"Whoever you are, let my sad story serve you as a warning never to assist a tyrant in his cruelties. You behold in me the Bishop of Verdun, who first gave to the king the idea of these horrible cages, and was the very first to be shut up in one of them after they were completed. Here have I, for fourteen years, done penance for my sins, praying daily to God to end my torments by death." _Faustus_. Ha, ha! Your excellence, then, like another Perillus, has found a Phalaris. Do you know that story? You shake your head. Well, I will tell it you. "This Perillus, who was neither a bishop nor a Christian, constructed a brazen bull, which he showed to the tyrant Phalaris as a masterpiece of invention, and assured him that it was constructed in such a manner, that, if his majesty would shut up a man in it, and then heat it red-hot by a fire laid beneath it, the shrieks of the tormented man would exactly resemble the bellowings of a bull, which would doubtless afford his majesty great pleasure. 'My dear Perillus,' said the tyrant, 'I am much indebted to you; but it is right that the artist should prove his own work.' He then made Perillus creep into the beast's belly; and when the fire was laid beneath it, he did in reality bellow like a bull. Thus did Phalaris, a thousand years ago, play very much the same part with Perillus which the most Christian king has been playing with you, most reverend Bishop of Verdun." _Bishop_. I wish I had heard this story twenty years ago; I should then have taken warning from it. _Faustus_. You see that history may sometimes be useful, even to a bishop. I weep for the fate of your companions in misery; but I laugh at yours. Faustus wished now to see this king, whose horrible deeds had so heated his imagination, that he could hardly represent him to himself under a human figure. The Devil told him that it would be impossible for them in their present forms to enter the Castle of Plessis du Parc, where cowardice and fear kept the tyrant a prisoner. He added, that no one, with the exception of some necessary domestics, the physician, the confessor, and one or two astrologers, could enter without a particular order. _Faustus_. Then let us assume other figures and dresses. _Devil_. Good; I will instantly remove two of his guards, and we will do their duty. This is an excellent time to see the tyrant. The fear of death is already avenging upon his cowardly spirit the thousands whom he has slaughtered. Day and night he only thinks of putting off the moment which is to terminate his existence, and death seems to him more hideous every second. I will make you a witness of his torments.