people, in cells, for the good of their
souls, and any one who had a private enemy denounced him to the Grand
Inquisitor. Faith has nowadays given way before the assaults of science
and it is the doctors who possess the powers of the rack. Instead of
being suspected of heresy a man is now accused of having an abscess on
his appendix. His doom is much the same, to have his stomach cut open
with knives, though the name given to it is different. It is now
called an operation. The older term, rather more expressive, was
disembowelling. Four hundred years ago McMeekin, if he had a grievance
against me, would have denounced me to the Archdeacon. Now, things have
changed so far that it is the Archdeacon who denounces me to McMeekin.
The result for me is much the same. I do not suppose that my case would
either then or now be one for extreme penalties. I am not the stuff of
which obstinate heretics are made, nor have I any heroic tumour which
would render me liable to the knife. Slow starvation, a diet of barley
water, beef tea, and milk puddings, would meet the requirements of my
case. But I did not want any more barley water and beef tea. I have
always, from my childhood up, hated milk puddings. I thought over my
position carefully and by the time the first sheet of my letter to the
Archdeacon was dry, I had arrived at the conclusion that I had better
not go on with it. I burned it.

Lalage's meeting, held that night, was an immense success. The town hall
was packed to its utmost capacity and I am told that Lalage spoke very
well indeed. She certainly had a good subject and a fine opportunity.
Vittie, O'Donoghue, and I were all in bed. Our chief supporters,
Titherington and the others, were helpless, with temperatures ranging
from 102 to 105 degrees. But even if we had all been quite well and
in full possession of our fighting powers we could not have made any
effective defence against Lalage. She had an astonishingly good case.
Titherington, for instance, might have talked his best, but he could not
have produced even a plausible explanation of those two letters of ours
on the temperance question. O'Donoghue was in a worse case. He had
made statements about budgets and things of that kind which Lalage's
favourite word only feebly describes. Vittie, apart altogether from
any question of the genuineness of his influenza, was in the narrowest
straits of us all. He appears to have lied with an abandon and a
recklessness far supe