s is an affair requiring very mature deliberation," said one.

"I always feared that we might be proceeding too precipitately," said
another.

"It is written, 'the devils believe,'" said a third: "the Holy Father,
therefore, is not a heretic at any rate."

"Brethren," said Anno, "this affair, as our brother Benno well
remarks, doth indeed call for mature deliberation. I therefore propose
that, instead of smothering his Holiness with cushions, as originally
contemplated, we immure him for the present in the dungeon adjoining
hereunto, and, after spending the night in meditation and prayer,
resume the consideration of the business tomorrow morning."

"Informing the officials of the palace," said Benno, "that his
Holiness has retired for his devotions, and desires on no account to
be disturbed."

"A pious fraud," said Anno, "which not one of the Fathers would for a
moment have scrupled to commit."

The Cardinals accordingly lifted the still insensible Lucifer, and
bore him carefully, almost tenderly, to the apartment appointed for
his detention. Each would fain have lingered in hopes of his recovery,
but each felt that the eyes of his six brethren were upon him: and
all, therefore, retired simultaneously, each taking a key of the cell.

Lucifer regained consciousness almost immediately afterwards. He had
the most confused idea of the circumstances which had involved him in
his present scrape, and could only say to himself that if they were
the usual concomitants of the Papal dignity, these were by no means to
his taste, and he wished he had been made acquainted with them sooner.
The dungeon was not only perfectly dark, but horribly cold, and the
poor devil in his present form had no latent store of infernal heat to
draw upon. His teeth chattered, he shivered in every limb, and felt
devoured with hunger and thirst. There is much probability in the
assertion of some of his biographers that it was on this occasion that
he invented ardent spirits; but, even if he did, the mere conception
of a glass of brandy could only increase his sufferings. So the long
January night wore wearily on, and Lucifer seemed likely to expire
from inanition, when a key turned in the lock, and Cardinal Anno
cautiously glided in, bearing a lamp, a loaf, half a cold roast kid,
and a bottle of wine.

"I trust," he said, bowing courteously, "that I may be excused any
slight breach of etiquette of which I may render myself culpable from
the dif