He was far too cunning a judge to try first to bend the spirit of the hunchback.

He knew that with that man he could do nothing, and he knew too what marvels were sometimes accomplished by the example of self devotion.

So commencing with a weak and trembling woman, who was ready to sink into the ground with fear and shame merely at being thus had up before the eyes of the whole place, he easily obtained a solemn recantation and abjuration of every form of heresy; and in a tone of wonderful mildness, though of solemn warning, too, told her that since she was a woman and young, and had doubtless been led away by others, she should be pardoned after she had paid a visit barefoot to a shrine forty miles off--a shrine much derided by the heretic teachers--and had returned in like fashion, having tasted nothing but bread and water the whole time of the journey.
Then came, one after another, the weakest and most timorous of the craven crowd.

The infection of fear had seized upon them.

Ignorant, superstitious, scarcely understanding the new teachings that had attracted them, and fearfully terrified of falling under the ban of the Church under whose shelter they had always lived, was it wonderful that one after another should abjure their heretical opinions, and swear to listen to the enticer no more?
Some strove to ask questions upon the points which troubled them; but scarce any sort of disputing was allowed.