American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-06-21
ESTABLISHED In 1925


Destruction Of the Spanish InquisitIon.
The following account of the destruction
Of the Inquisition in Spain, by the French,
is from an authentic source A graphic de-
scription Of the Inquisitorial Rooms is also
given. They bear a resemblance, although
far exceeding in horror, those described
BY Mr.. Perry. in his visit to the Inquisi-
torial Rooms in Mexico.
When we arrived at the wall and sum
moned them TO surrender & open the gates,
says Col. L. in his report-they presented
a musket and shot one Of the men. This
was the signal OF attack. 1t was soon OBJ
vious that it was an unequal warfare. The
walls were covered with soldiers Of the holy
Office. After hard struggles breach was
made. On rushing in we met the Inquisi-
tor General followed by the father confess
sors in their priestly robes. All came out
Of their rooms with long faces, and their
arms crossed over their breasts as if they
had been deaf to all the noise of the attack
and defence, and rebuked their own SOL
diers, saying
why do you fight our friends, the
Frenchp Their intention was to make us
believethis defence was wholly unauthoriz-
ed by them. and tha. they were friendly.
Their artlhce was too shallow and did not
succeed. Iordered them to be secured as
prisoners. We then proceeded to examine
all the rooms--we passed through room
after room, found all perfectly in order,
richly furnished, and wax candles, altars
and crucifxes in abundance, but could dis
cover no evidence ofiniquity being prac-
ticed there. The marble floor was arrang-
ed with strict regard to order; but where
were those horrid instruments oftorture of
which We had been told, and where those
dungeonsin which human beings were said
to be buried alive. We searched in vain;
and the holy father assured us that they
had been belied--that we had seen all; and
was prepared 10 give up the search, but
Col. de Lille was not SO ready, and said
to me:
Let this marble floor be examined; let
water be poured upon it, and see if there is
any place where it passes through more
freely than others
l replied, do as you please
Water was spoured on the floor and every
seam carefully examined, to see if the wa
ter passed through. Presently, Col deLile
exclaimed he had found it by the side of
one of these marble slabs; the wafer passed
through fast, and all hands were now at
work for further iscoveries-officers with
their swords, soldiers with their bayonets,
seeking TO clear out the seam and pry up
the slab, and others with the butts Of their
muskets striking the slab with all their
might, trying to break it.
One of the soldiers struck on the slab
with The butt of his gun, and hit a. spring.
and the marble slab few up. Then the "a
ces of the Inquisitors grew pale as Belshaz-
Ears when the hand writing appeared on
the wall. Beneath the slab there was a
staircase. stepped to the altar and took
from one Of the candl icks candle four
feet in length, that l might explore the
room below-doing this, was arrested by
one of the lnquisitors, who laid his hand
upon my arm, and with a very demure and
holy look, said:
MY son. you must not take those lights
with your bloody hands-they are holy
We'll" l said, i will take holy thing
to shed light on iniquity,' and proceeded
down the staircase.
AS we reached the bottom Of the stairs
we entered large room which was called
the hall of Judgment. In the center was
large block, with chain fastened to it, and
small cells extending the entire length of
the edi6ce; and here such sights we're pre-
sented as we hope never again to see.-
These cells were places where the wretch
ed objects of Inquisitorial hate were con-
fined, till death released them from theirsuf
ferings. In these cells we found the re-
mains of some who had paid the debt of
nature; some had been dead but shor!
time, while Of others, nothing remained but
their bones, still chained to the floor of the
dungeon. In other cells were found living
sufferers Of both sexes, from three score
years and ten down TO fourteen, all naked
as when bornin the world land all in chains.
Here were the old man and woman that
had been shut up for years; here, too, were
the middle-aged; they young men and maid
ems of fourteen years. The soldiers went
to work releasing them, and took their over
coats and other clothing, and gave them to
cover their nakedness. We then proceed
ed TO explore another room on the left
Here we found instruments of torture Of
every kind which the ingenuity of man or
devil could invent.
Col. D. here described four of the hor-
rid instruments.
The first was machine by which the
victim was confined; then beginning with
the fingers, every joint in the hands. arms
and body was drawn out; the second was
box in which the head of the victim was
confined by screw; over the box was a
vessel from which one drop of water tell
every second on the head, in the same place,
which put the sufferer in the most excru
tiating agony. till death; the third was an
internal machine, laid horizontally, to
which the victim was bound; the machine
was then placed between two beams, in
which we're scores of knives so fixed that
by turning the machine by a crank, the
flesh was torn from his limbs all in small
pieces. The fourth surpassed the others
in iendish ingenuity. Its exterior was
beautiful woman or doll; richly dressed,
with arms extended, and around her feet a