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 of the Japanese they visited the castle as usual, hearing probably from rumour with interest but without concern for themselves of the hard lot of the Japanese. They had, however, not long to wait for the revelation of their true position. Even before the last batch of prisoners had been brought in the examination had commenced with all its awful adjuncts.

The first to be called before the council were John Beomont and Timothy Johnson. With a refinement of cruelty Beomont was left with a guard in the hall while his companion was taken into the examination room. His feelings may be imagined when a little later he heard Johnson "cry out pitifully, then to be quiet for a little while, then to be loud again." What had happened was that Johnson had at the outset denied all knowledge of any conspiracy, in spite of the torture, and had been confronted with Price still without eliciting any confession. Thereupon Price was removed and the torture again applied.

"At last," as the pathetic English story says, "after he had been an hour under the second examination he was brought forth wailing and lamenting all wet and cruelly burnt in divers parts of his body, and so laid aside in a by place in the hall with a soldier to watch him so that he should speak to nobody."

From the account given in the famous pamphlet prepared by the East India Company to secure redress for the terrible wrongs inflicted at this time, the torture was of two kinds. There was first the water ordeal. For this a prisoner was tied with arms and legs extended on a wooden frame and a cloth was bound round his head so as to form a loop about the mouth. Then water was slowly poured from above on to the cloth in such fashion that the victim