Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/254

240 that they had orders to drive them out of China; and the house was soon entirely occupied by soldiers, who guarded also all the approaches to it. An inventory was then taken of the furniture, and the official seal placed upon it; Father Semedo, being ill in bed, was allowed to remain there, though with a sentinel planted at his door; but Father Vagnon was carried in a litter to the tribunal of the Assessor of the Court of Rites, through an immense crowd, who made the air ring with their vociferations and insults. The throng was so compact that the satellites wore obliged to use their bamboos and rattans pretty freely to get through it.

The Christians of Nankin were not wanting in fervour and devotion in the hour of trial, but as soon as they heard of the imprisonment of Father Vagnon, they ran to the mission house, to make a public protest of their faith, and their sympathy with their spiritual fathers.

The intrepidity of a certain John Yao was especially remarkable: he marched at the head of the procession, holding in one hand a flag inscribed with his name, and his declaration that he was a Christian, and in the other a large placard, on which were written in conspicuous characters the commandments of God and of the church. The satellites, astonished at the novelty of this spectacle, asked him what he was about to do?

"I come," he replied, with calm dignity, "to die, to shed my blood with my spiritual fathers!"

The satellites immediately took him at his word; bound his hands behind him, put a chain upon his neck, and dragged him to the tribunal. When the mandarins asked him who he was, he replied with the same coolness that he was a Christian, and quite ready to render a reason for his faith, if they would listen to him. This