the apothecaries and drugsters who have concocted drinks to murder their customers; boil him well for that he did not brew better beer.”  “By your leave,” began the innkeeper tremblingly, “I deserve no such treatment, the trade must be carried on.”  “Couldst thou not have lived,” quoth the Evil One, “without allowing rioting and gambling, wantonness and drunkenness, oaths and quarrels, slanders and lies? and wouldst thou, old hell-hound, now live better than we?  Prithee, tell what evil have we here which thou hadst not at thine home, save the punishment alone?  Indeed, to speak the plain truth here, the infernal heat and cold are nothing new to thee.  Hast thou not seen sparks of our fire upon the tongues of the cursers and the scolds, whilst dragging their husbands home?  Was there not a deal of the undying flame on the drunkard’s lips or in the eyes of the angry?  And couldst thou not perceive a trace of hellish cold in the rake’s generosity, and especially in thine own kindness towards him as long as he had anything in his possession; in the mocker’s jest; in the praise of the envious and of the defamer, in the promises of the lecherous, or in the limbs of thy boon companions, benumbed beneath thy tables?  Is hell strange to thee whose very home is a hell?  Aroint thee, flamhound, to thy penance!”

After that ten devils, panting heavily, drop their burdens upon the fiery floor.  “What have ye?” asked Lucifer.  “We have what a day or two ago were called kings,” answered one of the fiendish steeds. (I sought carefully to see whether Lewis of France were among them.) “Throw them here,” bade the King; and at that they were thrown amongst the other crowned heads that lay beneath Lucifer’s feet; and following the monarchs came their courtiers and their flatterers to receive sentence.  Before I had time to ask any question, I heard the blast of brazen trumpets and shouts.  “Make way, make way,” and at once there came in view a herd of assize-men and devils bearing the train of six justices, and millions of their race—­barristers, {95a} attorneys, clerks, recorders, bailiffs, catchpolls, and the litigous busybody.  I wondered that none of them was examined; but in truth, they knew the matter had gone too far against them, so none of the learned counsels opened their lips, but the busybody threatened that he would bring an action for false imprisonment against Lucifer.  “Thou shalt have good cause of complaint now,” said the Evil One, “and never see a court at all.”  Then he donned his red cap, and with unbearable, haughty mien, said:  “Go, take the justices to the hall of Pontius Pilate, to Master Bradshaw, who condemned King Charles; pack the barristers with the assassins of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, {95b} and their other false co-partners who simulate mutual contention, merely in order to slay whomsoever might interpose.  Go, greet that prudent lawyer, who, when dying offered a thousand pounds for a good conscience, and ask whether