Shelton went on dryly, ‘We don’t know whether Satan attended in person or was merely there in spirit. But we do know, or can suspect, that certain dark practices went on. Which were sufficiently concerning that the club was disbanded in 1721 on the order of King George I, who on hearing the rumours of its activities introduced a special bill outlawing “horrid impieties”. That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. A few years later, in the 1740s, they were at it again. The most famous of the historical Hellfire Clubs was formed when a nobleman called Sir Francis Dashwood started holding clandestine group meetings in London. He called his secret society The Order of the Knights of St Francis, and it quickly began attracting eager members from high circles. They’re believed to have included the notable English jurist Robert Vansittart, the Member of Parliament Thomas Potter, and John Montagu, who was a British statesman and the 4th Earl of Sandwich.’

Wolf scowled. ‘Typical. What is it with these scumbag politicians?’

‘In 1751 Dashwood moved to Medmenham Abbey in Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and started holding his meetings there. From then on the cult, because that’s what it really was, became officially known as the Order of Knights of St Francis of Wycombe. He had the house remodelled in Gothic style and excavated a network of tunnels beneath it. It was in those tunnels that the Hellfire Club met twice a month. Members wore occult ceremonial garb and addressed one another as “Brother”. We know little about what really happened down there, but rumours circulated of wild orgies involving prostitutes dressed as nuns, pagan worship, Black Masses and Satanic ritual. Its core founding members were known as the Unholy Twelve and included not only Dashwood himself but John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Leader of the House of Lords and Secretary of State, who was elected Prime Minister in 1762. He was also an alleged Satanist. As may have been John Wilkes, another British MP, outlaw, Radical and Hellfire member.’

‘England had a Satanist Prime Minister?’ Wolf said. Even Ben was a little surprised.

‘He didn’t last long, if it’s any consolation,’ replied Shelton. ‘Now, whether or not these rumours of Devil worshipping were true, the Hellfire Club was the precedent for more, and worse, things to come. Dashwood’s motto was “Fais ce que tu voudras”, translated “Do what thou wilt”. He had the words inscribed in stained glass above a doorway in Medmenham Abbey. It was the same libertarian slogan that would later be taken up by a key player in our story: the man who called himself “The Great Beast 666”, Aleister Crowley.’

‘I know the name,’ Ben said.