to stand
upright without food of any kind for fifty hours together.

"Subsequently the Hebrew butchers were cited to appear; they were put
in chains together with the Rabbins Jacob Antubi, Salomon Harari, and
Asaria Jalfon; and they too were beaten to such an extent that their
flesh hung in pieces upon them; and these atrocities were perpetrated
in order to induce them to confess that they used blood in making the
Passover cakes. They replied that, if such had been the case, many
Jewish proselytes would have published the fact. This, however, was
not sufficient.

"After this, the same Governor went to the boy's college; he had the
boys carried to prison, bound them with chains, and forbade the
mothers to visit their imprisoned children, to whom only ten drachms
of bread and a cup of water per day were allowed, the Governor
expecting that the fathers, for the sake of liberating their children,
would confess the truth of the matter.

"Subsequently a Jew, who was still at liberty, presented himself
before the Governor, stating that the calumny of our using blood for
our Passover cakes had been discussed before all the Powers, who,
after consulting their divines, had declared the falsehood of the
charge; and he added that either others had killed the priest and his
servant, or they had clandestinely absented themselves from the
country, and that the barber, in order to save himself from
persecution, had stated that which, was not true.

"Upon this the Governor replied that, as he had accused other persons
of killing them, he must know who the murderers were; and in order
that he should confess, he was beaten to such an extent that he
expired under the blows.

"After this, the Governor, with a body of six hundred men, proceeded
to demolish the houses of his Jewish subjects, hoping to find the
bodies of the dead, but not finding anything, he returned, and again
inflicted on his victims further castigations and torments, some of
them too cruel and disgusting to be described. At last, being
incapable of bearing further anguish, they said that the charge was
true!!!

"The Governor, hearing this statement, asked them where they had
secreted the blood of the murdered men, to which one of them replied,
that it had been put into a bottle, and delivered to Moses Abulafia,
who, however, declared he knew nothing of it. In order to make him
confess he received a thousand stripes, but this infliction not
extorting any confessio