In the mean time, Dr. Entwerfen was forcibly dragged by the Spanish soldiers towards a kind of town-hall, in one of the principal squares of Seville, where, on a platform or dais, raised a little above the floor, sate the sapient magistrates of the town. When the prisoner was brought before them, they all put on their spectacles and surveyed him attentively, examining his bald head with the most scrupulous exactness. "Here is the lump of a spy," said one. "And here that of a rogue," rejoined another. "Yes, the organs of observation and self-appropriation," resumed the first, "are strongly developed. That head is enough to hang an angel!" "Alas! alas!" cried the poor doctor; "would to Heaven that I had not lost my wig!" "It would have been of no avail, if you had retained it," said one of the judges gravely, "as it would have been forcibly removed; and even if you had worn your own hair, you must have had your head shaved; for, knowing the general corruption and inaccuracy of witnesses, the judges of this enlightened court reject verbal testimony altogether, and form their correct and infallible judgments upon the sure and undeviating basis of that most profound and useful of all sciences--craniology." "And happy are the prisoners judged by so wise a rule," said another. "Yes," rejoined a third; "for, though the minds of men are weak, and their judgments liable to err, the broad and general principles of science must ever remain unchangeably the same." In this manner they went on, whilst the poor doctor, looking ruefully from one to another, as they severally pronounced their opinions, stood the very image of despair. "Let us question him," resumed the first magistrate: "what were you doing when you were taken?" "I was making gunpowder," sighed Dr. Entwerfen. "The wretch!" exclaimed all his judges together; "he acknowledges he was manufacturing weapons for our destruction." "And how were you making this gunpowder," resumed the judge. "I was boiling it," moaned the doctor. "Boiling it!" exclaimed the judges; "what a villain!" and they all shook their wise heads in concert. The poor doctor could not bear this; and throwing himself upon his knees begged stoutly for mercy. "In my opinion," said one, "we should be guilty of a crime in letting him escape." "I think so too," cried another. "I would not have such a sin upon my conscience for the world," exclaimed a third. Whilst the unfortunate doctor, reading his condemnation in their countenances, groaned aloud in the agony of his spirit.