e to
send and call you to come wherever I may be, and if you are Christians
you have to come trooping in haste, lest evil fall upon you."

Nobody dared answer this, and the Bishop, rising, immediately withdrew
into the sacristy.

There the notary of the council came to him and respectfully presented a
petition from the townspeople, asking that they have confessors
appointed. The Bishop assented and named two; but these not being
acceptable, he chose two others, whose views were not very well known to
the people, but whom he knew to be in sympathy with himself. The brother
who was with him, not understanding the character of the men he had last
appointed and thinking he was yielding to pressure, took hold of his
vestments and cried:

"Let your lordship rather die than do this!"

At that a tumult broke out in the church, and the people would have
assaulted the speaker, if at that moment two monks of the Order of Mercy
had not entered the building and succeeded in getting the Bishop and the
offending father out in safety,--taking them to their convent.

Las Casas had walked all night, and the fatigue of the journey and the
excitement of this meeting had left him much exhausted, but he was not
yet to have rest.

He was seated in his cell, and the monks were giving him some
refreshment, when a fearful uproar was heard outside, and the convent
was found to be surrounded by armed men. Some of them forced their way
into the Bishop's presence. At first there was such a noise that it was
impossible to hear what it was all about, but at last it appeared that
it was because the Indian sentinels had been bound and treated as
prisoners.

Las Casas at once said that he alone was to blame for this, and
explained that it was done for fear they should be suspected of favoring
him.

Then a storm of abuse broke out against the Bishop, no feeling of
respect for his office nor of consideration for his age restraining
them.

Meanwhile, while this was going on within, a scene of violence was
taking place in the courtyard. The mob attacked the negro who attended
the Bishop in all his travels. This negro was of great stature and the
Bishop in jest called him Juanillo (Little John). He had traveled three
times across the continent with the Bishop, and always carried him in
his arms when fording the swollen streams. Juanillo was wounded with a
pike thrust and stretched on the ground. The monks rushed out to help
him and two of them,--