“January 27th, 1808. On the second morning after my arrival, I was surprised by my host, the inquisitor, coming into my apartment clothed in _black robes_ from head to foot, for the usual dress of his order is white. He said he was going to sit on the tribunal of the Holy Office. ‘I presume, father, your august office does not occupy much of your time?’ ‘Yes,’ answered he, ‘very much. I sit on the tribunal three or four days every week.’ “In the evening he came in as usual, to pass an hour in my apartment. After some conversation, I took the pen in my hand to write a note in my journal; and, as if to amuse him, while I was writing, I took Dellon’s book, which was lying with some others on the table, and, handing it across to him, asked him whether he had ever seen it. It was in the French language, which he understood well. ‘RELATION DE L’INQUISITION DE GOA,’ pronounced he, with a slow and articulate voice. He had never seen it before, and he began to read it with eagerness. He had not proceeded far, before he betrayed evident symptoms of uneasiness. He turned hastily to the middle of the book, and then to the end, and then ran over the table of contents at the beginning, as if to ascertain the full extent of the evil. “It was on this night that a circumstance happened which caused my first alarm at Goa. My servants slept every night at my chamber door, in the long gallery which is common to all the apartments, and not far distant from the servants of the convent. About midnight I was awaked by loud shrieks and expressions of terror, from some person in the gallery. In the first moment of surprise, I concluded it must be the _alguazils_ of the Holy Office, seizing my servants to carry them to the Inquisition. But, on going out, I saw my own servants standing at the door, and the person who had caused the alarm (a boy of about fourteen), at a little distance, surrounded by some of the priests, who had come out of their cells on hearing the noise. The boy said he had seen a _spectre_; and it was a considerable time before the agitation of his body and voice subsided. Next morning, at breakfast, the inquisitor apologised for the disturbance, and said the boy’s alarm proceeded from a ‘_phantasma animi_,’ a phantasm of the imagination.