rious circumstances of his past
life, which certainly seemed to corroborate his assertion. He had not,
however, proceeded far ere he was disturbed by the grating of another
key in the lock, and had just time to whisper impressively, "Beware of
Benno," ere he dived under a table.

Benno was also provided with a lamp, wine, and cold viands. Warned by
the other lamp and the remains of Lucifer's repast that some colleague
had been beforehand with him, and not knowing how many more might be
in the field, he came briefly to the point as regarded the Papacy, and
preferred his claim in much the same manner as Anno. While he was
earnestly cautioning Lucifer against this Cardinal as one who could
and would cheat the very Devil himself, another key turned in the
lock, and Benno escaped under the table, where Anno immediately
inserted his fingers into his right eye. The little squeal consequent
upon this occurrence Lucifer successfully smothered by a fit of
coughing.

Cardinal No. 3, a Frenchman, bore a Bayonne ham, and exhibited the
same disgust as Benno on seeing himself forestalled. So far as his
requests transpired they were moderate, but no one knows where he
would have stopped if he had not been scared by the advent of Cardinal
No. 4. Up to this time he had only asked for an inexhaustible purse,
power to call up the Devil _ad libitum_, and a ring of invisibility to
allow him free access to his mistress, who was unfortunately a married
woman.

Cardinal No. 4 chiefly wanted to be put into the way of poisoning
Cardinal No. 5; and Cardinal No. 5 preferred the same petition as
respected Cardinal No. 4.

Cardinal No. 6, an Englishman, demanded the reversion of the
Archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, with the faculty of holding
them together, and of unlimited non-residence. In the course of his
harangue he made use of the phrase _non obstantibus_, of which Lucifer
immediately took a note.

What the seventh Cardinal would have solicited is not known, for he
had hardly opened his mouth when the twelfth hour expired, and
Lucifer, regaining his vigour with his shape, sent the Prince of the
Church spinning to the other end of the room, and split the marble
table with a single stroke of his tail. The six crouched and huddling
Cardinals cowered revealed to one another, and at the same time
enjoyed the spectacle of his Holiness darting through the stone
ceiling, which yielded like a film to his passage, and closed up
afterwards a