ficulty under which I labour of determining whether, under
present circumstances, 'Your Holiness,' or 'Your infernal Majesty' be
the form of address most befitting me to employ."

"Bub-ub-bub-boo," went Lucifer, who still had the gag in his mouth.

"Heavens!" exclaimed the Cardinal, "I crave your Infernal Holiness's
forgiveness. What a lamentable oversight!"

And, relieving Lucifer from his gag and bonds, he set out the
refection, upon which the demon fell voraciously.

"Why the devil, if I may so express myself," pursued Anno, "did not
your Holiness inform us that you _were_ the devil? Not a hand would
then have been raised against you. I have myself been seeking all my
life for the audience now happily vouchsafed me. Whence this mistrust
of your faithful Anno, who has served you so loyally and zealously
these many years?"

Lucifer pointed significantly to the gag and fetters.

"I shall never forgive myself," protested the Cardinal, "for the part
I have borne in this unfortunate transaction. Next to ministering to
your Majesty's bodily necessities, there is nothing I have so much at
heart as to express my penitence. But I entreat your Majesty to
remember that I believed myself to be acting in your Majesty's
interest by overthrowing a magician who was accustomed to send your
Majesty upon errands, and who might at any time enclose you in a box,
and cast you into the sea. It is deplorable that your Majesty's most
devoted servants should have been thus misled."

"Reasons of State," suggested Lucifer.

"I trust that they no longer operate," said the Cardinal. "However,
the Sacred College is now fully possessed of the whole matter: it is
therefore unnecessary to pursue this department of the subject
further. I would now humbly crave leave to confer with your Majesty,
or rather, perhaps, your Holiness, since I am about to speak of
spiritual things, on the important and delicate point of your
Holiness's successor. I am ignorant how long your Holiness proposes to
occupy the Apostolic chair; but of course you are aware that public
opinion will not suffer you to hold it for a term exceeding that of
the pontificate of Peter. A vacancy, therefore, must one day occur;
and I am humbly to represent that the office could not be filled by
one more congenial than myself to the present incumbent, or on whom he
could more fully rely to carry out in every respect his views and
intentions."

And the Cardinal proceeded to detail va