The devil was invoked to appear and answer whether Urban had deceased this life after the melting of the image.

No infernal visitor responded to the call; and the hermit accounted for this failure by suggesting that some murder had been committed in the palace.

As things went at that period, this excuse was by no means feeble, if only the audience, bent on unholy invocation of the power of evil, would accept it as sufficient.

Probably more than one murder had taken place there, of which the owner was dimly conscious.

The psychological curiosity to note is that avowed malefactors reckoned purity an essential element in their nefarious practice.