TH*E SOURCE OF THE NIKE. 581 



€>f 'that ambaffador, the indifFerence they teftified at the ap-i 

 preach, and in the immediate fuffering of death, had its 

 origin rather in hardnefs of heart than in the quietnefs of 

 their confidences. Many fanatics have been known to die, 

 glorying in having perpetrated the moft horrid crimes to 

 which the fentence of eternal damnation is certainly an-^ 

 nexed in the book before them*. 



I have often, both on purpofe and by accident, paffed by 

 this place, where three large, and one fmall pile of Hones, 

 cover the bodies of . thefe unfortunate fufFerers ; and, with 

 many heavy reflections upon my o.wn danger, I have often 

 wondered how thefe three priefts, of whatever nation they 

 were, paffed unnoticed among the number of their frater- 

 nity, whofe memory- is honoured with long panegyrics by 

 the Romiih writers of thofe times, as deftined one day to 

 appear in the kalendar. Though thofe that compofe the 

 long lift of: Tellez died with piety and resignation, they 

 were furely guilty in the way they almofl all were engaged, 

 contrary to the laws and conflitution of the country, in ac- 

 tions and defigns that can be fairly qualified by no other 

 name than that of treafon, while no fuch political meddling 

 out of their profeffion ever was reproached to thefe three ? 

 even by their enemies. , 



Tellez fays not a word of them ; Le Grande, a zealous 

 Catholic writer of thefe times, but little ; though he pub- 

 lifhes an Arabic letter to conful Maillet, : which 1 mentions 

 their names, their fufFerings, and 1 other circumftances at- 

 tending them. I fhall, therefore, take the liberty of offer- 

 ing my conjecture, as I think .this filence, or the fuppreflion 



Ofr 



