Jan De Swarte, Klaesken His Wife, Klaes, Christian, Hans And Mahieu, His Four Sons; Perceval Van Den Berge, Jan Maes, Pieter The Shoemaker, Hendrick Aerts, The Hatter, Janneken Cabiljaus His Wife, Kalleken Steens, And Herman. In The Year, A. D. 1563.

Pieter was gagged, to prevent him from speaking. When they stood at the stakes, wood and straw were placed around them, to which fire was then set, and they were thus burnt alive to ashes.

A few days afterwards also Klaesken, the wife of Jan de Swarte, with her three sons, and Herman, because they adhered immovably to the love of God, were all five sentenced to death by the authorities, and also burned alive to ashes, persevering unto the end as valiant witnesses of Christ.

Almost a year after this, after very long imprisonment, Janneken Cabiljaus and Kalleken Steens, were sentenced to death, placed alive into the fire, and burnt to ashes, as valiant and steadfast witnesses of the divine truth.

It also came to pass that the priest of the castle, N., who had so spitefully betrayed these dear friends of God, was very sorely punished by God; for such putrefaction entered his flesh, that it fell off piecemeal, or was cut off from time to time, from his body, no physicians being able to cure the disease. Thus it happened on one occasion, a large piece of putrid flesh having dropped, or been cut off from his body, that the same was eaten by a dog, while he beheld it with his own eyes. How he must have felt on this occasion, it is easy to imagine, especially when viewing it as the fulfillment of a curse said to have been pronounced upon him. “That he should yet with his own eyes see the dogs eat his flesh.”

It also happened that while the priest was lying sick, a man came to visit him, who, when the former complained to him of his great misery, remarked to him: “It is the coals from the fire at Rijssel”—namely, from the burning of the friends mentioned above;—which did not please the priest very much; but he had to bear this taunt as well as the punishment sent him from God. And in this way he at 640 last died most miserably, even as we read that in former times it happened to Antiochus and Herod. 2 Macc. 9:9; Acts 12:23.