The Sleeping Bard Part 3

From here we pa.s.sed to a vast dungeon, by far the filthiest that I had seen yet, and the most replete with toads, adders, and stench. "This,"

said my guide, "is the place of the men who expect to get to heaven because they have no ill intentions, that is, for being neither good nor bad." Next to this pool of ill savour, I beheld a place where a vast crowd were sitting, and without any thing visible to torment them, groaning more piteously than any that I had hitherto heard in h.e.l.l.

"Mercy upon us," said I, "what causes these people to complain more than the rest, when they have neither torture nor devil near them?" "O," said the angel, "the less torment they have without, the more they have within. These are refractory heretics, atheists, antichristians, worldly- wise ones, abjurers of the faith, persecutors of the church, and an infinity of such like wretches, who are abandoned entirely to the punishment of conscience, more tormenting than flame or devil, which domineers over them ceaselessly and without restraint. 'I will never permit myself any more,' says she, 'to be drowned in ale, nor to be blinded by bribes, nor deafened by music and company, nor lulled nor confounded by careless listlessness; for now I _will_ be listened to, and never shall the clack of the hated truth cease in your ears.' Longing is ever raging within the wretch for the happiness which he has lost; memory is ever reproaching him by saying how easy it was to be obtained, and the understanding showing him the magnitude of his loss, and the certainty that nothing is now to be obtained, but indescribable gnawing for ever and ever. So with these three instruments--namely longing, memory, and understanding--conscience is tearing the lost one, in a manner far worse than all the devils in h.e.l.l could tear him with their claws."

On coming out of this wonderful nook I heard a confused talking, and after every word such a ghastly laughter, as if five hundred devils were casting their horns with laughing. On approaching to see the cause of such a rarity as laughter in h.e.l.l, I discovered that it was only got up to incense two honorable gentlemen, newly arrived, who were insisting on being shown respect suitable to their gentility. One of them was a round bodied squire, having with him a big roll of parchment--namely his map of pedigree--out of which he recited from which of the fifty tribes of North Wales he was sprung, and how many justices of the peace, and how many sheriffs his house had produced. "Come, come," said one of the devils, "we know the merits of the greater part of your ancestry. If you had been like your father or your great grandfather, we should not have ventured to come in contact with you; but you are only the heir of the pit of darkness, you dirty h.e.l.l-dog! You are scarcely worthy of a night's lodging," added he, "and yet we'll grant you some nook, wherein to await the dawn;" and with that word the goblin with his pitchfork, gave him more than thirty tosses in the fiery air, until he at length cast him into an abyss out of sight. "That may do," said the other, "for a squire of half blood, but I hope you will behave better to a knight, who has had the honor of serving the king in person, and can name twelve earls and fifty baronets belonging to his ancient house." "If your ancestors and your ancient house be all that you can bring in your defence, you may go the same road as he," said one of the devils, "because we can scarcely remember one ancient house, of which some oppressor, murderer, or strong thief did not lay the foundation, and which he did not transmit to people as froward as himself, or to lazy drones, or drunken swine, to maintain whose extravagant magnificence, the va.s.sals and the tenantry must be squeezed to death, whilst every handsome colt or pretty cow in the neighbourhood must be parted with for the pleasure of the mistress, and every la.s.s or married woman, may consider herself fortunate, if she escape the pleasure of the master; the freeholders, meanwhile, being either obliged to follow him like fawning hounds, rob themselves for his benefit, and sell their patrimonies at his pleasure, or be subject to frowns and hatred, and be dragged into every disagreeable and vexatious employment during their lives.

"O these little great country folks," continued the devil, "how genteely they swear in order to obtain credit with their mistresses, or with the shop-keepers; and when they have decked themselves out, O how insolently they look upon many of the middling officers of the church and state, and how much worse on the common people! as if they were a species of reptiles in comparison with themselves. Woe is me! is not all blood of the same color? Did you not come all into the world by the same way?"

"But, nevertheless, with your permission," said the knight, "there are some who are of much purer birth than others." "Destruction take you!"

said the goblin, "there is not one carca.s.s of you all better than the rest; you are all polluted with radical sin from Adam. But, sir," said he, "if your blood be better than other blood, less sc.u.m will exude from you when boiling; however, in order to be sure of its quality, it will be as well to search you with fire as well as water." Thereupon a devil in the shape of a chariot of fire received him, and the other in mockery lifted him into it, and away he was hurried like lightning. After a short time the angel caused me to look, and I could see the wretched knight suffering a terrible steeping in a frightful boiling furnace, in company with Cain, Nimrod, Esau, Tarquin, Nero, Caligula, and the others who were the founders of genealogies, and were the first to set up arms of n.o.bility.

A little farther on, my guide caused me to look through the hollow of a rock, and there I beheld a number of coquettes briskly at work, doing and repeating all their former follies upon earth. Some were twisting their mouths, some were pulling their front locks with irons, some were painting themselves, some patching their faces with sooty ointments, to make the yellow look more fair; some quite mad at seeing their visages, after all their pains in coloring and variegating, more hideous than those of the very devils, were endeavouring to break the mirrors, or were tearing off with their nails and their teeth the whole artificial blush--the ointments, skin, and flesh coming off all together. The cries which they uttered occasionally were most dismal. "The curse of curses,"

would one say, "on my father, for making me marry when a girl, an old sapless stump, whose work in raising desires which he could not gratify has driven me hither." "A thousand curses on my parents," would another say, "for sending me to a cloister to learn chast.i.ty; they would not have done worse in sending me to a roundhead to learn generosity, or to a quaker to learn manners, than to a papist to learn honor." "Destruction,"

said another, "seize my mother for her avaricious pride in preventing my obtaining a husband when I wanted one, and thus obliging me to purloin the thing I might have honorably come by." "h.e.l.l, and double h.e.l.l to the l.u.s.tful wretch of a gentleman, who first began tempting me," would the third say; "if he had not, betwixt fair and foul, broken the hedge, I had not become a cell open to every body, nor had I come to this cell of devils!" And then they fell to tearing themselves again.

I was glad to quit such a pack of female dogs. But before I had pa.s.sed on many steps, I was surprised to see another shoal of imprisoned wenches, twice more detestable than they. Some had been changed into toads, some into dragons, some into serpents who were swimming and hissing, glavering and b.u.t.ting in a fetid, stagnant pool, much larger than Llyn Tegid. {84} "In the name of wonder," said I, "what sort of creatures may these be?" "There are here," said he, "four sorts of wenches, all notoriously bad. First, there are procuresses, with some of the princ.i.p.al la.s.ses of their respective bevies about them. Second, gossiping ladies with a swarm of their news-bearing hags. Third, bouncing madams, and a pack of sneaking curs on both sides of them, for no man, but for downright fear of them, would ever go nigh them. Fourth, scolds, become a hundred times more horrible than vipers, with their poisonous stings going creak, creak to all eternity."

"I had imagined that Lucifer had been a king of too much courtesy, to put a gentlewoman of my rank with such little petty she-devils as these,"

said one, something like a winged serpent, only that she was much more fierce. "O that he would send here, seven hundred of the worst devils in h.e.l.l in exchange for thee, thou poisonous h.e.l.l-sp.a.w.n!" said another ugly viper. "O! many thanks to you," said a gigantic devil who overheard them, "we set too much value on our place and merits, to condescend to become mates of yours; and though we are willing to admit that you are fully as competent to torment people as the best of us, we would, nevertheless, not yield up our duties to you." "And yet," said the angel softly, "Lucifer has another reason for keeping such a particular watch over these; he knows well, that if they should break out, they would turn all h.e.l.l topsy-turvy." From here we went, still going downward, to a place where I beheld a frightful den, in which was a horrible clamour, the like of which I had never heard, for swearing, cursing, blaspheming, snarling, groaning, and crying. "Who is here?" said I. "This," said he, "is the den of the thieves. Here is a swarm of game-keepers, lawyers, stewards, and the old Judas in the midst of them; they have been excessively annoyed at seeing the tailors and weavers above them, in a more comfortable chamber." Almost before I could turn myself, there came a horse of a devil, bearing a physician and an apothecary, whom he cast down amongst the pedlars and the duffers, for selling bad, rotten ware; but they beginning to fume at being placed in such low company, one of the devils said, "stay, stay! you _do_ deserve a different place," and cast them down amongst the conquerors and the murderers. There was a mult.i.tude shut up here, for playing with false dice and concealing cards; but before I could observe much, I heard, close by the door, a terrible rush and rustle, with a hie! hie! get on! ho! yo! hip! I turned to see what it was; but perceiving nothing but horned goblins, I enquired of my guide whether there were cuckolds amongst the devils? "No," said he, "they are in a particular cell. These are drovers who would fain escape to the place of the Sabbath-breakers, and are driven hither against their will." At that word, I looked, and perceived their polls full of the horns of sheep and cattle, and those who drove them, casting them down beneath the feet of the bloodiest robbers. "Crouch there," said one; "though you feared so much of old the thieves on London road, you were yourselves the very worst species of highwaymen, living upon the road and plundering, yes, and murdering poor families. O how many poor creatures did you not keep, with their hungry mouths open, in vain expectation of the money for the sale of the beasts, which they had intrusted to you; and you in the mean time in Ireland, or in the King's Bench laughing at them, or upon the road in the midst of your wine and harlots."

On quitting this den of furious heat, I got a sight of a lair, exceeding all the rest I had seen in h.e.l.l, but one, in frightful stinking filthiness, where was a herd of accursed drunken swine, disgorging and swallowing, swallowing and disgorging, continually and without rest, the most loathsome snivel. The next pit was the couch of gluttony, where Dives and his companions were upon their bellies, eating dirt and fire alternately, without any liquid ever. A cave or two lower there was an exceedingly s.p.a.cious kitchen, in which some were in a state of roasting and boiling, others frying and burning in an oven half heated. "Behold the place of the merciless and the unfeeling," said the angel. I then turned a little to the left hand, where there was a cell more light than any one which I had yet seen in h.e.l.l, and enquired what place it was?

"The abode of the infernal dragons," replied the angel, "who are hissing and snarling, rus.h.i.+ng and preying upon one another every minute." I approached; and oh! the look which cannot be described was upon them, the whole light was but the living fire in their eyes. "These are the seed of Adam," said my guide, "morose wretches, and furious savage men; but, yonder," said he, "are some of the old seed of the great dragon Lucifer;"

and verily, I could perceive not a whit more amiability in the one sort than in the other. In the next cellar were the misers, in a state of horrible agony with their hearts cleaving to coffers of burning treasure, the rust whereof was ceaselessly cankering them, because those hearts had been ceaselessly bent upon getting money--O the consuming torment, worse than frenzy, that was now going on within them, with care and repentance.

Below this there was a hanging ledge, where there were some apothecaries ground to dust, and stuffed into earthen pots amongst alb.u.m grec.u.m, dung of geese and swine, and many an old stinking ointment.

We were now journeying forward, continually descending, along the wilderness of Destruction, through innumerable torments, eternal and not to be described--from cell to cell, from cellar to cellar, and the last always surpa.s.sing the others in horror and ghastliness; at last we arrived at a vast porch, more cheerless than any thing we had seen before. It was a very s.p.a.cious porch, and the pathway through it, which was frightfully steep, led to a kind of dusky nook of incredible ugliness and horror, and there the palace was. At the upper end of the accursed court, among thousands of horrible objects, I could, by means of the radiance of my heavenly companion, perceive amidst the dreary darkness two feet of enormous magnitude, reaching to the roof of the whole infernal firmament. I enquired of my conductor what this horrible thing might be? "Patience," said he, "you shall obtain a more ample view of this monster as you return; but move forward now to see the royal palace."

Whilst we were proceeding down the porch of Horror, we heard a noise behind us, as of an immense number of people. Having turned aside to let them pa.s.s forward, we beheld four distinct bands, and soon discovered that the four princesses of the city of Destruction, were bringing their subjects as presents to their father. I recognised the princess Pride, not only by her being before the others, but also by her habit of stumbling every moment, for want of looking beneath her feet. She had with her a vast many kings, potentates, courtiers, gentlemen, and pompous people, many quakers, innumerable females of every rank and degree.

The princess Lucre was next, with her silly, mean figure, bringing along with her very many of the money loving race--such as usurers, lawyers, extortioners, overseers, game-keepers, harlots, and some ecclesiastics also. Next to these was the amiable princess Pleasure and her daughter Folly, conducting their subjects--consisting of players at dice, cards, draughts, games of legerdemain, and of poets, musicians, tellers of old stories, drunkards, ladies of pleasure, debauches, pretty fellows, with a thousand million of all kinds of baubles, to serve now as instruments of punishment for the lost fools. After these three had gone with their prisoners to the palace, to receive their judgment--behold Hypocrisy, the last of all, conducting a more numerous rout than any of the others, of all nations and ages, of town and country, gentle and simple, males and females. At the tail of the two-faced mult.i.tudes we advanced till we came in sight of the palace, through many dragons and horned sprites, and warriors of h.e.l.l, the black wardens of the gloomy pandemonium, I all the time crouching very carefully within my veil. We entered the frightful and awful edifice, every corner of which abounded with horror. The walls were immense rocks of glowing adamant, the pavement of an insufferably sharp flint, the roof of burning steel, meeting like an arch of greenish- blue and dusky-red flames, and in its size and its heat, resembling an immense vaulted baking oven.

Opposite to the door, on a flaming throne, the Arch-Fiend was seated, his princ.i.p.al lost angels on both sides of him, on thrones of fire terrible to behold--sitting according to their former rank in the regions of light, when they were amiable messengers. It would only be in vain to endeavour to relate how obscene and horrible they were; and the longer I looked at any one of them, seven times more hideous he appeared. In the midst, above the head of Lucifer, was a vast fist, holding a very frightful bolt. The princesses, after making their obeisance, returned to the world to their charges, without making any stay. As soon as they had departed, a gigantic, wide-mouthed devil, by command of the king, uttered a shout louder than a hundred discharges of artillery, as loud if possible as the last trumpet, for the purpose of summoning the infernal parliament. And lo! the rabble of h.e.l.l instantly filled the palace and the porch in every shape, after the image and similitude of the princ.i.p.al sin, which each delighted to thrust upon mankind. After commanding silence, Lucifer, with his look directed to the potentates nearest to him, began to speak, very graciously, in the following manner:--

"Ye potentates of h.e.l.l! princes of the black abodes of Despair! Though by our confederacy we have lost possession of those thrones, from which we once shone resplendent through the higher regions; our confederacy was, nevertheless, a glorious one, as we aimed at nothing less than the whole. And we have not lost the whole either; for lo! the extensive and profound regions, to the extremest wilds of vast Destruction, are yet beneath our sway. It is true we reign in horrible agony; but spirits of our eminence prefer ruling in torment to serving in ease. And besides this, we are on the eve of obtaining another world, more than three parts of the earth having been beneath my banner for a long time.

"And although the Almighty Enemy, sent his own son to die for the beings of that world; yet I, by my baubles, obtain ten souls, for every one which he obtains by his crucified son. And although I have not been able to reach him, who sits in the high places and discharges the invincible thunderbolts, yet revenge of some kind is sweet. Let us complete the destruction of the remnant of human beings, still in the favour of our destroyer. I remember the time, when you caused them to be burnt by mult.i.tudes and cities, and even the whole race of the earth, by means of the flood, to be swept down to us in the fire. But at present, though your strength and your natural cruelty are not a whit diminished, yet you are become in some degree inactive; if that had not been the case, we might long since have destroyed the few who are G.o.dly, and have caused the earth to be united with this our vast empire. But know, ye black ministers of my displeasure, that unless ye be more resolute and more diligent, and make the most of the short time which yet remains to you for doing evil, ye shall experience the weight of my anger, in torments new and strange to the oldest of you. This I swear by the deepest h.e.l.l, and the vast, eternal pit of Darkness." And, thereupon, he frowned, till the palace became seven times more gloomy than before.

Moloch now arose, one of the infernal potentates, and after making his obeisance to the king, he said, "O emperor of the Air! mighty ruler of Darkness! no one ever doubted my propensity to malice and cruelty; the sufferings of others have been, and still are, my supreme delight. It is as capital sport to me, to hear the shrieks of infants peris.h.i.+ng in the fire as of old, when thousands of sucklings were sacrificed to me outside of Jerusalem. When was I ever slack at my work? Since the return of the crucified Enemy to the supreme abodes, I have employed myself in slaying and burning his subjects. I did all I could, to destroy the Christians from the face of the earth, during the reigns of ten emperors; and many an awful butchery I have made of them in modern times, both in Paris and England, to say nothing of other places: but what are we the nearer to our object for all this? The One above has caused the tree to grow, after its branches have been severed; and all our efforts, are nothing better than showing one's teeth, without the power of biting." "Pshaw!"

said Lucifer, "a fig for such heartless legions as ye. I will no longer rely upon you! I will do the work myself, and the glory thereof I will share with no one. I will go to the earth in my own kingly person, and will swallow up the whole; not one man, henceforth, shall be found on the earth to adore the Almighty." Thereupon he gave a furious bound, attempting to set off, in a firmament of living fire; but, behold! the fist above his head shook the terrific bolt till he trembled in the midst of his frenzy, and before he could move far, an invisible hand lugged the old fox back by his chain, in spite of his teeth. Whereupon he became seven times more frantic; his eyes were more terrible than lightnings, black thick smoke burst from his nostrils, and dark green flames from his mouth and entrails: he gnawed his chain in his agony, and hissed forth direful blasphemy, and the most frightful curses.

But perceiving how vain it was to seek to break loose, or to struggle with the Almighty, he returned to his place and proceeded with his discourse somewhat more calmly, but with ten times more malice. "The Omnipotent Thunderer has vanquished me, and he alone could have done so.

To him I submit. Against him all my fury is in vain; I will, therefore, direct it against nearer and lower objects, and pour it in showers upon those who are yet under my banner, and within the reach of my chain.

Arise, ye ministers of Destruction! rulers of the unquenchable fire! and as my wrath and my venom flow forth and my malice boileth out, do ye a.s.siduously spread the whole tide amongst the d.a.m.ned, particularly the Christians. Urge the instruments of torture to the utmost--devise as many more as you can--double the fire and the boiling, until the very cauldrons be overturned; and when they are in the most extreme, inexpressible torture, mock, deride, and upbraid them; and when your whole stock of ironry and bitterness is expended, hasten to me, and you shall obtain more."

There had been for some time a comparative silence in h.e.l.l, and the more cruel tortures had been suspended; but now the stillness which Lucifer had caused was broken, when the ghastly butchers rushed like wild hungry bears upon their prisoners. O then there arose an oh! oh! oh! a wail, and universal howling, more loud than the sound of cataracts, or the tumult of an earthquake, so that h.e.l.l became seven times more frightful.

I should have swooned if my dear companion had not rendered me a.s.sistance. "Take now," said he, "plenty of the water, that you may obtain strength to see things yet more horrible than these." But scarcely had these words proceeded from his mouth, when, lo! the celestial Justice, who sits above the precipice keeping the gate of h.e.l.l, came scourging three men with a rod of fiery scorpions. "Ha! ha!" said Lucifer, "here are three right reverend gentlemen, whom Justice himself has deigned to conduct to my kingdom." "Oh! woe is me," said one of the three, "who asked him to trouble himself?" "Be it known," said Justice, with a glance which made the devils tremble till they knocked one against another, "that it is the will of the Great Creator, that I should myself bring these three accursed murderers to their home. Sirrah," said he to one of the devils, "unbolt for me the prison of the murderers, where are Cain and Nero, Bonner, Bradshaw, Ignatius, and innumerable others of a similar description." "Alas, alas! we never killed any body," said one of the prisoners. "No, because you did not get time and because you were prevented," said Justice. When the den was opened, there came out such a horrible puff of b.l.o.o.d.y flame, and such a yell as if a thousand dragons were giving their last gasp in their death agony. Into this den Justice hurled his prisoners; {93} and on his way back he breathed obliquely, such a tempest of fiery whirlwinds upon the Arch-Fiend and all his potentates, as he pa.s.sed by them, that Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan, Moloch, Abaddon, Asmodeus, Dagon, Apollyon, Belphegor, Mephistophiles, and all the other princ.i.p.al demons were whisked away, and tumbled headlong into a kind of gulf, which was opening and closing in the midst of the palace, and whose aspect was more horrible, and whose steam was more frightful than the aspect and vapour of any gulf which I had previously seen.

Before I could enquire of the angel as to what it was, he said, "that is a hole which leads to another vast world." "Pray," said I, "what is the name of that world?" "It is called," said he, "Unknown, or extremest h.e.l.l, the habitation of the devils, and the place to which they are at present gone. The vast wilderness, over part of which you have come, is called the country of Despair, a place intended for the lost until the Day of Judgment, when it will fall into extremest, bottomless h.e.l.l, and the two will become one. When that has happened one of ourselves will come and close the gate of the whole region of horror upon the devils and the d.a.m.ned, which gate shall never, to all eternity, be opened for them.

In the meantime, however, permission is given to the devils to come to these cooler regions, in order to torment the lost souls. Yea, they often obtain permission to go even into the air, and about the earth, to tempt men to the destructive paths, which lead to this dismal prison, from which there is no escape." In the midst of this history, and whilst I was in great surprise at seeing the mouth of Unknown, so much surpa.s.sing in horror the jaws of upper h.e.l.l, I could hear a prodigious noise of arms, and loud discharges from one side, answered by what seemed to be hoa.r.s.e thunders from the other; the rocks of Death, meanwhile, rebellowing the tumult.

"That is the sound of war," said I. "Is there war then in h.e.l.l?" "There is," said the angel; "and it is impossible that there should not be here continual war." Whilst we were moving out, to see what was the matter, I beheld the mouth of Unknown opening, and casting up thousands of candles, burning with a frightful green flame. These were Lucifer and his potentates, who had contrived to subdue the tempest. But when the Arch Fiend heard the noise of war, he became more pale than Death, and began to call and gather together bands of his old experienced soldiers to quell the tumult. At this moment he stumbled against a little puppy of an imp, who had escaped between the feet of the combatants. "What is the matter?" said the king. "Such a matter as will endanger your crown, unless you look to yourself," said the imp. Close behind him came another fiendish courier, bawling hoa.r.s.ely, "you are plotting disquiet for others, look now to your own repose. Yonder are the Turks, the Papists, and the b.l.o.o.d.y-handed Roundheads, in three bands, filling all the plains of the dark abodes, committing terrible outrages, and turning every thing topsy-turvy." "How came they out?" said the Arch Fiend, looking worse than Demigorgon. "The Papists," said the messenger, "broke out of their Purgatory, I do not know how; and then on account of an old grudge, they went to attack the back gate of the Paradise of Mahomet, and let all the Turks out of their prison; and afterwards, in the hubbub, the seed of Cromwell found some means to break out of their cells." Then Lucifer turned about and looked under his throne, where were all the lost kings, and caused Cromwell to be kept close in his kennel; and likewise all the emperors of the Turks, under watch and ward. He then hastened with his legions along the black wilds of Darkness, each obtaining light from the fire which was incessantly tormenting his body. Guided by the horrid uproar, the fiends advanced courageously towards the combatants; then silence was enjoined in the name of the king, and Lucifer enquired, "what is the cause of this disturbance in my kingdom?" "Please, your infernal majesty," said Mahomet, "a dispute arose between me and pope Leo, as to whether my Koran or the creed of Rome, had rendered you most service; and whilst we were at it, a pack of Roundheads broke their prison and put in their oar; a.s.serting that their league and covenant, deserved more respect at your hands than either. Thus from disputing we have come to blows, and from words to arms. But at present, as your majesty has returned from Unknown, I will refer the matter to yourself."

"Stay, we shall not let you escape thus!" said pope Julius; and to it again they went, tooth and nail, in the most furious manner, till the strokes were like an earthquake. O you should have seen the three armies of the d.a.m.ned, tearing one another to pieces over the expanse of the burning plains; and each individual body that was rent to pieces, becoming joined again serpent fas.h.i.+on. At last Lucifer caused his old soldiers, the champions of h.e.l.l, to pull them from each other, and it was no easy matter to do so.

When the tumult was hushed, pope Clement began to speak. "O emperor of Horrors! as no throne has ever performed more faithful and universal service to the infernal crown, over a great part of the world, for eleven hundred years, than the papal chair, I hope you will not suffer any one to contend with us for your favour." "Well," said a Scott of Cromwell's army, "though the Koran has done great service for eight hundred years, and the superst.i.tion of the Pope for a much longer period, yet has the covenant done more since it came out, than the other two have ever done.

Moreover it is notorious that, whilst the votaries of those two are every day rapidly diminis.h.i.+ng, the followers of the covenant are increasing in numbers, over the whole face of the world, and particularly in the island of your enemies Britain, whose capital, London, the most n.o.ble city under the sun, abounds with them." "Pshaw, pshaw!" said Lucifer, "if I am rightly informed, the covenant itself is under a cloud, and you are no longer what you were. And now I have one thing to tell the whole of you--which is, that, whatever ye may do in other kingdoms, I will not permit you to trouble mine. Therefore rest peaceably, under penalty of worse torments corporeal and spiritual." At those words many of the devils dropped their tails between their hoofs, and all the d.a.m.ned sneaked away to their holes, for fear of a change for the worse.

After causing the whole of them to be locked up in their prisons, and the careless wardens to be deprived of their office, for having permitted them to break out, Lucifer and his counsellors returned to the palace, and sat down again, according to their rank, upon their fiery thrones.

After silence had been called and the place cleared, a huge, wry-shouldered devil, placed a back-load of fresh prisoners before the bar. "Is this the road to Paradise," said one, (for they all pretended not to know where they were.) "Or if this be Purgatory," said another, "we have with us an authority, under the hand of the Pope, to go straight to Paradise without tarrying any where a minute. Therefore show us the way, or, by the Pope's toe, we will cause him to punish you." Ha! ha!

ha!--ho! ho! ho! said eight hundred devils; and Lucifer himself, parted his jaws half a yard in a kind of bitter laugh. The others were confounded at this; but one said, "well, if we have lost our way in the darkness, we would pay any one who would guide us." "Ha! ha!" said Lucifer, "you will pay the last farthing before ye go." Thereupon each fell to searching for his money, but found, to his sorrow, that he had left his breeches behind him. Quoth the Arch Fiend, "you left Paradise on the left hand, above the lofty mountains; and, notwithstanding, it was so easy to come down here, it is next to impossible to go back, owing to the nature of the country, through which the road back lies. For it is a country abounding with mountains of burning iron, immense dismal crags, sheets of eternal ice, and roaring, headlong cataracts; a country, in short, far too difficult for you to travel, unless indeed you have talons of the true devilish length. Come, come," said he to his myrmidons, "take these blockheads to our paradise, to their companions." At this moment I could hear the voice of some people who were coming, swearing and cursing in a frightful manner. "O the Devil! the blood of the Devil!

a hundred thousand devils! a thousand million devils take me if I will go farther!" but, nevertheless, they were cast slap down before the judge.

"Here you have," said the carrier, "a load of as good fire wood as the best in h.e.l.l." "What are they?" said Lucifer. "Masters of the genteel art of cursing and swearing," replied the devil; "men who understand the language of h.e.l.l quite as well as ourselves." "You lie in your mouth, by the Devil!" said one of them. "Sirrah! do you take my name in vain?"

said the Arch Fiend. "Quick! and hang them by their tongues to the burning precipice yonder, and if they call for the Devil, be ready to serve them; yea, if they call for a thousand, let them be satisfied."

When these were gone, lo! a giant of a devil vociferated to have the bar cleared, and flung down a man whom he bore. "What have you brought there?" said Lucifer. "A tavern-keeper," replied the other. "What,"

said the king, "_one_ tavern-keeper! Why they are in the habit of coming to the tune of five or six thousand. Have you not been out, sirrah, for ten years, and yet you bring us but one? and he one who has done us much more service in the world than yourself, you lazy, stinking dog!" "You are too ready to condemn me, before listening to me," he replied. "This fellow only was given to my charge, and, behold! I am clear of him. But still I have sent to you from his house, many a worthless chap, after guzzling down the maintenance of his family; many a dicer and card-player; many a genteel swearer; many a pleasant, good kind of belly G.o.d; and many a careless servant." "Well," said the Arch Fiend, "though the tavern-keeper has merited to be amongst the flatterers below us, take him at present to his brethren, in the cell of the liquid murderers; to the thousands of apothecaries and poisoners, who are there for making drink to kill their customers--boil him well for not having brewed better ale." "With your permission," said the tavern-keeper s.h.i.+vering, "I have deserved no such treatment. Must not every trade live?" "And could you not live," said the Fiend, "without encouraging dissipation and gaming, uncleanness, drunkenness, oaths, quarrels, slander and lies? and would you, h.e.l.l-hound, live at present better than ourselves! Pray what evil have we here that you had not at home, the punishment solely excepted?

And having told you this bitter truth, I will add, that the infernal heat and cold were not unknown to you either.

"Did you not see sparks of our fire in the tongues of the swearers and of the scolds, when seeking to get their husbands home? Was there not plenty of the unquenchable fire in the mouth of the drunkard, and in the eyes of the brawler? And could you not perceive something of the infernal cold in the lovingness of the spendthrift, and in your own civility to your customers, whilst any thing remained with them--in the drollery of the buffoons, in the praise of the envious and the backbiter, in the promises of the wanton, or in the shanks of the good companions freezing beneath your tables? Art thou unacquainted with h.e.l.l, when the house thou didst keep was h.e.l.l? Go, h.e.l.l-dog, to thy punishment."

At this moment appeared ten devils with their burdens, which they cast upon the fiery floor, puffing terribly. "What have you there?" said Lucifer. "We have brought," said one of the fiendish carriers, "five things which were called kings the day before yesterday." (I looked attentively and beheld in one of them old Louis of France.) "Fling them here," said the king; whereupon they were flung to the other crowned heads, under the feet of Lucifer.

It was not long before I heard the sound of a brazen trumpet, and a crying of room! room! room! After waiting a little time, what should be coming but a drove of sessions folk, the devils carrying six lumps of justices and a thousand of their fry--consisting of lawyers, attornies, clerks, recorders, bailiffs, catchpoles, and pettifoggers of the courts.

I was surprised that none of them attempted to cross-question; but they perceived that the matter was gone against them too far, and so, not one of these learned disputers opened his mouth; only a pettifogger of the courts said, that he would lay a plaint of false imprisonment against Lucifer. "You shall now have cause enough to complain," said the Fiend, "and yet never have an opportunity of seeing a court with your eyes."

Then, putting on his red cap, Lucifer, with an arrogant, insufferable look, said, "take the justices to the dungeon of Pontius Pilate and Mr.

Bradshaw, who condemned king Charles. Parch the lawyers in company with the murderers of Sir Edmund Bury G.o.dfrey, {100} and their double-tongued brethren, who dispute with one another, for no other purpose than to be the ruin of any one who comes betwixt them. Let them greet that provident lawyer--for they will find him here--who offered on his death bed a thousand pounds for a clear conscience. Let them greet him, and ask, whether he is now willing to give any thing more. Roast them with their own parchment and papers; hang the pettifoggers above them, with their nostrils downwards, in the roasting chimneys, to receive the smoke, and to see whether they can get their belly-full of law. As for the recorders, let them be cast among the forestallers, who detain the corn or buy it up and mix it, and then sell the unsound for double the price of the pure corn; just as the former demand double the fees for _wrong_, which were formerly given for _right_. As for the catchpoles, leave them at liberty to hunt vermin; or send them to the world, among the dingles and brakes, to seize the debtors of the infernal crown--for what devil among you will do the work better than they?" At this moment twenty devils with packs on their shoulders, like Scotchmen, mounted before the throne of Despair, and what had they got, on enquiry, but gipsies. "Ho!"

said Lucifer, "how did ye know the fortunes of others so well, without knowing that your own fortune was leading ye to this prison." But the gipsies said not a word in reply, being confounded at beholding faces here more ugly than their own. "Hurl them into our deepest dungeon,"

said Lucifer, to the fiends, "and don't starve them; we have here neither cats nor rush-lights to give them, but let them have a toad between them, every ten thousand years, provided they are quiet, and do not deafen us with their gibberish and clibberty clabber." Next to these there came, I should imagine, about thirty husbandmen. Every one was surprised to see so many of them, people of their honest calling seldom coming to h.e.l.l; but they were not from the same neighbourhood, nor for the same offences.

Some were for raising the markets; many for refusing to pay t.i.thes, and cheating the minister of his rights; others for leaving their work, to follow gentry a hunting, and breaking their legs in endeavouring to leap with them; some for working on Sundays; some for carrying their sheep and cattle, in their heads to church, instead of musing on the Word; others for roguish bargains. When Lucifer began to question them, oh! they were all as pure as gold; none was aware of having committed any thing which deserved such a lot. You will not believe what a crafty excuse every one had to conceal his fault, notwithstanding he was in h.e.l.l on account of it, and this was only done out of malice, to thwart Lucifer and to endeavour to make the righteous Judge, who had d.a.m.ned them appear unjust.

But you would have been yet more surprised at the dexterity with which the Arch Fiend laid bare their crimes, and answered their vain excuses home. But when these were receiving the last infernal sentence, there came forty scholars before the court, mounted on capering devils, more ugly, if possible, than Lucifer himself. And when the scholars heard the husbandmen arguing, they began to excuse themselves the more confidently.

But, oh! how ready the old Serpent was at answering them too, notwithstanding their craft, and their learning.

But as it was my fortune to hear similar disputations at another tribunal, I will there give the history of the whole, in one ma.s.s; and will at present relate to you what I next saw. Scarcely had Lucifer uttered judgment upon these people, and sent them, for the cool impertinence of their reasons, to the vast sheet, in the country of the eternal ice, the teeth of the wretches beginning to chatter before they saw their prison, when h.e.l.l began once more, to resound awfully with terrible blows, harsh bl.u.s.tering thunders, and every sound of war. I could see Lucifer turn black, and become like a statue; at this moment, in rushed a little crooked, horned devil, panting and s.h.i.+vering. "What is the matter?" said Lucifer. "The most perilous to you of all matters since h.e.l.l has been h.e.l.l," said the imp; "all the extremes of the kingdom of Darkness, have broken out against you, and against one another; particularly those who had any old field in common. They are now at it, tooth and nail, so that it is impossible to tear them from each other.

"The soldiers are at loggerheads with the physicians, for carrying on their trade of slaughter; there is a swarm of usurers at loggerheads with the lawyers, for seeking to spoil their trade; the jurymen and the duffers are pummelling the gentlemen, for swearing and cursing without necessity; whereas, swearing and cursing formed part of their trade; the harlots, and their a.s.sociates, and millions of other old friends and acquaintances, have fallen out, and are all in shatters.

"But worse than all, is the contest between the old misers and their own children, for dissipating their wealth and their money. 'Our property,'

say the pigtails, 'cost us much pain, whilst we were upon the earth, and is causing us immense suffering _here_ for ever, yet ye have flung it all away at ducks and drakes.' And the children, on the other hand, are cursing and tearing the old skin-flints, most furiously, charging their fathers with being the authors of their misery, by leaving them twenty times _too much_, to distract them with pride and dissipation; whereas, a _little_, with a blessing, might have made them happy in both their states of existence." "Well," said Lucifer, "enough! enough! we have more need of arms than words. Sirrah, this hubbub is owing to some great neglect; go back, and pry into every watch, and discover who has been neglectful; and what dangerous characters have been permitted to escape, for there are some evils abroad, that are not known." Away he went, at the word, and in the meanwhile, Lucifer and his potentates arose in terror, and exceeding consternation, and caused the boldest bands of the black angels to be a.s.sembled. When these were marshalled, he put himself at the head of his own peculiar band, and marched forth to quell the insurrection, whilst the potentates went other ways with their legions.

Before the royal troop had gone any great distance, gleaming like the lightning of the black abodes, (and we behind them,) behold the hubbub advanced to meet them. "Silence, in the name of the king," said a fiendish herald. There was no hearing; it was easier to tear the old crocodile from his prey than one of these.

But when the old tried soldiers of Lucifer broke into the midst of them, the buzzing, the b.u.t.ting, and the blows began to slacken. "Silence, in the name of Lucifer," said the hoa.r.s.e cryer again. "What is the matter?"

said the king; "and who are these?" "There is nothing particularly the matter," was the answer; "but the drovers, happening in the general commotion to come in contact with the cuckolds, they went mutually to b.u.t.ting, to try whose horns were hardest; and this b.u.t.ting might have gone on for ever, if your horned champions had not interfered." "Well,"

said Lucifer, "since you are all so ready with your arms, turn along with me to quell other rioters." But when it was buzzed about among the other rebels, that Lucifer was coming with three horned legions against them, each slunk away to his lair.

Thus Lucifer advanced without opposition, along the wildernesses of Destruction, endeavouring to ascertain what was the commencement of the disturbance, but could obtain no information. After a little time, however, one of the spies of the king returned, quite out of breath. "O most n.o.ble Lucifer!" said he, "prince Moloch has quieted part of the North and has scattered thousands over the sheets of ice; but three or four terrible evils are still out on the wind." "Who are they?" said Lucifer. "_Slanderer_, and _Meddler_, and _Litigious Pettifogger_," said he, "have broken their prisons and are at liberty." "Then it would be no wonder," said the Arch Fiend, "if there should be yet more disturbance."

At this moment there came another, who had been on the look-out towards the South, with the information that the evil had begun to break out there; but that three had been taken, who had previously turned every thing topsy-turvy in the West, and these three were _Madam Bouncer_, _Contriver_, and_ c.o.xcomb_. "Well," said Satan, who was standing next but one to Lucifer, "since I tempted Adam from his garden, I have never yet seen from his seed, so many evils out upon one piece of business.

"Bouncer, c.o.xcomb, and Contriver on the one side," he added, "and on the other Slanderer, Pettifogger, and Meddler are a compound, enough to make a thousand devils sweat their bowels out." "It is no wonder," said Lucifer, "that they are so detested by every body on earth, when they are able to cause us so much trouble here." A little farther on, a great bouncing lady struck against the king, as she was moving backwards. "Ho!

my aunt of the breeches," said a hoa.r.s.e devil, "good night to you." "Yes, your aunt, indeed! on what side pray?" said she, very wrathful, because she was not called madam.

"A pretty king are you, sir Lucifer," said she, "to keep such unmannerly blockheads; it is a sin that so large a kingdom should be under one so incompetent to govern them. O that I were made deputy over it!" At this moment behold the _c.o.xcomb_, nodding his head in the dark, "Your servant, sir," he would say to one over his shoulder.--"I hope you are quite well," said he to another.--"Is there any service which I can render you," to a third, smiling conceitedly.--"Your beauty ravishes my heart,"

said he to the bouncing wench. "Oh! oh! away with this h.e.l.l-dog," said she; whilst every one cried, "away with this new tormentor! h.e.l.l upon h.e.l.l is he!" "Bind him and her head to tail," said Lucifer.