Legends of the city of Mexico / collected by Thomas A. Janvier ; illustrated by Walter Appleton Clark.
- Thomas Allibone Janvier
- Date:
- 1910
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Legends of the city of Mexico / collected by Thomas A. Janvier ; illustrated by Walter Appleton Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
114/228 page 74
![Then it was, Senor, that the Holy Office most wisely ordered that that devil-possessed and doubly accursed armor should be melted, and refounded into a cross: knowing that the sanctity of that blessed emblem would quiet the curses and would hold the devils still and fast. Therefore that order was executed; and the wisdom of it—which some had questioned, on the ground that devils and curses were un¬ suitable material to make a cross of—was apparent as soon as the bronze turned fluid in the furnace: because there came from the fiery seething midst of it—to the dazed terror of the workmen—shouts of devil-laughter, and imprecations horrible to listen to, and frightful blasphemies; and to these succeeded, as the metal was being poured into the mould, a wild outburst of defiant remonstrance; and then all this demoniac fury died away—as the metal hardened and became fixed as a cross— at first into half-choked cries of agony, and then into confused lamentations, and at the last into little whimpering moans. Thus the devils and the curses were disposed of: and then the cross—holding them imprisoned in its holy substance—was set up in a little townlet [74]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31349043_0116.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
