entrance of a herald into the arena, who proclaimed, with an alheu,—“Whereas, it has occurred,—to the extreme mortification of his holiness,—that certain of the consistorial incumbents,—to wit, the holy brothers Bonefacio and Buenaventura, have differed in their estimate concerning the preferred essentials of sufficient and efficacious grace; giving rise to the implied accusations of perjury, with taunts, that in the warmth of expression exceeded the bounds of Christian forbearance,—it has been determined by our holy father, that they shall have extended to them the privilege of deciding a question so important to their respective personalities, and the general welfare of souls, by the ordeal of battle. In referring the detection of the perjured to the judgment of God, the doom pronounced upon the convicted,—in vindication of the just and holy laws instituted by the gracious clemency of our holy father,—it hath been adjudged that the respondents be awarded the benefit of knight champions, who for the love and sustenance of truth, in devotion to the holy mother church, shall offer, in willing submission, their bodies with arms for the decision of the question at issue, using their utmost exertion in skillful encounter, that the perjured may suffer merited punishment.” The instinctive elements of humanity, like those which hold irruptive sway from excessive accumulation in the earth’s interior, involve anticipatory emotions of coming events. As, with the vacuum lull of the forest that heralds the tornado; or, in the ocean calm, the bubbling ripple crests which warn the volantaph of an approaching tempest; and the dread silence that precedes the earthquake’s convulsive throes,—the congregated multitude in counterpart had anticipated from the dirge the startling premonition of some horrible gratification. From suppressed respiratory gaze, unbroken except from an occasional Jewish croak, or belching eructations from uncircumcised barbarians unaccustomed to the suppressed control of reverential awe, the multitude, when the cause for the sombre prelude was announced, burst the bonds of thoughtless silence with deafening shouts for champions. The knights no less prompt offered their service in mass, so that it became necessary for the interdicted prelates to make selection of champions; in aid the heralds sounded their call for a parade procession. As the squires brought in the knightly equipments for their masters, the grooms led in the panoplied war-roaches. When mounted the knights passed in review before the consistorial pavilion. Exposed to the searching glances of spiritual and temporal criticism they exerted all their dexterity in the management of the roach-steeds and in the changing exercise of sword and spear to win the favor of an election. Cardinal Bonefacio had with other accomplishments acquired the reputation of being an expert roach equitator, as well as a skillful artist in the use of arms, in his temporal days.