was compelled to swallow the fluid. The process after a time produced distension of the body and caused exquisite pain. If this method was not sufficient to bring the prisoner to a proper state of mind the second and more drastic operation was introduced. This took the form of the application of a lighted candle under the armpits, upon the soles of the feet and the palms of the hand. The agony, needless to say, was excruciating and the torture rarely failed of its purpose.
Emanuel Thomson was the next victim after Johnson to suffer. He was comparatively an old man—his age is given as 51—but his grey hairs did not save him from the unspeakable cruelties of "the Chamber of Horrors " as it was appropriately styled. For over an hour and half he suffered the agonies of the tests before he would "confess" sufficiently to satisfy his examiners. Beomont, who meantime had been shivering in apprehension in the hall, was now brought in. With "deep oaths and protestations of innocence" he was made fast for the ordeal, and then the judges having had their fill apparently of their diabolical work ordered him to be released with the observation that they would spare him for a day or two because he was an old man.
The following day, which was a Sunday, the examination was resumed. Brown, the first to be summoned, assented to all that was asked of him without the application of the torture. He was succeeded by Colllngs, who gave the inquisitors more trouble. When he had been tied up for the water test his heart momentarily failed him and he promised to confess if let down. But when he had been released he "again vowed and protested his innocency," atating that as he knew that they would by torture "make
