THE CHAMBER OF TORTURE. The descent into this infernal place was by numerous winding stairs, whose humid steps were covered with mouldiness, and upon which it was impossible to walk without slipping; but the servants of the Inquisition had, as they say, the sailor's foot. They were acquainted with the least turn in this frightful labyrinth to which they had led Manuel Argoso, when they left the hall of tribunal, and where we now find them again with the unhappy accused, waiting the grand inquisitor. The former governor of Seville had suffered himself to be led, or rather, closing his eyes in order not to see the road over which they hurried him; but the executioners had stopped in the midst of the chamber of torture-thus this gloomy den was called. The accused opened his eyes again, cast round him an anxious look, and he observed nothing but the veiled figures of the sinister creatures who, in this terrestrial hell, filled the office of demons, and who were called tormentors. When he had counted one after another the horrible instruments of torture which surrounded him, his imagination, enfeebled by fasting and imprisonment, became the prey of a strange hallucination. In his faith, as a pious Christian, he believed that he had left this world, and had arrived at the place of which the Gospel speaks, where there "is weeping and gnashing of teeth." Need we be surprised after this, that in moments, and in the midst of such horrid pageant, the Inquisition had obtained the most singular abjurations and confessions, the most contrary to the character of those whom she made her victims ? Pierre Arbues came at length, followed by a second inquisitor, and by the apostolic notary. The accused was standing in the midst of the chamber of torture. At the sight of his judge he was recalled to the sad feeling of reality; on raising his eyes towards heaven, as if to supplicate it, he perceived that above his head, in the vault, a strong pulley had been fixed, through which passed a solid rope of hemp which hung down to his feet. The four masked men stood silently by his side. Pierre Arbues and the inquisitors who accompanied him, sat down upon seats to assist at the mournful scene, conformably to the eighteenth article of the code of the Inquisition, which provided that one or two inquisitors should always be present at the torture, to record the declarations of the accused. Manuel Argoso, though he had the courage of strong minds, could not divest himself of strong terror. He thought of his daughter, who would, perhaps, be obliged to undergo the same trials, and all his courage forsook him. 41 If he could have saved her from them by confessing imaginary crimes, he would not have hesitated a moment; but he well knew that such a confession would ruin instead of save her. He therefore summoned all his energy, and prepared to suffer. At a signal from the grand inquisitor, the tormentors stripped the accused of his clothing. Then Pierre Arbues, moving towards him, "My son," said he, with angelic sweetness, "my son, confess your crimes, and grieve not our souls by persisting in error and heresyspare us the sorrow of obeying the severe laws of the Holy Inquisition, by treating you with all the rigour which they demand." Manuel Argoso made no reply, but he cast upon the inquisitor a fixed, cold, piercing look, which defied torture. "Avow and confess," resumed Pierre Arbues with incredible perseverance, but still with a voice full of unction and gentleness. "We are your fathers in God, and we are actuated solely by the desire to save your soul. Come, my son, a sincere confession can alone save you in the other life, and in this deliver you from the just vengeance of God. Confess your sin." "I cannot confess a crime which has no existence," replied the governor. "My son," said the judge, "I am grieved at your impenitence, and I beseech the Lord to touch your soul which, without grace, will inevitably be lost, for the devil holds it in his power, and it is he who inspires you with this guilty persistence in wickedness. Pray with me, if you possibly can, that God may have pity on you, and send you the light of his Holy Spirit." At the same time Arbues, kneeling on the ground by the side of the sufferer, muttered, in a low voice, an unintelligible prayer, with a sanctimonious and affected air. Then he made, one after another, several rapid signs of the cross, humbly smote his breast, and remained for some minutes with his face leaning upon his clasped hands. At this moment the savage inquisitor of Seville, who was only an humble Dominican, praying and weeping for the sins of others, at length rose up: "Unhappy slave of the devil," said he, addressing the accused, "has God vouchsafed to hear my prayers, and open your eyes sealed against the brightness of our faith?" "My faith is still the same," replied Argoso; "it has never varied a single instant; as I have received it from my father, who was a pious Christian, so I will carry it with me to the tomb." "God is my witness that it is not my fault," said the judge, raising his eyes to heaven; "go," he pursued, looking at the tormentors, "apply the torture of the cord." At these words the accused shut his eyesa dull buzzing sounded in his ears, a cold sweat ran down his limbs, and he shuddered in every fibre. The tormentors drew towards them the cable which hung from the vault. "You will continue to torture until we judge it expedient to suspend it," continued the inquisitor; "and if, during this time, the accused suffers any injury, be it the fracture of a limb or even death, I protest before you all that the fault should be imputed to him alone. And now, 'let the will of God be done,'" added he, extending his hands towards the executioners. Instantly the four masked men seized the unhappy governor, and tied his hands behind his back with one of the ends of the cord which hung above his head; then seizing the other end, by the aid of a pulley, they raised the sufferer to the height of the ceiling, and let him fall rapidly till within a foot from the ground. The unhappy man almost fainted at this terrible shock. The tormentors waited a few minutes until he recovered, and immediately when he reopened his eyes, they recommenced this cruel ascension, and suffered him to fall as violently as the first time. This punishment lasted for an hour. The unfortunate governor had not uttered a complaint; only his panting and suffocated breast emitted a hoarse and restrained respiration, which resembled the death-rattle. His heavy eyes, glazed like those of the dying, seemed to have nothing more to do but to close in their last sleep. The cord which enclosed his wrists had cut so deeply into the flesh, that the blood of the tortured man trickled all over his body; his shirt, the only clothing which they had left him, was soiled with bloody mire; for the floor was earthy and damp; and when the torture was over, the wretched man released from his bonds fell on the earth, as a lifeless mass-his dislocated bones and mangled muscles could no longer support him. It is a harrowing and horrid spectacle to see this strong man, tall, robust, and still in the vigour of age, annihilated by cruel torture, and punished before he had been tried. What night not be expected from a jurisprudence which imposed such trial? But the inquisitors had no bowels-they reigned by torture, they delighted in agony. "Take this man back to his prison," said Pierre Arbues, with an air of pity; "that will do for to-day." And turning towards the inquisitorial counsellor, "My son," said he, "do not forget to pray for this unhappy man in your prayers." Such was the manner of the inquisitors' procedure when in the presence of their victims-they concealed the abominable hardness of their hearts under the hypocritical exterior of profound piety. Two friars carried the wretched governor in their arms. Manuel Argoso no longer gave any sign of life.-Mysteries of the Inquisition. NARRATIVE OF A VISIT TO SOME OF THE STATIONS OF THE EVANGELICAL SOCIETY IN FRANCE. BY THE HON. AND REV. BAPTIST W. NOEL. Continued from page 3. OUR first religious service in the department was at Limoges, on the evening of the day of our arrival. It had been announced that M. Roussel would preach. Two years ago, when he first visited the place, Protestant worship was unknown. Numbers then crowded the private room where he expounded the gospel; and since that time a Protestant temple has been raised, which will seat about five hundred persons. When, at the appointed time, accompanied by the pastor, M. Pilatte, we reached the doors of the building, we found them besieged by numbers who were vainly seeking admittance. The congregation was principally composed of men, among whom it was very difficult to wind our way to the seat which had been prepared for us. That evening reminded me of Luther and the Reformation. With much spirit, M. Pilatte, after prayer, addressed the people on the absurdity of fearing the name of apostate, when asked to abandon error: "They welcomed the apostate from Heathenism, they applauded the apostate Mohammedan who embraced Christianity; even the apostate Protestant, who should call himself Catholic, would find universal favour. Why, then, dread apostasy from a system which they knew to be false and degrading?" M. Roussel, with yet more thundering energy, demonstrated the errors and misdeeds of the Roman Church-its want of all authority—its opposition to the gospel; and appealed to them, as already deserters from its priesthood and its ritual, to adopt the religion of the gospel, since they could no longer cling to superstition. The large audience listened with animated attention, and often expressedby a universal rustle and exchange of smiling looks at one another, soon returning to an eager seriousness-their thorough assent to his positions. This was an evening of excitement; but in the absence of all excitement, a good work is going on. Several hundreds of those who. without becoming Protestants, are no longer Catholics, attend the ministry of M. Pilatte. Twice on the Sunday he preaches the gospel to them-once in the week he lectures on Church history, and once on the points in controversy between Protestants and Romanists. Twenty persons, making a serious profession of religion, have been admitted to the Lord's table. There EVANGELICAL SOCIETY IN FRANCE. is a monthly meeting at his house of members of the flock; some of them have been active distributers of tracts and Bibles among their fellow-citizens; and evangelical schools have been established for the poor. A little to the north-west of Le Dorat, which is fourteen leagues north-west of Limoges, is the small village of Thiat, not marked in any ordinary map. The young moon was beginning to be useful in the deepening twilight of Friday, September 25, when, on the road between Le Dorat and Chateau Roux, our carriage stopped, and M. Roussel informed us that we must make the rest of our way, in the uncertain light, through lanes impassable to any carriage. We were well repaid for a muddy walk, when, entering the little temple at Thiat, we saw above 300 persons assembled for worship, in a village the whole population of which is not more than 400. Women and girls, all dressed in white caps and white handkerchiefs, crowded that part of the temple which was on the preacher's right-the left was equally thronged with men ; and after the service, it was curious to see a large part of the assembly divide into separate groups, each surrounding one of the strangers, who took that opportunity to exhort them to continue stedfast in the faith. The supper provided by the young pastor, M. Le Savoureux, was profusely hospitable. But how should the strangers be lodged? There were Messrs. Boubila and Bornaud, from Rancon and Balledent; M. Vignaud, a converted priest, with two other schoolmasters or colporteurs, formed part of our supper party; and M. Roussel had brought four Englishmen to startle the quiet village, whose inn had but one room to offer. How the French brethren fared, we know not; the inn's only room was reserved for the four foreigners. It was no ordinary room. With considerable glee did the master of the house usher us all into it. Two long tables in the centre, with benches on each |side, proved that it was sometimes, at least, the village dining-room: two large presses proved that it served the purpose of a housekeeper's room; three solid bed-steads vindicated its claim to be a bed-room; it was a larder, for a safe attached to one of the walls received the unconsumed viands of the house; large rolls of coarse cloth in one corner, with hats, bladders, and bunches of grapes, suspended from the beams of the roof, showed it to be a general store-rooni; and much of the space which ought to have been the floor was an aperture, through which descended a staircase to the kitchen. Here, however, after having exhausted all the 43 resources of the house for washing utensils, and spreading a fourth mattress on the floor, we commended ourselves to the care of our heavenly Father, and soon gentle sleep weighed our eyelids down, and steeped our senses in forgetfulness. It was a lovely moment, beneath a cloudless sun, when next day, having passed through Le Dorat, we came down from the high table-land near Magnac Laval on the village inn of Ville Favard. Fancy can scarcely ask a fairer scene than that which opens on the traveller. The Gartempe and the Seine, indeed, with their deep rich valleys, are not in sight, though close at hand. But far and near, rich woods of Spanish chesnut fill up the valleys, and crown the sheltering uplands; while beyond them, to the south and southwest, lie the blue ranges of the highest hills of the Limousin, and in the midst of this ocean of verdure rises the neat spire of the Protestant church of Ville Favard. It was lately Catholic, but the villagers heard the gospel, and the mass was deserted. Vain were the attempts of the clergy to recover the deserters. The Government still pays the parish priest his salary, and he recites his Latin form to the silent walls of a hired house; but the congregation is Protestant, and the parish church is now the Protestant temple, in which they wor ship. The altar is removed from the eastern wall, and is advanced in front of the pulpit, where it now serves for the celebration of the Lord's supper. The vase of holy water, with which they once thought to cleanse away their sins, now, reversed, forms its pedestal. Passages of Scripture have replaced the images which lately defaced the walls. There, where the priest performed his crossings and genuflexions, elevated the wafer, tinkled his bell, and waved his incense, now the people read, "God is a Spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." There, where they bowed down to ask the intercession of the mother of Jesus, they now read, in large broad characters on the wall, "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." The spiritual harvest, it is true, is not yet large. Effective schools, under pious teachers, are beginning to tell upon the characters of the children; some members of the congregation have become the subjects of converting grace; but still the spiritual harvest is not yet reaped. Before that a minister was settled among them, when they had only received the preparatory instructions of a colporteur, so entirely were they disgusted with the idle ceremonies of Rome, that they closed their church; and some of the young men deported a priest, who came to perform mass, to the frontier of the village, on a donkey, with his face to the tail. Better instructed now, they would abstain from such incivility; but they are also more than ever decided against the superstitions which they have renounced. At Balledent, two of our party slept at the house of the friendly mayor of the commune, and two remained at the manse. Nothing could be more hospitable than the reception which our Swiss friends gave us; and the lofty hills, to the very summit of which the luxuriant woods had climbed, wanted nothing but the granite crag and the snow peak to make us believe that the Swiss pastor was in his own land. From Balledent we sought the village of Rancon, the scene of the labours of P. Boubila. In that commune there are, besides the central village just named, twelve others, which receive regular visits from the indefatigable pastor. Of the two thousand inhabitants of the commune, about two-thirds have placed themselves under his pastoral care; and the work is pros master, every evening he holds a meeting with a few inquirers at one of these villages, returning late in the night along execrable roads, and often through stormy darkness, to his humble dwelling. But I must hasten on. In the retired hamlet of Droux, we visited the excellent catechist who labours there, and entered the small temple in which he officiates. At Chateau Ponsac, M. Roussel preached to a crowded audience, and then presented to them their future pastor, M. Cordez. Twice, when M. Pilatte preached in this place, was the assembly dispersed by the police, but the perseverance of the minister prevailed; the third time they were left unmolested, and Protestant worship is now perma-pering in his hands. With his pious schoolnently established among them. When the priests cannot obtain the intervention of the Government, they have little power to check Protestant efforts, at least in the villages. At the solicitation of the priest of Droux, the mayor prohibited Protestant worship in that place. Upon this, the pastors Pilatte and Bornaud sought an interview with him, that they might convince him of their right to preach there. It so happened that the priest was with the mayor when they called, but seized with a panic lest he should have to confront theologians who were more accomplished than himself, he leaped into a bed which was in a recess of the room, round which the curtains were closely drawn, and there for two hours listened in silent vexation to their just remonstrances and claims. Multitudes of the priests are not less impotent to arrest this Protestant movement than he was; and they know it. M. Bornaud, whom I have just mentioned, is pastor of Balledent. This place, after the inhabitants had manifested a desire to hear the word of God, was, through the poverty of the Evangelical Society, long neglected; and a skilful and zealous priest has restored to the Church of Rome much of its lost influence in the com mune. But in the deep secluded valley of the Couze, within sound of its natural music, a convenient temple has been built, part of the building forming a comfortable presbytery or manse. And here, on Sabbath evening, 27th September, we worshipped with an attentive congregation of converts to Protestantism, who were lately immersed in the superstition which still unhap pily broods over the Limousin. But I must now leave this interesting department, and transporting your readers from! its wide-spread groves of Spanish chesnut, its granite hills, and its sparkling streams, to the richer valley of the Youne, must show them that the dispositions of Champagne are not different from those of the Saintonge, Angoumois, and Limousin. To be continued. WILBERFORCE AND THE SABBATH. THE following extracts are from the Life of Wilber force : Many entries in his diary, at this period (1789) indicate his love for the Sabbath; and he has said in conversation, "Often, in my visits at Mr. Pitt's, when I heard one or another speak of this man's place, or that man's peerage, I felt a rising inclination to pursue the same objects; but a Sunday in solitude never failed to restore me to myself." "Sunday, Feb. 8, 1789.-O, blessed be God, who hath appointed the Sabbath, and interposes these seasons of serious recollection."-(Diary) Life, vol. i. p. 91. "O what a blessed thing is the Sunday, for giving us an opportunity of serious self-examination, retrospect, and drawing water out of the wells of salvation."-(Diary) Life, vol. i. p. 227. At home (at this period, 1798), he was still the watchful guardian of public morals, and at this time, was specially engaged in an attempt to promote the deliberations was the suspension of all attempts at better observance of the Sunday. The result of the legislative interference, and the adoption of a voluntary engagement to promote the observance of the day, Much was effected by this effort.-16., p. 228. "I feel the comfort of Sunday very sensibly today"" Oh, it is a blessed thing to have the Sunday THE POWER OF PRAYER. 45 remarks says: "In proportion as any of your people become influenced by true religion, they will most devoted to God."..... was of great service to him; and the full entries of his Journal are a searching review of his spirit and conduct through the week.-likely wish to devote the whole of this day to reib., p. 229. In the winter of 1809, Mr. Wilberforce, meditating a trip to Bath, wrote to Mr. Perceval to ascertain the day of the meeting of Parliament. "Parliament," was the reply, will not meet, unless something unforeseen should occur, until Monday, the 16th of January. I hope, therefore, you will lose no time in getting your health well set up at Bath." dis watchfulness for public morals at once suggested to him the amount of Sunday travelling which such day of meeting would create; and he begged, in answer, that it might, if possible, be altered. "I thank you for your note of yesterday," rejoined the conscientious minister, "and am really sorry that I have given occasion for it. I feel myself more to blame, because, upon the receipt of your note, it brought back to my recollection (what I had till then forgot) some observations which the Speaker made to me some time ago upon the same subject; if they had been present to my mind'when we settled the meeting of Parliament, I would not have fixed it upon a Monday. We were, however, almost driven into that day." Two days later, he wrote again: "Dear Wilberforce, you will be glad to hear that it is determined to postpone the meeting of Parliament till Thursday, the 19th, instead of Monday, the 16th, to obviate the objections which you have suggested to the meeting on that day.-Yours, very truly, SPENCER PERCEVAL.” Mr. Wilberforce has, in his diary, without any allusion to the part he had in it: "The house put off nobly by Perceval, because of the Sunday travelling it would have occasioned."--Life, vol. ii. pp. 48, 49. The following extracts are from Mr. Wilberforce's Correspondence :- In a letter to his sister, Oct. 18, 1793, he says:My judgment is decidedly and strongly in favour of your taking an early dinner on Sunday, and going to church in the afternoon. I don't say it lightly, I believe the contempt into which the Sabbath has fallen, bids fair to accelerate the ruin both of Church and State more than any other single circumstance whatever; and it is the bounden duty of every friend to our civil happiness, no less than to our religious interests, to hold up its authority."-Correspondence, vol. i. p. 97. ligious exercises or recreation, and to abstain at least With the rank vapour of this sin-worn mould.' I must say that, on the ground of my own experience, I believe there is a special blessing vouchsafed to the keeping of that day devoted to spiritual purposes. Some of the happiest days of my life have been spent at inns where I have halted for the Sunday wherever I found myself on the Saturday night. I shall never forget one Sunday in particular, when Babington and I were fellow-travellers in a tour through Wales. He speaks of it, as well as myself, with feelings of lively gratitude and tenderness."-Ib., vol. ii. pp. 292, 293. It is not difficult to see where such a man obtained spirit, that carried him so successfully through in his the moral strength, and firm integrity, and Christian efforts for the deliverance of the enslaved. THE POWER OF PRAYER. THE PIRATE. SOME years ago the Moravian missionaries sailed from London to the Island of St. Thomas, where they were going to labour among the slaves. The name of the ship in which they sailed was the Britannia. At first the voyage was Writing to Mr. Ashley, September 4, 1800, he says: "There is nothing in which I would recommend you to be more strictly resolute than in keep-pleasant and prosperous; and in their hearts, as ing the Sabbath holy; and by this I mean, not only abstaining on that day from all unbecoming sports and common business, but from consuming time in frivolous conversation, paying or receiving visits, which, among relations, often leads to a sad waste of this precious day. Self-examination and much private prayer should never be omitted on this day. I can truly declare to you that to me the institution of the Sabbath has been invaluable. I need not suggest, likewise, the duty of searching into our hearts on that day, examining ourselves as to our love of God and of Christ, and purging out all malice and ill-will towards any one who may have offended us, trying likewise, where opportunity offers, to make peace. In all we should ever associate the idea of our blessed Master, and endeavour to render him as much as possible present to our minds.”—Ib., vol. i. pp. 172, 173. Writing to Christophe, king of Hayti, October 8, 1818, giving him counsels for the improvement and permanent welfare of his people, Mr. Wilberforce speaks at length of the importance of a proper observance of the Sabbath, and in the course of his well as their voices, the missionaries would often thank God for his goodness to them. A pirate ship was distinguished far off, but bearing down towards them. Now pirates are at sea what robbers are on land, but even more terrible, because there is seldom any help near. They sail about the seas in their light-built, swift-sailing vessels, seldom going on land, but making it their whole business to rob other ships. And on their ill-gotten spoils they live. Generally they murder as well as rob. Sometimes they lay a plank over the ship's side, blindfold the eyes of the unfortunate crew and passengers, and compel them to walk thus along the plank, till, without knowing it, they reach the end, and then they fall into the sea and are drowned. No wonder that the sight of a pirate Vessel was a very alarming one to the people in the Britannia. It came on, nearer and nearer. And what |