University of Virginia Library

SCENE XII.

The Vaults of the Inquisition.
The Inquisitors are seated on benches.—Behind them Familiars bearing torches.
Throughout this Scene, distant peals of thunder are heard.
CHIEF INQUISITOR.
Would I could bid you welcome, brethren, here!
This wild derangement of the elements,
These fiery gashes in the vault of heaven
That stream with flame, and fright the astonied earth,
Are not from natural causes: Hell is loose;
The Prince o' the Air hath called his legions up,
And demons' wings are madly flashing by
On hideous errantry! There have been deeds
Wrought here among us of so vile a sort—
Such impious words have pierced the nether world—
That the fiends, starting from their sulphurous beds,
Have answered to the summons!

OLD INQUISITOR.
Such a night
There hath not been since that in Wittemberg,
When damned Faustus lost his wretched soul.

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
Yea, reverend brother, it was even so;
And, much I fear me, some in Badajoz
Have, by their practice of unholy arts,
Sinned worse than Faustus. Stand thou forth, Balthazar;
And tell us what thou knowest.

FIRST FAMILIAR.
Most reverend sirs,
I, and my fellow, Gil of Santillane,
Both sworn Familiars of this Holy office,
Received of late commission to inquire
Touching the trade of a suspected Jew.
His dealing was in philtres, amorous drugs,
Powders of mummy, amulets, and charms,
All which we seized, and brought the caitiff here
To be examined. When upon the rack,
He, being urged by subtle questioning,
Confessed that oftentimes he had procured
Most strange material for a student's use—
As skulls, thigh-bones, a murderer's wasted hand
Hewn from the gibbet, and such other ware
As sorcerers do employ. Besides these things,
He owned that he had purchased from a Moor
A curious work upon geometry,
And sold it to Firmilian.

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
Can the stars
Retain their place within the firmament,
When wickedness like this is wrought below?
Proceed, Balthazar.

FIRST FAMILIAR.
These particulars
Being in their nature horrid and profane,
Did Mordecai right cheerfully disclose.
Yet we, remembering what the vulgate saith,
Touching the doubtful witness of a Jew
Against a Christian, did esteem it fit
To make more perquisition. For that end,
I, and my comrade, Gil of Santillane,
Sought out Firmilian's servant. Him we found
Within a wine-shop—

OLD INQUISITOR.
Mark that well, my masters!
For threescore years and ten I've held my office,
And never did I know the sorcerer yet
Whose servant felt not a perpetual thirst.
I pray you let that fact be noted down.

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
It shall be noted. Well—what followed next?

FIRST FAMILIAR.
Obedient to our orders, Gil and I,
Albeit habitual shunners of the cup,
Did somewhat deviate from our wonted rule,
And made slight show of wassail. Whereupon,
This Nicodemus, young Firmilian's knave,
Did gradually to us some part disclose
Of his employer's practice.

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
Did he so?
A servant's tale is damning evidence
Against his lord! What said this Nicodemus?
Stand down, Balthazar—Speak thou, Santillane.

SECOND FAMILIAR.
He told us this—that long ago, in Wales,
His master had from one Plotinus learned
Most wondrous secrets: that on Wednesday nights
He was attended by an ugly imp,
Whose outward apparition bore the stamp
Of an enormous hedge-hog.

OLD INQUISITOR.
I remember
The like was said of Paracelsus too,
And of Cornelius. I myself have seen
A hedge-pig suckled by a Moorish witch.
That must have been about the year sixteen,
Or two years later. Is it taken down?
For threescore years and ten I've held my office,
And never knew a necromancer yet
But dealt in hedge-hogs! Is it taken down?

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
It is, my reverend brother. Santillane—
On with your story.

SECOND FAMILIAR.
Warily he talked
Of magic circles, skulls, and fumigations—
Of the great Devil, and his sulphurous stench—
Of phantom beavers, and of bottle imps;
The bare recital of which monstrous things
Made each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.
I can depone no further.

OLD INQUISITOR.
Porcupines
Are worse than hedge-hogs!

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
Is this Nicodemus
Still safe within your reach?

FIRST FAMILIAR.
Right holy sir,
He is. We deemed it wiser to defer
His capture till we knew your reverend pleasure,
In case Firmilian might take sudden wing.
Moreover, I have something yet to tell,
Which, if not touching sorcery, may lean
To worse than heresy.

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
Thy care is great.
Thou art our best Familiar; and I think,
E'en as thou speak'st, and lettest out the truth,
The frightened fiends desert the upper sky
And calm their thunder down. Say out thy say.

FIRST FAMILIAR.
I pray your reverend worships to believe
I act not as a spy. 'Tis not for me
To mark the twinkling of a lady's fan,
To lurk behind church pillars, or to note
The course of fervid glances. Such things lie
Beyond my office; and I know full well
That they are oftentimes assumed to hide
Most faithful service to our Holy Church;
And, therefore, I repeat, I am no spy.

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
I have still found thee—as the Church hath done—
Discreet within thy function. Didst thou know
Aught that might appertain to one of us,
Or to the honour of our nearest kin,
I do believe that thou wouldst rather dare
Expose thyself upon the stretching rack
Than speak out openly.

SEVERAL INQUISITORS.
We do believe it!

FIRST FAMILIAR.
Therein you understand me thoroughly.
I am the poor Familiar of this House,
And for the movements of such holy sirs,
And of their households, have no eyes at all,
Save at their pleasure. But Firmilian's case
Demands a full divulgement.

OLD INQUISITOR.
Very right!
I gather from this talk there's something wrong
About Firmilian's morals. I have been
For threescore years and ten Inquisitor,
And always have observed that heretics
Are faulty in their morals. Tell us all.

FIRST FAMILIAR.
Three weeks ago—'twas but a week before
The death of the three students—there appeared
Within a lonely cottage in the wood,
Hard bordering on the skirts of Badajoz,
An Indian maiden. She was dark as night,
And yet not unalluring, as I heard
From Santillane, my comrade—

SECOND FAMILIAR.
Holy sirs,
I swear such language ne'er escaped my lips!
I only said that in a heathen's eye
She might find favour.

OLD INQUISITOR.
Doubtless so she would.
I do remember, fifty years ago,
A very comely damsel of that kind,
Purveyed, I think, from inner Africa—
I never saw a more voluptuous shape.
But to your story—

FIRST FAMILIAR.
Every day since then
Hath young Firmilian stolen to her bower
With utmost secresy. What passeth there
I know not. But men say she sings by night
Mysterious ditties in an unknown tongue,
Of such unnatural and thrilling sort,
That the scared nightingales desert their boughs,
And evil birds of omen flit around
To list the Indian's music.

CHIEF INQUISITOR.
Is it so
That shall be also looked to heedfully.
The fiend hath many snares, and it may be
That, in the likeness of a dusky quean,
He sends an agent hither. What I know
Of this Firmilian makes me fear the worst:
Yet it were wise to wait. I'll set a trap
Shall lure him to his ruin. Go we hence;
And in the inner casket of our hearts
Be all our secrets locked. Put out the lights!

[The torches are extinguished.