decay.  I am well aware that my reader will hardly credit my statements, but I do solemnly affirm that I relate nothing but the truth.  In this room were placed several large iron kettles, so deep that a person could sit in them, and many of them contained the remains of human beings.  In one the corpse looked as though it had been dead but a short time.  Others still sat erect in the kettle, but the flesh was dropping from the bones.  Every stage of decay was here represented, from the commencement, till nothing but a pile of bones was left of the poor sufferer.

Conceive, if you can, with what feelings I gazed upon these disgusting relics of the dead.  Even now, my blood chills in my veins, as memory recalls the fearful sight, or as, in sleep, I live over again the dread realities of that hour.  Was I to meet a fate like this?  I might, perchance, escape it for that time, but what assurance had I that I was not ultimately destined to such an end?  These thoughts filled my mind, as I followed the priest from the room; and for a long time I continued to speculate upon what I had seen.  They called it the fasting room; but if fasting were the only object, why were they placed in those kettles, instead of being allowed to sit on chairs or benches, or even on the floor?  And why placed in iron kettles?  Why were they not made of wood?  It would have answered the purpose quite as well, if fasting or starvation were the only objects in view.  Then came the fearful suggestion, were these kettles ever heated?  And was that floor made of stone or iron?  The thought was too shocking to be cherished for a moment; but I could not drive it from my mind.

I was again blindfolded, and taken to a place they called a cell.  But it was quite different from the one I was in before.  We descended several steps as we entered it, and instead of the darkness I anticipated, I found myself in a large room with sufficient light to enable me to see every object distinctly.  One end of a long chain was fastened around my waist, and the other firmly secured to an iron ring in the floor; but the chain, though large and heavy, was long enough to allow me to go all over the room.  I could not see how it was lighted, but it must have been in some artificial manner, for it was quite as light at night, as in the day.  Here were instruments of various kinds, the use of which, I did not understand; some of them lying on the floor, others attached to the sides of the room.  One of them was made in the form of a large fish, but of what material I do not know.  It was of a bright flesh color, and fastened to a board on the floor.  If I pressed my foot upon the board, it would put in motion some machinery within, which caused it to spring forward with a harsh, jarring sound like the rumbling of the cars.  At the same time its eyes would roll round, and its mouth open, displaying a set of teeth so large and long that I was glad to keep at a safe distance.  I wished to know whether it would really bite me or not, but it looked so frightful I did not dare to hazard the experiment.