[Footnote A: Stockdale's History of the Inquisition.]

According to the popular belief, the dreaded tribunal slept, and so
soundly, they feared not, imagined not its awakening. They little
knew that its subterranean halls were established near almost all the
principal cities, and that its engines were often at work, even in the
palaces of kings. Many a family wept the loss of a beloved member,
they knew not, guessed not how--for those who once entered those fatal
walls were never permitted to depart; so secret were their measures,
that even the existence of this fearful mockery of justice and
Religion was not known, or at that time it would have been wholly
eradicated. Superstition had not then gained the ascendency which in
after years so tarnished the glory of Spain, and opened the wide gates
to the ruin and debasement under which she labors now. The fierce
wars and revolutions ravaging the land had given too many, and too
favorable opportunities for the exercise of this secret power; but
still, regard for their own safety prevented the more public display
of their office, as ambition prompted. The vigorous proceedings of
Ferdinand and Isabella rendered them yet more wary; and little did the
Sovereigns suspect that in their very courts this fatal power held
sway. The existence of this tribunal naturally increased the dangers
environing the Israelites who were daring enough to live amongst
the Catholics as one of them; but of this particular danger they
themselves were not generally aware, and their extraordinary skill
in the concealment of their faith (to every item of which they yet
adhered) baffled, except in a very few instances, even these ministers
of darkness.