d
to "the greater glory of God," that is, to the treasury of the "Holy
Office."

Guilty or not guilty, the old man had but one mode of escape, and that
was by avoiding an arrest. To effect this object he resorted to a novel
expedient. As soon as he heard that his accuser had started for Mexico,
it was given out that the old man had suddenly died. A circumstance by
no means thought remarkable, when it became known that he had assaulted
a priest. As he had not yet been accused, his neighbors ventured to
come to his funeral; and a coffin, with his name and age marked upon
it, was decently buried in holy ground. The funeral fees, too, were
secured before the estate was pounced upon by the familiars of the
Inquisition. The daughters put on the deepest mourning, and hid
themselves from the public gaze, among their relatives; for they had
not only to endure the loss of home and estates, but were to be shunned
as the accursed of God--the children of one dying while under the
accusation of sacrilege. As for the Inquisition, its officials did not
care to investigate the question of the decease, for it had reaped all
the benefit it might hope for from his conviction--"The Holy Office"
had become his heir.

THE OLD MAN OF ATLIZCO.

Strange appearances and stranger noises after a time were heard about
the cave that is said to be in the top of the hill of Atlizco, and
sometimes a ghost had been seen wandering about the hill by certain
benighted villagers; and one time, when the accusing monk was returning
rather later than usual from a drunken revel, this ghost who had now
become the town-talk, chanced to fall in with him, and to give him such
a beating as few living men could inflict, and then disappeared. Still
there was no earthquake, and the sun rose and set as though no injury
had been done to a priest.

Time wore its slow course along, without any important incident
occurring in this matter, until the reputation of the new Virey,
Ravillagigedo, reached Atlizco. Shortly thereafter there appeared at
the vice-royal palace in the city of Mexico an old man, who related in
a private audience the story of his griefs and of his misfortunes, and
insisted that, in striking "the Lord's priest," he had no intention of
committing an act of impiety, but that the feelings of a father had
overcome him in an unguarded moment, and induced him to avenge an
attempt made to dishonor his daughter. The story of the old man touched
the Virey,