The procession was
swelled by choirs of boys, different religious orders and public
dignitaries, and above all, by the fathers of the faith, moving "with
slow pace, and profound gravity, truly triumphing as becomes the
principal generals of that great victory."[11]
[Footnote 11: Gonsalvius, p. 135.]
As the sacred banner of the inquisition advanced, the countless throng
sunk on their knees before it; they bowed their faces to the very
earth as it passed, and then slowly rose again, like a great
undulating billow. A murmur of tongues prevailed as the prisoners
approached, and eager eyes were strained, and fingers pointed, to
distinguish the different orders of penitents, whose habits denoted
the degree of punishment they were to undergo. But as those drew near
whose frightful garb marked them as destined to the flames, the noise
of the rabble subsided; they seemed almost to hold in their breath;
filled with that strange and dismal interest with which we contemplate
a human being on the verge of suffering and death.
It is an awful thing--a voiceless, noiseless multitude! The hushed and
gazing stillness of the surrounding thousands, heaped on walls, and
gates, and roofs, and hanging, as it were, in clusters, heightened the
effect of the pageant that moved drearily on.
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