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 here--how long it is since they beheld 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 of punishment are now practised within the walls of the Inquisition, in lieu of the public _auto da fé_. If, after all that has passed, father, you resist this reasonable request, I shall be justified in believing that you are afraid of exposing the real state of the Inquisition in India’. To these observations the inquisitor made no reply, but seemed impatient that I should withdraw. ‘My good father,’ said I, ‘I am about to take my leave of you, and to thank you for your hospitable attentions, (it had been before understood that I should take my final leave at the door of the Inquisition,) and I wish always to preserve on my mind a favourable sentiment of your kindness and candour. You cannot, you say, show me the captives and the dungeons; be pleased, then, merely to answer this question, for I shall believe your word:--‘How many prisoners are there now below, in the cells of the Inquisition?’ The inquisitor replied, ‘That is a question which I cannot answer.’ On his pronouncing these words I retired hastily towards the door, and wished him farewell. We shook hands with as much cordiality as we could at the moment assume; and both of us, I believe, were sorry that our parting took place with a clouded countenance. “From the Inquisition I went to the place of burning, in the _Campo Santo Lazaro_, on the riverside, where the victims were brought to the stake at the _auto da fé_. It is close to the palace, that the viceroy and his court may witness the execution; for it has ever been the policy of the Inquisition to make these spiritual executions the executions of the state. An old priest accompanied me, who pointed out the place, and described the scenes. As I passed over this melancholy plain, I thought of the difference between the pure and benign doctrine, which was first preached to India in the apostolic age, and that bloody code which, after a long night of darkness, was announced to it under the same name. And I pondered on the mysterious dispensation, which permitted the ministers of the Inquisition, with their racks and flames, to visit these lands before the heralds of the Gospel of peace. But the most painful reflection was, that this tribunal should yet exist, unawed by the vicinity of British humanity and dominion.