to seal my faith with my
blood?" Then, as the friend threw himself into Boeton's arms and some
signs of sympathetic emotion appeared among the crowd; the procession
was abruptly ordered to move on; but though the leave-taking was thus
roughly broken short, no murmur passed the lips of Boeton.

In turning out of the first street, the scaffold came in sight; the
condemned man raised his hands towards heaven, and exclaimed in a
cheerful voice, while a smile lit up his face, "Courage, my soul! I see
thy place of triumph, whence, released from earthly bonds, thou shah
take flight to heaven."

When he got to the foot of the scaffold, it was found he could not mount
without assistance; for his limbs, crushed in the terrible "boot," could
no longer sustain his weight. While they were preparing to carry him up,
he exhorted and comforted the Protestants, who were all weeping round
him. When he reached the platform he laid himself of his own accord
on the cross; but hearing from the executioner that he must first
be undressed, he raised himself again with a smile, so that the
executioner's assistant could remove his doublet and small-clothes. As
he wore no stockings, his legs being bandaged the man also unwound these
bandages, and rolled up Boeton's shirts-sleeves to the elbow, and
then ordered him to lay himself again on the cross. Boeton did so with
unbroken calm. All his limbs were then bound to the beams with cords
at every joint; this accomplished, the assistant retired, and the
executioner came forward. He held in his hand a square bar of iron, an
inch and a half thick, three feet long, and rounded at one end so as to
form a handle.

When Boeton saw it he began singing a psalm, but almost immediately the
melody was interrupted by a cry: the executioner had broken a bone of
Boeton's right leg; but the singing was at once resumed, and continued
without interruption till each limb had been broken in two places. Then
the executioner unbound the formless but still living body from the
cross, and while from its lips issued words of faith in God he laid
it on the wheel, bending it back on the legs in such a manner that
the heels and head met; and never once during the completion of this
atrocious performance did the voice of the sufferer cease to sound forth
the praises of the Lord.

No execution till then had ever produced such an effect on the crowd,
so that Abbe Massilla, who was present, seeing the general emotion,
hasten