Jeffersonian Republican

Destruction of the Inquisition at Madrid.

The following extract from the Western Citizen, may be read with interest coming as it does from such a respectable source. Col. Lehman'sowsky was an officer under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte. For twenty-three years he served with him in stations of trust, which rendered the most intimate relations necessary, and it was only when Napoleon was confined on the Island of Elba, that Col. Lehman'sowsky retired from the service. Of his lectures almost every one has heard. Col. L. has had the means such as perhaps no other man living has had, certainly none in this country, of knowing the men and things of which he speaks. The description below is as near the language of the Colonel as the correspondent's memory served him.-Princeton Whig.

In the year 1809,' said Col. Lehman'sowsky, 'being then at Madrid, my attention was directed to the Inquisition in the neighborhood of that city. Napoleon had previously issued a decree for the suppression of this institution, wherever his victorious troops should extend their arms. I reminded Marshal Soult, then governor of Madrid of this decree, who directed me to destroy it. I informed him that my regiment the 9th Polish Lancers, were insufficient for such a service, but that if he would give me two additional regiments, I would undertake the work. He accordingly gave me the two required regiments, one of which, the 117th, was under the command of Col. De Lille, who is now like myself a minister of the gospel. He is a pastor of one of the evangelical churches in Marseilles. With these troops I proceeded forthwith to the Inquisition, which was situated about five miles from the city -

The Inquisition was surrounded by a wall of great strength, and defended by about four hundred soldiers. When we arrived at the walls I addressed one of the sentinels, and summoned the holy father to surrender to the imperial army and open the gates of the Inquisition.-

The sentinel who was standing on the wall appeared to enter into conversation for a few moments with some one within, at the close of which he presented his musket and shot one of my men. This was a signal for attack and I ordered my troops to fire at those who appeared on the walls.

It was soon obvious that it was an unequal warfare. The walls of the Inquisition were covered with soldiers of the holy office. there was a breast work upon the wall, behind which they kept continually, only as they partially exposed themselves as they discharged their muskets. Our troops were in an open plain, and exposed to a destructive fire. We had no cannon nor could we scale the walls, and the gates successfully resisted all attempts at forcing them. I saw it was necessary to change the mode of attack and directed some trees to be cut down and trimmed and brought on the ground, to be used as battering rams. Two of these were taken up by detachments of men, as numerous as could work to an advantage. and brought to bear upon the walls with all the power which they could exert, regardless of the fire which was pouring upon them from the walls. Presently the walls began to tremble. and under the well directed and persevering application of the ram, a breach was made and the imperial troops rushed into the Inquisition.

Here we met with an incident which nothing but Jesuitical effrontery is equal to. The Inquisition general, followed by the father confessors in their priestly robes, all came out of their rooms as we were making our way into the interior of the Inquisition, and with long faces and their arms crossed over their breasts. their fingers resting on their shoulders, as though they had been deaf to all the noise of the attack and defence, and had just heard of what was going on. they addressed their own soldiers saying, " Why do you fight our friends the French."

Their intention apparently was to make us think that this defence was wholly unauthorized by them, hoping if they could produce in our minds a belief that they were friendly, they should have a better opportunity in the confusion and plunder of the Inquisition to escape.

Their artifice was too shallow and did not succeed. I caused them to be placed under guard, and all the soldiers of the Inquisition to be secured as prisoners. We then proceeded to examine this prison house of hell. We proceeded through room after room; found altars and crucifixes and wax candles in abundance, but could discover no evidence of iniquity being practiced there, nothing of those peculiar features which we expected to find in an Inquisition. Here was beauty and splendor in the most perfect order on which my eyes had ever rested. The architecture--the proportions were perfect. The ceiling and floors of wood were scoured and highly polished. The marble floors were arranged with a strict regard to order. There was every thing to please the eye and gratify a cultivated taste; but where were those horrid instruments of torture of which we had been told, and where those dungeons in which human beings were said to be buried alive' We searched in vain This, the fathers assured us that they had been belied. That we had seen all, and I prepared to give up the search, convinced that this Inquisition was different from others of which I had heard.

But Col. De Lille was not so ready as myself to give up the search, and said to me, Col., you are commander to-day, and as you say so it must be, but if you will only be advised by me, let this floor be examined more. Let some water be brought in and poured upon it, and we will watch and see if there is any place through which it passes more freely than others. I replied to him "do as you please Col.," and ordered the water to be brought accordingly.-

The slabs of marble were large and beautifully polished. When the water had been poured over the floor, much to the dissatisfaction of the Inquisitors, a careful examination was made of every seam in the floor to see if the water passed through. Presently Col. De Lille exclaimed that he had found it. By the side of one of these marble slabs the water passed through fast, as though there was an opening beneath. All hands now were at work for further discovery. The officers with their swords, and the soldiers with their bayonets. seeking to clear out the seam and pry up the slab. While thus engaged, a soldier who was striking with the butt of his musket, struck a spring and the marble slab flew up. Then the faces of the Inquisitors grew pale, and as Belshazzar, when the hand writing appeared on the wall, so did these men of Belial shake and quake in every bone, joint and sinew. We looked beneath the marble slab now partly up and we saw a staircase. I stepped to the candlestick and took one of the candles four feet in length, which was burning, that I might explore what was before us; as I was doing this I was arrested by one of the Inquisitors, who laid his hand gently on my arm, and with a very demure and holy look said. " My son you must not take that with your profane and bloody hands ; it is holy." " Well, well," I said, "I want something that is holy to see if it will not shed light on iniquity; I will bear the responsibility." I took the candle and proceeded down the staircase. I now discovered why the water revealed to us this passage. The trap door could not be rendered close; hence the success of Col. De Lille's experiment. As we reached the foot of the stairs we entered a large room which was called the Hall of Judgment. In the centre of it was a block with a chain fastened to it. On this side of the room was an elevated seat, called the Throne of Judgment. This the Inquisitor General occupied. on either side were seats less elevated, for the holy fathers when engaged in the solemn business of the holy inquisition. From this room we proceeded to the right, and obtained access to small cells, extending the entire length of the edifice and here. what a sight met our eyes! How has the benevolent religion of Jesus been abused and slandered by his professed friends. These cells were places of solitary confinement, where the wretched objects of Inquisitorial hate have been confined year after year. till death released them of their sufferings, and there their bodies were suffered to remain until they were entirely decayed, and the rooms became fit for others to occupy. To prevent this practice being offensive to those who occupied the Inquisition, there were flues or tubes extending to the open air, sufficiently capacious to carry off the odor from those decaying bodies. In the cells we found some who had paid the debt of nature; some of them had been dead apparently but a short time, while of others nothing remained but their bones, still chained to the floor of the dungeon. In others we found the living sufferers of every age and of both sexes, from the young man and maiden to those of three-score and ten years, all as naked as when they were born in the world. Our soldiers immediately applied themselves to release these captives of their chains stript themselves in part of their own clothing to cover these wretched beings and were exceeding anxious to bring them up to the light of day. Being aware of danger, I insisted on their wants being supplied, and being brought gradually to the light as they could bear it.

When we had explored these cells. and opened the prison doors of those who yet survived. we proceeded to explore another room on the left. Here we found the instruments of torture, of every kind, which the ingenuity of man or devils could invent. At the sight of them the fury of our soldiers refused any longer to be restrained. They declared that every inquisitor, monk and soldier of the establishment deserved to be put to the torture. We did not attempt any longer to restrain them.-- They commenced at once the work of torture with the Holy Fathers. I remained till I saw four different kinds of torture applied, and then retired from the awful scene, which terminated not while one individual remained of the former guilty inmates of this antechamber of hell, on whom they could wreak revenge. As soon as the poor sufferers from the cells of the Inquisition could with safety, be brought out of their prison to the light of day, (news having been spread far and near that numbers had been rescued from the Inquisition) all who had been deprived of friends by the holy office, came to enquire if theirs were among the number.

O, what a meeting was there about a hundred who had been buried alive for many years. were now restored to the active world, and many of them found here a son and there a daughter, here a sister and there a brother, and some alas! could recognize no friends. The scene was such that no tongue can describe.-

When this work of recognition was over; to complete the business which I engaged, I went to Madrid and obtained a large quantity of gunpowder which I placed underneath the edifice. and its vaults, and as we applied the slow match, there was a joyful sight to thousands of admiring eyes. Oh! it would have done your heart good to see it : the wall and massive turrets of that proud edifice. were raised towards the heavens, and the Inquisition of Madrid was no more.'