Chapter I: Front Matter

</pre>

E-text prepared by Mark C. Orton, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)

Note: Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
http://www.archive.org/details/houseoftormentta00gulliala

HOUSE OF TORMENT

A Tale of the Remarkable Adventures of Mr. John Commendone Gentleman to King Philip II of Spain at the English Court

by

C. RANGER-GULL

Author of "The Serf," etc.

New York Dodd, Mead and Company 1911

Published September, 1911

The Quinn & Boden Co. Press Rahway, N. J.

DEDICATION TO DAVID WHITELAW

SOUVENIR OF A LONG FRIENDSHIP

_My dear David,_

_Since I first met you, considerably more than a decade ago, in
a little studio high up in a great London building, we have
both seen much water flow under the bridges of our lives._

_We have all sorts of memories, have we not?_

_Late midnights and famishing morrows, in the gay hard days
when we were endeavouring to climb the ladder of our Art; a
succession of faces, a welter of experiences. Some of us fell
in the struggle; others failed and still haunt the reprobate
purlieus of Fleet Street and the Strand! There was one who
achieved a high and delicate glory before he died--"Tant va la
cruche a l'eau qu'a la fin elle se casse."_

_There is another who is slowly and surely finding his way to a
certainty of fame._

_And the rest of us have done something, if not--as yet--all we
hoped to do. At any rate, the slopes of the first hills lie
beneath us. We are in good courage and resolute for the
mountains._

_The mist eddies and is spiralled below in the valleys from
which we have come, but already we are among the deep sweet
billows of the mountain winds, and I think it is because we
have both found our "Princess Galvas" that we have got this far
upon the way._

_We may never stand upon the summit and find that tempest of
fire we call the Sun full upon us. But the pleasure of going on
is ours still--there will always be that._

_Ever your friend,
C. RANGER-GULL._

CONTENTS

I IN THE QUEEN'S CLOSET; THE FOUR FACES

II THE HOUSE OF SHAME; THE LADDER OF GLORY

III THE MEETING WITH JOHN HULL AT CHELMSFORD

IV PART TAKEN IN AFFAIRS BY THE HALF TESTOON

V THE FINDING OF ELIZABETH

VI A KING AND A VICTIM. TWO GRIM MEN

VII HEY HO! AND A RUMBELOW!

VIII "WHY, WHO BUT YOU, JOHNNIE!"

IX "MISERICORDIA ET JUSTITIA"

X THE SILENT MEN IN BLACK

XI IN THE BOX

XII "TENDIMUS IN LATIUM"