they had suspicions, which they immediately communicated to their master. This sick old man,' said they to him, in a persuasive tone, this old man has much the appearance of being a priest.' Trinh-Quang-Khanh, whom the mention of the name puts in a phrenzy, rushes instantly towards the retreat of the old man, and has him brought before him into the middle of the court Trample on this crucifix,' says the judge. Priest- God forbid that I should!' Mandarin- Are you a priest?" Priest-Yes, I have that honour.' Mandarin' Walk on the cross and I let you go.' Priest-To apostatize at my age! I have been guilty of enough of folly without doing this.' These answers were not calculated to mollify the tyrant; he ordered Father Thinh to be added to the other prisoners, and to be treated in the same manner. is easy to imagine the joy of the persecutor at seeing the three priests that had fallen into his hands!

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"Two catechists were also arrested; several articles belonging to religious purposes were likewise discovered, and the houses that contained them were given up to pillage. The devastation once begun, it was extended without distinction to the entire hamlet, which the chiefs abandoned to the mercy of the soldiers; thus punishing as an act of rebellion the hospitality afforded to a few proscribed men. Trinh-Quang-Khanh might take credit for the zeal with which his satellites seconded his views, for, after their departure, a great number of families were reduced to the greatest destitution. Towards the evening of the second day of the fifth moon (1st June), the governor resumed his march to Vi-Hoang, the capital of Nam-Dinh, carrying with him our three priests and eleven prisoners, wearing the cangue; amongst the latter were two pagans.

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"On the first of July, Trinh-Quang-Khanh ordered them to be taken out of prison and delivered to the great mandarin of justice, in order to be tortured and condemned, in case they refused to abjure their faith. He himself conducted the first examination.- Are you willing to apostatize? said he to the priests: from whom have you received ordination? how many Europeans are there in the country? do you know the person whom they call Voang? Mandarin,' they replied, to apostatize would be a crime we will not commit; we have been ordained by Dr. Gortyne, who is a long time dead; in latter years there was also in the country an European, called Cao (Dr. Borie), but we have heard it said that the king has sent him to execution; as for the European Vaong, we know him not, we have never had any intercourse with him.'-'If you do not point out his retreat, you shall be put to the torture; we shall see whether red-hot pincers will be able to extract the truth from you.' "Observe particularly that to give effect to these threats, there was on the spot a smith, with his forge, pincers, and burning charcoal, to torture the accused. 'We have told all that we know,' replied Father Nghi: though you should burn our limbs, one after the other, we should not be better informed on what you ask of us.'-' Let them be exposed in the court to the heat of the sun,' said the judge: 'this star, more powerful than we are, will, perhaps, inspire them with better sentiments.' During the dreadful thirst that consumed them in this state, no one was allowed to relieve them; if they asked for a drop of bad water, they were loaded with abuse; and their cries of distress were answered with blasphemies.

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"Whilst the three priests were undergoing this horrible trial, they proceeded with the examination of the other Christian prisoners: two of them yielded to the force of torments, and betrayed their faith. Crucifixes were fastened under the feet of those who refused to apostatize; but upon their persevering in the refusal to consent to this profanation, the judges, after having them tortured, sent them back to their dungeons.

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They were brought out again, on the 6th of the same moon, to appear

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before the mandarin of justice. Trinh-Quang-Khanh, who was the mainspring of the proceeding; having taken care to place crucifixes before the confessors, he first addressed the priests, saying, Do you consent to apostatize? If you are sincerely converted, if you abjure the worship of Jesus, trample upon those crosses, and the king pardons you; if not, we shall put you to death, in conformity with the laws of the state." -'We are priests,' replied the three confessors with one accord; our lives are in your hands; to redeem them by outraging the Lord of heaven and earth would be a crime to which we can never be brought.'- Obey or you die.'-' If we are to walk to execution, we are ready,' answered father Nghi in the name of his companions; 'it is a thousand times better to spill one's blood, than to abandon the God in whom we put all our confidence.' He had scarcely finished these words when the furious mandarin began to blaspheme: from forty to fifty blows of a staff, which he ordered to be given to the three priests. appeared to him a very slight punishment for such bold language; Father Thinh received a greater number, because, no doubt, that being the older, he should have given to others the example of submission. They were again exposed, as on the preceding day, to the burning sun, and their disciples were again beaten in their presence.

"On this occasion they also witnessed two apostacies. If any thing could console them from this affliction, it would be the affecting scene that terminated the examination. The confessors, in the midst of torments, had replied by constant refusals to the threats and solicitations of the judges. Their firmness rendered the mandarins furious: Trinh-Quang-Khanh, beside himself with rage, conceived of a sudden the idea of a torture which his tiger heart alone could suggest. The three fathers were before him, under the rays of a burning sun, their bodies torn with recent scourging; Trinh-Quang-Khanh commands the other Christians to lick up the blood that is gushing from their wounds. The order was hardly given, when John Baptist Con throws himself at the feet of father Nghi, whilst the other confessors, imitating his example, kneel around the ministers of Jesus Christ and respectfully kiss the bleeding wounds of the martyrs. 'Do you see,' exclaimed the governor in a phrenzy, do you see how they still venerate those priests! And persons will say that those people are not bewitched!' he added gnashing his teeth.

The next morning a new examination took place. They inquired again of the fathers if they were willing to abjure. Great mandarin,' they replied, our resolutions are the same; we will never change them.' This answer drew down upon them a shower of blows, which tore their flesh in a cruel manner. We now let the martyrs themselves speak of the severity of the punishment inflicted on them. Father,' wrote to me father Nghi,' the pain I felt that day was dreadful; I suffered the more, because the rods opened anew the wounds of the other days. I could not tell you the number of the strokes we received.' Father Ngan expressed himself in nearly the same terms: When the judges summoned us anew to their bar, I was still so bruised with the torture of the preceding day, that it was impossible for me to walk; I had to hire a man to carry me to the court. Having appeared before the mandarins, and refused to apostatize, I felt a multitude of rods laid on my back; and I asure you, father, that those people understand well their business, for they did not use their hands sparingly; but, as our Lord said, my yoke is sweet and my burden light. Ah! father, it was then that I truly felt the truth of that expression. My flesh was falling in pieces, and my heart was abounding with joy!'

"After the three priests, the turn of the disciples came next; two of them only came successfully out of this last trial-John Baptist Con and Martin Tho. These valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ opposed a calm, unruffled countenance to the rage of the tyrant, and to the cruelty of his ministers. You have committed great fault,' said Trinh-Quaug-Khanh to them. 'You have infringed the

laws of the kingdom, by giving asylum to proscribed persons, and by concealing the things appertaining to a forbidden worship; nevertheless, if you trample upon this crucifix, the king will pardon you, and restore you to your families. Do you see your body covered with gore; think of your children, and for what purpose you cause their ruin and your own by a foolish obstinacy! I give you the choice between apostacy and death.' Grand mandarin, we are attached to life, and who is not? but we would not dare to commit a crime to preserve it. We have concealed some priests it is true: you are free to punish us for this, but we will not rush into everlasting misfortune to disarm your rigour.' Insensate men, how can you hold such language? Speak sincerely: are you not sorry for having kept amongst you the ministers of the religion of Jesus?' 'No, great mandarin,' replied John Baptist Con; 'we are far from repenting of it; it is a good work that we have done: you have but one way of correcting us for this-to put us to death. If you send us back to our homes, we will conceal the first priest that we meet, even though he should be a European. Our missionaries train us to virtue: they are our fathers; could we abandon them?" This answer made the governor blush; he adjourned the court, and ordered the Christians to be brought back to prison.

"On the following day their constancy was put to new trials. The two neophytes were carried into court. The deplorable condition in which they were, rendered them unable to walk. The same conditions were again asked by the mandarin, and the same answers given to the accused. From questioning they proceeded, as usual, to torture. The Fathers Ngan and Nghi, received from thirty to forty strokes of a stick. As for Father Thinh and the two other confessors, the judges, moved perhaps by the sad state in which they saw them, and unwilling perhaps, also, to lose their time, ordered them to be carried back to their dungeon, without for the present torturing them. They resembled, alas! rather corpses than living bodies; one could hardly believe, on beholding them, that a soul could dwell beneath their wounds. Martin Tho was the most disfigured of all the victims; the infectious odour that came from his sores was such, that the satellites, although accustomed to exhalations of this sort, unable to endure it, drove the poor agonizing man out of the common prison, and confined him in a miserable corner, where he inspired compassion even in the most inhuman hearts.

"One might imagine that the zeal of the mandarins was now exhausted, and that they had only to order the dying confessors to be dragged to execution it is not, however, so. They sent their sattellites to fetch the wives and children of the two Christians-of those two heroes, who were worthy the brightest ages of the Church-hoping that the voice of a wife and of a son would be more effective than the apparatus of torture. But some knowledge of the plan fortunately reached the ears of the prisoners, and they immediately despatched an express to their families, recommending them to fly, for fear that, being put to the torture, they might not have courage to withstand the anguish of torments. The soldiers, therefore, went on a futile embassy, and the mandarins had once more the shame of seeing themselves conquered. "Besides the sufferings of which I have spoken, and which were common to all the confessors, Martin Tho underwent private examinations and unheard-of tortures. On the 10th of the sixth moon he appeared alone before the judges, and had to answer concerning all the things connected with religion which had been seized in his house. They made of these seventeen charges. Apostacy was again proposed to him, as the only means of saving his life. Upon his refusal, he was stretched on a pole, and tied in such a way as to dislocate his limbs; two cords were fastened to the ends of his cangue, by means of which the soldiers held him suspended at the distance of a foot

from the ground. In this state, so painful to the sufferer, a crowd of executioners beat him with rods; some struck him on the feet, others upon the hands, whilst some tore away his hair, and others pierced his flesh with lances which they plunged into his bleeding wounds. You will not apostatize!' cried Trinh-Quang-Khanh, in a mocking tone; we are exhausting all our science to persuade you, and still you do not wish to live? Believe us; acknowledge whose are the articles belonging to a strange religion; renounce Christ, and we will break your chains? Do you consent?' Great mandarin, if you allow me to live, I shall be most grateful for this favour; if you order me to die, I am quite ready to submit cheerfully; but to abjure my faith-no, no, I will never consent!' You do not, then, wish for life?' Mandarin, the God of heaven and earth, in creating men, has given to all a love of existence, but it is better to sacrifice life than to preserve it at the expense of duty.' Mandarin-Obey, or 1 shall cut off your head! If the great mandarin wishes to strike it off on account of my religion, it is at his disposal; the instant that it falls will be for me the completion of my felicity.' Mandarin —If I bring here your wife and children, and sacrifice them one after the other before your eyes, will you not have compassion on them, and apostatize to preserve their lives?' Mandarin, I thought my blood would suffice; but if you wish to mingle with it the blood of my wife and children, this would be no reason for me to apostatize; although a father and husband, I prefer death to perjury. My family is very dear to me, yet I must not prefer them to my God.' Mandarin-' You desire, then, to go to heaven; how will you be able to ascend there?' Heaven! ah! it is to enjoy it that I remain faithful to my religion: when my head shall fall under the executioner's sword, my soul will fly towards the Christian's country.' Mandarin-'And must not you have wings to fly?' 'Your cangues, the rods that have penetrated my flesh, will be the wings upon which I will soar towards my God. When you shall have sufficiently tortured me; when, after having suffered me to languish in your prisons, you shall pronounce, at length, my sentence of death, my wings will then become strong enough, and I shall wing my flight towards heaven.' This sublime answer confounded the persecutor, and he revenged himself by exposing the martyr to the rays of a burning sun. He then confined him in a filthy, infectious hole, where he remained three days without any food, and a butt to every sort of insult. He was taken out in the evening, in order to prevent him from enjoying a moment's sleep. He was so placed, that he passed the night in inexpressible sufferings: watches, armed with rods, stood near, to prolong by want of sleep his torments; yet, notwithstanding this refinement of barbarity, not a complaint, not a murmur escaped from the lips of the martyr. He esteemed himself happy to bear, after his divine Master, a cross all dyed with his blood.

"On the 11th of the sixth moon, Trinh-Quang-Khanh made a final trial of his tortures upon Martin Tho. This attempt was unsuccessful as his preceding ones. From thenceforward, until the day of their execution, the 8th of November, the martyrs continued to wear the cangue on their necks, fetters, and chains on their hands, and to be in company with criminals who thought they had a right to treat them with contempt. Their keepers were, likewise, charged to aggravate their wretched condition. At last, the sentence that condemned them to death was pronounced on the 22nd of the eighth moon, and in six days after it was transmitted for the royal sanction..

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They had been several times visited, during their captivity, by our Christians. Subdeacon Con, whom I had deputed to go to them, having penetrated into the dungeon of Martin Tho and of John Baptist Con, begged of them to communicate, together with the account of their sufferings, the sentiments which animated them in the midst of their torments. The first of

the two combatants replied to him, 'So soon as I saw myself in the hands of the mandarins, I was seized with terror, thinking of the tortures that awaited me from such a man as Trinh-Quang-Khanh. Could I promise myself that my faith would not yield? Having entered the prison, I ardently implored the succour of the Lord, beseeching him not to abandon me in the time of trial, and to be my strength against the enemies of my salvation. The day came when we were to be put to the torture. At the sight of the instruments of anguish, which were displayed before our eyes, red-hot irons, burning coals, a blazing forge, at the sight, particularly of an executioner, who threw me down in order to tie me to a stake, and beat me with rods, I could not help feeling a certain fear. I was hardly bound, when a stroke seemed to rend me asunder. Although fully resolved to suffer every thing for my God, I said to myself, if I am struck three or four times with the same violence, I am really afraid that my strength will be exhausted. But, contrary to my expectation, after the second blow I felt almost no pain; it appeared to me that they were not serious in their business; I had even the idea that money had been given to the executioners, that they might spare me. It was on my return to prison and at the sight of my flesh all torn, and my blood flowing on all sides, that I perceived I had been beaten in reality. Some days after when the catechist of the grand father Doan (M. Charrier) came to visit me, I asked him if they purchased the compassion of the executioners; and when he told me they had not, I was astonished that I had not suffered more. From my childhood I had heard speak of the miracles wrought by the Lord in favour of those who give themselves up to torments for the glory of his name. But these prodigies, in what did they consist? I hardly comprehended this. Now, however, that the mercy of God has realised them for me, and that such deep wounds have existed almost without pain, I know by experience how a celestial hand blunts all the shafts of the tyrant.

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'See,' he added, continuing to address himself to the subdeacon; 'our torn bodies, after the examinations and the tortures, were for all objects of compassion; they thought us very wretched, and yet our bearts were really overflowing with joy: a vile creature, a miserable sinner like me, to be favoured with such delightful consolations! oh! it was a happiness exceeding all gratitude. Whilst they were beating me I raised my soul to God, praying him to give me the strength to confess his holy name unto death. It appears that he has granted me this grace; for, according to all appearances, we shall not be tortured any more: the judges are at present employed in drawing up our sentence. Nevertheless, so long as there remains for us a step to proceed, we have need to apprehend a fall: watch them and pray for us; present to the grand father Doan the profound respect of his children; tell him that they recommend themselves to his remembrance at the holy sacrifice, in order to obtain this beauteous crown, that the Lord seems to reserve for us.' Such were the words of Martin Tho; I am not sure if the catacombs ever resounded to any more sublime. This confessor, in his chains, and his body all torn, aware that, while he speaks, his sentence of death is being drawn up, is yet enumerating only his ineffable delights to the young Levite, who listens to him with a religious admiration, to repeat his discourse to the missionary, and through him to the Chrstian world: it is a sight worthy of the angels, worthy of heaven, where the generous martyr has just had a glimpse of his crown.

"From the day of his arrest he appeared to be only occupied with the sacrifice he was about to make. He was leaving a wife and eight children; an admirable family, and truly animated with the spirit of its head: far from trying to shake his courage, they offered up supplications that he might remain constant. Four or five days after their father had been taken away, the son asked of his mother permission to visit him in prison. My children,' said