sobbing creatures were brought before him.

“What is it that these have done?” he inquired of the sheriff.

“Please your Majesty, a black crime is charged upon them, and clearly proven; wherefore the judges have decreed, according to the law, that they be hanged. They sold themselves to the devil — such is their crime.”

Tom shuddered. He had been taught to abhor people who did this wicked thing.

Still, he was not going to deny himself the pleasure of feeding his curiosity for all that; so he asked —

“Where was this done? — and when?”

“On a midnight in December, in a ruined church, your Majesty.”