When Jan de Swarte was apprehended, his two younger sons were not present, but came in the meantime. When they came to the house the neighbors warned them, that those who apprehended their father and mother were in the house. The one said to the other: “Do not let us flee, but let us die with father and mother.” In the meantime Jan de Swarte was led out of the house a prisoner, and seeing his sons, he said to them: “Children, do you want to go along to the New Jerusalem?” They replied: “Yes, father;” and were thus led captive with them.
The inquisitor brought them all prisoners to Rijssel, and there had them very closely confined in the castle. Jan was put into a hole by himself, which was called the “Paradise,” and was so small that he could neither stand upright in it, nor lie down full length.
It happened one day that divers brethren and sisters, prompted by love and compassion, had come from without the city, and were standing over against the castle, calling to the prisoners over the fortification, for their consolation, that among them there was one brother named Herman, who being noticed by one of the beadles of the town, who came out secretly, was also apprehended.
After an imprisonment of ten days, the inquisitor delivered these prisoners into the hands of the secular authorities, who first took out Jan de Swarte with his son Klaes, Pieter, the shoemaker, Hendrick Aerts, the hatter, Percival van den Berg, and Jan Maes, all six of whom, because they valiantly and steadfastly adhered to the divine truth, they sentenced to death, and took them in a wagon to the market place, where stood the scaffold, provided with earth and stakes. There they were taken up one after another, and two and two fastened to a stake.
As they were going to death, the clock struck. John asked what time it was. He was told that it was four o’clock. He consoled himself with this, saying: “At five o’clock we hope to be in our lodging or resting place.” His son Klaes, said: “We have to die for the reason that we believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of the eternal God, is from heaven and not of the earth.”
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 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.