er severity, but upon the softer, whiter, and more
tender skin, the purple lines appeared plainer by contrast.

Strange that neither cried out. The girl writhed, and uttered a low
whimpering, but no scream escaped her lips. As for the old woman, she
remained quite motionless--no sign told that she suffered!

When ten lashes each had been administered, a voice from the centre of
the Plaza cried out--

"_Basta por la nina_!" (Enough for the girl.)

The crowd echoed this; and he, whose office it was to flog the younger
female, rolled up his cuarto and desisted. The other went on until
twenty-five lashes were told off.

A band of music now struck up. The asses were d along the side of the
square, and halted at the next corner.

The music stopped. The padres again went through their mumbling
ceremony. The executioners performed their part--only one of them this
time--as by the voice of the crowd the younger female was spared the
lash, though she was still kept in her degraded and shameful position.

The full measure of twenty-five stripes was administered to the other,
and then again the music, and the procession moved on to the third angle
of the Plaza. Here the horrid torture was repeated, and again at the
fourth and last corner of the square, where the hundred lashes--the full
number decreed as the punishment--were completed.

The ceremony was over. The crowd gathered around the victims--who, now
released from official keeping, were left to themselves.

The feeling of the crowd was curiosity, not sympathy. Notwithstanding
all that had passed before their eyes, there was but little sympathy in
the hearts of that rabble.

Fanaticism is stronger than pity; and who cared for the witch and the
heretic?

Yes--there were some who cared yet. There were hands that unbound the
cords, and chafed the brows of the sufferers, and flung rebosos over
their shoulders and poured water into the lips of those silent victims--
silent, for both had fainted!

A rude carreta was there. How it came there no one knew or cared. It
was getting dusk, and people, having satisfied their curiosity, and
hungry from long fasting, were falling off to their homes. The brawny
driver of the carreta, directed by a young girl, and aided by two or
three dusky Indians, lifted the sufferers into his vehicle, and then,
mounting himself, drove off; while the young girl, and two or three who
had assisted him, followed the vehicle.

It cl