Reviews Of Uew Books.

Inquisitors were different from those of whom we had heard spoken ; but Colonel Delille would not give up so easily . He said to me , ' Let us examine again the floors let us pour water upon them , and we shall see if it does not run through some part . ' The flags of marble were large and quite smooth . After we had poured the water , to the great displeasure of the Inquisitors , we examined all the interstices , to see if any oozed through . Yery soon Colonel Delille cried out that

he found what he sought for . In the joinings of a flag the water disappeared very quickly , as if there was an empty space beneath . Officers and men set to work to raise the flag , whilst the priests cried out against the desecration of their beautiful and holy house . A soldier struck a spring with the butt-end of his musket , which disclosed a flight of steps . I took a lighted taper , four feet long , from a table , in order to explore our discovery , but was stopped by one of the Inquisitors , who gently placed his hand upon my arm , * My son / said he , with a devout air , '6

' you ought not to touch that taper ; it is holy . ' Well , ' I replied , I require a holy light to fathom iniquity . ' I descended the steps , which were under a ceiling without any opening except the trap-door . Arrived at the bottom , we entered into a vast square room , called the Hall of Judgment . In the middle was a block of stone , upon which was fixed a chair for the accused . On one side of the room was another seat , more elevated , for the Inquisitor-General , called the Throne of Judgment ; and there were lower seats for the fathers . From this chamber we

passed to the right , and found small cells extending the whole length of the edifice . But what a spectacle presented itself to our eyes ! How the beneficent religion of the Saviour had been outraged by its professors ! These cells served as dungeons , where the victims of the Inquisition were immured , until death relieved them from their sufferings . Their bodies were left there to decompose , and that the pestilential smell might not incommode the Inquisitors , ventilators were made to carrv it off . In the cells we found the remains of some who had

died recently , whilst in others we found only skeletons , chained to the floor . In others we found living victims of all ages and both sexes , —young men and young women , and old men up to the age of seventy , but all as naked as the day they were born . Our soldiers first busied themselves to free these captives from their chains , and then took off part of their clothes to cover them . After having visited all the cells , and opened the prison-doors of those who yet lived , we went to visit another chamber on the left . There we found all the instruments of torture

that the genius of men or demons could invent . At this sight , the fury of our soldiers could not longer be contained , —they cried out that every one of these Inquisitors , monks and soldiers , should undergo the torture . We did not attempt to prevent them , and they immediately commenced the work upon the persons of the fathers . I saw them employ four kinds of torture , and then withdrew from the frightful scene , which lasted as long as there was a single individual in that antechamber of hell upon whom the soldiers could wreak their vengeance . When the victims of the Inquisition could be brought without danger from their prison

into the light of day , the news of their delivery spread abroad ; and those from whom the Holy Office had torn their relations or friends came to see if there was any hope to find them alive . About one hundred persons were rescued from their living tombs , and restored to their families . Many found a son or a daughter , a brother or a sister . Some found no one . A large quantity of powder was placed in the subterraneous passages of the building , the massive walls and towers were blown up into the air , and the Inquisition of Madrid ceased to exist . " ¦ " Boyle versus Wiseman . " London : Partridge and Co . In appropriate juxtaposition with the former book , appears on our table an account of the infamous persecution of one of his own clergy by Dr . Wiseman . This nefarious case is in the memory of most of our readers , who also recollect the thorough exposure given of the defendant cardinal , in a court which , unfortunately for him ,

had not the fear of the Inquisition before its eyes . Such a trial as this did more to open the eyes of thoughtful Catholics to the perilous position in which property and reputation stood in the clutches of a Church , whose highest ministers can stop witnesses , break promises , slander merit , and , after all , fall hack upon the aid of benighted credulity to reimburse their expenses , than volumes of polemics or whole libraries of controversial divinity . Mr . Boyle is a man of unim-