"Cussler, Clive - NUMA Files 04 - White Death - with Paul Kemprecos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cussler Clive)

Inquisitor in charge of prosecuting the Basques. The prosecution of
the Basques was extremely profitable. The Inquisition immediately
confiscated the property of the accused. The stolen wealth of its
victims financed the Inquisition's prisons, secret police, torture
chambers, army and bureaucracy, and it made rich men of the
Inquisitors.

Basques had brought the arts of navigation and shipbuilding to
unheard-of levels of expertise. Aguirrez had sailed to the secret
fishing grounds across the Western Sea dozens of times on whaling or
cod-fishing trips. Basques were natural capitalists, and many, like
Aguirrez, had become rich selling whale products and cod. His busy
shipyard on the Nervion River built vessels of every type and size.
Aguirrez had been aware of the Inquisition and its excesses, but he was
too busy running his various enterprises and enjoying the infrequent
company of his beautiful wife and two children to give it much thought.
It was on his return from one trip that he had learned firsthand that
Martinez and the Inquisition were malevolent forces that could not be
ignored.

An angry crowd had greeted the fish-laden ships that edged up to the
docks to unload their catch. The people had shouted for Aguirrez's
attention and pleaded for his help. The Inquisition had arrested a
group of local women and charged them with witchcraft. His wife had
been among those taken. She and the others had been tried and found
guilty and were being moved from prison to the burning place.

Aguirrez calmed the crowd and went directly to the provincial capital.
Although he was a man of influence, his pleas to free the prisoners
fell on deaf ears. Officials said they could do nothing; this was a
church matter, not a civil one. Some whispered that their own lives
and property could be placed in jeopardy if they went against the
orders of the Holy Office. "El Brasero," they whispered in fear.

Aguirrez had taken matters into his own hands and rounded up a hundred
of his men. They'd attacked the convoy taking the accused witches to
the stake, and freed the women without firing a shot. Even as he took
his wife into his arms, Aguirrez knew that El Brasero had engineered
the witchcraft arrests and trials to bring the Basque and his property
within his greedy grasp.

Aguirrez suspected that there was an even more compelling reason he had
come to the Inquisition's attention. The year before, a council of
elders had given him stewardship of the most sacred relics of
Basqueland. One day they would be used to rally the Basques in a fight
for independence against Spain. For now, they were contained in a
chest hidden in a secret chamber of Aguirrez's luxurious home. Martinez
could have heard of the artifacts. The region was rife with informers.
Martinez would know how sacred relics could ignite fanaticism, in much
the same way that the Holy Grail had launched the bloody Crusades.