SELECTIONS | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 20, 1858

SELECTIONS.

Destruction of the Inquisition at Madrid.

In the year 1809, Col. Lehmanousky being at Madrid, his attention was directed to the Inquisition in the neighborhood of that city. Napoleon had previously issued a decree for the suppression of this Institution, wherever his victorious troops should extend their arms. Lehmanousky reminded Marshal Soult, then governor of Madrid, of this decree, who directed him to proceed to destroy it; he informed him that his regiment [the 9th of the Polish lancers] was insufficient for such a service; but that if he would give him two additional regiments, he would undertake the work. He accordingly gave him the two required regiments; one of which, [the 117th,] was under the command of Col. De Lile. With these troops Col. Lehmanousky proceeded forthwith to the Inquisition, which was situated about five miles from the city. The Inquisition was surrounded with a wall of great strength, and defended by about four hundred soldiers. When they arrived at the walls, he [the Col.] addressed one of the sentinels, and summoned the holy fathers to surrender to the imperial army, and open the gate of the Inquisition. The sentinel who was standing on the wall appeared to enter into conversation for a few moments with some one within, at the close of which he presented his musket and shot one of the men. This was a signal for attack, and he ordered his troops to fire upon those who appeared upon the walls. It was soon obvious that it was an unequal warfare. The walls of the Inquisition were covered with soldiers of the holy office; there was also a breast-work upon the walls; behind which they kept continually, only as they partially exposed themselves as they discharged their muskets. Our troops were in the open plain, and exposed to a destructive fire. They had no

cannon, nor could they scale the walls, and the gates successfully resisted all attempts at forcing them. He (Col. Lehmanousky) saw that it was necessary to change the mode of attack, and directed some trees to be cut down, trimmed and brought on the ground to be used as battering rams. Two of these were taken up by detachments of men, and brought to bear upon the walls with great power, notwithstanding the continued volley, which was heavily poured upon them from the walls. Presently the walls began to tremble, and under the well directed and persevering application of the rams, a breach was made, and the imperial troops rushed into the Inquisition. Here they met with an incident which nothing but Jesuitical effrontry is equal to. The Inquisitor General, followed by the father confessors, in their priestly robes, all came out of their rooms, as we were making our way into the interior of the Inquisition, and with long faces and their arms crossed over their breasts, their fingers resting on their shoulders, as though they had been deaf to all the noise of the attack and defense, and had just learned what was going on, they addressed themselves in the language of rebuke, to their own soldiers, saying, "Why do ye fight our friends the French?"

Their intention apparently, was to make us think that this defence was wholly unauthorized by them, hoping if they could produce in our minds a belief that they were friendly, they should have a better opportunity in the confusion and plunder of the Inquisition to escape. Their artifice was too shallow and did not succeed, they were placed under guard, and all the soldiers of the Inquisition secured as prisoners. They then proceeded to examine this prison-house of hell. They passed through room after room, found altars and crucifixes and wax candles in abundance, but they could discover no evidence of iniquity being practised there, nothing of those peculiar features which they expected to find in an Inquisition. Here was beauty and splendor, and the most perfect order on which their eyes had ever rested. The architecture—the proportions were perfect. The ceiling and floors of wood were scoured until highly polished. The marble floors were arranged with a strict regard to order.

There was everything to please the eye and gratify a cultivated taste; but where were those horrid instruments of torture of which we have been told; and where those dungeons in which human beings were said to be buried alive? They searched in vain, the holy fathers assured them they had been belied, that they had seen all and Col. Lehmanousky was prepared to give up the search, convinced that this Inquisition was different from any other of which he had heard, but Col. De Lile was not so ready to give up the search, and said to him, "Colonel, you are commander to-day, and as you say so it must be, but if you will be advised by me, let this marble floor be examined more, let some water be brought in and poured upon it, and we will watch to see if there is any place through which it passed more freely than others," he replied to him, "Do as you please Col.," and ordered water to be brought accordingly. The slabs of marble were large and beautifully polished; when the water had been poured over the floor, much to the dissatisfaction of the Inquisitors, a careful examination was made of every seam, in the floor to see if the water passed through. Presently Col. De Lile exclaimed that he had found it. By the side of one of the marble slabs the water passed through fast, as though there was an opening beneath. All hands were now at work for further discovery, the officers with their swords and the soldiers with their bayonets, seeking to clear out the seam and pry up the slab, others with the butts of their muskets striking the slab with all their might to break it, while the priests remonstrated against our desecrating their holy and beautiful house. While thus engaged, a soldier who was striking with the butt of his musket, struck a spring and the marble slab flew up. Then the faces of the Inquisitors grew pale, and as Belshazzar when the hand-writing appeared on the wall, so did these men of Belial shake and quake, in every bone and joint and sinew. We looked beneath the marble slab, now partly up, and we

saw a staircase. Col. Lehmanousky stepped to the table and took from the candlestick one of the candles four feet in length, which was burning, that he might explore what was before them. As he was doing this he was arrested by one of the Inquisitors, who laid his hand quietly on his arm, and with a very demure and holy look, said, "My son, you must not take that with your profane and bloody hand; it is holy." Well, well, he said, I want something that is holy to see if it will not shed light on iniquity; I will bear the responsibility. He took the candle and proceeded down the staircase, and he now discovered why the water revealed to them this passage. Under the floor was a tight ceiling except at the trap door, which could not be rendered close; hence the success of Col. De Lile's experiment. As they reached the foot of the stairs, they entered a large square room, which was called the "Hall of Judgment." In the center of it was a large block, and a chain fastened to it. On this they had been accustomed to place the accused, chained to his seat. On one side of the room was one elevated seat, called the "Throne of Judgment." This the Inquisitor-general occupied and on either side were seats less elevated, for the holy fathers when engaged in the solemn business of the holy Inquisition. From this room we proceeded to the right, and obtained access to small cells, extending the entire length of the edifice, and here what a sight met our eyes? How has the benevolent religion of Jesus been abused by its professed friends. These cells were places of solitary confinement, where the wretched objects of Inquisitorial hate were confined year after year, till death relieved them of their sufferings, and there their bodies were suffered to remain till they were entirely decayed, and the rooms had become fit for others to occupy. To prevent this practice being offensive to those who occupied the Inquisition, there were flues or tubes extending to the open air, sufficiently capacious to carry off the odor from these decaying bodies. In these cells we found the remains of some who had paid the debt of nature; some of them had been dead apparently but a short time, while of others nothing remained but their bones, still chained to the floor of their dungeon. In others we found the living sufferer of every age and of both sexes, from the young man and maiden to those of three score and ten years, all as naked as when they were born into the world. Our soldiers immediately applied themselves to releasing these captives of their chains; stripped themselves in part of their own clothing to cover these wretched beings, and were exceedingly anxious to bring them up to the light of the day. But aware of the danger, Col. Lehmanousky insisted on their wants being supplied, and being brought gradually to the light as they could bear it. When we had explored those cells and opened the prison doors of those who yet survived, we proceeded to explore another room upon the left. Here we found the instruments of torture, of every kind which the ingenuity of man or devil could invent. At the sight of them the fury of the soldiers refused any longer to be restrained. They declared that every Inquisitor, monk and soldier of the establishment deserved to be put to torture. We did not attempt any longer to restrain them. They commenced at once the work of torture with the holy fathers. I remained, says Col. Lehmanousky, till I saw four different kinds of torture applied, and then retired from the awful scene, which terminated not while one individual remained of the former guilty inmates of this antichamber of hell on whom they could wreak vengeance. As soon as the poor sufferers from the cells of the Inquisition could with safety be brought out of their prison to the light of day, (news having been spread far and near, that numbers had been rescued from the Inquisition,) all who had been deprived of friends by the holy offices, came to inquire if theirs were among the number. Of what a meeting was there; about a hundred who had been buried alive for many years, were now restored to the active world, and many of them found here a son and there a daughter, here a sister and there a brother, and some alas! could recognize no friends. The scenes was such that no tongue can describe. When this work of

recognition was over, to complete the business in which I had engaged, I went to Madrid and obtained a large quantity of gun powder which I placed underneath the edifice, and in its vault, and as we applied the slow match there was a joyful sight to thousands of admiring eyes. O! it would have done you good to see it; the walls and massive turrets of that proud edifice, were raised towards the heavens, and the Inquisition of Madrid was no more.—Sel.