Where these black guards appeared, city gates were opened; magistrates swore fealty to masters of more puissance than the king; the resources of flourishing districts were placed at their disposal.

Their arbitrary acts remained unquestioned, their mysterious sentences irreversible.

Shrouded in secrecy, amenable to no jurisdiction but their own, they reveled in the license of irresponsible dominion.

Spain gradually fell beneath the charm of their dark fascination.

A brave though cruel nation drank delirium from the poison-cup of these vile medicine-men, whose Moloch-worship would have disgusted cannibals.
[Footnote 85: Llorente, in his introduction to the _History of the Inquisition_, gives a long list of illustrious Spanish victims.] [Footnote 86: See Llorente, vol.i.p.