And then they tried to harm me in this third field29 and then they led me into another field which was all full of fire, in which there was all manner of fire and most terrible and fierce and grievous torments, where there were so many people they were uncountable: some hung by the feet with chains of burning iron, others by the hands, others by the arms and others by the legs. And the field where they hung burned underneath with a sulfur fire flame and they roasted them on great griddles of burning iron. Others roasted over the fire on great spits of iron and to baste them they let drip on them drops of various metals, all burning, which the devils melted over them. Withal the devils tormented them with various torments and no one could in any way imagine or think of the torments which were there. And there I saw many of my companions whom I knew and kin of mine — men and women — and the king Joan of Aragon and friar Francès of the Franciscan convent of Girona and Dolça de Queralt who was my niece and was not dead when I left the land nor did I know of her death.
All these were on the way to salvation but for their sins they were there in that pain. And the greatest pain which my niece had was for the paints and whitening powders she had used on her face when she was alive. And friar Francès, with whom I spoke, suffered the greatest pain on account of a nun whom he brought out of a nunnery — and he would have been damned but for the great contrition which he had for his sin and the penance he did during his life.
Afterwards I spoke much with my lord the king, who by the grace of God was on the way to salvation. He did not wish to declare the reason for which he was suffering pains — and I say that the kings and princes who are in the world should keep themselves above all from committing injustice in order to please any man or woman or others nearer to their family, be they men or women, from whom they have issued or come.
I do not care to speak further of this but thank God because they are on the way to salvation; may it please God that all men be thus and be in that number if they cannot do better. But if in this world one knew how sins are punished, one would rather let oneself be cut up into small pieces than wish to sin or think any evil or wickedness; for no one could imagine or recount the shouts and bellows and the ugly deeds which they do to them or the torments which they suffer. And the devils always torment them and make so loud a clamor that none could be greater; every one of them wished to torment me but I called on the name of God, on account of which they could not harm me.