ey put them, such captives have, on their
side, the two most powerful advocates in the whole world--their
innocence and their misfortune. No Cicero, no Demosthenes can so
charm the ear, or so powerfully rouse the mind, as these two
defenders; because, among other privileges, God has given them that
of being always present, to cry out for justice, to serve both as
witnesses and advocates, and to terminate one of those processes
which God alone judges in this world: this is what will happen in
the present case, if the justice of men be too long in default. And
let not the debtors of God be too confident about the delay of His
judgment; though the fatal term be apparently postponed, it is
gradually approaching; and the debt to be paid is augmented by the
interest which is added to it down to the last day of Heaven's
great reckoning."'

It was not till eight years later, in 1599, when Philip III. sat on the
throne of Spain, that the wife and children of Perez regained their
liberty, and not till nearly twenty-five later, in 1615, that his
children, who had passed their youth in prison, and been legally
attainted with their father's degradation without having participated in
his offences, were restored to their rank and rights as Spanish nobles.

Baffled in his pursuit of vengeance by the sturdy independence of the
civil courts of Aragon, Philip turned his eyes for assistance to a
tribunal, of which the jurisdiction had apparently no boundary except
its exorbitant pretensions. At the king's bidding, the Inquisition
endeavoured to seize Perez within its inexorable grasp. It seized, but
could not hold him. The free and jealous Aragonese, shouting "Liberty
for ever!" flew to arms, and emancipated from the mysterious oppression
of the Holy Office the man already absolved of crime by the regular
decrees of justice.

The Inquisition having renewed its attempt, the people, headed and
supported by leaders of the highest lineage, condition, and authority in
Aragon, increased in the fervour and boldness of their resistance. Their
zealous championship of Perez--a most unworthy object of so much
generous and brave solicitude--drove them into open insurrection against
Philip. The biographer narrates, that when the storm raised by him, and
on his account, drew near, Perez escaped across the Pyrenees into
France; and the historian records, that when the sun of peace again