Anthony Calas to have been ftrangled; the furgeon, having been ordered to examine the ftomach of the deceased, depofed also, that the food which was found there had been taken four hours before his death. As no proof of the supposed fact could be procured; the Capitoul had recourse to a Monitory, in which the crime was taken for granted, and all perfons were required to give fuch teftimony concerning it as they were able, particularizing the points to which they were to speak. This Monitory recites, that La Vaiffe was commiffioned by the Proteftants to be their executioner in ordinary, when any of their children were to be hanged for changing their religion; it recites alfo, that when Proteftants thus hang their children, they compel them to kneel, and one of the interrogatories was, whether any perfon had feen Anthony Calas kneel before his father when he ftrangled him; it recites too, that Anthony died a Roman Catholic, and requires evidence of his catholicism: These ridiculous opinions being thus adopted and published by the principal magiftrate of a confiderable city, the church of Geneva thought itfelf obliged to fend an atteftation of its abhorrence of opinions fo abominable and abfurd, and of its aftonishment that they should be fufpected of fuch opinions by perfons whofe rank and office required them to have more knowledge and better judgment.

But before this Monitory was publifhed, the mob had got a no. tion, that Anthony Calas was the next day to have entered into the confraternity of the White Penitents. The Capitoul immediately adopted this opinion alfo, without

the leaft examination, and ordered Anthony's body to be buried in the middle of St. Stephen's church, which was done; forty priests, and all the White Penitents affifting in the funeral proceffion.

Four days afterwards, the White Penitents performed a folemn fervice for him in their chapel; the church was hung with white, and a tomb was raised in the middle of it, on the top of which was placed a human skeleton, holding in one hand a paper, on which was written abjuration of herefy, and in the other a palm, the emblem of martyrdom.

The next day the Francifcans performed a fervice of the fame kind for him, and it is eafy to imagine how much the minds of the people were inflamed by this ftrange folly of their magiftrates and priests.

The Capitoul continued the profecution with unrelenting feverity; and though the grief and distraction of the family, when he first came to the houfe, were alone fufficient to have convinced any reasonable being that they were not the authors of the event which they deplored, yet having publickly attefted that they were guilty in his Monitory without proof, and no proof coming in, he thought fit to condemn the unhappy father, mother, brother, friend and fervant to the torture, and put them all into irons on the 18th of November. Cafing was enlarged upon proof that he was not in Calas's houfe till after Anthony was dead.

From thefe dreadful proceedings the fufferers appealed to the parliament, which immmediately took cognizance of the affair, annulled the fentence of the Capitoul as irre

gular,

regular, and continued the profecu

tion.

When the trial came on, the hangman, who had been carried to Calas's house, and fhewn the folding doors and the bar, depofed, that it was impoffible Anthony fhould hang himself as was pretended; another witness swore that they looked thro' the key-hole of Calas's door, into a dark room, where they faw men running haftily to and fro; a third fwore, that his wife had told him, that a woman named Mandrill, had told her, that a certain woman unknown had declared the heard the cries of Mark Anthony Calas at the farther end of the city. Upon fuch evidence as this, the majority of the parliament were of opinion, that the father and mother had ordered La Vaiffe to hang their fon, and that another fon and a maid fervant, who was a good Catholic had affifted him to do it.

One La Borde prefided at the trial, who had zealously efpoufed the popular prejudices; and though it was manifeft to demonftration that the prisoners were either all innocent or all guilty, he voted that the father should firft fuffer the torture ordinary and extraordinary, to discover his accomplices, and be then broken alive upon the wheel, to receive the laft ftroke when he had laid two hours, and then to be burnt to ashes. In this opinion he had the concurrence of fix others, three were for the torture alone, two were of opinion that they fhould endeavour to afcertain upon the fpot whether Anthony could hang himself or not, and one voted to acquit the prifoner. After long debates the majority was for the torture and the wheel, and probably condemned the father by way of

1

experiment whether he was guilty or not, hoping he would, in the agony, confefs the crime, and accuse the other prifoners, whofe fate, therefore, they fufpended: It is, however, certain, that if they had had evidence against the father that would have juftified the fentence they pronounced against him, that very evidence would have justified the fame fentence against the reft, and that if they could not juftly condemn the reft, they could not juftly condemn him, for they were all in the houfe together when Anthony died, all concurred in declaring he hanged himself, which thofe who did not help to hang him, if hanged by others, could have had no motive to do, nor could any of the prifoners have hanged him by violence, without the knowledge of the reft.

Poor Calas, however, an old man of fixty-eight, was condemned to this dreadful punishment alone; he fuffered the torture with great conftancy, and was led to execution in a frame of mind which excited the admiration of all that faw him.

Two Dominicans, father Bourges and father Caldagues, who attended him in his laft moments, wished, "their latter end might be like his," and declared that they thought him not only wholly innocent of the crime laid to his charge, but an exemplary instance of true chris itian patience, fortitude and charity.

One fingle fhriek, and that not very violent, efcaped him when he received the firft ftroke, after that be uttered no complaint. Being at length placed on the wheel, to wait for the moment which was to end his life and his mifery together, he expreffed himself with an humble hope of an happy immortality, and [K] 2

a com

child used to lie, and locked the door that the other children might not fee it. They pretended the had had a fit, from which the foon recovered, and for two or three days they infinuated, that fhe was confined in the garret to prevent her running away, having made a third attempt to escape; and the mother herfelf, in fight of the children, took victuals and carried it up into the garret, pretending it was Nanny's dinner.

On the fourth day, the body being tripped, was locked up in a box; and, in confequence of a plan concerted between the mother and daughter, the garret door was left open when the children were fent down to dinner, and the street door was alfo opened and left a-jar; when they were at dinner, the mother faid to the daughter, Hark! Sally, don't hear a noife, go and you fee what it is; to which the daughter, as had been agreed, replied, there is no noife, and continued at table ; then faid the old woman to Sally Hinchman, Go and fetch Nanny down, he shall dine below to-day; Hinchman went up, and finding the garret door open, and the child not there, ran back frighted, and faid, Madam, Nanny is not there Run down then, faid the old woman, and look below; upon this several of the children ran down, and finding the ftreet door alfo open, came up, and told what they had feen-Aye, faid the old woman, then he is run away at laft; and it was he that I heard, when I mentioned the noife; girls, did not you hear a noife? O! law madam, faid the poor children, implicitly concurring in an opinion they did not dare to contradict, so we did.

Thus they hoped to account for the

child's abíence to her fellow-prentices, who were not, however, without fufpicions; one of them, in particular, obferved, that if fhe had run away, fhe had run away without her fhoes, of which fhe was known to have but one pair, and they were found in the garret foon after the fuppofed escape; another remarked, that they had all her shifts. in the wash, and that it was not likely fhe fhould escape without either fhift or fhoes: The old woman hearing this whispered, faid, That he went without her shoes for fear of being heard to go down stairs, and that if he could but get into the street, fhe would not mind being barefoot; the fhifts fhe could not fo readily account for; and a perfon who lodged in the house, having afked what was become of Nanny, was answered by her filter, that he was dead. The lodger was fatisfied with the answer, having no fufpicion that her death was not natural; but the mother hearing of it, afked Molly Nailor, Who told her that her fifter was dead? fhe replied, Philly Dowley, one of her fellow-prentices: Philly, therefore, was sharply reproved. Molly was foon after deftroyed as her fifter had been, and the horrid fecret flept with the mother and daughter.

It became neceffary, however, to keep the children out of the garret, for the body was become very offenfive; they were therefore ordered not to wash their hands there as ufual, but to wash them in the kitchen, and the garret door was kept locked. But at the end of two months, the putrefaction was fo great, that the whole houfe was infected, and it became abfolutely neceffary to remove the body.

The