Of late years, too, the earth herself has disgorged some secrets of the Inquisition.

'A most curious discovery,' writes Lord Malmesbury in his Memoirs,[95] 'has been made at Madrid.

Just at the time when the question of religious liberty was being discussed in the Cortes, Serrano had ordered a piece of ground to be leveled, in order to build on it; and the workmen came upon large quantities of human bones, skulls, lumps of blackening flesh, pieces of chains, and braids of hair.

It was then recollected that the _autos da fe_ used to take place at that spot in former days.

Crowds of people rushed to the place, and the investigation was continued.