and a moment later, as though stretched to the cracking-point, it burst
terrifically into sound. A huge uproar shook the room, crashing through
it like a tangible mass. The sparks whirled in a menacing dance round
the little prince's body, and, abruptly blotted, left a deeper darkness,
in which the confused herding movements of startled figures were
indistinguishably merged. A flash of silence followed; then the
liberated forces of the night broke in rain and thunder on the rocking
walls of the room.

"Light--light!" some one stammered; and at the same moment a door was
flung open, admitting a burst of candle-light and a group of figures in
ecclesiastical dress, against which the white gown and black hood of
Father Ignazio detached themselves. The Dominican stepped toward the
Duke.

"Your Highness," said he in a tone of quiet resolution, "must pardon
this interruption; I act at the bidding of the Holy Office."

Even in that moment of profound disarray the name sent a deeper shudder
through his hearers. The Duke, who stood grasping the arms of his chair,
raised his head and tried to stare down the intruders; but no one heeded
his look. At a signal from the Dominican a servant had brought in a pair
of candelabra, and in their commonplace light the cabalistic hangings,
the magician's appliances and his fantastically-dressed attendants
looked as tawdry as the paraphernalia of a village quack. Heiligenstern
alone survived the test. Erect, at bay as it were, his black robe
falling in hieratic folds, the white wand raised in his hands, he might
have personified the Prince of Darkness drawn up undaunted against the
hosts of the Lord. Some one had snatched the little prince from his
stretcher, and Maria Clementina, holding him to her breast, sat palely