The Spectator., 1916-01-11
CHAPTER XIII.
Tho Torture Chamber.

As for the young American herself, she had remained these hours alone in the palace of the king The palace, as she now reflected, was more nearly deserted than ever she had seen it. The household staff seemed disorganized. Fright had caught hold of all. The most conflict ing rumors went this way and that.
 q wonder" said Kitty Gray to her self after time, as she sat alone-'I wonder!"
 Now, what she wondered had to do with certain questions which she long had had in her own mind.
 "'Cruciati candid cam mean 'camera'-'chamber' - torture cham ber?'"
 If so, where was that torture cham Der? Was 1t under the battlements yon- der, or here in the palace itself? Where had the old king concealed his wealth?
 She rang the bell and summoned once more the woman of the palace who thus far had cared for her at the kings bchest.
 "Margot," said she talk to me. have travelled far and am weary. I am istressed-nervous perhaps. Talk to me-"
 "We are all distressed, excellency," said the woman. We know not what there may be wonder. Perhaps this n fun lyi m pdn ha at war. But what can do to make your excellency more comfortable?"
 She was willing enough to curry fa- vor with a favorite of the king.
 "Tcll mo Margot," demanded Kitty Gray, about this country here. l am stranger from far country, and l know very little of this land and of its customs. Is 1t an old land, this of Gretzhoffen, Margot?"
 More immemorially old. your excel lency. than most people have ever dreamed of. The first kings of Gretz- hoffen date back 50 far in history that almost they merge into myths. The oldest kingdoms of Europe are not so old as this little one"
 Does the history of this country date back so far as the middle ages?"
 "Oh, easily. We are very old" smiled Margot.
 Those also were times of war and bloodshed, were they not? Why, Mar got, in those days they tortured pris- oners, did they not?"
 Not only prisoners. excellency, but many others. If a king wished news or money, if an official wished confes- sion of crime-if bishop desired confession of faith from a heretic-the torture chamber was the place to get such results"
 But not here. Margot-surely not here?'
 These very walls saw 1t. excellency yes!"
 But that was long ago-those places were all wiped out and forgotten ages since"
 Destroyed? Indeed. not Do not the people of this country always pre-. serve their monuments, their museums of weapons, their chambers of horrors? Do they not take a certain pride in that? Monarchs even of today know the secrets of the old torture cham bers in this land, and perhaps in many another"
 q could not have believed it! And so there was such place here. in this palace"
 Surely. l can give warrant for ev- cry word havo told you. excellency. Tho tradition is that the old torture chamber of Gretzhoffen was over yon- der-under the corner tower of the palace-where tho embellishments ran in. There is a corridor which leads wonder, down below. into the vaults. l would not go there for all the world. Few of us know the way. indeed-I have never been there. We folk of Grotzhoffen palace-we are wise enough not to ask too many questions, or to learn too many truths. Besides, l should die with terror to think of what spirits must haunt such a place But. excellency," she concluded, let us speak of more pleasant things"