vily on his head; the extremity of the arm, where the hand had been
cut off, had been furnished with a piece of iron like a sledge-hammer,
to enable the ruffian to possess the means of attack and defence.
Fortunate it was that the blow did not fracture Sydney's skull.

Meanwhile Maggot and Bloodhound had placed the machine which they had
brought with them upon the floor and began to prepare it for use. The
vaults of the Spanish Inquisition never contained a more horrible
instrument of torture. It was a box made of iron and shaped like a
coffin; the sides and bottom were covered with sharp nails, firmly fixed
with their points outwards; beneath the box was a sort of furnace,
filled with shavings and charcoal. This apparatus was called by the
ruffians--_The Bed of Ease_.

Sydney was made to strip himself entirely naked, and lie down in the
box; then the cover was fastened on. The points of the nails penetrated
his flesh, causing him the most excruciating torture; blood started
profusely from all parts of his body, and he could scarce repress groans
of the most heart-felt anguish. But this was nothing to what he was
doomed to endure; for the demons in human shape kindled a fire beneath
him, and when nature could hold out no longer, and he screamed with
agony, his tormentors roared with laughter.

They released him when a cessation of his cries warned them that he
could hold out no longer without endangering his life--for they wished
him to live to endure future torments. He was truly a pitiable object
when taken from the box--his flesh torn and bleeding, and horribly
burnt. They rubbed him with oil, assisted him to dress and laid him upon
a heap of straw which one of them brought. They then left him, after
assuring him that, as soon as he was healed, they had tortures in store
for him much more severe than the one just inflicted. The iron box they
left behind them in the dungeon, probably intending to use it again on
some future occasion.

In what a deplorable situation did poor Sydney now find himself placed!
Nearly dead with the torments which he had just undergone, his mind was
harassed by the dread of other and more severe tortures yet in store for
him. How gladly would he have bared his bosom to the deadly stroke of
the knife, or the fatal discharge of the pistol!

But exhausted nature could hold out no longer, and he fell into a deep
sleep, from which he was awakened by the entrance of some person into
the dunge