gradually dissolved and left the building one man at a time,
thus reducing to a minimum the chances of attracting undue attention.

The afternoon was well advanced when at length George Saint Leger and
his party returned to the _Nonsuch_, and handed over to Jack Chichester,
the surgeon, the three human wrecks whom they had rescued from the
clutches of the Inquisition, with special instructions that no pains
were to be spared, no trouble to be regarded as too great, nothing that
the ship contained too precious for the mitigation of their suffering
and, as all hoped, their ultimate restoration to something approaching
as nearly as might be to perfect health. It was pitiful to witness the
almost incredulous joy and transport manifested by the unfortunates at
finding themselves once more in the midst of their fellow-countrymen,
and especially of men who spoke in the accents of that beloved Devon
whose scented orchards, winding lanes, swelling moors, and lonely tors
they had utterly despaired of ever again beholding. But they were
sturdy fellows, too, and even broken down as they were, with their
strength sapped and their courage almost quelled by long months of
protracted agony and privation, they quickly recovered spirit when once
they found themselves outside the gloomy precincts of the Inquisition
building; and though, despite the utmost precaution and the most tender
care in getting them out of the boat and up the ship's lofty side, the
pain they suffered in the process must have been excruciating, they made
light of it, declaring, with a laugh that moved those who heard it to
tears--so hollow and pathetic was it--that such pain was less than
nothing compared with the awful long-drawn-out torments to which they
had almost grown accustomed!

And if the three rescued Englishmen were glad to find themselves once
more, against all hope, delivered from the power of their tormentors,
and comparatively safe under the shelter of the glorious Cross of Saint
George, the hostages who had most unwillingly remained on board the
English ship to insure the good faith of their countrymen--in which, if
the truth must be told, they had no very profound belief--were scarcely
less so when they saw the little party of adventurers return in safety
from their desperate errand; for that return meant that one great danger
at least had been safely passed, and surely now they might rely upon the
citizens of San Juan to do nothing foolish. So t