more appalling to him than any threats.
For the first time he began to realize what latent potentialities may
lie hidden beneath the culture of any gentleman and the piety of any
Christian; and the terror of himself was strong upon him.

"I am waiting for your answer," said the colonel.

"I have no answer to give."

"You positively refuse to answer?"

"I will tell you nothing at all."

"Then I must simply order you back into the punishment cell, and keep
you there till you change your mind. If there is much more trouble with
you, I shall put you in irons."

Arthur looked up, trembling from head to foot. "You will do as you
please," he said slowly; "and whether the English Ambassador will stand
your playing tricks of that kind with a British subject who has not been
convicted of any crime is for him to decide."

At last Arthur was conducted back to his own cell, where he flung
himself down upon the bed and slept till the next morning. He was not
put in irons, and saw no more of the dreaded dark cell; but the
feud between him and the colonel grew more inveterate with every
interrogation. It was quite useless for Arthur to pray in his cell for
grace to conquer his evil passions, or to meditate half the night long
upon the patience and meekness of Christ. No sooner was he brought again
into the long, bare room with its baize-covered table, and confronted
with the colonel's waxed moustache, than the unchristian spirit would
take possession of him once more, suggesting bitter repartees and
contemptuous answers. Before he had been a month in the prison the
mutual irritation had reached such a height that he and the colonel
could not see each other's faces without losing their temper.

The continual strain of this petty warfare was beginning to tell heavily
upon his nerves. Knowing how closely he was watched, and remembering
certain dreadful rumours which he had heard of prisoners secretly
drugged with belladonna that notes might be taken of their ravings, he
gradually became afraid to sleep or eat; and if a mouse ran past him in
the night, would start up drenched with cold sweat and quivering with
terror, fancying that someone was hiding in the room to listen if he
talked in his sleep. The gendarmes were evidently trying to entrap him
into making some admission which might compromise Bolla; and so great
was his fear of slipping, by any inadvertency, into a pitfall, that he
was really in danger of doing so through shee