The passage from this life to the next, though through a hard trial, was the passage from a transient trouble to eternal happiness, an escape from the cruelty of earth to the charity of heaven.

On his way through the dark valley the martyr believed that there was an invisible hand that would lead him, a friend that would guide him all the more gently and firmly because of the terrors of the flames.

For Bruno there was no such support.

The philosophical opinions, for the sake of which he surrendered his life, could give him no consolation.

He must fight the last fight alone.