Melchior was at last sentenced to relaxation for the third time, on the 20th of March; he, however, had not forgotten the means he had formerly used to save himself, and returned from the auto-da-fé. In five subsequent audiences, he made a long declaration against himself, and denounced a great number of persons. He was then told that he was still guilty of concealment in not mentioning several persons not less distinguished and well known than those he had already denounced, and that he could not be supposed to have forgotten them.
This proceeding destroyed the tranquillity which Melchior had hitherto shown; and after a long invective against the inquisitors and all who had appeared on the trial, he said, "What can you do to me? burn me? well, then, be it so: I cannot confess what I do not know. Nevertheless know that all I have said of myself is true, but what I have declared of others is entirely false. I have only invented it because I perceived that you wished me to denounce innocent persons; and being unacquainted with the names and quality of these unfortunate people, I named all whom I could think of, in the hope of finding an end of my misery. I now perceive that my situation admits of no relief, and I therefore retract all my depositions; and now I have fulfilled this duty, burn me as soon as you please."
The trial was sent to the Supreme Council, which confirmed the sentence of relaxation for the third time, and wrote to reprimand the tribunal for having summoned the accused before them after passing the sentence, since an audience should only take place at the request of the accused.
Instead of submitting to this opinion, the inquisitors called Melchior before them on the 31st of May, and asked him if he had nothing else to communicate; he replied in the negative: they then represented to him that his declarations contained many contradictions, and that it was necessary for the good of his soul, that he should finally make a confession of the truth, respecting himself and all the guilty persons he was acquainted with.
These words show the cunning of the inquisitors; their object was to induce the accused to retract his last declaration: but Melchior, knowing the character of the inquisitors, replied, that if they wished to know the truth, they would find it in the declaration which he made before the Señor Ayora, when he visited the tribunal. This writing was examined, and it was found that Melchior had said, that he knew nothing of the subject on which he was examined. The following conversation then took place:—
"How can this declaration be true, when you have several times declared that you have attended the Jewish assemblies, believed in their doctrines, and persevered in the belief for the space of one year, until you were undeceived by a priest?"—"I spoke falsely when I made a declaration against myself."
"But how is it that what you have confessed of yourself, and many other things which you now deny, are the result of the depositions of a great many witnesses?"—"I do not know if that is true or false, for I have not seen the writings of the trial; but if the witnesses have said that which is imputed to them, it is because they were placed in the same situation as I am. They do not love me better than I love myself; and I have certainly declared against myself both truth and falsehood."
"What motive had you for declaring things injurious to yourself, if they were false?"—"I did not think it would be injurious to me; on the contrary, I expected to derive great advantages from it, because I saw that if I did not confess anything, I should be considered as impenitent, and the truth would lead me to the scaffold. I thought that falsehood would be most useful to me, and I found it so in two autos-da-fé."
On the 6th of June Melchior Hernandez was informed that he must prepare for death on the following day. He was clothed in the habit of the persons condemned to be burnt, and a confessor was appointed for him. At two o'clock in the morning he demanded an audience, saying that he wished to acquit his conscience. An inquisitor, attended by a secretary, went to his cell; Melchior then declared "that, at the point of appearing before the tribunal of the Almighty, and without any hope of escaping from death by new delays, he thought himself bound to declare that he had never conversed with any person on the Mosaical Law; that all he had said on this subject was founded on the wish to preserve life, and the belief that his confessions were pleasing to the inquisitors; that he asked pardon of the persons implicated, that God might pardon him, and that no injury might be done to their honour and reputation."
The inquisitor represented that he ought not to speak falsely, even from a motive of compassion for the denounced persons; that the declarations of the witnesses had every appearance of truth, and he therefore entreated him, in the name of God, not to increase his sins at the hour of death. Melchior merely repeated that all his former declarations were false. The royal judge condemned him to be strangled, and his body was afterwards burnt.