as civil as before.  But the truth was, that the midnight scene still haunted him.  They had proceeded in their palanquins to the holy house, distant about a quarter of a mile from the convent, and the inquisitor said as they were ascending the steps of the great entrance, that he hoped the doctor would be satisfied with a transient view of the Inquisition, and would retire when he should desire him to do so.  The doctor followed with tolerable confidence, towards the great hall aforementioned, where they were met by several well-dressed persons, familiars, as it afterwards appeared, who bowed very low to the inquisitor, and looked with surprise at the stranger.  Dr. Buchanan paced the hall slowly, and in thoughtful silence; the inquisitor thoughtful too, silent and embarrassed.  A multitude of victims seemed to haunt the place, and the doctor could not refrain from breaking silence.  “Would not the Holy Church wish, in her mercy, to have those souls back again, that she might allow them a little further probation?” The inquisitor answered nothing, but beckoned him to go with him to a door at one end of the hall.  By that door he conducted him to some small rooms, and thence, to the spacious apartments of the chief inquisitor.  Having surveyed those, he brought him back again to the great hall, and seemed anxious that the troublesome visitor should depart; but only the very words of Dr. B. can adequately describe the close of this extraordinary interview.”

“Now, father,” said I, “lead me to the dungeons below:  I want to see the captives.”  “No,” said he, “that cannot be.”  I now began to suspect that it had been in the mind of the inquisitor, from the beginning, to show me only a certain part of the Inquisition, in the hope of satisfying my inquiries in a general way.  I urged him with earnestness; but he steadily resisted, and seemed offended, or, rather, agitated, by my importunity.  I intimated to him plainly, that the only way to do justice to his own assertion and arguments regarding the present state of the Inquisition, was to show me the prisons and the captives.  I should then describe only what I saw; but now the subject was left in awful obscurity.  “Lead me down,” said I, “to the inner building, and let me pass through the two hundred dungeons, ten feet square, described by your former captives.  Let me count the number of your present captives, and converse with them.  I want, to see if there be any subjects of the British government, to whom we owe protection.  I want to ask how long they have been there, how long it is since they have seen the light of the sun, and whether they ever expect to see it again.  Show me the chamber of torture, and declare what modes of execution or punishment are now practiced inside the walls of the Inquisition, in lieu of the public Auto de Fe.  If, after all that has passed, father, you resist this reasonable request, I should be justified in believing that you are afraid of exposing the real state of the Inquisition in India.”