ut again I must protest against the extreme crudity, the--"

"And," interrupted George, "this poor unfortunate fellow, the first on
my list, is one of those who so died, is he not?"

"Really, senor," protested the Holy Father--"you--you--are not--are not
giving--this matter--quite--quite fair--"

"Answer me, senor, without equivocation; did, or did not this man, of
whom we are now speaking, die as the result of your hellish torments?"
rapped out George, suddenly becoming exasperated and heavily smiting the
table with his clenched fist.

"Reverend Father," here interposed Fray Matthew, who could scarcely
articulate because of his chattering teeth, "I pray you give me leave to
retire. The violence of this heretic, this man of blood, frightens me."

"No," answered George, before the other could speak. "Being here, you
will remain. It is possible that I may need you to supply me with
information which your superior may be unwilling or unable to give.
Now, senor"--turning to the Father Superior--"answer me."

"Then--since you insist," replied the Father Superior, "I can only reply
that the man certainly did die as the result of being put to the
question."

"Very well," returned George, taking up the list and making a note upon
it. "Now, as to the next one?"

And again the long, tedious process of question and equivocation was
gone through, over and over, until every name upon the list had been
dealt with, when it finally appeared that, of the sixteen unhappy
Englishmen who had become involved in the meshes of that terrible
institution, the Holy Inquisition, no less than six had been burnt alive
at the stake in the last _auto-da-fe_, seven had died miserably as the
result of the torments to which they had been subjected, and a poor
residue of three only still languished in their cells!

"And," demanded George, when he had studied and fully digested the
details of this terrible list--"who is responsible for this tremendous
accumulation of ghastly human suffering and these hellish murders?
You?"

"No, thank God! not I," asserted the Father Superior, now trembling for
his life, and with all his recent arrogance completely evaporated. "I
am merely the Head of the strictly ecclesiastical section of the
institution; I have nothing whatever to do with the proselytising, which
is undertaken by, and is entirely in the hands of, the Grand Inquisitor
and his assistants."

"And where," asked George, "are these people to