touched by the very
humanity of this poor Brother Francisco's cry for help that came up out
of the dead depths of the past; and that was the more keen and pitiful
because the cruel death at the hands of the barbarous Indians that he so
dreaded assuredly had overtaken him. His could not have been a strong
nature, and it was the weaker because of his youth; but, after all, it
was the nature that God had given him, and there must have been a strain
of strength in it, else he never would have braved the dangers which
overcame him in the end. And he was "but twenty-three years old"!

Yet when I sought to lead Fray Antonio's mind to such consideration of
the matter he replied, sternly: "This weak brother failed in his duty.
To him God gave an opportunity to die gloriously for the Faith; but,
instead of accepting that noble reward joyfully, his strongest wish was
that he might find a way by which he might escape alive. Had all
professors of the Christian creed so conducted themselves, that creed
long since would have perished from off the earth. _Semen est sanguis
Christianorum_ is well said of Tertullian the Carthaginian, and, later,
of the blessed Saint Jerome."

As Fray Antonio thus spoke he so drew up his slight figure, and in his
sweet voice was a ring of such commanding sternness, that he was for the
moment transformed. Here was a man wholly different from the gentle
scholar whom I had already learned to love. In the glimpse that I thus
had of his underlying character I saw vivified again the spirit of the
early Christian Church; and I understood, as I never had understood
before, of what stuff they were made who heard pronounced upon them the
sentence, "To the lions!" and joyfully accepted their cruel fate,
defiant of what man might do to them because of the perfection of their
faith in the merciful forgiveness and upholding steadfastness of their
Christian God.

But in a moment a look of sadness and regret came into Fray Antonio's
face, and he added, sorrowfully: "God forgive me for thus judging my
brother, who long since was judged! Who can say that when the hour of
trial came he did not meet his death as bravely as any martyr of them
all? And who can say," he went on, but speaking softly, as one communing
with his own soul, "how I myself--But God gives strength." And then he
ceased to speak aloud, but his lips moved silently as though in prayer.
As I close my eyes I see him again as clearly as I saw him
then--stan