Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume II.djvu/255

Rh courageous bearing, so uncommon in China, in the presence of magistrates, astonished the mandarin, and he ordered the chains to be taken off Yao, and that he should be allowed to sit down.

When the Assessor, Kio-Tchin, learned that one of the missionaries had been left behind in the house, he was exceedingly wrathful, and vented much anger on the subordinates of his tribunal; and the next day, Father Semedo, as well as the Brothers Sebastian Fernandez, and some Christians who lived with them, were sent to join Father Yagnon in prison, where they were kept apart from each other.

Whilst Father Lombard, having reached Pekin, was vainly exerting himself, in conjunction with Father Pantoja and Dr. Paul, to get a petition presented to the emperor, the persecution at Nankin became more and more envenomed. "I will not stay," says Father Semedo, "to relate all the indignities, affronts, and outrages that we suffered, in passing from one tribunal to another. Some struck us with their fists; others kicked us, pushed us about, and slapped our faces, or spit in them, or plaistered them with mud, or tore out our beards, and committed a thousand other such outrages as in this country criminals usually experience, if their purses are not sufficiently well filled to enable them to purchase their freedom from these vexations, and a little humanity from the ministers of justice. We Christians were not rich enough to do this."

After having been dragged about from one tribunal to another and cruelly maltreated, the confessors of the faith were at length brought before that very Assessor