finally be pardoned, and received into the bosom of the church.—By a law, whereby the goods of heretics are confiscated, those of the deceased merchant, Wentworth, become the property of the church; and as, from your connection with him and his daughter, you cannot. but be inform- ed of the nature and disposition of his wealth, I call upon you, as you would propitiate the Holy Office by assisting in securing its rights, to put it in possession of all you know upon the subject.”
“Behold,” said Alvarez, witha burst of indig- nation which startled the inquisitor, “the cloven foot of the Evil One! Now listen tome. The robber of the mountains hath kept faith, and the lion of the desert hath spared his prey; but with the minions of the Inquisition there is neither faith nor mercy. I know that he upon whom your dungeons have once closed, stands upon the brink of the grave, and that his life is beyond human ransom. Were I to answer the question you have so insidiously proposed, I should not only betray the trust reposed in me by a dying father and make his child a beggar, but I should strenzthep the hands of an institution which, if its power were equal fo its will, would make this beauteous world a howling wilderness. I will neither betray my trust nor deny my faith: by God's grace, the last act of my life shall not in- volve the double guilt of treachery and apostacy.”
During this speech, the countenance of the in- quisitor was gradually losing that hypocritical expression of mildness, under which those holy functionaries were accustomed to mask the most cruel and vindictive feelings; his face became flushed with rage, and he exclaimed, when Al- varez had finished:-—“‘ You vaunt it bravely, senor! we will now try that persuasive power, which is wont to make our guests marvellously communicative.”
“You may wring the blood-drops from my heart, but you will not rob it of its secret.”
“Away with him to the torture!” roared the inquisitor, and immediately quitted the apartment, while Alvarez was conducted by another door, and through a long passage, into a spacious chamber, from which the light of day was en- tirely excluded. The lamp, which was suspend- ed from the centre of the ceiling, was just suffi- cient to render distinct the tribunal of the inqui- sitor, the instruments of torture, and -the fami- liars who were appointed to apply them, and whose grim pale features and frightful habili- ments imparted additional horror to the scene. The remoter parts of the-room were involved in darkness. Alvarez looked towards the tribunal, and immediately recognized the inquisitor by whom he had been previously examined, and who now addressed him with a taunting smile, and said, “Well, senor Alvarez! we have met again: have you brought your boasted courage with you?”.
“He who hath laid this trial upon me, and for whose truth suffer, will give me strength to bear it.”
“You will need it all, senor, when your turn shall come; but we do all things in order: we
have one here before you, by whose example
you may profit. Bring forward the other priso- ner!”
Alvarez turned his eyes in the direction in which the inquisitor looked as he spoke, and, with feelings of agony and horror which no lan- guage can adequately describe, he beheld in the intended victim his own Mary! A shriek pro- claimed that her feelings at the mutual recogni- tion were not less acute than his, and she fell back, apparently lifeless, into the arms of her terrific attendants.
Alvarez turned to the inquisitor, and addressed him, for. the first time, in the tone of supplication. “If,” said he, “there be one instrument of tor- ture more dreadful than another, let me be its victim: tear me piecemeal, limb from lithb; but, for the sake of Him whose all-seeing eye is upon you, spare, oh spare, this beauteous work of his hands! Oh, if you have a human heart, you cannot look upon such loveliness and mar it!— Oh, if yon image of the blessed Jesus be not set up in bitter mockery of his meekness and his mercy, I beseech you harm her not!”
“Nay, senor,” replied the inquisitor, with a laugh of irony, “you drew so captivating a portrait of our mercy in the hall of audience, that it were gross injustice in us to prove it false. Let the torture be applied to the female prisoner!”
The preparations to obey the mandate aroused Mary Wentworth from her swoon! and a faint, and, of course, ineffectual struggle, was all she could oppose to the application of the first instru- ment of torture intended to be used, namely, the thumb-screw. It was, therefore, soon fixed, and the attendants waited the word from the inquisi- tor to draw the cords. This he was in the act of giving, when, from the gloom in which the extre- mity of the room was involved, a voice of thun- der exclaimed “Forbear!”’ and immediately the speaker advanced to the front of the tribunal, his arm, however, enveloped in the folds of his man- tle, concealing his face to the eyes.
The inquisitor angrily inquired who it was that presumed to interrupt the proceedings of the court, and directed the attendants to seize him. The stranger spoke not a word, but; slowly dropping his arm, discovered the stern and haughty countenance of Carvalho.
The inquisitor started, as if a spectre had risen up before him, but immediately recovered him- self.
“Senor Carvalho,” said he, “this visit is an honour for which we were not prepared: may I beg to be informed of its object?”
“Simply the liberation of these prisoners.”
“Upon what authority do you demand it?”
“My own will.”
“Much as we respect that, senor, it were scarcely sufficient warrant to us for their surren der. The circumstances under which they were arrested are such as utterly to preclude us from according to you the courtesy you ask.”
“As for your respect, I know well the stand- ard by which to measure it. The circumstances attending their arrest have been reported to me,.
