Torquemada heard the tale with a stern severity, little
encouraging to the Queen's ideas of mercy; he insisted that her
conversion _must_ be effected; if by kindness and forbearance, well
and good; but if she were obstinate, harshness must be resorted
to; and only on that condition would he grant Isabella the desired
blessing on her task. He did not fail to bring forward the fact of
a zealous Catholic, such as Don Ferdinand Morales, wedding and
cherishing one of the accursed race, and conniving at her secret
adherence to her religion, as a further and very strong incentive for
the public establishment of the Inquisition, whose zealous care would
effectually guard the sons of Spain from such unholy alliances in
future. He urged the supposition of Marie's having become the mother
of children by Ferdinand; was it not most probable, nay, certain, that
she would infuse her own unbelief in them; and then how mixed and
defiled a race would take the place of the present pure Castilians.
Isabella could reply nothing satisfactory to this eloquent reasoning.
The prejudices of education are strong in every really earnest heart;
and though her true woman's nature revolted at every thought of
severity, and towards one so suffering as Marie, she acknowledged its
necessity, in case of kindness failing.
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