ROSCOE'S sPANisri NOVELISTS. 99 



be tried at any lesser tribunal than that of Jupiter himself. Virgil with his 

 Sicelides Musa, made an eloquent defence of himself, declaring that he had 

 prophecied the nativity. But up jumped a devil with a long story about 

 Maecenas and Octavius, declaring that he was no better than an idolater of 

 the old school. Orpheus then put in a word, asserting that, as he was the 

 elder, he ought to be allowed to speak for all, commanding the poet to repeat 

 his experiment of going into hell, and trying to get out again, with a<s many 

 of the company as he could take along with him. 



" They were no sooner gone, than a churlish old miser knocked at the 

 gate, but was informed that it was guarded by the Ten Commandments, to 

 which he had been an utter stranger. Yet he contended that if he had riot 

 kept, he had never broken, any of them, and proceeded to justify his con- 

 duct from point to point. His quirks, however, were not admitted his 

 works were made the rule of decision and he was marched off to receive a 

 due reward. 



" He was succeeded by a gang of housebreakers and others of the same 

 stamp, some of whom were so fortunate as to be saved just in the nick of 

 time. The usurers and attorneys, seeing this, thought they too had a good 

 chance, and put so good a face on the matter, that Judas and Mahomet be- 

 gan to look about them, and advanced rather confidently to meet their trial, 

 a movement which made the devils themselves fall to laughing. 



" It was now the accusing demons of the usurers and attorneys proceeded 

 with their accusations, which they took not from the bills of indictment 

 made out, but from the acts of their lives, insisting upon the plain matter of 

 fact, so as to leave them without the possibility of an excuse. Addressing 

 the Judge ' The great crime of Which these men were guilty was their be- 

 ing attorneys at all;' to which it was ingeniously answered by the men of 

 law ' No, not so ; we only acted as the secretaries of other men.' They 

 nearly all denied their own calling ; and the result was, that after much 

 cross questioning and pleading, two or three only were acquitted, while to 

 the rest their accusers cried out, ' You here ! you are wanted elsewhere ;' 

 and they then proceeded to swear against some other people, some bribing 

 the witnesses, making them say things which they had never heard, and see 

 things they had never seen, in order to leave innocence no chance of escape. 

 The lie was concocted in all its labyrinths ; and I saw Judas, Mahomet, and 

 Luther draw back, while the former prest his money bag closer to him. 

 Luther observed that he did just the same thing in his writings ; but the 

 doctor interrupted him, declaring, that compelled by those who had betrayed 

 him, he now appeared with the apothecary and the barber to defend himself. 

 On this a demon with the accusations in his hand turned sharp round on 

 him, asking ' "Who it was had sent the greater part of the dead then present, 

 and with the aid of his worthy aids-de-camp, had, in fact, occasioned the 

 whole proceedings of that day.' But the apothecary's advocate put in a plea 

 for him, asserting, that he had dosed the poor people for nothing. ' No 

 matter,' retorted a devil, ' I have him down in my list; two of his pill boxes 

 dispatched more than ten thousand pikes could do in a battle, such was the 

 virulence of his poisonous drugs, with which indeed he entered into a part- 

 nership with the plague, and destroyed two entire villages. The physician 

 defended himself from any participation in these exploits, and at last the 

 apothecary was obliged to succumb ; the physician and the barber each 

 taking the deaths that respectively belonged to them. 



" A lawyer was next condemned for taking bribes from both sides, and 

 betraying both; and lurking behind him, was discovered a fellow who 

 seemed very desirous of concealing himself ; and who, on being asked his 

 name, replied that he was a player. ' And a very comic player indeed/ 

 rejoined a devil, ' who had done better not to appear on that stage to-day,' 

 The poor wretch promised to retire, and was as good as his word. A tribe 



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