‘Accused,’ began the alcaide again, ‘if you choose to tell us what you know of your comrades’ designs we will, even although your obstinacy hath been great, proceed no further in this business; if not, in the name of the law and the king I ordain the provost-marshal to proceed.’ I said not a word, but drew a long breath, and nerved myself, trying to fix and resolutely wind up my mind and body to endure. There was a pause for a minute, and then the alcaide nodded. The provost-marshal stepped forward, grasped my wrist with his left hand, and then, at the same time looking steadily into my eyes, twisted the screw round with a rapid wrench, and instantly a pang, a throb of pain horribly keen, cut, as it were with a knife, from the thumb up the arm to the shoulder-blade. I felt a hot flush come out upon my face, and then, the first agonizing jerk over, a horrible tingling began, pricking the limb as though myriads of red-hot needles had been thrust into it. ‘Do you still refuse to answer the question?’ said the alcaide. I bowed. He nodded, as before, and round again went the screw. This time the agony was fearful. I ground my teeth, my knees shook, and I felt the cold sweat start out in beads among the roots of my hair. The involuntary desire to scream was almost overmastering, but I curbed it with a mighty effort, swallowing down, as it were, the anguish, by violent efforts of the muscles of the throat. All this time the group who surrounded me preserved silence. There was a grim smile upon the face of the alcaide, but the ferret eyes of his clerk were gleaming with excitement, and his features were twisting with very pleasure. The doctor and the provost-marshal behaved like two men engaged in a perfectly-indifferent matter. Again the alcaide questioned me, again I made the same reply, and again the provost-marshal wrenched round the screw. This time, amid the slight squeak of the revolving iron, all heard the crackle of the bone; the skin too, had given way beneath metallic pressure, and a gush of black bruised blood spurted over the iron and the thin fingers of the provost-marshal, and then dropped in thick plashy globules upon the floor. Almost at the same instant a mist came up before my eyes, and hid the fierce faces which surrounded me. I tottered, and leant upon the surgeon, and a cold feeling of sickness almost unto death gripped my very being, and seemed to stop the fountains of life. It was the very depth of that suffering which drew from me the only low shuddering moan I uttered. But hardly had the sound escaped than there was a tramp of footsteps rushing into the room, and a loud voice which cried— ‘Señor the alcaide is wanted upon the beach; a schooner with English colours set, which hath been hovering in the offing all the morning, is standing in for the harbour, as though she would carry the galleon even under the very guns of the batteries.’