce +myself as the alcaide of this prison.... I am to +have the honour of your company for a time, a +short time doubtless, beneath this roof; I hope you +will banish every apprehension from your mind. I +am charged to treat you with all respect, a needless +charge and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Caballero</i>, you will rather consider yourself +here as a guest than as a prisoner. Pray issue +whatever commands you may think fit to the turnkeys +and officials as if they were your own servants. +I will now conduct you to your apartment. We +invariably reserve it for cavaliers of distinction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +No charge will be made for it although the daily +hire is not unfrequently an ounce of gold.'</p> + +<p>"This speech was delivered in pure sonorous +Castilian with calmness, gravity and almost dignity +and would have done honour to a gentleman of +high birth. Now, who in the name of wonder, was +this alcaide? One of the greatest rascals in all +Spain. A fellow who more than once by his grasping +cupidity and his curtailment of the miserable +rations of the prisoners caused an insurrection in +the court below only to be repressed by bloodshed +and the summoning of military aid; a fellow of low +birth who five years previously had been a drummer +to a band of Royalist volunteers."</p> + +<p>The room allotted to Borrow was large and lofty, +but totally destitute of any kind of furniture except +a huge wooden pitcher containing the day's allowance +of water. But no objection was made to +Borrow's providing for himself and a messenger +was forthwith despatched to his lodgings to fetch +bed and bedding and all necessaries, with which +came a supply of food, and the new prisoner soon +made himself fairly comfortable. He ate heartily, +slept soundly and rejoiced next day to hear that +this illegal arrest and confinement of a British subject +was already causing the high-handed minister +who had ordered it, much uneasiness and embarrassment. +Borrow steadfastly refused to go free +without full and ample reparation for the violence +and injustice done to him. "Take notice," he de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>clared, +"that I will not quit this prison till I have +received full satisfaction for having been sent +hither uncondemned. You may expel me if you +please, but any attempt to do so shall be resisted +with all the bodily strength of which I am possessed." +In the end the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">amende</i> was made in an +official document admitting that he had been imprisoned +on insufficient grounds, and Borrow went +out after three weeks' incarceration, during which +he learned much concerning the prison and the people +it contained.</p> + +<p>He refrains from a particular description of the +place. "It would be impossible," he says, "to +describe so irregular and rambling an edifice. Its +principal features consisted of two courts, the one +behind the other, in which the great body of the +prisoners took air and recreation. Three large +vaulted dungeons or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozos</i> occupied the three +sides of the (first) court ... roomy enough to +contain respectively from one hundred to one hundred +and fifty prisoners who were at night secured +with lock and bar, but during the day were permitted +to roam about the courts as they thought fit. +The second court was considerably larger than the +first, though it contained but two dungeons, horribly +filthy and disgusting, used for the reception of the +lower grades of thieves. Of the two dungeons one +was if possible yet more horrible than the other. +It was called the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">gallinería</i> or 'chicken coop' because +within it every night were pent up the young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +fry of the prison, wretched boys from seven to fifteen +years of age, the greater part almost in a state +of nudity. The common bed of all the inmates of +these dungeons was the ground, between which and +their bodies nothing intervened save occasionally a +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">manta</i> or horse cloth or perhaps a small mattress; +this latter luxury was however of exceedingly rare +occurrence.</p> + +<p>"Besides the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozos</i> connected with the courts +were other dungeons in various parts of the prison, +some of them quite dark, intended for the reception +of those whom it might be deemed expedient to treat +with peculiar severity. There was likewise a ward +set apart for females. Connected with the principal +corridor were many small apartments where resided +prisoners confined for debt or for political offences, +and, lastly, there was a small <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i> or chapel in +which prisoners cast for death passed the last three +days of their existence in the company of their +ghostly advisers.</p> + +<p>"I shall not forget my first Sunday in prison. +Sunday is the gala day ... and whatever robber +finery is to be found in it is sure to be exhibited on +that day of holiness. There is not a set of people +in the world more vain than robbers in general, +more fond of cutting a figure whenever they have +an opportunity. The famous Jack Sheppard delighted +in sporting a suit of Genoese velvet and +when he appeared in public generally wore a silver +hilted sword by his side.... Many of the Italian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +bandits go splendidly decorated, the cap alone of +the Haram Pacha, the head of the cannibal gipsy +band which infested Hungary at the conclusion of +the 18th century, was adorned with gold and jewels +to the value of several thousand guilders.... +The Spanish robbers are as fond of display as their +brethren of other lands, and whether in prison or +out are never so happy as when decked out in a +profusion of white linen in which they can loll in +the sun or walk jauntily up and down."</p> + +<p>To this day, snow-white linen is an especial mark +of foppery in the Spanish peasant. To put on a +clean shirt is considered a sufficient and satisfactory +substitute for a bath and in the humblest house a +white table cloth is provided for meals and clean +sheets for the beds. Borrow gives a graphic picture +of the "tip-top thieves" he came across. "Neither +coat nor jacket was worn over the shirt, the sleeves +of which were wide and flowing, only a waistcoat +of green or blue silk with an abundance of silver +buttons which are intended more for show than +use, as the waistcoat is seldom buttoned. Then +there are wide trousers something after the Turkish +fashion; around the waist is a crimson <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">faja</i> or +girdle and about the head is tied a gaudily coloured +handkerchief from the loom of Barcelona. Light +pumps and silk stockings complete the robber's +array.</p> + +<p>"Amongst those who particularly attracted my +attention were a father and son; the former a tall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +athletic figure, of about thirty, by profession a +housebreaker and celebrated through Madrid for +the peculiar dexterity he exhibited in his calling. +He was in prison for an atrocious murder committed +in the dead of night in a house in Carabanchel +(a suburb of Madrid), in which his only accomplice +was his son, a child under seven years of +age. The imp was in every respect the counterpart +of his father though in miniature. He too wore +the robber shirt sleeves, the robber waistcoat with +the silver buttons, the robber kerchief round his +brow and, ridiculously enough, a long Manchegan +knife in the crimson faja. He was evidently the +pride of the ruffian father who took all imaginable +care of him, would dandle him on his knee, and +would occasionally take the cigar from his own +mustachioed lips and insert it in the urchin's +mouth. The boy was the pet of the court, for the +father was one of the 'bullies' of the prison and +those who feared his prowess and wished to pay +their court to him were always fondling the child."</p> + +<p>Borrow when in the "Carcel de la Corte" renewed +his acquaintance with one, Balseiro, whom +he had met in a low tavern frequented by thieves +and bull fighters on a previous visit to Madrid. +One of these, Sevilla by name, professed deep admiration +for the Englishman and backed him to +know more than most people of the "crabbed" +Gitano language. A match was made with this +Balseiro who claimed to have been in prison half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +his life and to be on most intimate terms with the +gipsies. When Borrow came across him for the +second time he was confined in an upper story of +the prison in a strong room with other malefactors. +There was no mistaking this champion criminal +with his small, slight, active figure and his handsome +features, "but they were those of a demon." +He had recently been found guilty of aiding and +abetting a celebrated thief, Pepe Candelas, in a desperate +robbery perpetrated in open daylight on no +less a person than the Queen's milliner, a Frenchwoman, +whom they bound in her own shop, from +which they took goods to the amount of five or six +thousand dollars. Candelas had already suffered +for his crime, but Balseiro, whose reputation was +the worse of the two, had saved his life by the plentiful +use of money, and the capital sentence had in +his case been commuted to twenty years' hard labour +in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidio</i> of Malaga.</p> + +<p>When Borrow condoled with him, Balseiro +laughed it off, saying that within a few weeks he +would be transferred and could at any time escape +by bribing his guards. But he was not content to +wait and joined with several fellow convicts who +succeeded in breaking through the roof of the prison +and getting away. He returned forthwith to his +evil courses and soon committed a number of fresh +and very daring robberies in and around Madrid. +At length dissatisfied with the meagre results and +the smallness of the plunder he secured, Balseiro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +planned a great stroke to provide himself with sufficient +funds to leave the country and live elsewhere +in luxurious idleness.</p> + +<p>A Basque named Gabira, a man of great wealth, +held the post of comptroller of the Queen's household. +He had two sons, handsome boys of twelve +and fourteen years of age respectively, who were +being educated at a school in Madrid. Balseiro, well +aware of the father's strong affection for his children, +resolved to make it subservient to his rapacity. +He planned to carry off the boys and hold them for +ransom at an enormous price. Two of his confederates, +well-dressed and of respectable appearance, +drove up to the school and presenting a forged +letter, purporting to be written by the father, persuaded +the schoolmaster to let them go out for a +jaunt in the country. They were carried off to a +hiding place of Balseiro's in a cave some five miles +from Madrid in a wild unfrequented spot between +the Escorial and the village of Torre Lodones. +Here the two children were sequestered in the safekeeping +of their captors, while Balseiro remained in +Madrid to conduct negotiations with the bereaved +father. But Gabira was a man of great energy and +determination and altogether declined to agree to +the terms proposed. He invoked the power of the +authorities instead, and, at his request, parties of +horse and foot soldiers were sent to scour the country +and the cave was soon discovered, with the +children, who had been deserted by their guards in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +terror at the news of the rigorous search instituted. +Further search secured the capture of the accomplices +and they were identified by their young victims. +Balseiro, when his part in the plot became +known, fled from the capital but was speedily +caught, tried, and with his associates suffered death +on the scaffold. Gabira with his two children was +present at the execution.</p> + +<p>A brief description of the old Saladero, which has +at last disappeared off the face of the earth, may be +of interest. It stood at the top of the Santa Barbara +hill on the left hand side, in external aspect a half-ruined +edifice tottering to its fall, propped and buttressed, +at one corner quite past mending, at another +showing rotten cement and plaster with its +aged weather-worn walls stained with great black +patches of moisture and decay. A poor and +wretched place outside with no architectural pretensions, +its interior was infinitely worse. It was +entered by a wide entrance not unlike that of an +ancient country inn or hostelry with a broken-down +wooden staircase, leading to a battered doorway of +rotten timbers. The portals passed, the prison itself +was reached, a series of underground cellars with +vaulted roofs purposely constructed, as it seemed, to +exclude light and prevent ventilation, permeated +constantly with fetid odours and abominable foul +exhalations from the perpetual want of change of +atmosphere or circulation of fresh air. Yet human +beings were left to rot in these nauseous and pestif<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>erous +holes for two or three years continuously. +At times the detention lasted five years on account +of the disgracefully slow procedure in the law courts +and this although trials often ended in acquittal or +a verdict of non-responsibility for the criminal act +charged. Many of the unfortunate wretches subjected +to these interminable delays and waiting +judgment, therefore still innocent in the eyes of +the law, were yet herded with those already convicted +of the most heinous offences.</p> + +<p>This neglect of the rules, generally accepted as +binding upon civilised governments in the treatment +of those whom the law lays by the heels, produced +deplorable results. The gaol fever, that ancient +scourge which once ravaged ill-kept prisons and +swept away thousands, but long ago eliminated +from proper places of durance, survived in the Saladero +of Madrid until quite a recent date. Forty +cases occurred as late as 1876 and zymotic disease +was endemic in the prison. It was also a hotbed of +vice, where indiscriminate association of all categories, +good, bad and indifferent—the worst always +in the ascendent, fostered and developed criminal +instincts and multiplied criminals of the most +daring and accomplished kind. When, with a storm +of indignant eloquence, an eminent Spanish deputy, +Don Manuel Silvela, denounced the Saladero in +the Cortes and took the lead in insisting upon its +demolition, he pointed out its many shortcomings. +It was in the last degree unhealthy; it was nearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +useless as a place of detention, for the bold or ingenious +prisoner laughed at its restraints and escapes +took place daily to the number of fourteen +and sixteen at a time. If, however, with increased +precautions it was possible to keep prisoners secure +within the walls, nothing could save them from one +another. Contamination was widespread and unceasing +in a mass of men left entirely to themselves +without regular occupation, without industrial labour +or improving education and with no outlet for +their energies but demoralising talk and vicious +practices. Not strangely the Saladero became a +great criminal centre, a workshop and manufactory +of false money, where strange frauds were devised, +such as the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i><a name="Anchor-10" id="Anchor-10"></a><a href="#Footnote-10" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 10.">[10]</a> or suggested revelation of +hidden treasure, the well known Spanish swindle +which has had ramifications almost all over the +world.</p> + +<p>An independent witness, nevertheless, speaking +from experience, the same George Borrow already +quoted, has a good word to say for the inmates of +Spanish gaols. He was greatly surprised at their +orderly conduct and quiet demeanour. "They had +their occasional bursts of wild gaiety; their occasional +quarrels which they were in the habit of settling +in a corner of the interior court with their long +knives, the result not infrequently being death or a +dreadful gash in the face or abdomen; but upon +the whole their conduct was infinitely superior to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>what might have been expected from the inmates +of such a place. Yet this was not the result of coercion +or any particular care which was exercised +over them; for perhaps in no part of the world are +prisoners so left to themselves and so utterly neglected +as in Spain, the authorities having no further +anxiety about them than to prevent their escape, +not the slightest attention being paid to their moral +conduct,—not a thought bestowed on their health, +comfort or mental improvement whilst within the +walls. Yet in this prison of Madrid, and I may say +in Spanish prisons in general (for I have been an +inmate of more than one), the ears of the visitor +are never shocked with horrid blasphemy and obscenity +as in those of some other countries and +more particularly in civilised France, nor are his +eyes outraged or himself insulted as he would assuredly +be were he to look down upon the courts +from the galleries of the Bicêtre (in Paris)." And +yet in this prison of Madrid were some of the most +desperate characters in Spain; ruffians who had +committed acts of cruelty and atrocity sufficient to +make one shudder with horror. Gravity and sedateness +are the leading characteristics of the Spaniards, +and the worst robber, except in those moments +when he is engaged in his occupation, (and then no +one is more sanguinary, pitiless and wolfishly eager +for booty), is a being who can be courteous and affable +and who takes pleasure in conducting himself +with sobriety and decorum. Borrow thought so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +well of these fellow-prisoners that he was willing +to entertain them at dinner in his own private apartment +in the gaol, and the governor made no objection +to knocking off their irons temporarily so that +they might enjoy the meal in comfort and convenience.</p> + +<p>A more intimate acquaintance with the inner life +of the Spanish gaols has been accorded by a modern +writer, Don Rafael Salillas. He summarises all its +evils in the single word "money." All disorders +and shortcomings, the corruption, the absence of +discipline, the cruelties perpetrated, the prevailing +license, the shameful immorality constantly winked +at or openly permitted, have had one and the same +origin, the use and misuse of the private funds the +prisoners have at their disposal. Until quite a recent +date, everything, even temporary liberty, had +its price in Spanish prisons. This vicious system +dated from the times when the "alcaide" or head +of an establishment, the primary purpose of which +was the safe custody of offenders, bought his place +and was permitted to recoup himself as best he +could out of his charges. The same abominable +practice was at one time almost a world-wide practice, +but nowhere has it flourished so largely as in +Spain. No attempt was made to check it; it was +acknowledged and practically deemed lawful.</p> + +<p>In an ancient work on the prison of Seville, dating +from the sixteenth century, the writer, Christobal +de Chaves, classifies the interior under three heads;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +the spaces entered respectively by three doors of +gold, silver or copper, each metal corresponding to +the profits drawn from each. Imprisonment might +be made more tolerable by payment regulated according +to a fixed tariff. For a certain sum any +prisoner might go home to sleep, he might purchase +food where little, if any, was provided, he might +escape fetters or purchase "easement of irons," as +in the old English prisons. To enhance the value +of the relief afforded worse hardships were inflicted +at the outset. Restraint was made most irksome in +the beginning of imprisonment. The fetters were +then the heaviest and most varied, the deepest and +vilest dungeons were the first quarters allotted. A +plain hint of relaxation and alleviation was given, +to be obtained at a price and the converse made +equally certain. Increased pain and discomfort +were the penalty for those who would not, or, worse +still, who could not produce the extortionate sums +demanded. Tasks imposed were rendered more +difficult; it was a common practice to oil or grease +the rope by which water was raised from a well, so +that it should slip through the fingers and intensify +the labour.</p> + +<p>When authority had sold its good will or wrung +the life blood from its victims they were handed +over to the tender mercies of their fellow prisoners, +the self-constituted masters and irresponsible tyrants +in the place. The most brutal and overbearing ruled +supreme within the walls and levied taxes by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +right of the strongest. The "garnish" of the old +British prisons, the enforced payments to gain a first +footing, was exacted to the last in Spain from all +new arrivals and was called "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cobrar el patente</i>," <em>i. e.</em> +collecting the dues. To hesitate or refuse payment +was promptly punished by cruel blows; the defaulters +were flogged; they got the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">culebrazo</i> (whipping) +with a rope kept for the purpose. The quite +penniless were despoiled of their clothing and consoled +with the remark that it was better for them +to take to their beds because they were naked, than +on account of injuries and wounds, or they wrapped +themselves up in some ragged cloak infested with +fleas. The bullies or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">valientes</i> were not interfered +with by the authorities but rather supported by +them. In fact they played into each other's hands. +Both worked their wicked will upon their victims +and in their own way,—the authorities by right of +the legal powers they wielded, the master-prisoners +by force of character and the strength of their +muscles. Both squeezed out money like juice from +a lemon, robbed, swindled or stole all that came in +their way.</p> + +<p>Guzman de Alfarache, the typical thief of the +time of Philip II, whose life and adventures are told +by the author of the most famous of the picaresque +novels, describes his journey from Seville to Cadiz +to embark upon one of the galleys which made up +the naval power of Spain. "As we started on the +road, we came upon a swine-herd with a number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +young pigs, which we surrounded and captured, each +of us taking one. The man howled to our commissary +that he should make us restore them, but he +turned a deaf ear and we stuck to our plunder. At +the first halt we laid hands on other goods and concealed +them inside one of the pigs when the commissary +interposed, discovered the things and took possession +of them himself."</p> + +<p>The alcaide of the prison turned everything to +profit. He sold the Government stores, bedding +and clothing to the prison bullies who retailed the +pieces to individual prisoners. He trafficked in the +disciplinary processes, accepting bribes to overlook +misconduct, and pandered to the worst vices of the +inmates by allowing visitors of both sexes to have +free access to them and to bring in all manner of +prohibited articles, unlimited drink, and dangerous +weapons, knives and daggers and other arms for +use in attack and defence in the quarrels and murderous +conflicts continually occurring.</p> + +<p>A fruitful source of profit was the sale of privileged +offices, permits to hawk goods and to trade +within the precincts of the prison. Salillas when he +visited the Seville prison not many years ago, saw +numbers of prisoners selling cigars and cigarettes in +the yards, various articles of food, such as <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">gazpacho</i>, +the popular salad of Andalusia, compounded +of oil and bread soaked in water, and drinks including +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>, that powerful Spanish spirit akin +to Hollands. Some kept gaming tables and paid a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +tax on each game and its profits and especially +when the "King" was turned up at "Monte."</p> + +<p>Salillas publishes a list of prices that ruled for +places, privileges and boons conceded to the prisoners. +To become a "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i>," a "corporal carrying +the stick" or wand of office, cost from eight +to sixteen dollars. "Who and what was the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Cabo +de Vara</i>?" he asks and answers the question. "A +hybrid creature the offspring of such diverse parents +as the law and crime; half murderer, half +robber, who after living in defiance of the law is at +least prevented from doing further harm in freedom, +is locked up and entrusted with executive authority +over companions who have passed through the same +evil conditions and are now at his mercy. He is +half galley-slave chained to the oar, half public +functionary wearing the badge of officialdom and +armed with a stick to enforce his authority. He +represents two very opposite sets of ideas; on the +one hand that of good order and the maintenance +of penal discipline, on the other that of a natural +inclination towards the wrong doing in which he has +been a practitioner and for which he is, in a way, +enduring the penalty. To succeed he must possess +some strongly marked personal qualities; he should +be able to bully and impose his will upon those +subjected to his influence, overbearing, masterful, +swaggering, ready to take the law into his own +hands and insist upon its observance as he chooses +to interpret its dictates."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> + +<p>The post of hospital orderly or cook or laundry-man +could be secured for about the same price, while +a small fee to the prison surgeon gained a perfectly +sound man admission to hospital for treatment he +did not need, but in which he was much more comfortable +than in the ordinary prison. The place of +prison barber was to be bought for four dollars; +employment as a shoemaker two dollars; relief +from a punishment ordered three dollars; permission +to pay a visit home, four dollars. These prices +were not definitely settled and unchangeable. +Where a certain profit could be extracted from a +particular post such as the charge of the canteen it +was put up to auction and knocked down to the +highest bidder.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">PRESIDIOS AT HOME AND ABROAD</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>The presidio or convict prison—Stations at home and in +Northern Africa—Convict labour—Cruelties inflicted on +the presidiarios employed in road making—Severity of the +régime at Valladolid—Evils of overcrowding—Ceuta—Its +fortifications—Early history—The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> or "Spanish +swindle"—Several interesting instances—Monsignor +X—Armand Carron—M. Elked—Credulity of the victims—Boldness +of the swindlers—Attempt to dupe a +Yorkshire squire—Discovery of the fraud.</p></div> + + +<p>The Spanish "presidios" or penal establishments +for offenders sentenced to long terms are the counterpart +of the English convict prisons. They are of +two classes, those at home in provincial capitals or +in fortresses and strongholds, and those abroad installed +in North Africa, as the alternative or substitute +for the penal colonies beyond the sea established +by Italy and France. Home presidios are at Burgos, +Cartagena, Granada, Ocana, Santona, Valladolid +and Saragossa. There are two at Valencia, one at +Tarragona and two more at Alcalá de Henares. Of +the foregoing that of Cartagena was especially constructed +to meet the needs of the arsenal and dockyard +and is spoken of as deplorably deficient by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>those who visited it. Four hundred convicts were +lodged miserably in one dormitory; their bedding +consisted of a rough mattress and one brown rug; +clothing was issued only every two years; the dietaries +were supplied by a thievish contractor who +supplied a soup consisting of beans boiled in water, +abstracting the ration of oil and bacon. A presidio +of ancient date was installed in the arsenal of La +Carraca near Cadiz, a survival really of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">galera</i> +or galleys planted on shore when human motive +power ceased to be used in propelling warships.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i_150fp.jpg" alt="" /> +<div class="caption"><p><cite>Castel dell' Ovo</cite></p> + +<p>Situated on a high rocky island near the shore of Naples, +it was a place of great security. A number of the islands +in the bay of Naples have been utilised as prisons and as +penal settlements.</p></div> +</div> + +<p>A terrible story is preserved of the cruelties inflicted +on a number of these <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidiarios</i> employed +to make the road between San Lucar de Barrameda +and Puerto Santa Maria. Their labour was leased +to an inhuman contractor who worked them literally +to death. They were half-starved, over-burthened +with chains and continually flogged so that +within one year half their whole number of one +thousand had disappeared; they had died "of privation, +of blows, hunger, cold, insufficient clothing +and continuous neglect." The contractor cleared a +large profit, but lost it and died in extreme poverty +after having been arraigned and tried for his life +as a murderer.</p> + +<p>The presidio of Valladolid was also condemned +for the severity of its régime. The climate alternated +between great summer heat and extreme cold +in winter, but the convicts worked in the quarries +in all weathers. The death record rose in this prison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +to such a high figure that a third of the average +total population of three thousand perished within +eighteen months. The general average of the presidios +was low but as a rule the death rate was not +high. Even when twenty per cent. of males and +twenty-five per cent. of the females were sick and +hospital accommodation was scarce and imperfect, +the deaths did not exceed two and a half per cent. +per annum and this included the fatal results of +quarrels ending in duels to the death. One of the +most serious evils was overcrowding. Official figures +give the prison population as about nineteen +thousand and the available house-room was for not +more than twelve thousand. Salillas puts it at a +much lower total, asserting there was barely room +for three thousand.</p> + +<p>While the prisons of Cuba are not strictly within +the scope of this work, one of historic and particular +interest may be mentioned. This is Morro Castle, +which still guards the Harbour of Havana. It was +begun in 1589, soon after the unsuccessful attack on +Havana by Drake, and was finished in 1597. In +1862 it was partly destroyed by the English who +captured it and remained in possession of the city +for a year. The arms of the city, granted by royal +decree, were appropriately three castles of silver on +a blue field, and a golden key. The castles were +La Fuerza, El Morro and La Punta, guarding the +harbour.</p> + +<p>The ancient fortress has been described as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +"great mass of dun coloured rock and tower and +battlement and steep, of which the various parts +seem to have grown into one another." It contains +cells as damp, dark and unwholesome as those in +the notorious dungeons of the old world. This is +testified to by a California journalist, Charles +Michelson, who was arrested by mistake and +thrown into a cell in the castle just before the +Spanish-American War. Although he was liberated +in two days, his experience was not soon forgotten. +The cell was an arch of heavy masonry, damp with +the moisture of years. The only window was high +up in the arch, and there was no furniture—no +bed, blanket or chair. He was not without company +of a kind, however, for the place was full of +cockroaches and rats. When he clambered up and +tried to look out of the window, which commands +a fine view of the harbour, a guard outside poked +at him with a bayonet. The soup brought him was, +he said, "strong and scummy, and the can had been +so recently emptied of its original contents that there +was a film of oil over the top of it." His interpreter, +who was arrested at the same time, fared worse, for +he was bound and kept in even a fouler cell.</p> + +<p>In the days of Spanish sovereignty, many Cuban +prisoners were shot and their bodies were hurled +from the outer wall of the castle to the sharks of +the so-called "shark's nest," forty feet below, on +the gulf side.</p> + +<p>There are said to be many caverns in the castle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +through which the rush and noise of the waves +make music, but this is probably due to the winds +rather than the tides.</p> + +<p>Spain maintains several presidios beyond sea, +chiefly on the North African coast, and there is one +also at Palma de Mallorca, one of the Balearic +islands. Those in Africa are Alhucemas, Melilla, +Peñon de Velez de la Gomera, Chaferinas and +Ceuta, immediately opposite Gibraltar, which is no +doubt the first and original of all Spanish presidios. +The expression when first used was taken to convey +the meaning of a penal settlement, established +within a fortress under military rule and guardianship, +with its personnel constantly employed on the +fortifications, constructing, repairing and making +good wear and tear, and answering, if need be, the +call to arms in reinforcement of the regular garrison. +The early records of Ceuta prove this. This +stronghold, on one side rising out of the sea, with +its landward defences ever confronting a fierce hostile +power, was exposed at all times to siege and +incursion. When the Moorish warriors became too +bold the Spanish general sallied forth to beat up +their quarters, destroy their batteries and drive them +back into the mountains. Working parties of +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">presidiarios</i>, armed, accompanied the troops and +did excellent service, eager, as the old chronicler +puts it, to clear their characters by their heroism, +"always supposing that blood may wash out crime."</p> + +<p>Ceuta was a type of the military colony beyond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +sea, held by a strong garrison against warlike natives +who resisted the invasion and would have +driven out the intruders. The settlement was secured +by continual fortification in which the abundant +penal labour was constantly employed. Its +social conditions were precisely similar to those +which obtained in the early days of Australian transportation +and such as prevail to-day in the French +penal colony of New Caledonia. The population is +made up of two principal classes, bond and free. +The first are convicts serving their sentences and the +second the officials who guard them. Ordinary +colonists have not settled to any large extent in +these North African possessions. A few traders +and agriculturists have come seeking such fortune +as offers and the number of residents is increased by +released convicts, the counterpart of the emancipist +class in the Antipodes, who remain with the prospect +of earning a livelihood honestly, instead of +lapsing into evil courses on their return to the +mother country.</p> + +<p>Ceuta is essentially a convict city, not exactly +founded by penal labour but enlarged and improved +by it and served by it in all the needs of daily domestic +life. The first period of close confinement on +arrival is comparatively brief and is spent in the +prison proper outside the city at hard labour in +association on the fortifications, in the workshops +and quarries. In the second period the convicts are +permitted to enter the city and are employed under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +supervision in warehouses, offices and in water +carrying. In the third period, commonly called +from "gun to gun," extending daily from the morning +gun fire until the evening, the convicts are allowed +to go freely into the city and work there +on their own account. The fourth and last, entered +when two thirds of the whole sentence has been +completed, is called "under conditions," that is to +say, in conditional freedom, and the convicts are +let out to private employers precisely as they were +"assigned" in old Australian days. They may +live with their masters, sleep out, and are only +obliged to report at the prison once a month for +muster. More than a third of the total number are +thus employed.</p> + +<p>The result is that Ceuta offers the singular spectacle +that it is nominally a prison, but the bulk of +the prisoners live beyond the walls, quite unguarded +and really in the streets forming part of the ordinary +population. Convicts are to be met with at every +corner, they go in and out through the front doors +of houses, no one looks at them in surprise, no one +draws aside to let them pass. The situation is +described graphically by Salillas. "Who is the +coachman on the box? A convict. Who is the +man who waits at table? A convict. The cook in +the kitchen? A convict. The nursemaid in charge +of the children? A convict (male). Are their employers +afraid of being robbed or murdered? Not +in the least."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another eye witness<a name="Anchor-11" id="Anchor-11"></a><a href="#Footnote-11" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 11.">[11]</a> writes:—</p> + +<p>"Could this happen in any other city in Spain? +If the inhabitants found themselves rubbing shoulders +with the scum of the earth, with the worst +malefactors, with criminals guilty of the most +heinous offences, would they have enjoyed one +moment's peace? Could they overcome the natural +repugnance felt by honest and respectable people for +those whom the law has condemned to live apart? +The fact is that at Ceuta no one objects. The existing +state of things is deemed the most natural thing +in the world. It has been too long the rule and it +is claimed seriously that no evil consequences have +resulted. The utmost confidence is reposed in these +ex-criminals whose nature has been seemingly quite +changed by relegation to the African presidio. They +wash and get up linen without losing more pieces +than a first class washerwoman, they wait on the +children with the tenderest concern, they perform +all sorts of household service, go to market, run +messages, polish the floors and the furniture with +all the zeal and industry of the best servants in the +world. The most cordial relations exist between +employers and their convict attendants and cases +have been known where the former have carried +the latter back to Spain to continue their service. +One was a Chinese cook who was excused ten years' +supervision to go back with his master."</p> + +<p>It is claimed by the champions of Ceuta that</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p> +<p>despite the freedom accorded to the convicts their +conduct is exemplary. "I can certify," says Relosillas<a name="Anchor-12" id="Anchor-12"></a><a href="#Footnote-12" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 12.">[12]</a> +"that during a whole year there were but +three or four instances of crime amongst the convicts +employed in domestic service." Others however +are not so laudatory. An independent witness, +Doña Concepcion Arenal, has little good to say of +the prisons. "In them justice is punished or rather +crucified," she wrote, "and with it hygiene, morality, +decency, humanity, all, in a word, which every +one who is not himself hateful and contemptible, +respects. It is impossible to give any idea of the +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cuartel principal</i> or chief convict barrack in the +place. We can only refer to its terrible and revolting +demoralisation." Yet she is inclined to contradict +herself and argues that the convict when trusted +will behave well. His life on the whole is light and +easy; he has sufficient food, congenial company, and +can better his position by steady industry; he wears +no chains, performs no rude or laborious tasks and +is driven neither into insubordination nor crime.</p> + +<p>The statements just quoted are hardly credible +and cannot be reconciled with the reports of others, +from personal experience. Mr. Cook, an English +evangelist, who has devoted himself to extensive +prison visitation, has drawn a dark picture of this +ideal penal settlement as he saw it in 1892. At that +date general idleness was the rule. Hundreds hung +about with no work to do. Criminals with the</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p> +<p>worst antecedents were included in the prison population. +One had been a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">bandido</i> or brigand who had +been guilty of seven murders; another had four +murders to his credit and one assassin was in a +totally dark cell, confined hand and foot, condemned +to death and daily expecting to be shot. No fewer +than one hundred and twelve slept in one large room +without more supervision than that exercised by +their fellows discharging the functions of warders. +Mr. Cook expresses his wonder that they did not +break out oftener into rebellion. As a matter of fact +and as against the statement given above, outbreaks +were not uncommon with fierce attacks upon officers +and murderous affrays among the prisoners. +Crime and misconduct are certainly not unknown +in Ceuta.</p> + +<p>A gruesome description was given by a correspondent +writing to the <cite>London Times</cite> in the year +1876. When he visited the citadel prison he found +from eight hundred to one thousand convicts lodged +there in a wretched condition, clad only in tattered +rags, the cast off uniforms of soldiers, generally insufficient +for decency. They tottered in and out +of the ruinous sheds supposed to shelter them, quarrelled +like hyenas over their meagre and repulsive +rations, which were always short through the dishonesty +of the thieving contractor, and fought to +the death with the knives which every one carried. +Each shed contained from one to two hundred where +they lay like beasts upon the ground. Vermin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +crept up the wall and dirt abounded on all sides. +"No words of mine," said this outspoken eye-witness, +"can paint the darkness, the filth, the seething +corruption of these dens of convicts, dens into which +no streak of sunlight, divine or human, ever finds +its way, and where nothing is seen or heard but outrage +and cruelty on the one hand, misery and starvation +and obscenity on the other." There was a +worse place, the "Presidio del Campo," or field +prison in which the hard labour gangs<a name="Anchor-13" id="Anchor-13"></a><a href="#Footnote-13" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 13.">[13]</a> employed +on the fortifications were housed in still filthier +hovels, with less food and more demoralisation. +This same correspondent when he enquired his way +to the presidio was told by a Spanish officer: "They +are not presidios but the haunts of wild beasts and +nurseries of thieves." Obviously there is much discrepancy +in the various accounts published.</p> + +<p>The true state of the case may best be judged by +examining and setting forth the conditions prevailing. +On the surface the convicts may seem to abstain +from serious misconduct, but even this may be +doubted from the facts in evidence. "It is a wild +beasts' cage," writes one well informed authority. +It may be to some extent a cage without bars, or in +which the wild beasts are so tamed that they may +be allowed to go at large and do but little harm, but</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p> +<p>evil instincts are at times in the ascendancy as +shown in the quarrels and disorders that occur, but +to no greater extent says the apologist than in any +of the prisons on the Spanish mainland. It may be +that the régime is so mild that the convicts yield +willingly to it without a murmur and seldom rise +against it. But the very atmosphere of the place is +criminal. There may be few prison offences where +rules are easy but if serious offences against discipline +are but rarely committed within the limits, +others against society are constantly prepared for +execution beyond. Ceuta is a hot bed of crime, the +seed is sown there, nourished and developed to bear +baleful fruit afterwards. It is a first class school for +the education of thieves, swindlers, coiners, and forgers +who graduate and take honours in the open +world of evil doing. It is the original home, some +say, of the famous fraud, peculiarly Spanish, called +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, which still flourishes and draws profit +as ever, not from Spain alone, but from far and +wide in nearly all civilised countries.</p> + +<p>The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, or the "burial" literally translated, +means an artful and specious proposal to reveal +the whereabouts of a buried treasure. It is another +form of the well known "confidence trick" or, as the +French call it, the "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">vol à l'americaine</i>," and we cannot +but admire the ingenuity and inventiveness so +often displayed in its practice, while expressing surprise +at the credulity and gullibility of those who are +deluded by it. It originates as a rule in a letter ad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>dressed +from the prison to some prominent person +in Spain or elsewhere, for the astute practitioner is +well provided with lists of names likely to be useful +to him in his business. It is on record that a seizure +was made in the presidio of Granada of a whole +stock in trade, a great mass of information secretly +collected from all parts of the world to serve in +carrying out the fraud of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i>, and with it a +number of forms of letters in various European +languages. The invitation is marked "very private +and confidential" and conveys with extreme +caution and mystery the suggestion that for a sufficient +consideration the secret hiding place of a very +valuable treasure will be confided to the person addressed. +Colour is given to the proposal by some +plausible but not always probable story on which it +is based.</p> + +<p>In one case the writer pretended to be a Spanish +officer who had received from the hands of Napoleon +III himself, when flying to England in September, +1870, a casket of jewels which he was charged +to convey to the Countess of Montijo, mother of the +Empress Eugenie, in Madrid. The messenger had +however become involved in a Carlist or revolutionary +movement and was now in prison, but he had +succeeded before arrest in burying the jewels in a +remote spot so cleverly concealed that he alone possessed +the secret. The liberal offer was made to the +person addressed of a fourth share of the total value +provided he would transmit to the prisoner corre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>spondent +through a sure hand, indicated, the sum +of three hundred pounds in cash by means of which +he could secure release and proceed to unearth the +treasure.</p> + +<p>Another story is as follows:</p> + +<p>One day the regular mail boat brought to Ceuta +an Italian ecclesiastic, a high dignitary of the +Church, of grave and venerable appearance, who +proceeded at once to make a formal call upon the +commandant or general commanding for the time +being. He was in search of certain information and +he more particularly desired to be directed to an address +he sought, that of a small house in a retired +spot in one of the small little-frequented streets in +the hilly town. He carried with him a heavy and +rather bulky handbag which when he started from +the general's he begged he might leave in his charge +on the plea that its contents were valuable.</p> + +<p>After the lapse of two or three hours the Monsignor +returned with terrified aspect and evidently +in the greatest distress of mind. He entreated that +a priest might be summoned to whom he might confess, +and his wish was forthwith gratified. The +moment he had unbosomed himself to his ghostly +adviser, he seized his handbag and ran down to the +port just in time to catch the return mail boat to +Algeciras. The priest who had heard his confession +was to be released from the secret confided to him +and reveal it to the authorities as soon as the safe +arrival of the mail boat at the mainland was sig<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>nalled +across to Ceuta. Then the whole story came +out.</p> + +<p>Monsignor X was one of the most trusted and +confidential chaplains of his Holiness the Pope and +he had gone to Ceuta in the interests of an ex-Carlist +general who had the misfortune to be detained there +as a political prisoner. A sum of money was needed +to compass his escape from the presidio and help +him to reach in safety the burying place of a vast +treasure, to disinter it and apply it to the furtherance +of the civil war in progress. This general seems to +have satisfied the papal dignitaries of his identity +and good faith; his communication was endorsed +with plans and statements pointing to the whereabouts +of the hidden treasure, and the method by +which the money he needed for his enterprise was +to be used, was minutely described. He said he was +too closely watched to allow any messenger to reach +him direct, but he had friends in Ceuta, two titled +ladies, near relatives who had been permitted to live +in the prison town and to visit him from time to +time and who would pass the money to him when it +was brought to Ceuta.</p> + +<p>Monsignor X landed as we have seen and learned +where he was to go, but with commendable caution +he hesitated to take his money with him. He would +hand it over when he had made the personal acquaintance +of the general's aristocratic friends. +They did not prove very desirable acquaintances. +He found the house he was to visit, was admitted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +without question, but then the door was shut behind +him and he was murderously assailed by half a dozen +convicts, knife in hand. He was ordered to give up +the money he had brought, and when on searching +him it was found missing, he was rifled of everything +he carried in his pockets, both his watch and +a considerable sum in cash. His life was spared +because it was certain that his prolonged absence +would lead to a hue and cry, but he was obliged to +swear that he would not attempt to leave the house +for one clear hour so that the robbers might make +good their escape. Moreover he was warned if he +gave the alarm he would certainly be assassinated. +Hence his desire to pass beyond the Straits of Gibraltar +before the outrage became known. When +the house was visited it was found empty and unfurnished +with not a sign of life on the premises. +The most interesting feature in the story is that the +swindlers should fly at such high game, but it is +founded on undoubted fact. The Carlist insurrection +was often used to father the attempt to defraud.</p> + +<p>In another case a letter conveyed to the proprietor +of a vineyard at Maestrazgo the alluring news that +a large sum in gold was hidden on his ground, the +accumulated contributions of Carlist supporters in +the neighbourhood. The exact position would be +revealed and a plan forwarded in exchange for a +sum of four thousand dollars in hard cash, which +was to be forwarded to Ceuta according to certain +precise instructions. The money was sent but no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +reply came. Days and weeks passed and at last, +weary of waiting and a little unhappy, the easily +duped victim made up his mind to cross to Ceuta +in person and bring his disappointing correspondent +to book. The wine grower unhappily landed in the +presidio on the day they were baiting a bull in the +streets, a game constantly played and with more +danger to the passers-by than the players. The bull +goaded into a state of fury attacked the new comer +and tossed him so that he fell to the ground with +both legs broken. The poor man got no plan and +no news of his dollars. All he gained was two +months in bed lying between life and death.</p> + +<p>The writer Relosillas, who filled the place of an +inspector or surveyor of works at Ceuta, has given +some of his personal experiences in that convict +prison.<a name="Anchor-14" id="Anchor-14"></a><a href="#Footnote-14" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 14.">[14]</a> He describes how on one occasion he was +present at a free fight among the convicts in the +barracks which had been originally a Franciscan +convent. He was in his own office at a late hour, +hard by, when he heard a terrible uproar in the great +dormitory and ran over to exercise his authority and +prevent bloodshed. Knives were out and being +freely used by combatants ranged on two sides, one +lot backing up a friend who had been robbed of a +photograph of his sister, the other lot defending the +thief, who had stolen the portrait for use in a buried +treasure swindle. He had created her a marchioness +and intended to forward it as a bait to show his in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>timacy +with the aristocracy and prepare the way for +the fraud. The case may be quoted to show how +minutely the practitioners in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> studied +their ground and acquired the means of operating. +In all Spanish prisons and notably in Ceuta, cunning +convicts are to be found, men of ability and experience, +who have travelled far and wide, who are conversant +with many languages and well acquainted +with prominent people in other countries and the +leading facts and particulars of their lives.</p> + +<p>A few additional stories of swindles akin to the +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">entierro</i> are of much interest.</p> + +<p>A French landowner by name Armand Carron, +a resident of a small town in the Department of +Finistère, received, some time ago, a letter from +Ceuta, signed Santiago (or James) Carron. The +writer explained that he was a native of Finistère +where the Frenchman resided; that he was a namesake +and a member of the landowner's family, son +of a first cousin of his who had left France many +years before and settled in Spain with wife and three +sons, of whom he, Santiago Carron, now alone survived. +This Santiago, the letter went on, had been +placed by his father in the military college at +Segovia, had served through all the subaltern grades +as an artillery officer, had risen to the rank of brigadier +and in that capacity had been sent out in command +of the district of the Cinco Villas in Cuba, +where he had married the daughter of Don Diego +Calderon, a wealthy Havana merchant, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +owner of vast sugar plantations. His wife had +brought him a dowry of four million reales (£40,000) +and had died leaving him a daughter called +after her mother, Juanita, now about 17 years old. +This girl, the only object of her father's love and +care, had been by him sent to Europe and placed for +her education at the convent of the Sacre Cœur at +Chamartin near Madrid.</p> + +<p>His career in the army had been for many years +very fortunate and his wedded life in Cuba exceedingly +happy. He had been laden with honours by +a grateful Government and received many proofs of +his country's trust, but lately the officer in charge +of the chest of the military district at Cinco Villas +had absconded and run away to New York with +a sum of two million reales. As he, the brigadier, +was answerable for his subaltern's conduct and was +not willing to sacrifice one half of his wife's—now +his daughter's—fortune to pay for the defaulter, +he had been summoned to Spain and then relegated, +or sent as a prisoner on parole to the fortress at +Ceuta to take his trial before a court martial, which +owing to the dilatoriness of all things in Spain +might sit till doomsday.</p> + +<p>After thus giving an account of himself and his +belongings the brigadier proceeded to explain the +reasons which induced him to address himself to his +unknown French relative. Having suffered much +from long exposure to the heat of a tropical climate +he felt old before his time, and his hereditary enemy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +the gout, had by several sharp twinges made him +aware of the precariousness of his tenure of life. +He had only that one daughter in the world, the +sole heiress of a considerable patrimony who might +at any moment be deprived of her natural protector +and for whose final education and introduction into +society it was his duty to provide. The girl had +great natural gifts, had inherited her mother's Creole +beauty, and the accounts of her proficiency, given +by the nuns at Chamartin were most flattering to +his paternal pride. He was anxious to appoint a +guardian to his daughter and he could think of no +one fitter in every respect for that charge than his +only relative, M. Armand Carron.</p> + +<p>He (the brigadier) had lately been diligently +looking over his father's papers; had found among +them very numerous and interesting family documents—ample +evidence that a hearty and loving +correspondence had for many years been kept up +between his father, Vincent Carron, and the father +of M. Armand Carron, also called Armand, and he +followed up the narrative with frequent allusions to +several incidents occurring in the early youth of the +two cousins, with descriptions of localities, common +acquaintances and the usual joys and sorrows alternating +in their domestic circles. Altogether it was +a well contrived, plausible story verging so closely +upon probability as to avoid shipwreck upon the +rock of truth.</p> + +<p>M. Armand Carron of Finistère did not think<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +it right or expedient to cast doubt on the genuineness +of the communication. He answered the brigadier's +appeal by calling him "My dear cousin," saying he +had a perfect recollection of his father's frequent +allusions to Vincent Carron, the cousin who had +grown up with him in their own home and only left +their native town on arriving at man's estate. After +heartily congratulating the brigadier on his conspicuous +career which reflected so much lustre on their +own name, and condoling with him about the momentary +cloud that had now—undeservedly he felt +sure—settled upon it, he assured his newly found +relative of his sympathy and of his readiness to look +upon the brigadier's daughter as his own child, to +receive her into the bosom of his family and take +that care of her which so precious a jewel as she was +described to be, must fully deserve.</p> + +<p>So the matter was settled. The correspondence +between the two newly found relatives continued for +six or seven months and became very affectionate +and confidential. The brigadier sent the Frenchman +his photograph and that of his daughter, both taken +in Havana and bearing the name and trade mark +of the artist. The one represented a middle-aged +officer of high rank in full uniform and with the +Grand Cross of San Hermengeldo on his breast, a +fine manly countenance with long grey silky moustache; +the other exhibiting the arch, pretty countenance +of a brunette in her teens, with smooth bands +of raven hair on either side of her low forehead and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +the shade of a moonlit night in her dark eyes; a +bright blooming creature with dimples and pouting +lips and a look of humour and frolic and sense in +every feature. Together with the photographs +came a letter of Juanita Carron to the brigadier, her +father, from the convent, and bearing the Chamartin +postmark, in which the girl congratulated her father +on his discovery of his Finistère relative, expressed +a firm confidence that her loving father would long +be spared to her and concluded that she would for +her part, in the worst event, willingly acknowledge +her relative as a second father and acquiesce in +every arrangement that might be made for her welfare.</p> + +<p>Seven months passed and the post one morning +brought M. Armand Carron a letter with the Ceuta +postmark, but no longer in his cousin's handwriting. +The writer who signed himself Don Francisco +Muñoz, parish priest of San Pedro in Ceuta, announced +the death of Brigadier Santiago Carron, +which had occurred seven days before the date of +the letter. He stated that the brigadier, brought +to the last extremity by a sudden attack of gout, had +been attended, by him, Don Francisco, as priest in +his last hours, and been instructed to wind up all +his earthly affairs both in Ceuta and in Madrid. He +was further empowered to remove the Señorita +Juanita, the brigadier's daughter, from the Chamartin +convent and take charge of her during her journey +to Finistère where she should be delivered into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +the hands of her appointed guardian. The priest's +letter enclosed the printed obituary handbill announcing +the brigadier's decease, according to Spanish +custom, the last will and testament of the deceased +appointing M. Armand Carron sole executor, +guardian and trustee of his only daughter Juanita, +and entrusting to him the management of her fortune +of one million francs, (£40,000), mentioning +the banks in Paris and Amsterdam in which that +sum lay in good state securities. The whole document +was duly drawn up by a notary, with witnesses' +signatures, seals, etc., and even with certificates of +the brigadier's burial, the signatures and stamps of +the civil and military authorities at Ceuta and those +of the governor in command of the place.</p> + +<p>At the close of this minute statement the priest +expressed his readiness to comply with the brigadier's +instructions by travelling to Madrid, receiving +the young Juanita from the hands of the Sacre +Cœur nuns and continuing with her the journey to +Finistère, immediately upon hearing from M. Armand +Carron that he was prepared to receive his +lovely ward. M. Armand Carron answered by +return of post that his house and arms were open +to welcome his relative's orphan child. Where there +came after some time another letter from Don +Francisco Muñoz explaining that the brigadier, although +the most methodical and careful of men, had +left some trifling debts at Ceuta and there were the +doctors' and undertakers' bills to be settled: also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +the travelling expenses for himself and the young +lady which he, the priest, was not able to defray. +Besides all this the papers, deeds, books and other +portable property left by the brigadier, some of it +very valuable, but also bulky—among which were +the certificates of the state securities deposited in the +French and Dutch banks—which at the express +desire of the deceased would have at once to be conveyed +to Finistère. He, the priest, would have to +be responsible for all this, so that, what with the +boarding money and fees due to the nuns, and the +clothes, linen and other necessaries the young lady +might require to fit herself for appearance in the +world, an expense would have to be incurred of +which it was difficult to calculate the exact amount. +The conclusion was that he could not undertake the +journey unless M. Armand Carron supplied him +with a round sum of money, say four thousand +francs, which he could forward in French bank notes +and in a registered letter addressed not to him but +to a Doña Dolores Mazaredo, a pious woman, whom +her reduced fortunes had compelled to take service +as a washerwoman of the Ceuta state prison.</p> + +<p>The reason alleged by the priest for receiving the +money in this roundabout way was that as the brigadier +had died in debt to the state and the government +might suspect that property belonging to the deceased +had come into his, the priest's charge and +be subject to the law of embargo on the brigadier's +effects, it was desirable that every precaution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +should be taken to disarm suspicion and prevent +injury.</p> + +<p>The fraud was entirely successful and in due +course the letter from Finistère enclosing bank +notes for four thousand francs was delivered to the +washerwoman and from her passed into the hands +of the sharpers whose deep laid plan and transcendent +inventive powers were thus crowned with full +success. M. Armand Carron heard no more of +his orphaned relative.</p> + +<p>The most astonishing feature in the "Spanish +Swindle," as it is commonly and almost universally +known, is the extent to which it is practised and in +countries far remote from those in which the trick +originates. In one case a resident in the Argentine +Republic received a letter from Madrid which he +communicated to the press stating that he could not +conceive how his name and address had become +known. But it was clear that the Argentine and +many other directories were possessed by the swindler, +for similar letters all conveying the usual rosy +stories of hidden treasure had come into the country +wholesale. The fraudulent agent had long discovered +that the credulity and cupidity on which he +trades are universal weaknesses and that he is likely +to find victims in every civilised part of the world. +At another time Germany was inundated with typewritten +letters from the Spanish prisoner, and the +correspondent cleverly accounted for his use of the +machine by stating that he was employed as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +convict clerk in the office of the governor of the +prison.</p> + +<p>An attempt of the same kind was tried on a Swiss +gentleman of Geneva, but it failed signally. The +swindler in Barcelona thought he had beguiled his +correspondent into purchasing certain papers at the +price of twelve thousand francs by which a treasure +was to be found, and sent a young woman to Geneva +to receive the cash. But the Swiss police, having +been informed of the transaction, were on the alert, +and when she kept her appointment with the proposed +dupe she was taken into custody. An individual +staying at the same hotel and said to have +been in communication with her was also arrested. +The emissary denied all complicity in the intended +fraud protesting that she had been commissioned +by a stranger she met in Barcelona to convey a letter +to Geneva and bring back another in return.</p> + +<p>The ubiquity of the swindle is proved by the adventures +of a certain M. Elked, a restaurateur of +Buda-Pest, who was lured into making a journey to +Madrid, carrying with him a sum of ten thousand +francs in cash. The money was to be used in securing +possession of a fortune of three hundred thousand +francs, part of which was lying in a trunk +deposited in the cloak room of a French railway +station and part in the strong room of a Berlin bank. +Elked was to get the half in return for his advance. +On arrival in Madrid he met the representative +of his correspondent and was shown bogus re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>ceipts +from the railway and bank. To remove all +possible doubt it was suggested that telegrams +should be sent to the railway station and to the bank +and in due course what purported to be replies were +brought to Elked by a pretended telegraph messenger. +The sham telegrams finally convinced him of +the genuineness of the business and he arranged to +meet the swindler in a certain café to hand over the +ten thousand francs.</p> + +<p>All this time an eye was kept upon Elked by a +brother Hungarian named Isray, a commercial traveller, +who had come to Madrid by the same train and +who on hearing the purpose of the restaurateur's +visit had vainly tried to persuade him that the affair +was a fraud. Isray followed his infatuated +compatriot to the café in a very low quarter of Madrid +and arrived just in time to see three men attempting +to hustle Elked into a carriage. He had +apparently hesitated to hand over the money at the +last moment and the ruffians were attempting to get +him away to a spot where he could be conveniently +searched and robbed. Isray drew his revolver and +fired two or three shots at Elked's assailants, but did +not succeed in hitting any one. He contrived however +to injure the horse and the struggle ended in +the three bandits running away, leaving Elked still +in possession of his money. No passers-by offered +the Hungarians any assistance during the fight, nor +did any police appear on the scene. When Elked +subsequently complained to the police authorities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +they simply laughed at him for displaying so much +credulity. The victims of the "Spanish Swindle" +are certainly not entitled to much sympathy. Although +arrests are occasionally made, the Spanish +police have never been able to cope very successfully +with the ancient and ever flourishing fraud.</p> + +<p>Some of the Spanish prisoner's lies are the crudest +and most transparent attempts at fraud, but a few +are really very fine works of art. An English country +gentleman once received the following letter:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir and Relative</span>: Not having the honour +to know you but for the reference which my dead +wife, Mary—your relative—gave me, who in detailing +the various individuals of our family warmly +praised the honest and good qualities which distinguished +you, I now address myself to you for the +first time and perhaps for the last one considering +the grave state of my health, explaining my sad position +and requesting your protection for my only +daughter, a child of fourteen years old whom I keep +as a pensioner in a college—"</p></div> + +<p>This is the prelude to a really clever and picturesque +story of the writer's adventures in Cuba, +where, after having been secretary and treasurer to +Martinez Campos, he had subsequently been driven +by General Weyler to join the insurgents, and was +eventually forced to flee the country taking with him +his fortune of thirty-seven thousand pounds. Subse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>quently +being summoned to Spain by the illness of +his "only daughter child" he deposited the money +in a London bank under the form of "security document." +After this we are introduced to the old +mechanism of this venerable swindle. The deposited +note was concealed in a secret drawer of the +prisoner's portmanteau. The prisoner had been arrested +on his arrival in Spain, but a trusty friend +at large was willing to assist him in recovering the +money for the benefit of his child, if only the dear +relative in England "would advance the necessary +funds for expenses." It is possible to imagine that +anyone who had never heard of these ingenious +frauds might be taken in by such a plausible narrative, +but it is difficult to understand such ignorance. +A letter was received from the Castle of Montjuich +in Barcelona by a man in Dublin, who showed it to +several friends in the city explaining the process. +It was new to them all, and arrests of persons who +had all but succeeded in completing this well-worn +confidence trick are constantly made in London. +The boldness of these attempts may be seen in the +case of the swindlers who despatched three letters +identically the same, to three persons who were near +neighbours, residing at North Berwick near Edinburgh. +The letter dated from Madrid and said:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>, Detained here as a bankrupt, I ask if you +would help me to withdraw the sum of fr. 925,000 +(£37,000) at present lodged in a secure place in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +France. It would be necessary for you to visit +Madrid and obtain possession of my baggage by +paying a lien on it. In one valise concealed in a +secret niche is the document which must be produced +as a warrant for the delivery of the above +mentioned sum. I propose to hand you over a third +of the whole in return for your outlay and trouble."</p></div> + +<p>The rest of the letter simply contained instructions +as to telegraphing an answer to Madrid. The whole +was a very stupid and clumsy attempt to deceive, +lacking all the emotional appeals, the motherless +child, the persecuted political adherent of a failing +cause. Worse yet it openly invited co-operation +with a bankrupt seeking to defraud his creditors. +Nor is there any effort to explain the selection of +these three particular persons in the same small town +as parties to the fraud, and the only conclusion is +that dupes had been found even under such circumstances +who were afterward reluctant to reveal their +own foolishness.</p> + +<p>A more elaborate fraud was perpetrated soon +after the fall of Cartagena; the story ran as follows: +Two of the well known leaders of the hare-brained +republican movement that led to that catastrophe,—General +Contreras and Señor Galdez,—both +deputies of the Constituent Cortes, came as fugitives +to England and lodged in the Bank of England +a sum amounting to several millions of reales +in state securities, obtaining for them of course the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +regular certificates and receipt from the bank. +These two Spanish gentlemen afterwards lived for +some time on the continent. General Contreras +took up his quarters as a political exile in France +and Señor Galdez ventured under a disguise into +Spain, where he had the misfortune to be recognised, +arrested and shut up in the Saladero. The certificates +had been left in England in trusty hands, in a +trunk belonging to Señor Galdez, who from his +prison sent directions that the box should be sent by +rail to Madrid addressed to a person enjoying his +full confidence. This person however had some +claim upon Señor Galdez for an old debt of six +thousand francs or about two hundred and forty +pounds and insisted upon payment of this sum before +he would either part with the trunk or allow it to +be opened and the precious certificates to be taken +from it.</p> + +<p>The matter required delicate handling, for Señor +Galdez was a prisoner, General Contreras an exile, +both beyond reach, and about the money they had +placed in the bank there might lie some mystery into +which it was not desirable that enquiry should be +made. An easy way of getting at the contents of +the trunk could be found if any one would think it +worth while to supply two hundred and forty +pounds, settle the claims of Señor Galdez's creditor, +and laying hold of the certificates, convey them to +England and withdraw the securities from the bank. +A man whose name was given and whose address<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +was in the Calle de la Abada or Rhinoceros Street, +Madrid, would undertake to carry through the negotiations +if any one would call upon him with the +needful two hundred and forty pounds and allow +him half an hour to rescue the trunk and deliver the +certificates. The worthy Yorkshire squire to whom +intimation had been conveyed of the coup there was +to be made, looked upon the story as extremely +probable. He fancied it was corroborated by a good +deal of circumstantial evidence and thought he +might venture on the speculation. A professional +adviser whom he consulted undertook to do the job +for him and carry the two hundred and forty pounds +to the Calle de la Abada, taking a revolver with him, +as a precaution, and intending to deliver the money +in Bank of England notes, the numbers of which +should be stopped the moment he found out that any +trick was being played on his good faith.</p> + +<p>Further enquiries were made, however, before +any decided steps were taken, and it was ascertained +beyond doubt that Señor Galdez was no longer a +prisoner, that General Contreras had come back +from banishment, that the house in the Calle de la +Abada was a notorious haunt of malefactors and +den of thieves, and the whole scheme was another +instance of the criminal ingenuity of the Spanish +swindler.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">LIFE IN CEUTA</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Dangerous weapons manufactured within the prison walls—Frequent +quarrels—Murderous assaults on warders of constant +occurrence—Disorders and lack of discipline owing +to the employment of prisoners as warders—The "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos +de vara</i>"—These posts sold to the highest bidder—Salillas' +description of these convict warders—Worst criminals +often promoted to exercise authority over their fellows—Terrible +evils arising from such a state of affairs—Description +of Ceuta—Life at Ceuta no deterrent to crime by +reason of the pleasant conditions under which the convicts +lived—Popularity of the theatre in Spanish prisons—Escapes +from Ceuta—The case of El Niño de Brenes—The +different characteristics of the Andalusians and Aragonese—Foreigners +from Spanish colonies imprisoned at Ceuta—Chinamen +and negroes—Dolores, the negro convict—His +assassination by two fellow convicts—Political prisoners—Carlists—Different +types of murderers.</p></div> + + +<p>Life is held cheap in Ceuta and indeed in all +Spanish presidios and gaols. The saying "a word +and a blow," may be expanded into "a word and a +knife thrust." The possession of a lethal weapon +is common to all prisoners and prevails despite prohibiting +regulations. Fatal affrays are of constant +occurrence. At Valladolid five men were wounded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +in a fight over cards, which were openly permitted. +An official enquiry followed, with the result that on +a search instituted through the prison, numbers of +large knives were discovered and many smaller +daggers.</p> + +<p>It is pretended by the authorities that the introduction +of such weapons as well as of spirits +and packs of cards cannot be prevented. The gate +keepers however exercise no vigilance or are readily +bribed to shut their eyes. The ruinous condition +of many gaols with their numerous cracks and openings +and holes in the walls is partially responsible. +As a natural consequence blood flowed freely when +rage and unbridled passion were so easily inflamed +and the means of seeking murderous satisfaction +were always ready to hand. Quarrels grew at once +into fierce fights which could not be prevented and +must be fought out then and there even to the death. +Chains and stone walls and iron bars were ineffective +in imposing order. There could be no semblance +of discipline where the two essentials were absolutely +wanting, supervision and honest service in the +keepers.</p> + +<p>Knives were often provided by the ingenious +adaptation of all kinds of material within the walls, +such as one-half of a pair of scissors firmly fixed in +a handle bound round with cloth; or a piece of tin +doubled to form a blade and stiffened by two pieces +of wood to keep the point sharp; or the handle of +a wooden spoon sharpened and as formidable as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +an inflexible fish bone.<a name="Anchor-15" id="Anchor-15"></a><a href="#Footnote-15" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 15.">[15]</a> Other arms carried and +used on occasion for premeditated or unexpected +attack or in set, formal encounters were a razor, a +file, a carpenter's adze, a hammer, a cobbler's awl.</p> + +<p>Some surprising figures have been collected by +Salillas to show how frequent was the appeal to violence +and how fatal the consequences of the bloodthirsty +strife so constantly breaking out among the +more reckless members of this hot-tempered Latin +race. They had often their origin in drunken quarrels, +for <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>, the Spanish equivalent to whiskey +or gin, was always plentiful, introduced almost +openly by the warders. Ancient feuds were revived +when the opportunity of settling them was offered +by the chance meeting in the gaol. Occasionally a +homicidal lunatic ran loose about the yards and +struck blindly at any inoffensive person he met when +the furious fit was on him. Salillas tells us that in +one year sixteen murderous assaults were committed +upon warders,<a name="Anchor-16" id="Anchor-16"></a><a href="#Footnote-16" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 16.">[16]</a> and twenty-four free fights occurred +among the prisoners, eleven of whom were killed +outright and forty-two seriously wounded. One +truculent ruffian fell upon an aged wardsman (a +convict also), struck him with a shoemaker's knife</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p> + +<p>and then, brandishing his weapon, defied interference +or the rescue of his victim whom he "finished" +with repeated blows. A Valencian newspaper describes +an encounter between two inmates of the +Torres Serranos prison in that city. "Without +warning or suggesting the cause of difference the +two silently hurried to a large empty room, rushed +at each other with their knives, and the only sounds +heard were those of blows struck and warded off +and of shuffling feet as they circled round each other. +Warders headed by the governor (alcaide) strove to +separate the combatants and succeeded at last in doing +so but at peril of their lives. Both the antagonists +were wounded, one had his cheek laid open +and the other's face was horribly gashed. At Saragossa +an old man who complained that one of his +blankets had been stolen was fiercely attacked in the +shoemaker's shop by the thief, who had been cutting +out sole leather with a heavy iron tool. Deadly +wounds were inflicted on the victim, but the infuriated +aggressor stood over him, keeping those who +would have interposed at bay until it was clearly +evident that death had supervened.</p> + +<p>The primary cause of the chronic discreditable, +disgraceful disorder that reigned in the Spanish +prisons was the prevailing custom of employing +prisoners in the service and discipline of the prisons. +This practice is now universally condemned as reprehensible +and it has been abolished in most civilised +countries and even in Spain. The excuse offered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +which long passed current in Spain was the expense +entailed by employing a proper staff of officers, a +necessity in every well ordered prison administration. +But till quite a recent date the control and +supervision of prisoners in Spanish gaols was practically +their own affair. There were the usual superior +officials, assisted by a few free overseers (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capataces</i>) +but the bulk of the work was entrusted to +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos de vara</i>.</p> + +<p>The vicious system was the more objectionable +from the uncertainty which prevailed in its working. +If the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i> had been carefully selected from +the best and most exemplary prisoners some of the +worst evils might have been avoided. But it was +all a matter of chance. Not only was there no selection +of the best but there was no rejection or elimination +of the worst candidates. In some conspicuous +cases the office of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo de vara</i> was suffered to +fall into the hands of men altogether unfit to hold +it. Two in particular may be quoted, those of +Pelufo and Carrillo, who having first committed +atrocious crimes, escaped punishment and were actually +promoted. One, Pelufo, was a convict in the +presidio of Cartagena who murdered a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> and cut +his way out of the St. Augustin prison, knife in +hand; the other, Carrillo, slew a comrade in a duel +in the presidio of San Miguel de los Reyes (Valencia) +and both were subsequently appointed <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>, +"a reward," as a witty official said, "which they had +earned by their services to penitentiary methods."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p>With such examples and under such authorities +serious crimes were naturally numerous. A few +may be mentioned. A <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> named Casalta killed a +fellow <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabo</i> in St. Augustin prison of Valencia with +five cruel thrusts and afterwards stabbed an officer +to the heart. When the military guard came up he +seriously injured one of the soldiers and wounded +two convicts, one in the head, the other in the back. +Casalta was however condemned to a fresh sentence +of twelve years. One Ferreiro Volta cut a comrade's +throat for having given evidence against the +man, Pelufo, already mentioned. Many more cases +of the same heinous character where the homicidal +instinct had full play may be picked out of the published +lists. In one prison thirteen already guilty of +murder or attempted murder repeated their crimes +as prisoners; in another nine convicted of maliciously +wounding, pursued the practice or were +guilty of awful threats to murder in the gaols. The +cases might be multiplied almost indefinitely but it +will suffice to indicate the terrible conditions constantly +prevailing. No doubt murderous attacks +were often stimulated by the tyranny of the prisoner +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>, against whom their fellows, goaded to desperation, +rose and wreaked vengeance.</p> + +<p>The discipline exercised by these prisoner warders +was naturally not worth much. It was their duty +to correct and restrain their comrades, to assist in +their pursuit when they escaped after having originally +most probably facilitated the evasion, to side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +with the authority in cases of serious insubordination +and disturbance. But they were weak vessels +yielding readily to temptation, accepting bribes hungrily, +swallowing drink greedily when offered, +quickly cowed by the threats of prison bullies and +surrendering at discretion when opposed. But even +although there were good and trusty men to be +found at times among them, no real reliance could +be placed in them. They generally represented fifty +per cent. of the staff and the necessity for the substitution +of the non-convicted, properly paid, fairly +honourable warders has been very wisely decided +upon. The chief danger lay in their close and intimate +association with the rest, day and night constantly +alone when no official supervision was possible. +Their value depended entirely upon their personal +qualifications. If they were weak-kneed and +invertebrate, they could apply no check upon the +ill-conditioned, could neither intimidate nor repress: +if on the other hand they were of masterful character +with arrogant, overbearing tempers, they might +do immense mischief by tyrannising over their +charges and leading them astray. Men of this class +often claimed an equality with the recognised officials, +treated them with off-hand familiarity, spoke +without saluting or removing their caps, while insolently +puffing the smoke of a half-consumed cigarette +in faces of the officers. Salillas sums up the +type as "semi-functionary, semi-convict and all +hangman."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> + +<p>The external aspect of Ceuta is not unpleasing. +It is built on seven hills, the highest of which is +topped by the fortress, and in the word "septem" +we may trace the name Ceuta. It still possesses a +few Moorish remains, for it was once an important +Moorish city. Some of the streets show a tesselated +pavement of red, white and green tiles, and house +fronts are to be seen in white, black and serpentine +marble with decorated scroll work running in a pattern +below the gutter. It has some claims to be +picturesque and possesses certain artistic architectural +features. An imposing barrack, that called +Del Valle, built by prison labour, is considered one +of the finest Spanish military edifices. It has also +a cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of Africa, engineering +and artillery yards, a military hospital, another +church, public offices, and above all a palace +of the governor and general commanding. The +latter in particular, with its extensive grounds, handsome +façade, and suites of fine rooms, the whole +well mounted and served by a large staff of convict +attendants, is the envy of all other government officials. +One wide street traverses the city from west +to east crossed by a network of smaller ways, all +airy and well ventilated by sea breezes and constantly +illuminated by a brilliant sun. From time +to time convicts in their distinctive dress pass along, +but scarcely cast a shadow upon the scene, showing +few signs of their thraldom and passing along with +light-hearted freedom, smoking excellent tobacco or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +singing a gay song. No beggars offend the eye, for +to solicit public charity is strictly forbidden. Generally +a contented well-to-do air is worn by the +crowd, and even the convicts are decently dressed. +Other inhabitants, Moors from the mainland, and +Jews long established in commerce seem prosperous +and evidently possess ample means gained by their +industry and thrift.</p> + +<p>The presidio or prison proper of Ceuta covers a +large part of the peninsula or promontory and embraces +four distinct districts; the first is situated in +the new or modern town; the second lies just outside +it; the third is within the old town and the +fourth is beyond the outer line of walls. The first +part is connected with the third by a drawbridge +called <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">boquete de la sardina</i> or the "sardine's entrance"; +the second with the third by a portcullis; +the third with the fourth and last by the outer gate +of the city.</p> + +<p>In the first are the artisans' quarters, situated in +the cloisters of an ancient monastery, that of San +Francisco, and but for the patching and whitewashing +would look quite ruinous. It is neither secure +nor of sufficient size. The night guards are posted +in the old mortuary house, the bars to many windows +are of wood. The building contains offices, +schoolhouse, store for clothing and the workshops, +these being in a sort of patio or courtyard, or in +hollow spaces in the cloisters, and are simply dens +and rookeries, in part exactly over the old burial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +ground. The handicrafts pursued when I visited +it were various: men were making shoes; fourteen +tailors were at work; a blacksmith with a life sentence +constantly hammered out the red hot iron; +a tinsmith produced many useful articles; a turner +at his lathe worked admirably in the old meat bones +and fashioned handles for walking sticks and umbrellas. +This turner earned much money and was +comfortably lodged. Convicts at Ceuta are not deprived +of their profits and spend their money buying +better food, superior clothing and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> and +using it to bribe their overseers, or they cleverly +conceal it, adding constantly to their store. Industry +is a chief source of wealth, but many political prisoners +bring large sums in with them, or it is smuggled +in to them, and a successful hit with the "buried +treasure fraud" will supply plenty of cash.</p> + +<p>Other industries followed are carpentering and +the construction of trunks and boxes which sell well. +A number of looms are engaged in weaving canvas +for the manufacture of sails for the local shipping, +rough material for sacking and clothing of the convicts, +all in large quantities and to a really valuable +extent. These workshops are filled by the prisoners +in the first stage of their detention. The water-carriers +and clerks in the government office are in +the second period, and on reaching the third the convicts +obtain the privilege of going at large to accept +employment in the town "from gun to gun."</p> + +<p>The prison hospital is situated in this first district,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +an ancient edifice erected with part of the funds +subscribed in times past to purchase freedom for +Christian captives enslaved by the Barbary Moors. +The building is of good size, well ventilated, and enjoys +good hygienic conditions. But the defects and +shortcomings in Spanish administration extend even +to Ceuta and the prison hospital, which a local authority +says "is detestably organised and mounted +miserably." The roof is so slight that it affords +no proper protection in summer and the intense heat +of the blazing sun striking through is very injurious +to the patients. The medical resources are +small and inferior; the beds few and unclean; the +whole of the interior arrangements, furniture fittings +and appliances, insufficient and worn out. +There is no mortuary and to add a small detail in +proof of the imperfections, autopsies were performed +in a small den, part of the hospital proper, +without disinfectants and the essential appliances for +carrying out post mortems. Patients seldom made +a long stay in the hospital, for they were rarely admitted +until they had reached the last stages of an +illness and came in as a rule only to die.</p> + +<p>The second district contains the principal quarters +for convicts. One is in the chief barrack called +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cuartel principal</i> and another in the fortress <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el +Hacho</i>.<a name="Anchor-17" id="Anchor-17"></a><a href="#Footnote-17" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 17.">[17]</a> Some further evidence of their evil condition +may be extracted from an account given by +Salillas. "It is impossible to conceive," he writes, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>"a more unsuitable, unsavoury place for a prison. +The rooms and dormitories occupied by the convicts +are dark and gloomy, always damp, full of pestilential +odours and dirty beyond description. The floors +are of beaten earth, ever secure hiding places for all +forbidden articles, weapons, tools for compassing +escape, jars of drink, the fiery and poisonous <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i>. +It seems to me extraordinary," he goes on +to say, "that life under such conditions is possible. +A thousand and odd men who seldom if ever wash, +who never change their clothes, are crowded together +promiscuously in small, unclean, ill-ventilated, +noisome dens and must surely engender and propagate +loathsome epidemic disease." The fetid air is +foul with the noisome exhalations of many generations +of pestiferous people. It is one sink of concentrated +malaria—a reeking hot bed of infection. +The services of supply are carried out with abominable +carelessness: the kitchen is an abode of nastiness: +the cooking is performed by repulsive looking +convicts in greasy rags who plunge their dirty arms +deep into the seething mess of soup which they bail +out into buckets, a malodorous compound of the +colour and consistency of the mortar used in building +a wall.</p> + +<p>Close by is another quarter in which convicts are +lodged, <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i>, or the hilly ground or topmost +point of Ceuta on which is placed the citadel which +crowns the fortifications. It takes the overflow from +the principal barrack and is moreover generally oc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>cupied +by the worst characters, the most insubordinate +and incorrigible members of the prison population. +The rooms, as in the barrack below, are +dirty, overcrowded and insecure, but a few windows +of the upper story open on to the Mediterranean and +are not always protected by either wooden or iron +bars. <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El Hacho</i> contains within its limits a certain +number of solitary cells, well known and much +dreaded by the habitual criminals of Spain. They +are essentially punishment cells used in the coercion +of the incorrigible and are just as dark, damp and +wretched as the larger rooms. But the solitary inmate +in each cell is generally kept chained to the +wall or is as it is styled <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">amarrado en blanca</i>, nearly +naked and heavily ironed. The treatment is exemplary +in its cruelty, but does not necessarily cure +the subject. There was one irreclaimable upon +whom several years of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">calabozo</i> had had no effect. +He had been sentenced to be thus chained up +as the penalty for murderously wounding an overseer +in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i>, but he did not mend his manners. +On one occasion on the arrival of a new governor +all under punishment were pardoned. This convict +when sent out forthwith furiously attacked the first +warder he met and was again condemned to be +locked up as a ceaseless danger to the presidio. He +is remembered as little more than a youth, but with +a diabolical countenance and indomitable air.</p> + +<p>The district of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Barcas</i> does not contain a barrack +properly speaking, but there is a space cut in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +the thickness of the line wall entering a patio or +courtyard which gives upon seven rooms, some high, +some low; of these three and part of the yard were +filled with munitions of war, and a battery of artillery +was placed over the dormitories on their upper +floor. Many of the convicts are employed as boatmen +and watchmen in the port, others have charge +of the walls and carry water up to the guardhouses +on the higher level. They also attend to the service +of the drawbridge between the old and new town. +One who was employed as gatekeeper at the drawbridge +was well remembered. He was trusted to +call on all convicts who passed to produce their permits +of free circulation or to enter and leave the +fortress. He had a pleasant rubicund face, was one +armed, a little deaf, but with very sharp eyes, not +easily hoodwinked. He was a confirmed gossip who +picked up all the news which he retailed to all who +passed in and out. Escapes were of constant occurrence +at Ceuta, but few occurred by the drawbridge +of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Barcas</i>.</p> + +<p>Half way up the road from the town to the citadel +and the fort of the Seraglio was the Jadu barrack +which was occupied by the convicts who were +engaged in agricultural work, in making tiles and +burning charcoal. Many of these were foreigners +and negroes. The bulk of the residents was made +up of those who had completed three fourths of their +sentences and lived "under conditions," or in a +state of conditional or semi-freedom. There was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +little wrong-doing in Jadu, thefts were rare, fights +and quarrels seldom took place. The Seraglio was +a fortified barrack of rectangular shape occupied by +troops of the garrison and lodging an odd hundred +convicts labouring on adjacent farms in private +hands.</p> + +<p>It will be observed that the convicts established in +these last-named quarters beyond the walls do not +appear to exhibit all the unpleasant features attributed +to them by some writers in recording their +experiences of Ceuta.<a name="Anchor-18" id="Anchor-18"></a><a href="#Footnote-18" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 18.">[18]</a> No doubt the truth lies +somewhere between the two extremes but it is certain +that the chief penal colony of Spain shares to +a marked extent the drawbacks inseparable from all +forms of penal colonisation. We may see, beyond +all question, that at Ceuta no beneficial results are +achieved by the system. Criminals who undergo +the penalty are not improved by it; their reformation, +too generally a will-o'-the-wisp under the very +best auspices, is not even attempted, much less assured. +On the other hand, it is perfectly clear that +evil is perpetually in the ascendent, that criminal +tendencies are largely encouraged by the facilities +given in the education and practice of wrong doing; +that the presidio itself is a criminal centre where the +seeds of crime are sown and their growth fostered +despite the difficulties of distance and inconvenience. +The fear of penal exile is no deterrent to crime for +the simple reason that life in Ceuta is not particu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>larly +irksome and that the convict finds many compensations +there. The obligation to hard labour is +not strictly enforced. Man must work, but not hard +and chiefly for his own advantage, to gain the +means of softening and bettering his lot. He passes +his time very much as he pleases. Though he rises +with the sun, as is the universal custom of his country, +he turns out of bed without giving a thought to +personal cleanliness and proceeds to his appointed +labour leisurely, after disposing of his breakfast, +adding perhaps more toothsome articles of food, including +a morning drink of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> bought +from the hawkers and hucksters awaiting him at the +prison gates. He is dressed in prison uniform, but +it is sufficient and suitably varied with the season. +He is not hampered by fetters, as the ancient practice +of chaining convicts together in couplets has +long since ceased. The wearing of irons fell into +disuse years ago at the building of the great barrack +del Valle, when several deplorable accidents occurred +and it was found that chains interfered with +the free movement of workmen on scaffolding and +so forth. The idea was that irons should again be +imposed at the conclusion of the building; "but all +who thought so did not know Spanish ways, nor +the despotism of custom when once established."<a name="Anchor-19" id="Anchor-19"></a><a href="#Footnote-19" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 19.">[19]</a> +"To-day (1873)," says same writer, "there are +not fifty suits of chains in the storehouse and not +more than twenty are worn by special penalty and</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p> + +<p>by no means as a general practice." The convict +loafs about the rooms or courtyard or idly handles +the tools of his trade, gossiping freely with his comrades, +or taking a hand at <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">monte</i> or <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">chapas</i> with the +full permission of warders not indisposed to have +a "little on the games"; he finds easy means to +issue into the streets to carry on some delectable +flirtation; there may be a bull baiting afoot, a +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">novillos</i> in which all may join, or a theatrical performance +is being given by a convict company in +one of the penal establishments.</p> + +<p>The theatre is a passion with the average Spaniard +and the taste extends to those in durance. +Cases constantly occur in which popular plays have +been reproduced in prisons situated in the principal +cities. Salillas<a name="Anchor-20" id="Anchor-20"></a><a href="#Footnote-20" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 20.">[20]</a> states that almost all the prisons +of Spain had their theatre and he gives the names of +Burgos, Ceuta, Ocana, Valladolid, Saladero (Madrid) +and Alcalá de Henares. One writer who visited +the prison performance at Seville of a musical +piece, the "Viejas Ricas de Cadiz," said it was given +well and that the vocal talent was considerable in +that and other prisons. At the presidio of San +Miguel de los Reyes the convicts were heard singing +a chorus on Christmas Eve which was perfectly +executed and with great feeling.</p> + +<p>In the Valladolid gaol the theatre was regularly +installed by a company of forty convicts who had +contributed substantial sums for the purpose. It</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> +<p>had working committees with rules and regulations +formally sanctioned by the governor of the province. +The theatre with seats for an audience of four hundred, +and four private boxes holding twelve persons +each, was constructed in a building which afterwards +became the blacksmith shops. A refreshment room +was provided in which a contractor dispensed sweets +and pastry and strong drink; real actresses were +engaged from outside at a salary of a dollar for each +performance; invitations were issued to the free +residents and the convicts paid two reales for admission. +Well known, high class plays were produced, +comedies, dramas and comic operas.</p> + +<p>The whole proceeding was a caricature upon +prison discipline and the authorities who permitted +it were very properly sharply and severely condemned. +They exposed themselves to reproof and +worse for flagrant contempt of the most ordinary +restrictions in allowing women to pass in constantly, +and in permitting the sale of alcoholic liquors. That +a place of durance, primarily intended for the restraint +and punishment of evil doers should be converted +into a show and spectacle was an intolerable +misuse of power and a disgraceful travesty of the +fitness of things. The positive evil engendered was +seen in the wholesale escape of the theatrical company, +while the audience patiently waited in front +of the curtain which "went up" eventually on a +wholly unexpected performance.<a name="Anchor-21" id="Anchor-21"></a><a href="#Footnote-21" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 21.">[21]</a></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> +<p>In the matter of escapes Ceuta was famous. It +was not difficult to get away from that imperfectly +guarded stronghold when the convict had means to +bribe officers or buy a boat and had the courage to +make the voyage across the Straits of Gibraltar. +The story of one veteran convict who escaped from +Ceuta is interesting because he was driven to take +himself off by what he no doubt deemed the ill-judged +severity of his injudicious keepers. This +was an old brigand known as "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El Niño de Brenes</i>," +(the lad of Brenes), a name he must have earned +some time back for he was a man aged seventy when +he "withdrew" (the word is exact) from Ceuta. +He was a well-behaved, well-to-do convict of affable +address who had gained many staunch friends +among the officials and his own comrades. The +position he had created for himself was one of practical +ease and comfort; he lived in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i> pursuing +various industries, usury among the rest, and +gradually grew so rich that he gained possession of +a strip of land which he cultivated profitably and +kept a fine poultry yard as well as many sheep and +goats.</p> + +<p>El Niño was a tall well built old man, dark-skinned, +with abundant white hair. He was of +highly respectable appearance, very stout and sleek, +and, being on the best of terms with his masters, +he took upon himself to discard the prison uniform +and dress himself as an Andalusian peasant with +gaiters and red sash and <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sombrero calañes</i> (round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +hard hat). Not strangely this presumption displeased +the authorities and he was told that he must +conform to the rules and appear in the proper convict +clothing and cease to act as a money lender to +his poorer brethren. He received this intimation +with a smiling protest; he pointed out that he used +his influence in pacifying ill-conditioned convicts, in +staving off disturbances and preventing quarrels. +If his services were not better appreciated and he +was tied down to the strict observance of the ordinary +rules he would move further away; his remaining +in the presidio was quite a matter of favour +and he had always at his disposal the means to make +his escape, and if he were interfered with he would +take his departure. This impudent reply quite exasperated +the authorities, who thereupon resolved to +employ sharp measures. The facts as he had stated +them were more or less true and the blame lay really +with the faulty and inefficient régime in force. But +the authorities would not tamely submit to be defied +and a peremptory order was issued that he should +dispose of his private property by a certain date, +wind up his financial affairs and renounce all idea of +exceptional treatment. El Niño took this as a +threat to which there could be but one reply. He +gathered together his cash and portable property +and quietly disappeared. A hue and cry was raised; +the usual signals flew at the signal staff; all gates +and exits were closely watched; the police were unceasingly +active in pursuit, but the fugitive had laid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +his plans astutely and was never recaptured. Having +the command of ample means he doubtless used +them freely to purchase freedom by taking some +sure road past the frontier or across the sea.</p> + +<p>Allies and auxiliaries were never wanting to the +enterprising fugitive willing to pay liberally for assistance. +In one case a convict had the courage to +allow himself to be shut up in a chest half full of +tobacco and to be thus conveyed to Gibraltar, to +which it was returned as containing damaged goods. +Gibraltar is a free port and the chest was landed +without question. Then the consignee opened it +without delay and extracted the fugitive convict uninjured. +The last part of the story is somewhat incredible +and we may wonder why the fugitive did +not succumb to the discomforts of his narrow receptacle, +want of air, the exhalations of the tobacco and +the shakings and bumping of the box as it made its +voyage, albeit a short one, from Ceuta to the Rock.</p> + +<p>An escape on a large scale was effected from the +principal barrack when eighteen convicts descended +into the drains, and finding their progress unimpeded +threaded them safely and passing under the +outer wall reached the outlet to the sea. It happened +that the water was high and that there was +a great conflict of currents in which that setting +inward had most force and the exit was blocked by +the stormy waves. Some of the convicts committed +themselves to the waters but were washed back with +violence against the rocky fortifications and all of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +them in terror for their lives raised loud cries, calling +for help. The sentries gave the alarm, the +guards ran down and recaptured all the fugitives +but one, a fine swimmer who persisted in his attempt +and was swept seaward clear of the rough water till +he was able to regain the shore on the far side of +the Moorish sentries.</p> + +<p>The prison population of Ceuta is made up of a +number of motley, polyglot types of the many diverse +families that compose the Spanish race and of +other distinct nationalities. The Spaniards are generally +classified under two principal heads: the +Aragonese and the Andalusians. The first named +comprises all from the northern provinces who are +generally coarse, quarrelsome and brutal, sentenced +chiefly for crimes of violence, murders premeditated +and committed under aggravated circumstances, the +outcome of furious and ungovernable passion. The +Andalusian is of more generous character, lively and +light-hearted, but of unsettled disposition and much +impelled to attempt escapes. He is a chronic grumbler +constantly moved to complain, dissatisfied with +his rations and clamorous for special privileges. +The Aragonese on the other hand suffers long in +silence which leads eventually, after long brooding, +into mutinous combination. The Andalusian makes +his grievances heard by word of mouth, the Aragonese +rushes without notice into overt action and +organised attack. Another distinct section of the +Spanish race is the Galician and the native of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +Asturias, a sober, quiet and well-conducted people +at home, who exhibit great ferocity as convicts. +Sanguinary encounters are little known in these +provinces, but when an Asturian or Galician takes +the life of his enemy, he uses artifice and waylays +him, decoying him into an ambush and murdering +him often with horrible mutilation. A criminal +feature, peculiar to the women of these provinces, is +their addiction to the use of poison. Other Spanish +females will use violence and inflict lethal wounds +openly, but the Galician woman administers poison +secretly, deliberately choosing her victims among +her nearest relatives.</p> + +<p>The colonial empire of Spain, now a thing of the +past, contributed in its time a substantial contingent +of yellow and black convicts, Chinamen from the +Philippines and negroes from Cuba. It was a reprehensible +practice to associate these foreigners with +the European convicts and it produced many evils. +The Chinaman was often shamefully ill-treated. He +bore it patiently, but at times when goaded beyond +endurance, retaliated with bloodthirsty violence. +The story of one negro convict, a rather remarkable +person, is still remembered at Ceuta. He rejoiced +in the somewhat inappropriate feminine name of +Dolores, and despite his colour was a singularly +handsome man. He had a slight, active figure, a +highly intelligent face and a clear, penetrating eye. +His mental faculties were of a high order, although +he had received only an indifferent education. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +had the fondness of his race for fine clothes and although +conforming to the prison uniform wore it +with a certain distinction, improving and adding to +it where possible and having quite a gentlemanly +appearance. He had been guilty of a hideous murder +in Havana for which he had received a nearly +interminable sentence. His behaviour in gaol was +orderly and submissive and he always displayed the +utmost loyalty to his masters, who in return lightened +his lot as far as was possible.</p> + +<p>Dolores, as a rule, was of a patient disposition, +although he was easily roused into fits of violent +temper and could be at times, according to his treatment, +either a lion or a lamb. It seemed almost incomprehensible +that the mild eyes so calm and peaceable, +when he was unmoved, could blaze with sudden +fury or that his small delicately shaped hands +could fasten murderously on a fellow creature's +throat. Tyranny and oppression were intolerable +to him and he altogether declined to submit to be +domineered over by the chief bully in the prison. +His defiance led to an embittered conflict—a duel +fought out with knives—in which the black champion +conquered after inflicting many deep wounds +upon his antagonist. With his victory Dolores +gained also the implacable ill-will of his fellows. +They put him on his trial, in a corner of the principal +barrack and condemned him to death, which +would certainly have been inflicted had not the authorities +interposed to give him their protection.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +He was removed to <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Hacho</i> and placed in one of +the separate cells used generally for the punishment +of the incorrigible.<a name="Anchor-22" id="Anchor-22"></a><a href="#Footnote-22" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 22.">[22]</a> This was fatal to him. Two +water-carriers belonging to the hostile faction entered +the cell when Dolores was engaged in writing +with his back to the door, and throwing themselves +upon him gave him two mortal wounds under the +left shoulder. In this supreme moment Dolores put +forth his tremendous strength, caught his assailants +by their necks and broke them before the warders +could interfere on either side. Dolores died but he +is still remembered in the prison annals as one of +the most valiant and indomitable convicts who had +ever been detained in the presidio.</p> + +<p>Another alien convict to whom Relosillas pays a +high tribute was his own Chinese servant, a convict +known as "Juan de la Cruz, the Asiatic." He +seems to have been unceasingly loyal and devoted +in his service, an admirable cook, an indefatigable +nurse, a faithful watchman who guarded his effects +and secured his privacy. Juan had many accomplishments; +he could weave shade hats of the finest +palm fibre, he was as clever as any seamstress with +his needle; he was a first-class housemaid and laundress; +he could make a dollar go further in the +market than the most economical housewife. He +drove the most astonishing bargains with the hucksters +and purveyors of food, fish and game, with +which Ceuta was plentifully supplied. He had been</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> +<p>condemned to a long term for a murder committed +in Havana at a hotel, of which he was the chief +cook. In appearance he was younger than his years, +tall, thin, anæmic looking, shortsighted, with jet +black hair and oblique eyes. He was a man of great +intelligence, a dramatic author in Chinese and was +released before his time to accompany the Director +General of Prisons to Madrid as his cook. In the +end he started a fruit shop in the capital and prospered +greatly.</p> + +<p>An entirely different class of prisoners came to +Ceuta in considerable numbers from time to time,—those +exiled for political misdeeds. A whole discipline +battalion was composed of military offenders, +among them a number of artillerymen condemned +for the rising in Barcelona and crowds of Carlists +and those concerned in the so-called cantonal risings. +One or two politicals were strange characters, such +as the old soldier named "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el Cojo</i>" (the lame man) +of Cariñena, a conceited veteran very proud of his +many campaigns in which he had served, and who +went everywhere on donkey back, being infirm and +crippled. Another was the ex-curé of Berraonda, a +Biscayan priest of ferocious aspect, tall, corpulent, +dark-skinned, with an abundant snow white bushy +beard, which grew to his waist and which was left +untouched by the prison barber.</p> + +<p>Speaking in general terms of the whole body all +types of character were represented. Some when in +funds liked to pose as dandies with fine linen, smart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +shoes or rope sandals tied with ribbons and coloured +sashes (fajas); others, the larger number, were +coarse and brutal ruffians, without private means, +or too idle to acquire them by the labour of their +hands, much given to drunkenness and very quarrelsome +in their cups. The attitude of most convicts +is mute irritation against everyone, but they +especially hate their warders and superiors; they +are surly and forbidding in manner, silent as to their +past, little disposed to talk of their criminal adventures. +Yet they display the most contradictory +traits. Even when they have been guilty of the most +horrible misdeeds they often show a calm, innocent +face and are little vexed by conscience. One who +was noted for his submissive demeanour and who +in any trouble always sided with authority, was a +parricide who had killed his father under the most +revolting conditions.</p> + +<p>This youth, barely of age at the time of his crime, +had sought his father's consent to his marriage with +an unworthy character, and when refused, he retaliated +by beating in his parent's brain with a pickaxe. +The fit of homicidal fury which possessed him drove +him to kill his father's donkey also and the dog +which had been at his heels. Then, having satiated +his rage, he went home seemingly undisturbed, and +made some paltry excuse for his father's absence. +When the corpse was found he was arrested on suspicion, +but for want of more than circumstantial +evidence escaped the garrote, and was sent to Ceuta<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +for life. Yet this miscreant betrayed no outward +sign of the horrible passions that sometimes dominated +him, but was always placid and of an engaging +countenance. He was lamblike in his demeanour, +most attentive to his religious duties, never +missed a mass or failed to confess. He was devoted +to children and his greatest pleasure was to fondle +the baby child of one of the warders which he carried +about in his arms in the streets of Ceuta. He +seemed absolutely callous and insensible to the prickings +of conscience, but he showed in two ways that +he was consumed with remorse. When any reference +was made to his crime, at the slightest hint or +the vaguest question, a fierce look came into his eyes, +his mouth closed, his hand sought his knife and he +was ready to attempt some fresh act of violence. The +other sign of his mental distress was that he seldom +slept and never soundly or for long, and his nights +were disturbed with groans, deep sighs, even yells of +despair. Yet his general health was good, he ate +with appetite, maintained his strength well, and +there was no apparent mental failure. But he was +no doubt mad and under a more intelligent system +of jurisprudence he would have been relegated to a +criminal lunatic asylum. There is no record however +that at Ceuta he had been seized again by homicidal +mania.</p> + +<p>There were many other types of murderers in +Ceuta. The husbands who had killed their wives +formed a distinct group. Jealousy because of real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +or fancied injury led to the vindictive thirst for +revenge and this was more frequently found in the +peasant than in the higher and better educated +classes. Death had been inflicted in most cases by +violence, but one aggrieved Othello chose poison, rejoicing +in the acute suffering produced by arsenic. +Another, who was half a Frenchman, adopted the +French method of dismemberment, and to dispose of +the damning evidence of the corpse, cut it up into +small pieces and distributed them far and wide, but +could not hide them effectually. Extenuating circumstances +were allowed him and he went to Ceuta, +where he is said to have lived quite contentedly, +never regretting the savage act that had avenged his +dishonour and made him a widower.</p> + +<p>Ceuta made its own murderers. Duels to the +death were of constant occurrence as elsewhere, and +the authorities rarely interfered even when fatal +consequences ensued. On this point Relosillas +says: "During my stay of fourteen months in Ceuta +hardly an hour passed without a serious quarrel, not +a day when some one was not wounded, not a week +without a violent death in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Cuartel Principal</i>. +These troubles were due invariably to the same +causes, the admission of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aguardiente</i> and the facility +with which knives and lethal weapons could be obtained—points +already noted and discussed at the +beginning of this chapter. The drink was always +on tap, as it could be introduced without difficulty +through the dishonesty of the warders and the un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>limited +traffic with the townspeople. The weapons +were never wanting, as it was impossible to check +their presence, for no convict would be without his +long sharp knife ready for instant use.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">BRIGANDS AND BRIGANDAGE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Disordered state of Spain at the accession of Isabella—Brigandage +raised into an organised system by lawless nobility +and rebels—The revival of the Santa Hermandad or Holy +Brotherhood—This institution revived again in the 19th +century under the name of "Migueletes"—Attack on the +mail coach outside Madrid—The famous brigand José +Maria—His daring robberies in the Serrania—His early +life—English officers from Gibraltar captured and held to +ransom—Beloved and venerated by the peasants—In 1833 +appointed an officer of the Migueletes—Brigandage not +extinct in Spain—Don Julian de Zugasti appointed governor +of Cordova—Methods of procedure—The famous +robber Vizco el Borje—His seizure of Don Pedro de M.—Enormous +ransom extorted—Agua Dulce.</p></div> + + +<p>Brigandage, the form of organised highway robbery +practised by bands of thieves in countries where +roads are long and lonely and imperfectly guarded, +has been always popular with the Latin races. It +suited the tastes and temperament of reckless people +who defied the law and laughed at the attempt to +protect defenceless wayfarers. Their activity was +stimulated by the long wastes of rugged country that +separated the towns, giving harbourage and security +to the robbers who issued forth to prey upon travel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>lers +and easily retired to their rocky fastnesses and +escaped pursuit. These Ishmaelites have been especially +active in Spain and Italy and the aggressive +spirit that moved them is not yet entirely extinct. +More settled government has produced a more effective +police in these latter days, but acts of brigandage +in its latest development, that of "holding +up" modern means of conveyance, express trains, +bicycles and motor cars, have occurred, and may be +reasonably expected to increase.</p> + +<p>Brigandage is as old as the hills in Spain and +some of its earliest phases are well worth describing +before they are forgotten or replaced by newer processes. +We may look back and gather some idea of +those early days in Spain.</p> + +<p>When Isabella, the Catholic, ascended the throne +of Castile, she was called upon to govern a country +profoundly demoralised, infested with evil doers and +dominated by a turbulent and vicious nobility. The +throne was an object of contempt, the treasury +empty, the people poverty stricken, and the princes +of the Church rebellious and rejoicing in large +revenues. A lawless aristocracy hungry for independent +authority were fighting for their own lands +or conspiring secretly to overawe the Crown. Titled +alcaldes, traitors and rebels, openly raised brigandage +into a system, exacted tribute by blackmail from +the lower classes, and made unceasing war upon the +higher. Within the kingdom a rival pretender +aimed at the Crown. One near neighbour, Al<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>fonso +V of Portugal, menaced the peace of the country +and kept an army on the frontier; another, +Louis XI of France, crafty and unscrupulous, constantly +threatened war and held his army in Guipuscoa.</p> + +<p>In a few short years the whole aspect of the country +was changed. Isabella brought her rebellious +nobles to their knees, all of them asking pardon and +promising allegiance; the French army withdrew +hastily to France; the Portuguese was defeated and +expelled; the claimant to the throne was imprisoned +and numbers of high-born criminals suffered on the +scaffold. The great ecclesiastics disgorged much of +their wealth to buy forgiveness, the robber haunts +were attacked and destroyed, the high-roads became +perfectly safe, thieves and highwaymen took to honest +labour. Now the revenue was largely improved, +the law was respected, crime was actively pursued +and rigorously punished. But for the terrors and +cruelties practised by the Inquisition, Spain would +have enjoyed unbroken domestic peace and all the +benefits accruing from general good government. +These satisfactory results were largely achieved by +the excellent police organised by Isabella and her +husband, Ferdinand. The revival and consolidation +of the "Santa Hermandad" or Holy Brotherhood +which had always existed in the country districts to +secure peace and tranquillity, but heretofore wielding +smaller powers, worked wonders. A comprehensive +system was now introduced by which all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +parts were patrolled by well-armed guardians of the +law, mounted and on foot, who checked, prevented +or punished misdeeds. In every collection of thirty +houses or more two officials were appointed to deal +with all offenders according to a strict code. Every +thief when taken was punished with fine, flogging +and exile, in penalties proportioned to the amount +stolen. For more heinous offences his ears were cut +off and he got a hundred lashes, or yet again one of +his feet was amputated and he was peremptorily forbidden +to ride on a horse or mule at peril of his life. +A sentence of death was carried out by shooting +with arrows.</p> + +<p>This ancient Hermandad was at one time revived +in the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i>, a body of men organised early +in the nineteenth century to act as escorts to private +travellers, as the regular mails and diligences were +under the protection of troops provided by the Government. +The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i> were a semi-military force +composed of picked youths of courageous conduct, +wearing uniform and armed with a short gun, with +a sword, a single pistol and carrying a cord by +which to secure their prisoners. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i> +took their name from one Miguel de Pratz, who had +been a lieutenant of Caesar Borgia. They were +often recruited from the robbers who were offered +service as a condition of pardon when captured, and +afterwards behaved admirably. No one with an +escort of ten or twelve <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Migueletes</i> need fear attack.</p> + +<p>The mail coach was sometimes attacked, and on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +one occasion was stopped at Almuwadiel outside +Madrid. It carried several passengers, among +others an Englishman, a German artist and a Spaniard. +At the first appearance of the brigands, the +guard threw himself on the ground with his face in +the mud and the postillions did the same. When +summoned to deliver up their possessions, the Englishman +gave up his well filled purse and was warmly +thanked; the German artist would have been ill-treated +as a punishment for his empty pockets, but +was spared when his poverty was explained; the +Spaniard was caught attempting to conceal his valuables +in the carriage lining and narrowly escaped a +beating. The coach was at last permitted to proceed +and at parting the leader of the band shook hands +with the Englishman and said he was a real gentleman, +the German was ignored and the Spaniard was +sharply taken to task for his attempted "fraud."</p> + +<p>To this period (1825-35) belongs the famous +brigand, José Maria, the Spanish Fra Diavolo, +whose name is still remembered in the "Serrania" +or mountain country of Ronda and throughout +Southern Andalusia, for his daring robberies and +continual defiance of the authorities. A "pass" or +safe conduct granted by him was a better protection +than any official escort. So great was his power +that he was known by the proud title of "El Señor +del Campo" (the lord of the country), and he ruled +more absolutely in Andalusia than King Ferdinand +in Spain. Travellers paid him a head tax, black<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>mail +was levied on all public conveyances and, as +has been said, he issued passports at a price to all +who chose to pay for his protection. Strong bodies +of troops were sent against him, but he managed +always to elude or oppose them successfully.</p> + +<p>José Maria started in life as a small cultivator in a +village near Antequera, but, unable to earn a decent +living, he took to the more profitable business of +smuggling, a profession greatly honoured and esteemed +in Spain. In one of his operations he was +drawn into an affray with the soldiers and unfortunately +shot and killed one of them. He at once +fled to the mountains, where he was soon surrounded +by other no less reckless companions, all of them +outlaws like himself, and became the chief and +centre of the band which soon spread terror throughout +Southern Spain. His headquarters were in the +rugged and lofty mountain district of Ronda near +the little town of Grazalema, but he was ubiquitous +in his rapid movements and traversed the whole of +Andalusia. A story is preserved of an English +nobleman who travelled to Spain for the express +purpose of making his acquaintance but long sought +him in vain in his favourite haunts and much disappointed +retraced his steps to Madrid. But on the +road between Carmona and Ecija<a name="Anchor-23" id="Anchor-23"></a><a href="#Footnote-23" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 23.">[23]</a> he had the ques<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>tionable +good fortune to meet José Maria in person, +who thanked him courteously for the compliment he +had paid him in seeking an interview, in return for +which he proceeded to relieve his lordship of his +valuables and his baggage so that he might continue +his journey without encumbrance. He had many +ways of levying contributions. One was to send +a messenger to some landed proprietor, demanding +a large sum of money, and declaring that if it was +not paid he would swoop down to lay waste his +lands and burn his house over his head. Another +plan was to take post with his gang, all of them well +mounted and fully armed, on the highroad just outside +some populous city, and "hold up" every one +who passed in or out, seizing all ready money and +carrying off to some secret fastness all persons +known to possess means.</p> + +<p>English officers, part of the garrison of the Rock +of Gibraltar, did not escape the exactions of José +Maria. Once a shooting party in the woods near +Gibraltar was suddenly attacked and captured, but +after the first surprise they showed fight and a brigand +was wounded. The lives of all of them were in +danger but were saved on the persuasion of José +Maria that they would be more valuable as prisoners +for whom a large ransom would be obtained +than as corpses. One of the party was accordingly +sent to the Rock to procure the money while the +rest were detained as hostages for his return at a +certain hour the next day. The messenger was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +warned that if a rescue was attempted, the whole of +the prisoners would be instantly massacred. He +reached the Rock after gunfire, but the gates were +presently especially opened to admit him, the money +was collected, not without difficulty, and was conveyed +to the brigands in sufficient time to secure the +release of the captives. For some time later English +officers were forbidden to go into Spain except +in sufficient numbers to set the brigands at defiance. +In quite recent years (1871) two gentlemen, natives +of the Rock, were carried off and detained until a +large ransom was paid.</p> + +<p>José Maria dominated the country for nearly ten +years. The secret of his long continued impunity +may be traced to the fact that many of the local +authorities, influenced either by fear or interest, +were in collusion with him, and that the peasantry +all wished him success; for, as he never oppressed +them, but assisted and protected their smuggling +transactions in which they are nearly all, in one way +or other, engaged by opposing the regular troops, +he was greatly beloved and venerated. He was in +fact regarded as a hero; for such a life, wild and +adventurous, where there is plenty of plunder and +no laborious duty, has wondrous charms in the eyes +of the lower Andalusians, by whom the laws of +<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">meum</i> and <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">tuum</i> have never been well understood. +How long José might have continued in power it is +impossible to say, but like some other great personages +he chose to abdicate. In 1833, he made his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +terms with the Queen's government, agreeing to +break up his band on condition of receiving an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">indulto</i>, +or pardon for all past offences, and a salaried +appointment as an officer of Migueletes, or "police." +He did not long exercise this honest calling, for +soon after, when attempting to secure some of his +former comrades who had taken refuge in a farmhouse, +he was shot dead as he burst open the door.</p> + +<p>With all his bad qualities, José had some of a +redeeming character. Among these were his kindness +to his female prisoners, his generosity to the +poor, and his forbearance, for he frequently restrained +his troop from acts of violence, and displayed +on occasions a certain chivalrous nobility of +character, hardly to be expected from a robber. In +person he was very small, scarcely more than five +feet in height, with bowed legs; but he was stout, +strong and active and made amends in boldness, determination +and talent for his physical deficiencies. +His success and the long continued control which he +exercised over the lawless fellows who composed his +band proved that he possessed the difficult art of +command. His courage indeed was proverbial. As +an instance of it, it is reported that he once ventured +into the presence of the Prime Minister at Madrid +and dared to beard him in his own house.</p> + +<p>Brigandage has not wholly disappeared in Spain +although it no longer exists on the grand scale of +former days when the mountain passes and lesser +highways were infested by robber bands led by dar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>ing +and unscrupulous chiefs who stopped travellers, +blackmailed landed proprietors and carried off country +folk whom they held to ransom often for considerable +sums. To-day, if the knights of the road +are still to be met with occasionally, they are for the +most part paltry pilferers bent on stealing small +sums from the poorer folk returning from market, +or in rare cases holding up some solitary vehicle and +its defenceless passengers. These are of the type of +the old fashioned <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">salteadores</i> or "jumpers," so +named because they jumped out from behind a rock +and dropped suddenly on their prey with the old +peremptory summons of "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca abajo!</i>" "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca +à tierra!</i>" "Faces down! Mouth to the ground!" +The cry may still be heard, and it means mischief +when backed as of old by the muzzle of a gun protruding +from the bushes in some narrow pass or +defile. They are courageous too, these Spanish road +agents, ready to fight at need as well as to rob, to +overbear resistance and to meet the officers of the +law with their own weapons. A story is told of one +daring ruffian, Rullo de Zancayro, who, in 1859, +murdered the alcalde of his village and was followed +by two <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>. At the end of a long +chase they went too near some brushwood, when one +was shot dead and the fugitive made good his escape.</p> + +<p>In the year 1870 brigandage was general throughout +Spain, but the heart and centre of it was the +province of Andalusia, with branches and rami<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>fications +everywhere, spreading dismay and apprehension +among all peaceable people. This was in +the interregnum that followed the revolution which +drove Queen Isabella from the throne. There was +safety for no one. Respectable landowners dared +not visit nor reside upon their estates for fear of +attack, dreading robbery with violence or seizure of +their persons, and they constantly received threatening +letters demanding the purchase of immunity on +the payment of considerable sums. The roads were +more than ever insecure, trains and diligences were +repeatedly held up, and small parties of travellers or +solitary wayfarers were certain to be laid under contribution. +It was claimed that the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>, +the fine rural police, were no longer active but were +diverted from their legitimate duties by political +party leaders in power. So many bitter complaints, +so many indignant demands for protection, reached +the central government in Madrid, that the authorities +resolved to put down brigandage with a strong +hand. A new governor of Cordova was appointed, +a man of vigour and determination, armed with full +powers to purge the province of its desperadoes.</p> + +<p>The choice fell upon Don Julian de Zugasti y +Saenz, who had been a member of the Cortes and +employed as civil administrator, first as governor of +Teruel, where he had restored order in a period of +grave disorder, and at Burgos, where he had laid +bare a formidable conspiracy against the government. +When Zugasti undertook the task, it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +high time to adopt energetic measures. There was +no security for life or property as robberies on a +large scale were perpetrated both in town and country. +Well-to-do citizens were seized in the public +streets and carried off to sequestration; farmers +and cultivators were compelled to share their produce, +their harvests, and their herds with the brigands +who swooped down on them; the police were +impotent or too much overawed to interfere in the +interest of honest folk. The prevailing anarchy +and widespread lawlessness were a disgrace to any +country that called itself civilised. Zugasti did a +great work in restoring order and giving security +to the disturbed districts. The whole story is told +at some length in his book on "Bandolerismo,"<a name="Anchor-24" id="Anchor-24"></a><a href="#Footnote-24" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 24.">[24]</a> +which deals with brigandage in Spain from its very +beginnings, describing the principal feats of the banditti.</p> + +<p>At the outset he was faced with a most difficult +situation. Crimes in great number had been committed +with impunity. Many of their perpetrators +were wholly hidden from the authorities, while +others were perfectly well known. A crowd of spies +were ever on the watch and ready, whether from +greed or to curry favour, with abundant information +of openings that offered for attempts at crime. +On the other hand the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i> were greatly +discouraged and far too weak in numbers for the</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p> +<p>onerous duties they were expected to perform. +Judges were dishonest and had been known to accept +bribes, the ordinary police were torpid, nearly +useless and generally despised. A complete reform +in the administration of justice was a crying need, +as the power and authority of the law were completely +broken down.</p> + +<p>The new governor was helpless and handicapped +on every side. His representations to the government +for support were but coldly received and he +had to rely on such scanty means as he had at hand. +He looked carefully into the character of all police +employés and dismissed all of doubtful reputation. +He established a system of supplying the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias +civiles</i> at all stations with photographs of criminals +at large whom they could identify and arrest, and +insisted on strictly revising the permits issued to +carry arms, allowing none but respectable persons +to do so. The prohibition was extended to all kinds +of knives, many of them murderous weapons of the +well known type. The quarters of all evil doers +he heard of were broken up, including the farm +which had come to be called Ceuta because it harboured +a mob of ex-convicts, escaped prisoners who +were eager to resume their depredations by joining +themselves to the plans and projects of others.</p> + +<p>These active measures were bitterly resented and +vigorously resisted by all evil doers, who went so +far as to seek the removal of the governor, and it +was falsely announced in more than one newspaper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +that he had sent in his resignation. The disastrous +consequence was the immediate revival of brigandage +in various forms. Horses and cattle were once +more stolen in the open country and a house in the +town of Estado was broken into and a large amount +in cash and securities with much valuable jewelry +was seized. At the same time ten prisoners escaped +in a body from the gaol of that city. On the highroad +between Posadas and Villaviciosa, seven armed +men robbed nineteen travellers, and a party had the +audacity to carry off a child of nine and hold him to +ransom. The police and well-disposed people were +greatly disheartened, the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>, which had +done excellent service in capturing more than a hundred +prisoners in a short time, slackened in their +endeavours, while the municipal police, which had +forty captures to its credit, also held their hand. +The whole situation was greatly aggravated and +crime gained the ascendancy. But Zugasti rose to +the occasion, publicly denied the report of his resignation; +the government published a complimentary +decree commending his conduct, and his pursuit of +wrong doers was continued with renewed energy. +Naturally he incurred the bitterest hostility and went +constantly in danger of his life. He received anonymous +letters containing the most bloodthirsty +threats and was warned by his friends that they +could not possibly support or protect him. Undeterred +he held his way, bravely and wisely organised +an association akin to the "Regulators" of the wild<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +days in the Western States of the United States to +patrol the country and insure the general safety, and +employed a large force of secret police agents to +perambulate the country, keeping close watch upon +suspicious persons, travelling by all trains, patrolling +all roads, visiting taverns in low quarters, entering +the prisons in disguise and gaining the confidence of +the fellow prisoners. Zugasti himself spent long +periods in the various gaols, observing, investigating +and interviewing notable offenders.</p> + +<p>The thoroughness of his proceedings might be +gathered from the choice he made of his agents. +One of the most useful was an idiot boy, whose +weak-mindedness was relieved by some glimmerings +of sense and who passed entirely unsuspected +by those upon whom he spied. His foolish talk and +silly ways gained him ready admission into cafés +and clubs, where he was laughed at and treated as +a butt upon whom food, drink and unlimited cigars +were generously bestowed. He had the gift of remaining +wide awake while seeming to be sound +asleep, his ears ever on the stretch to pick up compromising +facts which were openly mentioned before +him. He had also a prodigious memory and +seldom forgot what he heard, storing up everything +to be produced later when he attended upon the +governor. In this way Zugasti often heard of +crimes almost as soon as they were planned, and +could hunt up their perpetrators without delay. On +one occasion a mysterious crime was unravelled by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +placing the idiot in the same cell with two of the +suspected actors, who entirely believed in the imbecility +of their cell companion and unguardedly revealed +the true inwardness of the whole affair.</p> + +<p>The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">ladron en grande</i>, the "robber chief" at the +head of a numerous band, is still to be met with, +although rarely representing the type of the famous +José Maria. These leaders rose to the command of +their lawless fellows by force of superior will, and +they were unhesitatingly obeyed and followed with +reckless devotion in the constant commission of +crime. One or two noted specimens have survived +till to-day and some account of them may be extracted +from recent records.</p> + +<p>Vizco el Borje was long a terror to the peaceable +people in northern Andalusia. He was originally +an officer of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">carabineros</i>, the "custom house" regiment +of Spain, but had been, in his own judgment, +unjustly dismissed and found himself deprived of +the means of subsistence. Falling lower and lower, +step by step he became an outcast, an Ishmaelite +consumed with an intense hatred of all social arrangements, +with his hand against every man. He +began business as a smuggler and soon took to +worse, following the Spanish proverb:—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class="verse">"De contrabandista e ladron</div> +<div class="verse">No haymas que un escalon."</div> +</div></div></div> + +<p>"There is only one short step from smuggler to +thief," and Vizco quickly crossed the narrow space<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +and became a notorious criminal. He carried on +the war against law and order with constantly increasing +recklessness and more and more daring +outrages. His strong personal character, his iron +will, his unbounded courage and boldness gave him +a great ascendancy over the men who collected +around him and who served him with the greatest +loyalty and unstinting effort. One of his exploits +may be quoted at some length as exhibiting his +methods and the success that generally attended +them.</p> + +<p>A certain landowner, Don Pedro de M——, whose +estates were in the neighbourhood of the mountain +village of Zahrita, was in the habit of providing bulls +free of charge for the amusement of the villagers, +at the annual festival of their patron saint. Amateur +bull fighters are always to be found to take part +in the performance of a <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">novillos</i>, or game with +young bulls. Don Pedro like many of his class was +also an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">aficionado</i>, an amateur devoted to bull fighting, +and he loved to pick out himself the animals +he gave from his herds, trying first their temper and +their aptitude for the so-called sport of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">tauromaquia</i>. +He was thus engaged, assisted by his steward and a +herdsman, and had dismounted with the steward to +walk round the herd, when the ominous cry was +raised, "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Boca abajo!</i>" and they found themselves +covered by the rifles of three brigands who had +crept upon them unobserved. Resistance was hopeless, +though they also were armed, for their guns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +hung at the saddles of their horses, which they led +at the full length of their reins, and to have made +any hostile move would have drawn down a murderous +fire. The chance soon passed, for one of the +robbers quickly took possession of both horses and +guns. The seizure was complete and the captors +proceeded to carry off their prize.</p> + +<p>All remounted by order of the chief of the band, +who took the lead, and the party started in single +file along the narrow mountain path, an armed escort +bringing up the rear. They made straight for +the upper sierra, avoiding the frequented track until +they reached a dense thicket, where a halt was +called and a scout sent on ahead. After an interchange +of whistled signals, nine other horsemen +rode up, the two prisoners were ordered to dismount, +their eyes closely bandaged, and they were warned +that their lives depended upon their implicit obedience +to the orders they received. Then the march +was resumed. The road led constantly upward, +becoming more and more rugged and precipitous +till from the utter absence of brushwood and the +stumbling of their horses they knew that they were +climbing through a mountainous region. Another +halt was called, all again dismounted, and the prisoners +were led on foot along a narrow passage, that +from the echoing sounds and the closeness of the +air evidently penetrated far into the hill. It opened +presently into an extensive cavern, probably the +long-abandoned workings of some ancient Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +mine. Here their bandages were removed and Don +Pedro saw that he was in the presence of the three +bandits who had first made him prisoner. The +cave contained nothing but a few empty boxes, on +one of which was a light, a flickering wick in a saucerful +of oil. Another box was offered Don Pedro +as a seat, writing materials were produced and he +was desired to write from dictation as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Father</span>, I am in the power of the 'Sequestradores,' +who make good plans and bind fast. +It is madness to put the government on their track—they +will escape and you will lose your son. Your +secrecy and your money can at once free me. You +can send the silver by Diego our steward, who is +the bearer of this. Let him appear on the mountain +between Grazalema and El Bosque, riding a +white donkey and bringing ten thousand dollars."</p></div> + +<p>Here the prisoner stopped short and point blank +refused to demand so large a sum, declaring that +to pay it his brothers would be robbed of their patrimony +and that he had no right to ask even when +his life was at stake for more than his individual +share as one member of a large family. It was a +fair argument and he held out so staunchly that the +brigand was pleased to reduce the demand to six +thousand dollars. The letter conveying these terms +was then completed, signed and delivered to Diego, +who was told to make the best of his way to Xeres,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +and as dawn had now broken he had no difficulty in +finding the road.</p> + +<p>Don Pedro was hospitably entertained. A wine +skin (<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">borracha</i>) was broached and a plentiful supper +laid out. The day was spent in sleep, but at +nightfall the march was resumed. The prisoner was +once more blindfolded, the weary pilgrimage, halting +by day, travelling by night for three nights in +succession, was resumed. On one occasion he +seemed near rescue. A cry of "Civiles! Civiles!" +was raised, an alarm of the near approach of the +much dreaded <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i>. Orders were +promptly issued to prepare for action. The brigands +closed their ranks, sent their prisoner to the +rear and took post to open fire. In the confusion +Don Pedro, keenly alert for the deliverance that +seemed so near, managed to lift the bandage over his +eyes sufficiently to peep around. The party stood +on a narrow ledge of the mountain side, straight +cliff above, sheer drop below: movement forward +or back was alone feasible. Meanwhile the increasing +clatter of hoofs betrayed the enemy's approach, +nearer and nearer, and the brigands barring the +narrow road hoped to take them at a disadvantage +and, after shooting them down, make good their +retreat. But the sight of the first horse showed that +it had been a false alarm. These were not "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Civiles</i>" +but "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Contrabandistas</i>," smugglers not policemen, +friends not foes. A long train of animals, heavily +laden with goods that had paid no duty, were being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +guided across the mountains. Don Pedro's hopes +were crushed out of him when he heard the interchange +of friendly greetings: "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Muy buenas +noches!</i>" on one side and "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Vayan ustedes con +Dios</i>," on the other; "Good night!" and "Go in +God's keeping," and room was made by the robbers +for the safe passage of the smuggling train.</p> + +<p>On the third day news came that the authorities +were on the alert and it would be unsafe to meet +the messenger returning on his white donkey. Another +tryst was therefore appointed. Don Pedro's +father was desired to send half the whole sum demanded +to Grazalema and the other half was carried +by a man on the white donkey to a lonely spot +among the hills. The father started in person on +the long ride from Xeres to Grazalema weighted +with three thousand dollars in cash, reached his destination +safely but remained there for a couple of +days tortured with suspense. On the third morning +he was approached by a man leading a pony +laden with rolls of the rough brown cloth manufactured +in Grazalema, who said under his breath as +he passed, "Follow me." The peddler led the way +to a small draper's shop where the same cloth was +exposed for sale and, dismounting, passed into the +back premises, where another man, also a peddler, +was seated waiting. This was Vizco el Borje himself, +who at once asked for the money, producing +Don Pedro's pencil case as his credentials. The dollars +had been sewn for security into the pack saddle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +of the pony which had brought the old man, and +they were extracted, counted and handed over. +Vizco forthwith climbed on top of the pile of cloth +carried by his own mount and rode boldly out of +the town.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Diego, the steward on the white donkey, +with the remaining three thousand dollars patiently +hung about the mountain lair to which he +had been directed, and at last encountered a goatherd +at the entrance of the village, who told him to +ride on till he met a woman dressed in black seated +by the side of a well. "She will ask you the time, +and you will answer twelve o'clock, at which she +will guide you to the spot where you are expected." +It was a cavern in the hill and he was met there by +his young master Don Pedro safe and sound. The +money was handed over, but no release was permitted +until news came of the delivery of the other +half, when the prisoners were guided to a path familiar +to them and they were free to return home. +Next evening they rode into Xeres after a captivity +of fifteen days.</p> + +<p>The end of Vizco el Borje was such as might be +expected. He was shot down by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias +civiles</i>. For a long time he carried his life in his +hands and had many hairbreadth escapes, saved +always by his fine pluck and resourcefulness. At +last the authorities had positive information of his +whereabouts, gained through treachery, and he was +surrendered. He made a gallant defence, but his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +retreat was cut off and he was soon overpowered. +When he fell his body had been pierced by five rifle +bullets.</p> + +<p>Another type of brigand was Agua Dulce, who +worked on a much smaller scale, but was long a +terror in the neighbourhood of Xeres. He was a +mean, contemptible ruffian who preyed upon charcoal +burners, poor travellers, carriers and workmen +returning home with their hard earned wages. He +had one narrow escape. After securing an unusually +large sum, the equivalent of £600, all in small +coins, he was caught dividing these with two accomplices +in a wine shop. His arrest and imprisonment +followed. When called upon to account for his possession +of the gold, Agua Dulce explained that he +had got it in the course of a business transaction in +Seville and was removed to that city for trial, where +he was acquitted, although little doubt was entertained +of his guilt.</p> + +<p>For years he continued his depredations, committing +for the most part small thefts and petty larcenies. +Now and again he made bold coups, as when, +under threat of damaging a herd of valuable mares, +he extorted three thousand dollars from a lady who +raised horses. He levied a thousand dollars on another +landowner by using the same menace and a +third gentleman, who had stoutly refused to be +blackmailed and who owned a large drove of donkeys, +found them all with their throats cut lying +by the high road. When his misdeeds became too<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +numerous to be borne the municipal guard of Gorez +swore to put an end to him. A hot pursuit was +organised and he was found at a ford near a wood +belonging to the Duke of San Lorenzo, where he +was caught hiding among the trees. Two guards +opened fire, which was returned, with the result that +one guard was killed and one robber. Agua Dulce, +who was still alive, got into the covert, and shots +were again and again exchanged, ending in the +destruction of the brigand.</p> + +<p>A later affair with brigands occurred at Gibraltar +in 1870, when two gentlemen, natives of the Rock, +much given to hunting and taking long rides in the +neighbourhood, were waylaid and made prisoners. +They were carried off to a lonely house in the hills +near Ronda and detained for ransom, which was +advanced by the British government through the +governor of the fortress of Gibraltar, and eventually +repaid by the Spanish authorities. After the money +had been paid over the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guardias civiles</i> intercepted +the robbers and shot them down.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph3">A BRIGHT PAGE IN PRISON HISTORY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Wonderful results achieved by Colonel Montesinos in the +presidio at Valencia—Montesinos repairs and reconstructs +the prison with convict labour—His system of +treatment—Period—Marvellous success in reforming +criminals—Convicts entrusted with confidential despatches +in civil war—Armed to resist attack on the prison by insurgents—Employed +to hunt down brigands—Movement +towards prison reform in 1844—Three new model prisons +planned for Madrid—Executions—The "garrote"—Account +of the trial and execution of José de Rojas—The +condemned cell at the Saladero—An Englishman's description +of a Spanish execution.</p></div> + + +<p>The reader who has followed this detailed description +of Spanish penal methods has realised the +hideous shortcomings of Spanish prisons, the horrible +practices so constantly prevailing within the +walls, the apparently incurable nature of the criminals +who regularly fill them, and he might reasonably +doubt that definite and substantial amendment was +possible. Yet the contrary is true and to the most +marked and astonishing degree if we are to believe +the facts on record. In one instance the personal +character of one man, backed by his unshaken determination +and the exercise of a resolute and inflex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>ible +will, brought a large mass of convicts into an +admirable condition of self-control and good behaviour. +The story reads like a fairy tale, as set +forth in contemporary chronicles. One of the most +interesting accounts is to be found in a book of +travels entitled "Spain as It Is," by a Mr. Hoskins, +in which he gives his personal observations of the +results achieved in the prison at Valencia by the enlightened +administration of its Governor, Colonel +Montesinos. A brief account of the man himself +should precede our appreciation of his work.</p> + +<p>Montesinos was a soldier, trained to arms, whose +education and experience were entirely military. +He had no previous acquaintance with or insight +into prison systems, although he had travelled far +and wide in many countries. He had never visited +or inspected their penal establishments nor had he +penetrated into any single prison in his native Spain. +He served in the Spanish army, beginning as a cadet +at fourteen, was actively engaged in the war of Independence, +and was carried off as a prisoner into +France. When set free at the conclusion of peace, +he accepted a post in the secretariat of the War +Office at Madrid, where he remained for five years. +Then came the political troubles which ended in the +fall of the constitutional government in 1823 and +the surrender of Cadiz. With many other soldiers +and citizens, he left Spain and wandered through +Europe and America, with no very definite idea of +examining into the laws and customs of other coun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>tries, +but gaining knowledge and breadth of views. +On his return to Spain when close on forty years +of age he was appointed governor of the convict +prison in Valencia.</p> + +<p>Montesinos entered upon his duties with a firm +conviction of the paramount importance of military +discipline, of that passive and unquestioning obedience +to authority, the absolute surrender of individual +volition, the complete subjection of the many to +the single will of one superior master, which he +believed to be the essence of all personal government +and more particularly in a prison. To enforce +such discipline was the only effectual method of securing +good order and the due subordination of the +rough and possibly recalcitrant elements under his +command. In this he entirely succeeded and established +an extraordinary influence over his charges. +He became an autocrat but in the best sense; his +prisoners resigned themselves submissively and unhesitatingly +to his control, anxious to gain his good +will by their exemplary demeanour and their unvarying +desire to behave well. What he actually +made of his charges, how he succeeded in changing +their very natures, in transforming lawbreakers and +evil doers into honest, trustworthy persons, successfully +restraining their evil instincts, will be best +realised by a few strange facts which, if not positively +vouched for, would be considered beyond belief. +But before relating these marvellous results +it will be well to describe in some detail the processes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +adopted by him and the principles on which he +acted.</p> + +<p>When Colonel Montesinos was appointed governor +of the Valencian convent prison, it was located +in an ancient mediæval edifice known as the +"<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Torres de Cuarte</i>," two towers flanking the great +gate which gave upon the suburb known as "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">El +Cuarte</i>." This semi-ruinous building, dating from +the fifteenth century, lodged about a thousand prisoners, +herded together in a number of dark, dirty, +ill-kept and insecure chambers, wholly unfit for +human habitation. They were on several floors +communicating by narrow passages and tortuous +staircases, below which were deep underground cellars +divided up into obscure foul dungeons, which +were always humid from the infiltration from the +city ditch and into which neither sunlight nor fresh +air came to dry up the damp pavement and the +streaming walls. Montesinos saw at once that it +would be impossible to introduce reforms in such a +building and he laboured hard to move into better +quarters, securing at length, after a long correspondence, +new quarters in the monastery of St. Augustine, +which indeed was but little better. Here also +the buildings had fallen into disrepair. A large part +was without roof, there was little flooring, and +many broken windows and decayed walls offered +numerous facilities for escape. Extensive repairs +were indispensable, yet funds were wanting, for the +Spanish government was sorely taxed to meet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +expenses of the civil war (Carlist) now in full +swing. Nevertheless Montesinos, strenuous and +indefatigable, a host in himself, transferred his +people, a thousand convicts of dangerous character, +into their new abode and set them to work to repair +and reconstruct the old building. He meant to succeed, +by drawing upon his own limitless energies, +creating means from his own native resources, and +was backed by the ready response of those he +brought under the dominion of an indomitable will.</p> + +<p>All difficulties yielded before his intense spirit. +He was the very incarnation of activity and it was +enough to look at him to be spurred on to assiduous +effort. His personal traits and their effect upon his +surroundings are thus described by his biographer, +Vincente Boix,—"There can be no doubt that his +martial air, his tall figure and the look in his face, +a mixture of imperious command with great kindliness +and shrewd appreciation of willing effort, had +a marked effect upon his people, and convicts who +had been once coerced and driven by the fear of +punishment yielded much more readily to his moral +force. His obvious determination and strength of +character got more out of them than threats or penalties, +although, if needs were, he was ready enough +to appeal to the strong arm. They acknowledged +his superiority, and rough undisciplined men, quite +capable of rising against authority when unchecked +or weakly held, succumbed to his lightest word like +children to their father. They yielded even against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +the grain absolute compliance to his lightest wish +without needing a sharp look or a cross word."</p> + +<p>It will be interesting to follow Montesinos' +procedure. Under his system the treatment was +progressive and divided into three periods; first, +that of chains; second, that of labour; and third, +that of conditional liberation. This arrangement is +in some respects akin to that generally known as +the "Irish" system as practised many years ago +with conspicuous success.</p> + +<p>(1) The wearing of irons at that time was general +in Spain, although now the practice has fallen +into disuse. With Montesinos the rule was to impose +irons of varying weight graduated to the length +of sentence. A two years' man carried them of +four pounds' weight; a four years' man of six +pounds, while between six and eight years they were +of eight pounds. They consisted of a single chain +fastened to a fetter on the right ankle, while the +other end was attached to a waist belt, a method +supposed to cause no great inconvenience. With +Montesinos the period of wearing them was of short +duration. It terminated on the day that the convict +petitioned for regular employment, for on first reception, +after having entered the first courtyard, +which was kept bright with garden flowers and the +songs of many birds in cages hanging around, the +new arrival was given no work. He remained at +the depot idle and silent, for no conversation was +permitted, although he was associated with others,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +and if he put a question to a neighbour he got no +reply. Weariness and boredom soon supervened in +this period of first probation and the convict was +keen to pass on. He appealed to his officer, who +told him to seek employment at some trade. "I +know none." "Then learn one, you cannot get +quit of your irons in any other way." If the convict +hesitated he was left studiously to himself, unhappy +and ashamed, for his condition was deemed +disgraceful. He could not hold his head up, for a +wide gulf separated him from others who had escaped +the chain. He was a marked man, shunned +and sneered at, and was required to work from the +second day at ignominious and humiliating labour, +such as sweeping, cleaning, and so forth. They +were the helots and scavengers of the prison. Their +lot was the more unbearable because they were debarred +from many privileges conferred on those +who were at regular labour, and who were earning +wages to spend in part upon themselves. These +regular labourers might buy toothsome food and +cigars, the delight of every Spaniard's heart. +Meanwhile the governor had been watching him +closely, noting his disposition and whether or not +he was desirous of taking up work which was so +much to his advantage and of which he would be +speedily deprived unless he applied himself to it +with zeal and unflagging industry.</p> + +<p>(2) A wide choice of labour obtained in Valencia. +Trades and handicrafts were varied and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +numerous. Carpenters, turners, saddlers, shoemakers, +fanmakers, workers with esparto grass, +weavers of palm straw hats, silk spinners, tailors, +basket makers, were all represented, and the total +was some forty trades, with seven hundred artisans. +To-day there would be nothing remarkable in this +industrial activity, which may be seen in well governed +prisons, but in Valencia at that date +(1835-40) it was a novelty due very largely to +Montesinos' initiative, and he could boast that out +of three thousand convicts, barely a fourth left +prison without having acquired some smattering of +a trade. Stress must not be laid upon the exact +amount of skill possessed by these prison taught +artisans, and it is to be feared that it was no more +thorough than in these latter days of ours, when the +same principles as those of Montesinos have actuated +prison administration. This is the crux of the +system of prison instruction. It cannot be expected +to turn out workmen sufficiently well trained and +expert to go out into the open labour market, so +generally overcrowded, and compete for wages +against the free labourer who has had the benefit +of full apprenticeship. Adults cannot easily acquire +knowledge and dexterity in the use of tools, and +inevitable waste of materials accompanies the experiments +made by unskilled hands. We have no +record of how far these drawbacks affected Montesinos' +well-meant practice.</p> + +<p>(3) We have no facts to show how far the third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +period, that of conditional liberation, was successful +at Valencia. There is no possibility of knowing +definitely whether it was really tried or went beyond +the enunciation of the theory so long in advance +of our modern practice. It is little likely, +however, that the effective and elaborate method of +police supervision on which it is absolutely dependent +was in existence or even understood in Spain +in the days of Montesinos.</p> + +<p>No permanent results seemed to have been +achieved by the Montesinos system. There is no +record that it survived the man who created it or +that the government sought to extend the admirable +principles on which it rested. It was essentially a +one man system, depending entirely for success on +the personal qualities of the individual called upon +to carry it out. Montesinos was not, however, singular +in his remarkable achievement. The German +Obermaier did much the same in the prison of Kaiserslautern, +and Captain Maconochie in Norfolk +Island exercised a notable mastery over the Australian +convicts. The effects produced by Montesinos +were little less than phenomenal. He so developed +the probity of his convicts that he could +rely implicitly upon their honesty and good faith. +During the civil war he sent them with confidential +despatches to commanders in the field and never had +cause to regret the trust placed in them. They were +sent out as scouts seeking information of the +enemy's movements and brought in news with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +punctuality and despatch. A message was brought +one day to the governor directing him to send a +clerk to fetch a thousand dollars from the provincial +Treasury. Montesinos forthwith summoned one of +his convicts and despatched him, carrying with him +the receipt for the money. Within half an hour the +man returned with the dollars. Whenever a convict +escaped from the presidio, a rare occurrence +indeed, other convicts were despatched in pursuit +and seldom failed to bring in the fugitive.</p> + +<p>At one time the Spanish government decided to +build a new prison in the capital and to employ convict +labour in the construction. The Governor of +the presidio of Valencia was ordered to send up a +number of prisoners, and next day at daylight they +marched, taking with them a quantity of material, +the whole escorted by a small body of <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">cabos</i>, "prisoner +warders," and commanded by a veteran overseer. +The journey was safely made to Madrid +without the smallest mishap, not a sign or symptom +of misbehaviour shown on the road, and the alcaldes +of the towns on the route, after anticipating the +worst evils, were agreeably surprised and were satisfied +to lodge the travellers at night in private +houses if there was no prison accommodation. A +second experiment of the kind was made in the +same year.</p> + +<p>On a previous occasion Valencia was threatened +by a strong force of Carlists under that distinguished +Carlist general, Cabrera, and it was feared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +that he would capture a large body of convicts at +that time employed on a new road, Las Cabrillas, a +little distance from the city. There were hardly +any troops in the capital except the city militia only +recently organised and barely equal to the duties +and dangers imposed upon them. Great fears were +entertained that Cabrera would seize the convicts +and incorporate with his own force. Montesinos +was desired to prevent this, and he turned up in person +one evening at Las Cabrillas, where he assumed +command and drew off the greater number, happily +escaping without attack or interference by the +enemy. So loyal was the demeanour of the Valencian +prisoners that under the direction of Montesinos +at another time they were armed and resisted an +attack made upon the gates of their convent prison +by the insurgents in a rising in Valencia. The following +extraordinary story is related in an official +publication by the well known poet Don Ramon de +Campoamor, at that time governor of the province +of Valencia. A formidable band of brigands was +devastating the neighbourhood of Valencia and a +reign of terror prevailed. The governor sent for +Colonel Montesinos and inquired whether there +were any old brigands among the convicts in custody +and who were willing to atone for past misdeeds +by coming to the assistance of the authorities. +Montesinos, who made it a rule to know all his prisoners +by heart, their present dispositions, and indeed +their inmost thoughts, spoke confidently of one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +as quite a reformed character, and at the governor's +request entrusted him with the special mission of +clearing out the country. The convict, after receiving +his instructions, went out with a sufficient escort, +hunted down the brigands, broke up their bands, +killing or capturing the whole. Here the commanding +influence of Montesinos was paramount even +beyond the walls of the presidio. By the power of +his strong will he called out fine qualities and exacted +loyal service from the worst materials whom +he had won to a high sense of discipline.</p> + +<p>A minor and more sentimental instance is recorded +of the confidence he could repose in his +reformed criminals. The mother of one of the convicts +was at the point of death. The man was +summoned to the governor's office and informed of +her desperate condition. "Do you wish to see her +in her last moments?" asked the governor. "Can +I trust you to return if I give you permission to +leave the prison for a time?" The man much +moved solemnly promised not to misuse his liberty. +He was allowed to exchange his prison uniform for +a peasant's dress; he went without escort to his +mother's cottage, received her blessing, and went +back to durance as had been agreed.</p> + +<p>The experience of Valencia was unique and short-lived. +A commendable effort was made to extend +the principles on which Montesinos had acted, and +decrees embodying them and recommending them +for general adoption were issued but soon became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +a dead letter. Excellent in theory, their success depended +entirely on the man to give them effect. A +second Montesinos did not appear and Spanish +prisons continued to exhibit the worst features down +to the present day.</p> + +<p>A movement towards prison reform had been +commenced as early as 1844, when three new +"model" prisons were planned for Madrid, but +their construction was long delayed. About the +same date a model convict prison was planned at +Valladolid, but slow progress was made with this +and with other new prisons, including that of Saragossa, +and at the Casa de Galera of Alcalá de +Henares. A penitentiary was also projected on the +island of Cabrera, opposite Cadiz. The chief effort +was concentrated on the model prison of Madrid, +which was undertaken in 1876 after much debate +and discussion. It was to be an entirely new building, +to which were devoted all the funds that might +have been expended upon the impossible reform and +repair of the hideous old Saladero. Several years +passed before the building began, and not until 1884 +did the tenants of the dismantled Saladero move +into the new prison. It is for the most part on the +cellular or separate system, by which each individual +is held strictly apart from his fellows, according to +the most modern ideas, which have claimed to have +exerted a potent effect in the reformation of offenders +and the diminution of crime. Nevertheless the +system is still in its trial and its beneficial results are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +by no means universally conceded. The new prison +is a very distinct improvement on the old, and the +former horrors and atrocities are fast disappearing, +but the secluded solitary life has its own peculiar +terrors which press hardly on transgressors, with +results that are very distinctly deterrent if not very +largely reformatory.</p> + +<p>What those actually subjected to the treatment +feel we may read in their own effusions. The literary +quality of prison writers does not rank high +but they sometimes put their views forcibly. One +says of the "model":—"If I leave this trying +place alive I can at least declare that I have been +buried underground and had made the acquaintance +of the grave diggers." Another writer:—"If you +wish to know what life is like here, come and take +your lodging inside. They are handsome, but curious, +well provided with means to drive you out of +your mind. There is a water tap which overflows +in drought and runs dry in wet weather; a pocket +handkerchief and a towel; a plate, a basin and a +wooden spoon, a broom, a dust box, one blanket and +a mattress with four straws that gives you pain in +every limb: many things more, but one alone much +needed is absent, a rope by which you commit suicide."</p> + +<p>It has been said that the worst use to which a +man may be put is to shut him up in a prison. A +still more wasteful extravagance is to put him out +of the world. The penalties known to Spanish law<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +have been very various; there have been many +forms of imprisonment, perpetual imprisonment, +greater or less detention, exile, the application of +fetters of several sorts, handcuffs, shackles, the +<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">guarda amigo</i> or "holdfriend," the "persuader" or +"come along with me"; the leg irons and waist +chains of varying weights. Penal labour was enforced +in <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">maniobras infimas</i> by convicts chained together +on public works, fortifications, harbours and +mines. All forms of secondary punishment have +been inflicted, winding up with capital, the death +sentence inflicting the extreme penalty of the law. +This last irrevocable act does not find favour with +all Spanish legists, whose chief objection is the familiar +one that when a judicial error has been committed, +rectification is altogether impossible. Spain +can add one to the many well known cases such as +those of Callas and Lesurques, and it may be quoted +here as it is probably little known.</p> + +<p>The case occurred in Seville and grew out of a +sudden quarrel in a tavern followed by a fight to the +death with knives. The combatants went on the +ground and attacked each other in the regular +fashion when one dropped to the ground mortally +wounded and the other with his second ran away. +The wounded man's second went up to see whether +his principal was dying or already dead, when he +got up and declared that he was entirely unhurt. +He had slipped upon a stone and fallen with the obviously +cowardly desire to escape from his antag<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>onist's +attack. The second was furiously angry and +rated his man soundly. He retorted fiercely and +another quarrel and another encounter ensued, also +with knives, in which the first man again fell and +this time was killed outright, by his own second, +who at once made off. The body lay where it had +fallen until next morning, when the police found it. +The story of the original quarrel but nothing of the +second had become known, and it was naturally concluded +that death had been inflicted by the first +combatant. On the face of it the evidence was conclusive +against him, and he did not attempt to deny +the facts as they appeared when arrested and put +upon his trial. At that time the law treated homicide +in a duel as murder and the victim suffered the +extreme penalty without protest, believing himself +to be guilty. The truth was never known, until the +real offender, years after, confessed the part he had +played, but too late of course to prevent the judicial +murder of the innocent man. This case has naturally +been added to give weight to the many powerful +arguments against capital punishment.</p> + +<p>The extreme penalty of the law is nowadays inflicted +in Spain by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>, a method of strangulation +by the tightening of an iron collar, the substitute +for hanging introduced by King Ferdinand +VII (1820). Till then the hanging was carried +out in the clumsiest and most brutal manner. The +culprits were dragged by the executioner up the +steps of a ladder leaning against the scaffold. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +a certain height he mounted on the victim's +shoulders and thus seated flung himself off with +his victim underneath. As they swung to and +fro the hangman's fingers were busily engaged in +choking the convict so as to complete the strangulation. +The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> is a very simple contrivance. +The condemned man sits on a stool or low seat, leaning +his back against a strong, firm upright post to +which an iron collar is fixed. This, when opened, +encircles his neck, and is closed and tightened by a +powerful screw, worked by a lever from behind. +Death is instantaneous.</p> + +<p>Public executions must prove very popular performances +with a people who still revel in a bull +fight and flock to look at the hairbreadth escapes of +human beings from hardly undeserved death by the +horns of a fierce beast tortured into madness. De +Foresta, an Italian traveller,<a name="Anchor-25" id="Anchor-25"></a><a href="#Footnote-25" class="fnanchor" title="Go to footnote 25.">[25]</a> tells us that never was +a greater concourse seen in Madrid than that which +collected in 1877 to witness the execution of two +murderers, Mollo and Agullar, when it was estimated +that 80,000 people were present. Ford describes +an execution in Seville in 1845 when the +crowd was enormous and composed largely of the +lower orders, of the humbler ranks, "who hold the +conventions of society very cheap and give loose +rein to their morbid curiosity to behold scenes of +terror, which operates powerfully on the women,</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p> +<p>who seem irresistibly impelled to witness sights the +most repugnant to their nature and to behold sufferings +which they would most dread to undergo," +and many of whom "brought in their arms young +children at the beginning of life to witness its conclusion." +"They desire to see how the criminal +will conduct himself, they sympathise with him if +he displays coolness and courage, and despise him +on the least symptom of unmanliness."</p> + +<p>Ford in his "Gatherings from Spain" gives a +graphic account of the execution of a highway robber, +one of the band of the famous José Maria already +mentioned. The culprit, José de Rojas, was +nicknamed "Veneno," poison, from his venomous +qualities and had made a desperate resistance before +he was finally overcome by the troops who captured +him. He fell wounded with a bullet in his leg, but +killed the soldier who ran forward to secure him. +When in custody he turned traitor and volunteered +to betray his old associates and give such information +as would lead to their arrest if his own life was +spared. The offer was accepted and he was sent +out with a sufficient force to seize them. Such was +the terror of his name that all surrendered, but not +to him. On this quibble the indemnity promised +him was withdrawn, he was brought to trial, condemned, +and in due course executed on the Plaza +San Francisco, which adjoins the prison in Seville +and is commonly used for public executions.</p> + +<p>Ford was admitted within the walls and describes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +Veneno "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">en capilla</i>," a small room set apart as a +condemned cell, the approach to which was +thronged with officers, portly Franciscan friars and +"members of a charitable brotherhood collecting +alms from the visitors to be expended in masses for +the eternal repose of the soul of the criminal. The +levity of those assembled without, formed a heartless +contrast with the gloom and horror of the melancholy +interior of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i>. At the head of the +cell was placed a table with a crucifix, an image of +the Virgin and two wax tapers, near which stood +a silent sentinel with a drawn sword. Another +soldier was stationed at the door with a fixed bayonet. +In a corner of this darkened compartment lay +Veneno curled up like a snake, with a striped coverlet +drawn closely over his mouth, leaving visible +only a head of matted locks, and a glistening dark +eye rolling restlessly out of its deep socket. On being +approached he sprang up and seated himself on a +stool. He was almost naked, but a chaplet of beads +hung across his exposed breast and contrasted with +the iron chains around his limbs.... The expression +of his face though low and vulgar was one +which, once seen, was not easily forgotten. His +sallow complexion appeared more cadaverous in the +uncertain light and was heightened by a black unshorn +beard, growing vigorously on a half-dead +countenance. He appeared to be reconciled to his +fate and repeated a few sentences, the teaching of +the monks, as by rote. His situation was probably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +more painful to the spectator than himself, an indifference +to death arising rather from an ignorance +of its dreadful import than from high moral courage."</p> + +<p>When Veneno came out to die he was clad in a +coarse yellow baize gown, the colour which in Spain +denotes the crime of murder and appropriated always +to Judas Iscariot in Spanish paintings, the +colour, too, of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">sanbenito</i> or penitential cloak +worn by the victims of the Inquisition at an <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">auto +da fé</i>. He walked slowly, stopping often to kiss the +crucifix held to his lips by the attendant confessor, +a monk of the Franciscan order, whom it was the +convict's privilege to choose for himself to accompany +him to the scaffold. He was met there by the +executioner, a young man dressed in black who proceeded +to bind his naked legs and arms so tightly +that they swelled and turned black: a necessary precaution, +as this very executioner's father had been +killed when struggling with a convict unwilling to +die. Veneno made no resistance, but he spoke with +supreme contempt of this degraded functionary, +saying, "<i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Mi delito me mata no ese hombre</i>" (My +crime kills me and not this creature). He uttered +many pious ejaculations, and his dying cry was, +"Viva la Virgen Santisima." The last scene was +ghastly in the extreme. While the priest stood by, +"a bloated corpulent man more occupied in shading +the sun from his face than in his ghostly office," the +robber sat with a writhing look of agony, grinding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +his clenched teeth. The executioner took the lever +of the screw in both hands, gathered himself up for +a strong muscular effort, drew the iron collar tight +while an attendant threw a black handkerchief over +the face. A convulsive pressure of the hands and +a heaving of the chest were the only visible signs +of the passing of the convict's spirit.</p> + +<p>"After a pause of a few moments the executioner +cautiously peeped under the handkerchief and, +after having given another turn of the screw, lifted +it off, carefully put it in his pocket and proceeded to +light a cigar. The face of the dead man was +slightly convulsed, the mouth open, the eye balls +turned into their sockets from the wrench. A black +bier with two lanterns fixed on staves was now set +down before the scaffold. A small table and a dish +into which alms were again collected to be paid to +the priests who sang masses for his soul was also +brought forward.... The body remained on the +scaffold till after noon. It was then thrown into +a scavenger's cart and led by the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">pregonero</i> or common +crier beyond the jurisdiction of the city to a +square platform called the "mesa del Rey," the +king's table, where it was to be quartered and cut +up. Here the carcass was hewed and hacked into +pieces by the bungling executioner and his assistants."</p> + +<p>The condemned cell at the Saladero was a part +of the prison chapel in which the Spanish convict +spent the last twenty-four hours of life and was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +horrible and painfully gruesome hole. The <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">capilla</i> +is described by de Foresta, who saw it when it was +on the eve of abolition. It was of narrow dimensions, +damp, dark, windowless and lighted only with +one or two small candles burning upon the altar +which occupied a large space filling all one wall. +In a corner cut off by a black iron railing from the +rest of the chapel was a small space fitted with a bed +or stone shelf with rings to which the convict's +chains were fastened and where he knelt close to +the bars to converse with or confess to the ministering +priests. The chapel was dimly lighted by a +hanging lamp and one or two wax candles. Its +walls and floor were damp and it received light and +air only through the door. This gruesome den rejoiced +in the name <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">el confortador</i>, or the "place of +comfort."</p> + +<p>Another traveller gives the following graphic account +of a Spanish execution:—</p> + +<p>"At seven we find ourselves in the crowd immediately +beneath the prison walls. Large bodies of +troops are drawn up on either side of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">plaza</i> and +there is a tolerably large concourse of male spectators +present. In a few minutes the mournful cortége +appears upon the wall. First comes the executioner, +the Spanish Calcraft, a wiry looking fellow, +carrying a coil of rope; next comes a very stout +padre armed with a baton, and bawling out prayers +at the top of his voice; he is followed by the convict, +who walks on in prison uniform, with his neck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +bare and arms pinioned, clasping the cross in his +hands and looking literally in a blue fright; a couple +more priests and two armed sentries complete the +group, who range themselves along the wall, the +criminal in the centre. The terrible scene is long +protracted. The fat padre roars out <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Ave Marias</i>, +exhortations and prayers, waving his baton frantically +in the air and making the miserable wretch +repeat after him. He then clasps him in his arms, +and sitting down on chairs opposite each other, they +are covered with a large black pall held by the supernumerary +priests; under this they remain for some +time perfectly motionless, while the poor creature +is unburdening his soul and pouring forth his load +of crimes into the ear of his confessor.</p> + +<p>"The nerves of the spectators are strained to an +intense pitch during the awful pause, as is evident +from the oppressive silence which prevails and the +anxious looks directed at the scaffold. At length +the pall is removed and the executioner proceeds to +business. The culprit is made to sit against an upright +post to which he is firmly lashed; the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>, +a machine consisting of an iron collar worked back +by a powerful screw and a long lever, is carefully +adjusted round his neck, a small handkerchief +thrown over his face and all is ready. The priest +recommences shouting while the executioner, preparing +himself for a mighty effort, suddenly turns +the handle two or three times as quick as lightning; +the head of the victim drops, the knees and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +arms quiver for a few seconds and all is over. +Priests and sentries retire, Calcraft peeps under +the handkerchief and, whipping it off with a jerk, +immediately disappears, leaving the ghastly corpse +exposed to open view. It is a sickening and disgusting +sight: the face is of a livid hue, the tongue +protruding, and shedding saliva on the breast; the +bystanders shudder, the troops march off with +drums gaily beating and the crowd slowly disperses. +I make a rapid sketch of the body and return to the +hotel fully satisfied that, were it not for the cruel +state of suspense in which the criminal is kept before +the execution, the punishment of the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i> is far +more merciful and expeditious than the less speedy +death by hanging in this country."</p> + +<p>The profession of hangman does not entitle those +who practise it to the very highest honour, although +in France in the case of the Sansons it was an hereditary +office in which son succeeded father for +many generations and the family took considerable +pride in their functions. In Spain the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">verdugo</i> is +by no means a popular person. De Foresta, the +Italian traveller already quoted, tells us that in several +towns he saw a person of forbidding aspect +who was walking about with a camp stool under his +arm and generally shunned. On enquiry he was +informed that this was the gentleman who administered +the <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">garrote</i>. He was strictly forbidden to +take a seat at a café or in any place of public resort, +hence the camp stool on which he rested himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +when tired. No one recognised or addressed to him +a single word. De Foresta's comment on this is +a story of the French executioner who, when called +to Nice to guillotine a criminal, was unable to find +anywhere to lay his head. He was turned away +from every door, was refused a mouthful of food +and was obliged to dine on what he could find at +the railway station restaurant, and he spent the night +in walking up and down the platform. It may not +be generally known that in England the executioner +is provided with board and lodging in the +gaol where his victim is waiting to be "finished."</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class="footnotes"> + <h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> +<ol> + <li class="footnote"> + <p><a name="Footnote-1" id="Footnote-1"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-1">1</a>]</span> + Lea. History of the Inquisition. Vol. I. p. 299.</p> +</li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-2" id="Footnote-2"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-2">2</a>]</span> History of the Inquisition.</p> + </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-3" id="Footnote-3"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-3">3</a>]</span>The counts of San Lucar were hereditary alcaldes of + Triana, and in return for surrendering the castle, they were + granted the dignity of Alguazil Mayor of the Inquisition. It + was worth 150,000 maravedis a year and the holder of the + office provided a deputy. The maravedi, once a gold coin of + some value, latterly represented only 3/8 of a cent.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-4" id="Footnote-4"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-4">4</a>]</span> Langlois, L'Inquisition d'après des tableaux recénts (1902), + quoted by Vancandard (Conway's translation, 1908).</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-5" id="Footnote-5"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-5">5</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. II. p. 526.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-6" id="Footnote-6"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-6">6</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. III.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-7" id="Footnote-7"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-7">7</a>]</span> <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Trampazo</i> means, exactly, an "extreme tightening of + cords": <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">La ultima de las vueltas que se dan en el tormento de + las cuerdas</i>.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-8" id="Footnote-8"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-8">8</a>]</span> Lea. History of the Inquisition in Spain. Vol. IV.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-9" id="Footnote-9"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-9">9</a>]</span> "Vida Penal en Espana," by Rafael Salillas, Madrid, 1888.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-10" id="Footnote-10"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-10">10</a>]</span> See <em>post</em>, p. 161.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-11" id="Footnote-11"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-11">11</a>]</span> Relosillas, "Four Months in Ceuta."</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-12" id="Footnote-12"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-12">12</a>]</span> "Four Months in Ceuta."</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-13" id="Footnote-13"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-13">13</a>]</span> Irons are not carried by the convicts, not even by those + sentenced to imprisonment "in chains," <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">con la cadena</i>. They + were considered an interference with the efforts and strength + of the labourer.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-14" id="Footnote-14"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-14">14</a>]</span> <i lang="es" xml:lang="es">Catorce Meses en Ceuta</i>, Malaga, 1886.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-15" id="Footnote-15"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-15">15</a>]</span> I have seen a precisely similar weapon in an English convict + prison, the product of an evil-minded prisoner who used + it in an assault upon his officer.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-16" id="Footnote-16"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-16">16</a>]</span> An official report dated 1888 gives a total of 221 prisoners + in the whole of the establishments admitted into hospital suffering + from wounds, fractures and contusions received in the + gaols.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-17" id="Footnote-17"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-17">17</a>]</span> See ante, pp. 159 sqq.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-18" id="Footnote-18"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-18">18</a>]</span> See ante, p. 159.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-19" id="Footnote-19"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-19">19</a>]</span> Relosillas.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-20" id="Footnote-20"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-20">20</a>]</span> "Vida Penal en Espana."</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-21" id="Footnote-21"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-21">21</a>]</span> See ante, p. 128.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-22" id="Footnote-22"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-22">22</a>]</span> See ante, p. 194.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-23" id="Footnote-23"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-23">23</a>]</span> This town of Ecija is renowned in the history of Spanish + brigandage as the home of the "Seven Sons of Ecija," a + very daring and dangerous band whose achievements have + been told by the Spanish novelist, Fernandez y Gonzalez.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-24" id="Footnote-24"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-24">24</a>]</span> "Bandolerismo estudo social y memorias historicas," by + Don Julian de Zugasti. Madrid, 1876.</p> </li> + + <li class="footnote"> + + <p><a name="Footnote-25" id="Footnote-25"></a> + <span class="label">[<a title="Return to text." href="#Anchor-25">25</a>]</span> La Spagna; Da Irun a Malaga, by Adolfo de Foresta, + Bologna, 1879.</p> </li> +</ol> +</div> + +<div class='transnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + <p>Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History and Romance of Crime; +Spanish Prisons, by Arthur Griffiths + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY AND ROMANCE OF CRIME *** + +***** This file should be named 52114-h.htm or 52114-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/1/1/52114/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Christopher Wright, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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