SPANISH NOVELISTS. Q 



threw himself down flat on his face in his hole again, exclaiming at the same 

 time, " If down I must without a plea, I am at least so far on the way,'* 

 An inn-keeper seemed in a great sweat as he walked along, while a demon 

 at his elbow jeering at him cried, " Well done, my brave fellow, get rid 

 of the water, that we may have no more of it in our wine." But a poor little 

 tailor, well bolstered up, with crooked fingers, and bandy legged, had not a 

 word to say for himself all the way he went, except, " Alas ! alas ! how can 

 any man be a thief that dies for want of bread \" As he cried, his companions, 

 however, rebuked him for running down his own trade. Next followed a 

 gang of high-waymen, treading upon the heels of one another, and in no 

 little dread of treachery and cheating among each other. These were brought 

 up by a party of devils in the turning of a hand, and were quartered along 

 with the tailors ; for, as was observed by one of the company, your real 

 highwayman is but a wild sort of tailor. To be sure, they were a little 

 quarrelsome at the first, but in a short time they went together down into 

 the valley, and took up their quarters very quietly together. A little behind 

 them came Folly, Bells, and Co., with their band of poets, fiddlers, lovers, 

 and fencers, that kind of people, in short, that least dream of a day of 

 reckoning. These were chiefly distributed among the hangmen, Jews, scribes, 

 and philosophers. There were also a great many solicitors, greatly wonder- 

 ing among themselves how they should have so much conscience when dead, 

 and none at all in their lifetime. In short, the catch-word, silence, was the 

 order of the day. 



" The throne of the Eternal being at length elevated, and the mighty day 

 of days at hand, which spake of comfort to the good, and of terror to the 

 wicked ; the sun and the stars, like satraps, cast their glory round the foot- 

 stool of the Supreme Judge the avenger of the innocent and the Judge of 

 the greatest monarchs and judges of the earth. The wind was stilled ; the 

 waters were quiet in their ocean-sleep the earth being in suspense and an- 

 guish for fear of her human offspring. The whole creation looked about to 

 yield up its trust in huge confusion and dismay. The just and righteous 

 were employed in prayer and thanksgiving ; the impious arid wicked were 

 vainly busy in weaving fresh webs of sophistry and deceit, the better to mi- 

 tigate their sentence. On one side stood the guardian angels ready to show 

 how they had fulfilled the part entrusted to them ; and on the other frowned 

 the evil genii, or the devils who had eagerly contended with the former, and 

 fomented the worst human passions, attending now to aggravate every mat- 

 ter of charge against their unfortunate victims. The Ten Commandments 

 held the guard of a narrow gate, so strait , indeed, that the most subdued 

 and extenuated body could not get through without leaving the better part of 

 his skin behind. 



" In one portion of this vast theatre were thronged together Disgrace, 

 Misfortune, Plague, Grief, and Trouble, and all were in a general clamour 

 against the doctors. The plague admitted fairly that she had smitten many, 

 but it was the doctor at last who did their business. Black grief, and shame 

 both said the same ; and human calamities of all kinds made open declara- 

 tion that they never brought any man to his grave without the help and abet- 

 ting of a doctor. It was thus the gentlemen of the faculty were called to ac- 

 count for the number of fellow-men they had killed, and which were found 

 to exceed by far those who had fallen by the sword. They accordingly took 

 their station upon a scaflold, provided with pen, ink, and paper ; and always 

 as the dead were called, some or other of them made answer to the name, 

 and quoted the year and day when such or such a patient passed from time 

 to eternity through his hands. 



" They began the inquiry as far back as Adam, who, to say the truth, was 

 rather roughly handled about biting an apple. " Alas I" cried one Judas that 

 stood by, " If that were such a fault, what must be the end of me, who sold 

 M. M. No. 85. H 



