Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie
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Fathers, th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g the victory as good as won,<br />
exclaimed, "My dear Jessenius, though you should<br />
die this very moment, we promise you that you<br />
shall go straight to heaven." "Is it so?" replied the<br />
confessor; "then where is your Purgatory for those<br />
who are not able to fill up the number of their good<br />
deeds here?" F<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g themselves but befooled, they<br />
departed from him.<br />
On mount<strong>in</strong>g the scaffold, the executioner<br />
approached him, <strong>and</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>ed his tongue. He at<br />
once gave it -- that tongue which had pleaded the<br />
cause of his country before pr<strong>in</strong>ces <strong>and</strong> States. It<br />
was drawn out with a pair of tongs. He then<br />
dropped on his knees, his h<strong>and</strong>s tied beh<strong>in</strong>d his<br />
back, <strong>and</strong> began to pray, "not speak<strong>in</strong>g, but<br />
stutter<strong>in</strong>g," says Comenius. His head was struck<br />
off, <strong>and</strong> affixed to the Bridge-tower, <strong>and</strong> his body<br />
was taken below the gallows, <strong>and</strong> dealt with<br />
accord<strong>in</strong>g to the sentence. One of the lights, not of<br />
<strong>Bohemia</strong> only, but of Europe, had been put out.<br />
Christopher Khobr was the next whose life was<br />
dem<strong>and</strong>ed. He was a man of heroic m<strong>in</strong>d. Speak<strong>in</strong>g<br />
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