your English pirates, yet would
your doom be accomplished; without a possibility of rescue, and
without your fate ever becoming known, beyond these four walls.

"Bethink you," he said, "before you compel me to use the means at
my disposal; for men have spoken as bravely and as obstinately as
you, but they have changed their minds, when they felt their bones
cracking under the torture. We would fain abstain from injuring
figures as manly as yours; but, if needs be, we will so reduce them
to wrecks that you will envy the veriest cripple who crawls for
alms, on the steps of the cathedral here."

The boys remained silent, and the inquisitor, with an air of angry
impatience, motioned to the men ranged along by the wall to seize
their prisoners.

The lads saw that the time for action was come. Each produced his
pistol from his breast, the one leveling his at the head of the
grand inquisitor, while the other faced the foremost of those
advancing towards them.

"One step nearer," Ned said, "and the two of you are dead men."

A silence as of death fell in the chamber. The judges were too
astonished even to rise from their seats, and the familiars paused
in their advance.

"You see," Ned said to the grand inquisitor, "that you are not
masters of the situation. One touch upon my trigger, and the death
with which you threaten me is yours. Now write, as I order you, a
pass by which we may be allowed to quit these accursed walls,
without molestation."

Without hesitation, the judge wrote on a piece of paper the
required order.

"Now," Ned said, "you must come with us; for I put no faith,
whatever, in your promises; for I know the ways of your kind, that
promises made to heretics are not considered sacred. You are,
yourself, my best safeguard; for be assured that the slightest
interruption to us, upon our way, and I draw my trigger, and send
you to that eternity to which you have dispatched so many victims."

The judge rose to his feet, and Ned could see that, quiet as he
appeared, he was trembling with passion. Tom had, at the first
alarm, retreated to the door; so as to prevent the escape of the
attendants stationed there, or of any of the others, to give the
alarm. He now opened it, and Ned was about to pass out with the
inquisitor when, glancing round, he saw that one of the other
judges had disappeared, doubtless by some door placed behind the
arras, at the end of the room.

"Treachery is intended," he muttered to