the hall slowly, and in thoughtful silence; the inquisitor thoughtful
too, silent and embarrassed. A multitude of victims seemed to haunt the
place, and the doctor could not refrain from breaking silence. "Would
not the Holy Church wish, in her mercy, to have those souls back again,
that she might allow them a little further probation?" The inquisitor
answered nothing, but beckoned him to go with him to a door at one end
of the hall. By that door he conducted him to some small rooms, and
thence, to the spacious apartments of the chief inquisitor. Having
surveyed those, he brought him back again to the great hall, and seemed
anxious that the troublesome visitor should depart; but only the very
words of Dr. B. can adequately describe the close of this extraordinary
interview."
"Now, father," said I, "lead me to the dungeons below: I want to see the
captives." "No," said he, "that cannot be." I now began to suspect that
it had been in the mind of the inquisitor, from the beginning, to show
me only a certain part of the Inquisition, in the hope of satisfying
my inquiries in a general way. I urged him with earnestness; but he
steadily resisted, and seemed offended, or, rather, agitated, by my
importunity. I intimated to him plainly, that the only way to do justice
to his own assertion and arguments regarding the present state of the
Inquisition, was to show me the prisons and the captives. I should
then describe only what I saw; but now the subject was left in awful
obscurity. "Lead me down," said I, "to the inner building, and let me
pass through the two hundred dungeons, ten feet square, described by
your former captives. Let me count the number of your present captives,
and converse with them. I WANT, TO SEE IF THERE BE ANY SUBJECTS OF THE
BRITISH GOVERNMENT, TO WHOM WE OWE PROTECTION. I want to ask how long
they have been there, how long it is since they have seen the light
of the sun, and whether they ever expect to see it again. Show me the
chamber of torture, and declare what modes of execution or punishment
are now practiced inside the walls of the Inquisition, in lieu of the
public Auto de Fe. If, after all that has passed, father, you resist
this reasonable request, I should be justified in believing that you are
afraid of exposing the real state of the Inquisition in India."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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