fterwards thrust
open, revealing a room in which were congregated some thirty men attired
in a garb that Phil at least instantly recognised to be priestly. By
these the pair were at once taken over from the armed guard; who
thereupon retired and were no more seen. At one end of the room stood a
table upon which lay heaped a quantity of flowers, and two stalwart
priests having taken possession of each of the prisoners, the latter
were led to the table, and the flowers, which had been arranged in the
form of two long festoons, were thrown round their necks, crossed over
their breasts, passed round their waists, and finally tied in front,
with the long ends drooping almost to their feet. They were evidently
being decked as the victims of some sort of sacrifice!

Then Phil suddenly wrenched himself free from the hands of the two
priests who were putting the finishing touches to his adornment, and
spoke in a low voice to the assembled concourse of priests. What he
said was wholly incomprehensible to Dick, for it was in a tongue of
which young Chichester had no knowledge, but it had a most extraordinary
effect upon the priests, who first seemed stricken dumb with amazement,
and finally overwhelmed with paralysing fear. For several minutes,
while Phil spoke, in accents of mingled indignation and reproach, the
priests stood silent and motionless, with many mingled emotions
displaying themselves upon their expressive countenances; but when at
length he concluded his tirade by pronouncing certain words in an
unmistakably threatening tone of voice, the whole assemblage, as though
moved by the same impulse, threw up their hands with an action that
clearly expressed the deepest profundity of horror, and then
incontinently with one accord prostrated themselves on the marble floor
at the feet of the two prisoners, uttering howls of sorrow and abject
entreaty. For perhaps five minutes Phil permitted them to remain in
this posture; then suddenly he shouted a single word which had the
instant effect of reducing the prostrate ones to silence, when he again
addressed them, this time in gentler tones; and when he at length
concluded, the party rose slowly and humbly to their feet, after which
two of them stepped forward and, with every appearance of the deepest
reverence, proceeded to untwine the garlands of flowers and release the
pair from their bonds. Finally, the erstwhile prisoners were taken in
charge by two of the priests, who