“She’s still saying it.”
“What?”
“She’s still saying the psalm,” whispered Sir Albert.
“Even the heretic needs something to cling to. Perhaps she will convert in her last moments,” surmised the archbishop. Sir Albert squinted, and the reflection of the torches’ flames danced.
Meanwhile the assistant executioners placed the ladder in the middle of the stake. They placed the prisoner in the main pile, which was surrounded by the brushwood.
“I charge you with participating in false and heretical ceremonies! The followers of those heterodoxies were baptized as adults by a person who had no right to make baptism. The judgement on this count of indictment—guilty!”
The four assistant executioners stepped next to their master and lighted their torches coated with tar. The onlookers watched t
