tore him from his horse, tied him hand and foot, built a fire and burned his books and papers, and were preparing to burn him on the blazing pile when one of the authorities of the town, who was a friend of the Protestants, came up brandishing his sword among the crowd and scattered them, but not until they had succeeded in burning off the poor man's beard and hair. The police were obliged to shut Mr. Martinez up in the town-jail to protect him from the mob which still thirsted for his blood.
The Presbyterian church in Zacatecas has been many times tried in the fires of persecution. Part of an abandoned Catholic church was rented by the Protestants. That this imposing structure should fall into heretic hands, its saints be taken down from the walls and Scripture texts put in their places was most exasperating. What gave a keener point to the indignity was the fact that the building had been erected by the Inquisition for its peculiar uses, and that in making necessary repairs the secrets of that awful tribunal had been unveiled—the torture-chamber, the rack and pulley, and even human skeletons with nails in their temples, and other relics of the horrid work of the Holy Office. The transfer was no sooner decided upon than bishop and priests united in plans for "putting an end to all Protestants." The mob were ready with knives and pistols, waiting in the cathedral itself for the order to rush upon the Protestants then assembled in their part of the edifice. These latter were out in large numbers. Even the Sunday-school children came and joined in the songs of praise which many a brave heart there thought might prove to be his last on earth. Happily for the almost defenceless church, the bishop and his friends had a
