A new strength suddenly flowed into her. She snapped the wooden cross in half and flung the pieces from her. Then in a hoarse voice she uttered the terrible words.

Abaddon smiled down upon her, and said: 'Stand up and raise your left hand.'

With a clank of the chain that attached her wrist-cuff to her leg-irons, she did so. Leaning forward again he put into her raised hand a life-sized phallus made of solid gold. It was so heavy that she nearly dropped it, but managed to clutch it to her chest.

'Hold it above your head,' he ordered, 'and repeat after me, sentence by sentence, the words I am about to say. "By the symbol of the Creator . . . I swear henceforth to be . . . a faithful servant of His most puissant Arch-Angel . . . the Prince Lucifer . . . whom before departing to perform further wonders . . . He designated as His Regent and Lord of this World . . . As a being now possessed of a human body in this world . . . I swear to give my full allegiance to its lawful Master . . . To worship Him, Our Lord Satan, and no other . . . To despise all man-made religions . . . and to bring contempt upon them whenever that may be done without courting danger . . . To undermine the faith of others . . . in such false religions, wherever possible . . . and bring them to the true faith . . . if after consultation with my superiors they decide that to be desirable . . . I swear to obey without question . . . every order I may receive from my superiors . . . or those who may be placed in authority over me . . . I swear to give my mind, body and soul unreservedly . . . to the furtherance of the designs of Our Lord Satan . . . Finally I swear that as a neophyte . . . and later should I be privileged to be initiated into the Brotherhood of the Ram . . . I will in no circumstances disclose its secrets . . . the places of meeting of its Lodges . . . anything to which I have been a witness while attending their meetings . . . or the identity of any person that I have met at one or more of them. Should I break this my oath . . . may it be decreed that for a hundred incarnations . . . beginning with my next . . . I shall never rise from poverty . . . shall be rejected by all upon whom I may set my affections . . . and die from some agonizing disease." '

At first, as Mary repeated his words phrase by phrase, her voice was a little weak and hesitant, but after a few moments she realized that, having passed the Rubicon by denying Christ, nothing she might say mattered now; so she took the remainder of the oath in firm, clear tones.

When the worst, as she thought, was over, Abaddon said to her: 'Now lie down at full length upon the altar.'

Awkwardly, on account of her lead-weighted feet, she clambered on to it and stretched herself out.