Page 220 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

220 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

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. Beo-
mont, 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 Col lings, 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,”
stating that as he knew that they would by torture “ make