In furthest Ind

by Sydney C. Grier

And thus speaking I snatched up from my writing-book the letter I had but just wrote to Mr Martin, and with it such notes as I had made touching the designs of the Portugals in the Eastern Seas, and thrust them into his hands. My pistols also I gave him, and such money as come to my hand, and bade him be gone. And he disappeared and was gone before I might so much as turn round, hiding himself in some hole so secure as that they never found him.

Now all these things happened in far less time than I must take for to tell you of ’em, and Loll Duss was safely departed when at length the gate was opened, and the officers come along the passage to my chamber. I met them at the door, and would have asked their business, as one hugely curious concerning their visit, but at the sight of him that led them my tongue refused his office, for he was my friend, Dom Lewis de Bustamante. And he summoning and claiming me as the prisoner of the Holy Inquisition, showed me a warrant, signed and sealed, and upon this the rest of the officers entered the chamber, and set seals on all that was therein. Now the seal that was upon the warrant bare the device of a dove carrying in her mouth a branch of olive, and these words in Latin, Justitia et Misericordia. Then I, looking upon the medal that Dom Lewis bare upon his sleeve, did see wrought therein this self-same figure and motto, the which stirred up in me a great heat and indignation, that a brave man should suffer his friends carelessly to endanger themselves in his presence, and never tell them that his honour demanded that he should denounce and seize ’em. As for the rest of the officers, they was as evil-looking a crew of rascals as I ever saw, all clad in great gowns of black stuff, with hoods for to shade their faces, but of their nature I saw little, for they said nothing, leaving it all to Dom Lewis, that was most assuredly their master.

And this nobleman asking of me whether I were ready to come with ’em, I requested leave to finish dressing of myself properly, which was granted, and likewise to pack and take with me my trunk, or at least some clothes in a bag, but this he refused, saying that the Holy Office should look to my goods, and I should have ’em again. Then having dressed myself, I went with them to the gate, where they had a coach in waiting, and put me into it, and themselves followed, my hostess weeping and crying in the door that no such shame had ever come upon her house before, and so departed.

CHAPTER V.
OF THE EVENTS THAT BEFELL ME ON MY ARREST, AND IN THE HOLY HOUSE AT GOA.

Now while we were in the coach I did make inquiry of Dom Lewis whether they were a-carrying me to the Santa Casa (or Holy House, as the palace of the Inquisition is wont to be called, as though in mockery), but he refused to answer me, saying that I should discover where I was when I reached the journey’s end. And I therefore waiting patiently, we presently alighted, and after some ceremonies gone through before an officer, and the placing of irons on my feet, I was taken along a certain passage, and thrust into an extreme noisome and stinking place, wherein was already confined some thirty or forty persons. And these, I found, were common murderers and thieves of the town; for they rose upon me with one consent, and did take from me such money and other small matters as I had in my pockets, I not caring to resist them overmuch, as knowing that I should have no peace until they were well satisfied that they had left me nothing. And asking where I was, one advised me that the place was the Aljuvar, or prison belonging to the Ordinary, that is, the Archbishop of Goa, for that some law or custom hindered their carrying me at once to the Holy House.

In this foul and filthy hole I was left for two nights and a day, suffering great discomfort, and this not only in my mind, from the company I was in, but in body also, inasmuch as the floor was so covered with all nastiness that I durst not lay myself down, but was fain to abide standing, or at most leaning against the wall, which indeed scarce pleased me better than the floor, for that space of time. This chamber of the Aljuvar was situate below the level of the ground, and hollowed out of the rock, holding but one small opening to the light, through the which scarce a single ray could manage to pass. In the midst of the floor was a well or chasm, from the which, as from the lowest pit, there ascended evil and mephitical vapours, that were at times insupportable. I can scarce find it in me to cast up against the prisoners their robbing me of my money, and the eagerness they showed in this thievish work, since the Ordinary provided no food for ’em, and they must have starved had it not been for the charity of certain worthy persons, that brought broken victuals for to be given them. I myself had been like to have fared ill but for the kindness of the boy Peter, who brought me a basketful of such food as he could compass, the overplus whereof I did divide among my fellows. During the second night of my imprisonment I slept scarce a wink, being so sore troubled with the vermins that abounded in the place, and the stench from the well. Yet was not this discomfort wholly to be held a misfortune, since it hindered me from dwelling overmuch on the hard and unkind behaviour of Dom Lewis, which otherwise had sorely exercised me.

Despite this saving clause, nevertheless, ’twas with a joy that I had little expected ever to feel in the like posture of affairs that I heard myself summoned by the turnkey to come to the door, in order to my being transferred to the keeping of the Inquisition. At my request, time was granted me to make some small changes in my apparel and the like, and after this, the same persons as before met me on the threshold, and carried me in the coach to the Holy House, which is situate on that side of the great square that stands opposite to the cathedral, and is of a lofty and solemn aspect, being entered by three great doorways, whereof the midmost leadeth into the great hall, where I was taken. And here my conductors delivered me over into the hands of others that were there, and the irons that were upon my legs were knocked off. And this occupying some time, I had leisure to consider how little, when I, as had once been my custom, had read with my cousin Dorothy on the Sunday evenings in Mr Foxe his ‘Booke of Martirs,’ sitting in the summertime in the garden-arbour, and on the settle beside the great hall-fire in the winter, how little, I say, we had thought that I myself should ever come as a prisoner into the hands of that very Inquisition, of the devilish cruelties whereof we trembled only to read.

But these musings could not last long, for when they had released me from my irons, the officers into whose charge I had been given led me into a chamber opening from the hall, that is called, as I heard thereafter, the Board of the Holy Office. This chamber is hung round about with very fair tapestry, wrought in stripes of blue and citron colour, and at one end on’t a great crucifix in projecting work, that reached almost to the ceiling. There was a raised place in the midst, whereon stood a long table with great chairs set all around it, and at the end by the crucifix a folding-stool for the secretary. Opposite to this was set another fold-stool for the prisoner (that was I), and in the chairs around the table sat my lords the Inquisidors^[68] and their officers. And of these Inquisidors, that are persons of a mighty severe aspect, and very reverend of bearing, the chief is a secular priest, and the second a religious of the Order of the Dominicans, and vested in their particular apparel, which is a white vesture set with a crotchet^[69] in black, and this under a black gown or cowl. And I, after bowing myself with all imaginable respect unto their lordships, did sit down, as they bade me, upon the stool set for me, having on my right hand the Grand Inquisidor, who, beginning to speak, said to me somewhat in a tongue that I took to be the Italian, but which I understood not, and did shake my head for to signify the same. They asked of me next, whether I could speak the Portuguese, and on my answering in that tongue, with some halting, that I understood it but passably, and spake it as yet hardly at all, they demanded to know whether I would have an interpreter. And I accepting of the same with gratitude, they sent a messenger, who presently returned, bringing with him a Jesuit priest, clothed, as their manner is, in a long black gown, with a collar and rings, and a high round cap flat at the top, and this person did take his stand beside my lord the Grand Inquisidor, for to interpret to me what he should say.

At the command, then, of his lordship, this Paulistin asked of me, in outlandish enough English, concerning my name and state of life, both which I gave him, and then concerning the cause of my arrest, to which I made answer that to the best of my belief ’twas my not complying with the superstitious custom of the place—viz., in my refusing to bow to the procession that went past, carrying the Host with it. And upon this, with great solemnity, the interpreter adjured me to make a full confession of all the matters whereof I was accused, for that then the Holy Office should exercise its right of mercy, and release me speedily, with great advantage gained to my soul. He bade me also search and see whether my conscience warned me of no other crimes, for the which I might worthily be brought to trial and punished, but I made answer that I knew not what they might account crimes, but that so far as I remembered I could not charge myself with any that need come under their lordships’ notice. Furthermore, I declared to them that I was a subject of the King of England, and desired to be assisted by some consul or other officer of his majesty’s, and also threatened them with our fleet should they ill-use me or refuse me justice; but upon this they did dismiss me hastily, and bade the interpreter see me duly lodged.

I was taken then to a certain gallery, the priest and the secretary going with me, and there was brought thither my two trunks, and these the alcaide, as they call the chief turnkey, set himself to open and search, the secretary being at his side and noting down what was found therein. And while this was doing, the priest that had acted interpreter turned to me with a jolly laugh.