On Sagell Street almost every house had a maid, and almost every maid was an Old Christian. The danger slept in the kitchen.
One of them testified about her mistress, Ana Sureda: on fast days she sat down at the table as usual, but «this witness took care and saw that she ate nothing at all». She fasted for twenty-four hours, the maid said, even while nursing a baby girl and possibly pregnant again. «With such strength», she added.
Another had served five years in the house of Moixina and his first wife, Margarita Martí. Her verdict took two words: «inviolable observance». They never let her kill a chicken or a hen: the masters did it themselves, out of sight, or sent the bird out. It was Jewish ritual slaughter, seen by the one person who was not supposed to see it.
And the maids talked to each other. Polonia, a servant next door, knew that when her masters said they had «eaten out» it was a lie, «and they only say it to cover up».
A network of domestic surveillance, door to door, that worked without the tribunal ever having to organize it. All it had to do was listen.
