some female monster, whom he regarded with such fear and horror that every allusion he made to her was followed by a convulsive paroxysm which taxed all the ingenuity of his medical attendants to bring him out of.  He frequently called upon his sisters by name, speaking of them in a manner which inevitably suggested that he had been an unwilling and helpless witness of hideous tortures which they had undergone; and then he would rise in bed, screaming, ’They’re burning them! they’re burning them!  Devils! devils!’ And at those times it required all the strength of those who were in attendance to restrain his maddened frenzy.

The youth died in one of these fits of great preternatural excitement, without, as I have previously written, having given utterance to one single coherent word, and by some of those who were best able to judge it was held to have been a mercy that he did die without having been restored to consciousness.  And, presently, tales began to be whispered, about some idolatrous sect, which was stated to have its headquarters somewhere in the interior of the country—­some located it in this neighbourhood, and some in that—­which was stated to still practise, and to always have practised, in unbroken historical continuity, the debased, unclean, mystic, and bloody rites, of a form of idolatry which had had its birth in a period of the world’s story which was so remote, that to all intents and purposes it might be described as pre-historic.

While the ferment was still at its height, a man came to the British Embassy who said that he was a member of a tribe which had its habitat on the banks of the White Nile.  He asserted that he was in association with this very idolatrous sect,—­though he denied that he was one of the actual sectaries.  He did admit, however, that he had assisted more than once at their orgies, and declared that it was their constant practice to offer young women as sacrifices—­preferably white Christian women, with a special preference, if they could get them, to young English women.  He vowed that he himself had seen with his own eyes, English girls burnt alive.  The description which he gave of what preceded and followed these foul murders appalled those who listened.  He finally wound up by offering, on payment of a stipulated sum of money, to guide a troop of soldiers to this den of demons, so that they should arrive there at a moment when it was filled with worshippers, who were preparing to participate in an orgie which was to take place during the next few days.

His offer was conditionally accepted.  He was confined in an apartment with one man on guard inside and another on guard outside the room.  That night the sentinel without was startled by hearing a great noise and frightful screams issuing from the chamber in which the native was interned.  He summoned assistance.  The door was opened.  The soldier on guard within was stark, staring mad,—­he died within a few months, a gibbering maniac to the