Then, having
touched the mouth and tongue of the babe with the fluid, give it to the
mother to drink and be sure that she does drink it. Before the bricks
are built up about them both will sleep sound, never to wake again.'
'I will do it,' murmured the abbess; 'having absolution I will be bold,
and do it for love and mercy's sake!'
'Your heart is too soft, sister. Justice is mercy,' said the monk with a
sigh. 'Alas for the frailty of the flesh that wars against the spirit!'
Then I clothed myself in the ghastly looking dress, and they took lamps
and motioned to me to follow them.
CHAPTER X
THE PASSING OF ISABELLA DE SIGUENZA
Silently we went down the long passage, and as we went I saw the eyes of
the dwellers in this living tomb watch us pass through the gratings of
their cell doors. Little wonder that the woman about to die had striven
to escape from such a home back to the world of life and love! Yet for
that crime she must perish. Surely God will remember the doings of such
men as these priests, and the nation that fosters them. And, in deed, He
does remember, for where is the splendour of Spain to-day, and where are
the cruel rites she gloried in? Here in England their fetters are broken
for ever, and in striving to bind them fast upon us free Englishmen she
is broken also--never to be whole again.
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