her post at a spot
whence she could watch the door. Her labours were to be rewarded.
Scarcely had her husband entered than several other persons arrived, and
then more and more, by twos and threes. Many of them she saw by their
dress and carriage, as the lights their servants carried fell on them,
were evidently persons of rank. She wished that she could venture to
follow them into the house, to learn more about the matter. Still, the
information she had gained might prove of the greatest value. The next
morning she hurried off to inform her father confessor of her discovery.
He told her to keep secret what she had seen; and the next time her
husband went out at that hour, to come instantly and let him know.

The next prayer-meeting took place, and Maria gave timely notice of it
to her father confessor, Fre Antonio Lobo. Had he been addicted to
giving expression to his feelings, he would have rubbed his hands with
satisfaction; he merely cautioned Maria to be silent as the grave as to
what she had told him, and immediately set off to give the long
wished-for information to his superiors. The Chief Inquisitor, the
stern Archbishop, three other dignitaries appointed by the Holy Father
the Pope to assist him in the extirpation of heresy by the destruction
of heretics with fire and sword, and several other high officers, were
seated in the council hall of the Inquisition when Father Antonio Lobo
appeared among them. Some of them, like anglers, who, having been long
unsuccessful in their attempts to hook their finny prey, declare that
there are no fish in the lake, had inclined to the opinion that their
countrymen were too staunch adherents of the Pope ever to be led astray
by the doctrines of Luther.

"It may be as you suppose, Fre Ignacio," observed the Grand Inquisitor
to one of his assistants, who had made a remark to that effect. "But
remember that it is our duty to seek diligently for all who may be
opposed to our order and system, and to destroy them without
compunction, with their wives and children, so that none of the viper's
brood remains to sting us."

The stern expression visible on the countenances of those he addressed,
as the light from the brass lamp which hung from the vaulted roof fell
on them, showed that they were fully ready to carry out his advice to
the extreme. A grim smile played over their features when Fre Antonio
made his report.

"I knew that before long we should gain the tidings