he retreated through a masked door to a
secret chamber. As the door closed behind him he chuckled, and muttered to
himself, "Poor old Lucifer! Sold again!"

If Lucifer was sold he did not seem to know it. He approached a large slab
of silver which did duty as a mirror, and contemplated his personal
appearance with some dissatisfaction.

"I certainly don't look half so well without my horns," he soliloquised,
"and I am sure I shall miss my tail most grievously."

A tiara and a train, however, made fair amends for the deficient
appendages, and Lucifer now looked every inch a Pope. He was about to call
the master of the ceremonies, and summon a consistory, when the door was
burst open, and seven cardinals, brandishing poniards, rushed into the
room.

"Down with the sorcerer!" they cried, as they seized and gagged him.

"Death to the Saracen!"

"Practises algebra, and other devilish arts!"

"Knows Greek!"

"Talks Arabic!"

"Reads Hebrew!"

"Burn him!"

"Smother him!"

"Let him be deposed by a general council," said a young and inexperienced
Cardinal.

"Heaven forbid!" said an old and wary one, _sotto voce_.

Lucifer struggled frantically, but the feeble frame he was doomed to
inhabit for the next eleven hours was speedily exhausted. Bound and
helpless, he swooned away.

"Brethren," said one of the senior cardinals, "it hath been delivered by
the exorcists that a sorcerer or other individual in league with the demon
doth usually bear upon his person some visible token of his infernal
compact. I propose that we forthwith institute a search for this stigma,
the discovery of which may contribute to justify our proceedings in the
eyes of the world."

"I heartily approve of our brother Anno's proposition," said another, "the
rather as we cannot possibly fail to discover such a mark, if, indeed, we
desire to find it."

The search was accordingly instituted, and had not proceeded far ere a
simultaneous yell from all the seven cardinals indicated that their
investigation had brought more to light than they had ventured to expect.

The Holy Father had a cloven foot!

For the next five minutes the Cardinals remained utterly stunned, silent,
and stupefied with amazement. As they gradually recovered their faculties
it would have become manifest to a nice observer that the Pope had risen
very considerably in their good opinion.

"This is an affair requiring very mature deliberation," said one.

"I always fea