"Having remained a short time in this painful position, that unmerciful tribunal returned to their former charges. Zorrilla, with a tremulous voice that seemed to evince his thirst for blood and vengeance, repeated the first of those he had just read, namely, whether I did not belong to a society whose object was to overthrow our holy religion, and the august throne of our Catholic sovereign? I replied that it was impossible I should plead guilty to an accusation of that nature. 'Without any subterfuge, say whether it is so,' he added, in an angry tone.
"'It is not, sir,' I replied. The glove which guided my arm, and which seemed to be resting on the edge of a wheel, began now to turn, and, with its movements, I felt by degrees an acute pain, especially from the elbow to the shoulder, a general convulsion throughout my frame, and a cold sweat over-spreading my face. The interrogatory continued, but Zorrilla's question of 'Is it so? is it so?' were the only words that struck my ear amidst the excruciating pain I endured, which became so intense that I fainted away, and heard no more the voices of those cannibals.
"When I recovered my senses, I found myself stretched on the floor of my dungeon, my hands and feet secured with heavy fetters and manacles, fastened by a thick chain, the nails of which my tormentors were still riveting! Left by those wretches stretched in the same place, I could have wished that the doors, which closed after them, should never again open. Eternal sleep was all I desired, and all I asked of Heaven. It was after much difficulty that I dragged myself to my bed. It seemed to me that the noise of my chains would awaken the vigilance of my jailers, whose presence was to me the most fatal of my torments. I spent the whole of the night struggling with the intense pains which were the effects of the torture, and with the workings of my excited mind, which offered but a horrible perspective to my complicated misfortunes. This state of mental agitation, and the burning fever which was every moment increasing, soon threw me into a delirium, during which I scarcely noticed the operation performed by my jailers, of opening the seams of my coat to examine the state of my arm."