Bagnanza torrent, which was greatly needed."

"Well, well?" quoth he. "And when you left you took with you the moneys
that had been collected?"

"I did not," I answered. "I gave the matter no thought. When I left
I took nothing with me--not so much as the habit I had worn in that
hermitage."

There was a pause. Then he spoke slowly. "Such is not the evidence
before the Holy Office."

"What evidence?" I cried, breaking in upon his speech. "Where is my
accuser? Set me face to face with him."

Slowly he shook his huge head with its absurd fringe of greasy locks
about the tonsured scalp--that symbol of the Crown of Thorns.

"You must surely know that such is not the way of the Holy Office. In
its wisdom this tribunal holds that to produce delators would be to
subject them perhaps to molestation, and thus dry up the springs of
knowledge and information which it now enjoys. So that your request
is idle as idle as is the attempt at defence that you have made, the
falsehoods with which you have sought to clog the wheels of justice."

"Falsehood, sir monk?" quoth I, so fiercely that one of my attendants
set a restraining hand upon my arm.

The beady eyes vanished and reappeared, and they considered me
impassively.

"Your sin, Agostino d'Anguissola," said he in his booming, level voice,
"is the most hideous that the wickedness of man could conceive or
diabolical greed put into execution. It is the sin that more than any
other closes the door to mercy. It is the offence of Simon Mage, and
it is to be expiated only through the gates of death. You shall return
hence to your cell, and when the door closes upon you, it closes upon
you for all time in life, nor shall you ever see your fellow-man again.
There hunger and thirst shall be your executioners, slowly to deprive
you of a life of which you have not known how to make better use.
Without light or food or drink shall you remain there until you die.
This is the punishment for such sacrilege as yours."

I could not believe it. I stood before him what time he mouthed out
those horrible and emotionless words. He paused a moment, and again came
that broad gesture of his that stroked mouth and chin. Then he resumed:

"So much for your body. There remains your soul. In its infinite mercy,
the Holy Office desires that your expiation be fulfilled in this
life, and that you may be rescued from the fires of everlasting Hell.
Therefore it urges you to cleanse yourself by a full