There was no remedy

In this work, Goya continues with the theme of the Inquisition that he had tackled in No. 23, Those Powders. In the centre, slightly shifted to the right, the prisoner, who in this case appears to be a woman, is on the back of a donkey, with the chorus on his head and his torso bare. His head is held on his chin by a kind of crutch; the expression on his face is crestfallen and defeated. In front of the donkey, a grotesque-looking man pulls on the halter, while another man pushes the animal from behind. In the foreground, a group of men with pointed hats and pigtails lie on top of the prisoner; in the background, two feline-faced bailiffs on horseback with whips in their hands.

The Aragonese painter has used aquatint over the entire plate, although he has left some areas in white that coincide with the donkey and the prisoner on it. In addition to emphasising their prominence in the image, this could be a mechanism for suggesting the figure's innocence.

In Ayala's manuscript, it is stated laconically: "'She was armoured: she was poor and ugly. How could there be any remedy? A somewhat more extensive explanation is given in the manuscript in the Prado Museum, which reads as follows: "This Holy Lady is persecuted by death! After writing her life they bring her out in triumph. She deserves everything, and if they do it to affront her, it is time wasted. No one can be ashamed who has no shame".

As with the previous engraving, it is difficult to establish a clear link between the image and its title. Edith Helman believes that the latter refers to the failed attempts of Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (Gijón, 1744-Puerto de Vega, Navia, 1811) to reform the Inquisition when he was Minister of Grace and Justice, a post he took up in November 1797 and from which he was dismissed in August 1798. The Asturian writer and jurist was against this type of senseless inquisitorial process, based on ignorance and superstition. On 12 April 1799, in his Diary, he recalled the yearning with which he had hoped to carry out a series of reforms that did not come to fruition, concluding with the following words: "But there was no remedy". We can assume that Goya felt the same disappointment and was perhaps aware of Jovellanos's text, and we can even imagine that he used this phrase to title this print.