assertion. He had not,
however, proceeded far ere he was disturbed by the grating of another key
in the lock, and had just time to whisper impressively, "Beware of Benno,"
ere he dived under a table.

Benno was also provided with a lamp, wine, and cold viands. Warned by the
other lamp and the remains of Lucifer's repast that some colleague had been
beforehand with him, and not knowing how many more might be in the field,
he came briefly to the point as regarded the Papacy, and preferred his
claim in much the same manner as Anno. While he was earnestly cautioning
Lucifer against this Cardinal as one who could and would cheat the very
Devil himself, another key turned in the lock, and Benno escaped under the
table, where Anno immediately inserted his finger into his right eye. The
little squeal consequent upon this occurrence Lucifer successfully
smothered by a fit of coughing.

Cardinal No. 3, a Frenchman, bore a Bayonne ham, and exhibited the same
disgust as Benno on seeing himself forestalled. So far as his requests
transpired they were moderate, but no one knows where he would have stopped
if he had not been scared by the advent of Cardinal No. 4. Up to this time
he had only asked for an inexhaustible purse, power to call up the Devil
_ad libitum_, and a ring of invisibility to allow him free access to his
mistress, who was unfortunately a married woman.

Cardinal No. 4 chiefly wanted to be put into the way of poisoning Cardinal
No. 5; and Cardinal No. 5 preferred the same petition as respected Cardinal
No. 4.

Cardinal No. 6, an Englishman, demanded the reversion of the Archbishoprics
of Canterbury and York, with the faculty of holding them together, and of
unlimited non-residence. In the course of his harangue he made use of the
phrase _non obstantibus_, of which Lucifer immediately took a note.

What the seventh Cardinal would have solicited is not known, for he had
hardly opened his mouth when the twelfth hour expired, and Lucifer,
regaining his vigour with his shape, sent the Prince of the Church spinning
to the other end of the room, and split the marble table with a single
stroke of his tail. The six crouched and huddling Cardinals cowered
revealed to one another, and at the same time enjoyed the spectacle of his
Holiness darting through the stone ceiling, which yielded like a film to
his passage, and closed up afterwards as if nothing had happened. After the
first shock of dismay they unanimously rushed t