Note 53 — Chapter VI · FERDINAND AND ISABELLA

As a counterpart to the above scene, twelve Christian renegades, found in the city, were transfixed with canes, acañavereados, a barbarous punishment derived from the Moors, which was inflicted by horsemen at full gallop, who discharged pointed reeds at the criminal until he expired under repeated wounds. A number of relapsed Jews were at the same time condemned to the flames. “These,” says Father Abarca,i “were the fêtes and illuminations most grateful to the Catholic piety of our sovereigns!”