History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

thereafter they were conducted to the court to
receive their sentence, their brethren in the faith
lining the way, and encouraging and comforting
them. They were condemned to die. They went
cheerfully to the stake. A voice addressing them
from the crowd was heard, saying, "Joan, behave
valiantly; the crown of glory is prepared for you."
It was that of John Bels, a Carmelite friar. While
the executioner was fastening them to the stake,
with chains put round their necks and feet, they
sang the 130th Psalm, "Out of the depths have I
cried to thee, O Lord; " whereupon a Dominican,
John Campo, cried out, "Now we perceive you are
no Christians, for Christ went weeping to his death;
" to which one of the bystanders immediately made
answer, "That's a lie, you false prophet." The
martyrs were then strangled and scorched, and their
bodies publicly hung in chains in the gallows-field.
Their remains were soon after taken down by the
Protestants of Furness, and buried.[7]
These men, although in number amounting to
many thousands, were only the first rank of that
greater army of martyrs which was to come after
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