They were taken
immediately to a church, at their own request, in procession. And no
sooner did they find themselves in the temple of the Lord for whom
they had suffered so much, than they all commenced to sing aloud
_Nunc dimittis_, from beginning to end, so that the Christians of the
primitive church could have done no more. They were then taken to a
hospital, where they are being cared for at present with liberal good
cheer, for on every hand they are supplied with plentiful alms. The
heathen Japanese went back astonished at this charitable reception
which they received; and therefore they now make martyrs no more,
because they realize that this affects the people, and that more
are converted in the public martyrdoms which they were inflicting
in order to strike the others with fear. What they now do with the
ministers of the gospel whom they can capture is as follows--as has
been done lately with six religious whom they hold prisoners among
them, two of these belonging to our order of St. Dominic: Within the
prison they strip the fathers, and throw boiling hot water on them
over their whole bodies, until they are horribly burned and wounded,
and their skin is quite flayed off.
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