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sentence, and with the approbation of all, the boy was subjected to different kinds of 

 torture. He was beaten till the blood gushed forth, and his body became black; he 

 was also crowned with thorns, spit upon and derided. Moreover, he was pierced 

 with knives, made to drink gall, mocked with insults and blasphemies, and frequently 

 called ' Jesus the False Prophet ' by the spectators who gnashed their teeth upon him. 

 After deriding him in several ways, they crucified him, and pierced him to the heart 

 with a lance. When the boy expired, they took down the body from the cross, and 

 for some reason unknown, took out the intestines; it is said, however, that they were 

 to be used in their magic rites. But the boy's mother sought her absent son for 

 several days; and it was told her by the neighbours that they had last seen her son 

 playing with his Jewish companions and entering the house of a certain Jew. She 

 accordingly proceeded with all haste to the house of the Jew, and there beheld the 

 body of her child which had been thrown into a pit. Having quickly called together 

 the officers of the city, the body was found and taken forth ; and the wondrous spec- 

 tacle was displayed to the people. And the mother of the boy by her complaints and 

 lamentations, drew forth tears and sighs from all the citizens who had assembled. 

 Now there was present Lord* John of Lexington, a shrewd and discreet man, and 

 moreover distinguished as a literary character ; he spoke thus — ' Since we have heard 

 that the Jews have not hesitated to attempt such deeds, by way of reproach to Jesus 

 Christ, our crucified Lord, and as one Jew has been taken, (into whose house, it ap- 

 pears, the boy entered to amuse himself,) and as he has become an object of greater 

 suspicion than the rest ; — ' unhappy man,' he says to this one, ' art thou ignorant 

 that immediate death awaits thee? All the gold of England would not be sufficient 

 to rescue and redeem thee. But I shall tell thee, however unworthy thou art, how 

 thou mayest preserve thy life, and not have thy limbs mutilated. Both these things 

 I shall secure to thee, if without one word of falsehood, thou fearest not to lay open 

 to me all the particulars of this case.' The Jew accordingly, whose name was Copin, 

 imagining that he had thus found out a way of evasion, replied as follows — ' Lord 

 John, if thou makest good what thou hast promised, I will disclose to thee wondrous 

 matters.' Thereupon Lord John turns his attention to what the Jew had to say, and 

 the latter thus begins. 'What the Christians say is true; the Jews almost every 

 year crucify one boy, to the injury and contempt of Jesus; but they are unable to 

 procure one every year, and they practise this secretly and in places the most retired 

 and concealed. But this boy, whose name is Hugo, our Jews unmercifully put to 

 death, and when he had died, and they wished to conceal his body, it could not be 

 buried nor hidden in the earth.' (For the body of an innocent person was deemed 

 unfitted for augury ; and this was their object in taking out the intestines.) ' And in 

 the morning, when they thought the body was concealed, the earth cast it forth ; and 

 it appeared for some time above the ground unburied, from which circumstance the 

 Jews became alarmed. At length it was thrown into a pit, nor even then could it be 

 concealed, for the persevering mother, after searching in all directions, at length gave 

 notice to the officers that the body was found.' Nevertheless, Lord John kept the 

 Jew bound in chains ; and when these things came to the knowledge of the Canons 

 of Lincoln Cathedral, they requested that the body should be given to them, and the 



* Or Master John ; he is said to have been a member of the chapter and related to 

 the Bishop. 



