So he marched on across the desolate plains unresisted, and seeking in vain the cause of the revolt. After a while, however, one of the King's spies returns, quite out of breath: "Most noble, Lucifer! Moloch, your prince, hath subdued part of the North, and hath cut thousands to pieces upon the glaciers, but there are three or four dangerous evils still threatening you." "Whom meanest thou?" asked Lucifer. "The Slanderer, the Busybody, and the Lawmonger, have broken out of their prisons and got free." "No wonder then," said the Evil One, "if further troubles arise." Then there comes another spy from the South, informing that matters would soon reach a dire pass in that quarter if the three who had already thrown the West into utter confusion be not taken, namely, the Huntress, the Rogue and the Swaggerer. "Since the day I tempted Adam from his garden," said Satan, who stood next but one to Lucifer, "I have never seen so many evils of his race at liberty together. The Huntress, the Swaggerer, the Rogue, on the one hand, and on the other, the Slanderer, the Lawmonger and the Busybody—a mixture would make devils reach." "Little wonder, verily," said Lucifer, "that they were so much hated by all on earth, seeing that they are capable of causing such trouble to us here." Not long after, the Huntress comes to meet the King upon the way. "Ho! grandam o' the breeches," cries a shrill-voiced demon, "good night to you." "Thy grandam on which side, prithee?" said she, displeased because he did not "madam" her. "You are a fine king, Lucifer, to keep such impudent rascals about you; a thousand pities that such a vast realm should be under so impotent a ruler; would that I might be made its regent." Then comes the Swaggerer, nodding in the dark—"Your humble servant, sir," saith he to one, over his shoulder; "Are you quite well?" to another; "Can I be of any service to you?" addressing a third, with a leering smirk, and to the Huntress: "Your beauty quite fascinates me, madam." "Oh oh," cried she, "away with the hell-hound;" and all join in the shout: "Away with this new tormentor, hell on hell that he is!" "Let both be bound together hand and foot," commanded Lucifer. Soon after the Lawmonger comes on the scene between two devils. "Ho, ho, thou angel of peace," exclaimed Lucifer, "hast thou come? Keep him safe, guards, at your peril!" Before we had gone far, the Rogue and the Slanderer appeared, chained between forty devils, and whispering to one another. "Most noble Lucifer," began the Rogue, "I am very sorry there is so much disturbance in your kingdom; but if I may be heard, I will teach you a better method. Under the pretence of holding a Parliament, you can cite all the damned into the burning Evildom, and then bid the devils hurl them headlong to bottomless perdition, and lock them up in its vortex, to trouble you no more." "But the Common Meddler is still missing," said Lucifer, frowning most darkly at the Rogue. When we reached once more the entrance of the infernal court, who should come straight to meet the King but the Busybody. "Ah, your majesty, I have a word with you." "And I have one or two with you, peradventure," said the Evil One. "I have been over the half of Hell," said he, "to see how your affairs went. You have many officers in the East who are remiss, and take their ease instead of attending to the torturing of their prisoners and to their safe keeping; it was this that gave rise to the great rebellion. And moreover many of your fiends, and of the lost whom you sent to the world to tempt men, have not returned, although their time is up, and others have come, but hide rather than give an account of their doings."

Then commanded Lucifer his herald to summon a second Parliament, and in the twinkling of an eye all the potentates and their officers were again in attendance at their infernal Eisteddfod. The first thing done was to change the officers, and to order a place to be made round the mouth of the pit for the Swaggerer and the Huntress, linked face to face, and for the other rebels, bound topsy-turvy together; and a law was published that whosoever of the demons or of the damned thenceforth transgressed his duty should be thrown into their midst till doomsday. At these words all the fiends and even Lucifer himself trembled and were sore perturbed. Then next came the trial of the devils and the lost who had been sent to earth to find "associates and co-partners of their loss;" the devils gave a clear account, but the statement of the damned was so hazy and uncertain, that they were driven to the ever-burning school, and there scourged with fiery, knotted serpents to teach them their task the better. "Here's a wench that's pretty enough when dressed up," said an imp, "she was sent up into the world to gain you new subjects; and whom should she first tempt but a weary ploughman, homeward wending his way, late from his toils, who, instead of succumbing to her wiles, went on his knees praying to be saved from the devil and his angels." "Ho there!" cried Lucifer, "throw her to that worthless losel who long ago loved Einion ab Gwalchmai of Mona." {102a} "Stay, stay," pleaded the fair one, "this is but my first offence; there is yet scarcely a year since the day when all was over with me, when I was condemned to your cursed state, Oh king of woes!" "No, there is not yet three weeks," said the demon that had brought her there. "How therefore," said she, "would you have me be as skilled as those lost beings who have been here three or four centuries hunting their prey? If you desire better service at my hands, let me go free into the world once more to roam about uncensured; and if I bring you not twenty adulterers for every year I am out, mete me what punishment you list." Nevertheless the verdict went against her, and she was doomed to live a hundred long years under chastisement, that she might be more careful a second time. Presently, another devil entered, pushing to the front a man. "Here is a fine messenger," he said, "who wandering the other night in his old neighbourhood above, saw a thief stealing a stallion, but could not help him even to catch the foal without showing himself; and the thief, when he saw him, abandoned that career for ever." "Begging the court's pardon," said the man, "if the thief's child was endowed with power from above to see me, could I help that? Moreover, this is only a single case; 't is not a hundred years since that day which put an end to all my hopes for ever, and how many of my own family and of my neighbours have I enticed here after me in that time? Perdition hold me, if I am not as dutiful to my trade as the best of you, but the wisest is sometimes at fault." Then said Lucifer: "Throw him into the school of the fairies, who are still under castigation for their mischievous tricks in days gone by, when they were wont to strangle and threaten their neighbours, and so awaken them from their torpor; for their fear probably had more influence upon them than forty sermons."

Then came four constables, an accuser, and fifteen of the damned, dragging forward two devils. "Lest you lay the blame of every wrongful service upon the children of Adam," said the accuser, "here are two of your old angels who misspent their time above as much as the two who were last before the court. Here is a rogue quite as worthless as that one at Shrewsbury the other day, when the Interlude of Doctor Faustus was being played, amidst all manner of most wanton and lascivious revelries, and where many things were going on conducive to the welfare of your realm; when they were busiest, the devil himself appeared to play his part, and so drove all away from pleasure to prayers. Even so this one, in his wanderings over the world: he heard some people talk of walking round the church {104a} to see their sweethearts, and what should the fool do but show himself to the simpletons in his own natural form, and though their fright was great they recovered their senses, and made a vow to leave that vanity for ever; whereas had he only assumed the form of some vile jades, they would have held themselves bound to accept those; and so the foul fiend might have been master of the household with both parties, since he himself had mated them. And here is another, who went, last Twelfth Night, to visit two Welsh lasses who were turning their shifts, and instead of enticing them to wantonness in the form of a fair youth, to one he took a bier, to make her thoughts more serious; to the other, he went with the tumult of war in a hellish whirlwind, to make her madder than before; and this was quite needless. Nor was this all; for after he had entered the maiden, and had thrown her about, and sorely tormented her, some of our learned enemies were sent for to pray for her and to cast him out, and instead of tempting her to despair and endeavouring to win over the preachers, he began to preach to them, and to disclose the mysteries of your kingdom, thus aiding their salvation instead of hindering it." At the word "salvation" I saw some leaping up, a living fire of rage. "Every tale is fair till the other side be told," quoth the devil, "I hope Lucifer will not allow one of the earth-born race of Adam to contend with me, who am an angel of far superior kind and stock." "His punishment is certain," said Lucifer, "but do thou, sirrah, give clear and ready answer to these charges; or by hopeless Hell I will—." "I have led hither," said he, "many a soul since Satan was in the Garden of Eden, and I ought to understand my business, better than this upstart accuser." "Blood of infernal firebrands," cried Lucifer, "did I not bid thee answer clearly and readily?" "By your leave," said the demon, "I have preached a hundred times, and have denounced many of the various ways that lead to your confines, and yet at the same breath, have quietly brought them hither safe and sound by some other delusive path, just as I did while preaching recently in the German States, in one of the Faro Isles, and in several other places. In this manner, through my preaching have many Papist beliefs, and old traditions come first into the world, and all in the guise of goodness. For who ever would swallow a baitless hook? Who ever gained credence for a tale which had not some truth mingled with the false, or some little good overshadowing the bad? So, if whilst preaching I can instil one counsel of mine own among a hundred that are good and true, by means of that one, through heedlessness or superstition, will more weal betide your kingdom than woe through all the others ever." "Well," said Lucifer, "since thou canst do so much good in the pulpit, I bid thee dwell seven years in the mouth of a barndoor preacher who always utter what first comes to his mind; there thou wilt have an opportunity of putting in a word now and then to thine own purpose."

There were many more devils and damned darting to and fro like lightning about the awful throne, to count and to receive offices. But suddenly without any warning there came a command for all the messengers and prisoners to depart from the court, each one to his den, leaving the King and his chief counsellors alone together. "Is it not better for us also to depart, lest they find us?" I asked my friend. "Thou needest have no fear," answered the angel, "no unclean spirit can ever pierce this veil." Wherefore we remained there invisible, to see the issue.

Then Lucifer began graciously to address his peers thus:- "Ye mightiest spirits of evil, ye archfiends of hellish guile, the utmost of your malicious wiles am I now constrained to demand. All here know that Britain and its adjacent isles is the realm most dangerous to my state, and fullest of mine enemies; and what is a hundredfold worse, there reigns now a queen most dangerous of all, who has never once inclined hither, nor along the old way of Rome on the one hand nor yet along the way of Geneva on the other: to think what great good the Pope has for a long time done us there and Oliver even to this day! What therefore shall we do? I fear me we shall entirely lose our ancient possession of that mart unless we instantly set-to to pave a new way for them to travel over, for they know too well all the old roads that lead hitherwards. Since this invincible hand shortens my chain, and prevents me from going myself to the earth, your advice I pray. Whom shall I appoint my viceroy to oppose yon hateful queen, Our Enemy's vicegerent?"

"Oh! thou great Emperor of Darkness," said Cerberus, {106a} the demon of tobacco, "'tis I that supply the third of that country's maintenance, I shall go, and I will despatch you a hundred thousand of your foemen's souls through a pipe stem." "In sooth," said Lucifer, "thou hast done me some good service, what with causing the slaughter of the owners in India and poisoning those that indulge in it, through the saliva, sending many to wander with it idly from house to house, others to steal in order to obtain it, and millions to grow that fond of it that they cannot spend a single day without it, and be in their right mind. For all this, go and do thy best, but thou art nought to our present purpose."

Whereupon Cerberus sat down; then rose Mammon, the devil of money, and with surly skulking mien began: "'T was I who pointed out the first mine whence money was to be obtained, and ever since I am praised and worshipped more than God, and men lay their pain and peril, all their mind, their affection and their trust upon me, yea, there is no man content, but all crave more of my favor; the more they obtain, the further still are they from rest, until at last, while seeking ease, they come to this region of everlasting woes. How many a crafty old miser have I enticed hither over paths that were harder to traverse than those that lead to the realm of bliss? Whenever a fair was held, a market, assize or election, or any other concourse, who had more subjects than I or greater power and authority? Cursing, swearing, fighting, litigation, falsehood and deceit, beating, clawing, murdering and robbing one another, Sabbath-breaking, perjury, cruelty, and what black mark besides, which stamps men as of Lucifer's fold, that I have not had a hand in placing? For which reason have I been called 'the root of all evil.' Wherefore, an it please your majesty, I will go."

He ceased. Then Apolyon uprose and spoke: "I know of nought more certain to lead them hither than what brought you here, {107a} and that is Pride; once it plants its straight stake in them and puffs them up, there is no need to fear that they will condescend to bear the cross or go through the narrow gate. I will go with your daughter Pride, and before they can realise where they are, I will drive the Welsh hither headlong while admiring the pomp of the English, and the English while imitating the vivacity of the French."

After him arose Asmodai, the devil of lust: "'T is not unknown to you, mightiest King of the deep, nor to you, princes of the land of despair, how many of the gulfs of hell have I filled through voluptuousness and lewdness. What of the time I kindled such a flame of lust over all the world that the deluge had needs be sent to clear the earth of men, and to sweep them all into our unquenchable fire? What of Sodoma and Gomorrah, fine and fair cities, which I so consumed with licentiousness that a hell-shower blazed in their infernal lusts and beat them down here alive, to burn for ages on ages. And what of the great hosts of the Assyrians, who were all slain in one night on my account? I disappointed Sarah of seven husbands' {108a} and Solomon and many a thousand other kings did I bring to shame through women. Wherefore let me and this sweet sin go, and I will kindle the hellish spark so generally that it will at length become one with this inextinguishable flame, for scarce one will ever return from following me to walk in the paths of life." At that he sat down.

Then Belphegor, chief of sloth and idleness, stood up and spake thus: "I am the great prince of listlessness and sloth, who have great influence upon millions of all sorts and conditions of men; I am that stagnant pond where the spawn of every evil is bred, where the dregs of every corruption and baleful slime grows rank. What good wouldst thou be, Asmodai, or ye, chief damned evils, were I not? I, who keep the windows open and unguarded that ye may enter into the man when ye will, through his eyes, his ears and his mouth. I will go and roll them all over the precipice unto you in their sleep."

Then Satan, the devil of delusion, who was on Lucifer's left hand, arose, and turning his grim visage to the king, began: "It is unnecessary for me to recount my deeds to thee, Oh lost Archangel, or to you, swarthy princes of Destruction: for 'twas I who dealt the first blow to man, and mighty was that blow, to be the cause of death from the beginning of the world to its end. Is it likely that I, who erst ravaged all the earth, could not now give advice that would serve one little isle? Could not I, who deceived Eve in Paradise, overcome Anne in Britain? If inborn craft and continuous experience for five thousand years profit aught, my advice is that you adorn your daughter Hypocrisy to deceive Britain and its queen: you have no other as serviceable as she; her sway extends more widely than that of all the rest of your daughters, and her subjects are more numerous. Was it not through her that I beguiled the first woman? And ever since she has remained on earth and waxed very great therein, so that by now the world is hardly anything but one mass of hypocrisy. And were it not for the craftiness of Hypocrisy how could anyone of us do business in any part of the world? For what man would ever have aught to do with sin, did he once behold it in its true color and under its own proper name? He would sooner clasp a devil in his own infernal shape and garb. If it were not that Hypocrisy can disguise the name and nature of every evil under the semblance of some good, and give a bad name to every goodness, no man at all would put forth his hand to do evil or would lust after it. Walk through the entire city of Destruction and ye will perceive her greatness in every quarter. Go to the street of Pride and ask for an arrogant man or for a penny-worth of affectation mixed through pride: 'Woe is me,' exclaims Hypocrisy, 'there is no such thing here,' no, nor for a devil, anything else in the whole street save proud demeanour. Or walk into the street of Lucre and enquire for the miser's house: pshaw, there is no one of the kind therein; or for the dwelling of the murderer among the doctors, or for the abode of highwaymen amongst the drovers; thou wouldst sooner be thrown to prison for asking than that one should confess to his own name. Yea, Hypocrisy crawls in between a man and his own heart, and so skilfully does she hide every wrong under the name and guise of some virtue that she has caused well nigh all to lose cognisance of their own selves. Greed she calls thrift; in her tongue riotous living is innocent joy; pride is courtesy; the froward, a clever, courageous man; the drunkard, a boon companion; and adultery is a mere freak of youth. On the other hand, if she and her scholars' {110a} are to be believed, the godly is a hypocrite or a fool; the gentle, a coward; the abstemious, a churl, and so for every other quality. Send her thither in all her adornment, and I warrant you she will deceive everyone; she will blinden the counsellors, the soldiers, and all the officers of church and state, and will draw them hither in hurrying multitudes with the varicolored mask upon their eyes." Whereupon he too sat down.

Then Beelzebub, the devil of thoughtlessness stood up, and in a harsh voice said: "I am the great prince of heedlessness whose duty it is to prevent a man taking reflective heed of his state; I am chief of the incessant hell-flies who utterly amaze men, ever dinning in their ears concerning their possessions or their pleasures, and never willingly allowing them a moment's leisure to think of their ways or of their end. No one of you must dare enter the lists against me in feats serviceable to the realm of darkness. For what is tobacco, but one of my meanest weapons to stupefy the brain? What is Mammon's kingdom but a part of my great dominion? Yea, were I to loosen the bonds I have upon the subjects of Mammon and Pride, and even of Asmodai, Belphegor and Hypocrisy, no man would for an instant abide their domination. Wherefore I will do the work and let no one of you ever utter a word."

Then great Lucifer himself arose from his burning seat, and having turned his hideous face to both sides, thus began: "Ye chief spirits of the Eternal Night, princes of hopeless guile, although the vasty gloom and the wilds of Destruction are more bounden to none for their inhabitants than to mine own supreme majesty—for it was I who erewhile wishing to usurp the Almighty's throne, drew myriads of you, my swarthy angels, at my tail into these deadly horrors, and afterwards drew unto you myriads of men to share this region—yet there is no gainsay that ye all have done your share in maintaining and extending this great infernal empire." Then he began to answer them one by one: "Considering thy recent origin, Cerberus, I will not deny but that thou hast gained for us much prey in the island of our foes through tobacco. For they that carry, mix, and weigh it, practise all manner of fraud; and by its indulgence some are led on to habitual drinking, some to curse and swear, and some to seek it through blandishment, and to lie in denying their use of it—not to speak of the injury it inflicts upon many, and its immoderate use upon all, body as well as soul. And better than that, myriads of the poor, whom else we never should touch, sink hither through laying the burden of their affection upon tobacco, and allowing it to be their master, to steal the bread from their children's mouth. Then, brother Mammon, your power is so universal and so well-known on earth that it is a proverb, 'Everything may be had for money.' And without doubt," said he, turning to Apolyon, "my beloved daughter Pride is most serviceable to us, for what can there be more pernicious to a man's estate, to his body and soul, than that proud, obdurate opinion which will make him squander a hundred pounds rather than yield a crown to secure peace. She keeps them all so stiff-necked and so intent on things on high that it is amusing to see them, while gazing upwards, and 'extolling their heads to the stars' fall straightway into the depths of hell. You too, Asmodai, we all remember your great services in the past; there is none more resolute than you to keep safe his prisoners under lock and key, nor any so unimpeachable. Nowadays a wanton freak provokes only a little laughter, but you came near perishing there from famine during the recent years of dearth. And you, my son Belphegor, verminous prince of sloth, no one has afforded us more pleasure than you; your influence is exceeding great among noblemen and also among the common people, even to the beggar. And were it not for the skill of my daughter Hypocrisy in coloring and adorning, who ever would swallow a single one of our hooks? But after all, if it were not for the unwearying courage of my brother Beelzebub in keeping men in heedless dazedness, ye all would not be worth a straw. Let us once more recapitulate. What good wouldst thou be, Cerberus, with thy foreign whiff, if Mammon did not succour thee? What merchant would ever run such risks to obtain thy paltry leaves from India, except for Mammon's sake? And only for him what king would receive them, especially into Britain, and who but for his sake would carry them to every part of the kingdom? Yet how worthless thou too wouldst be, Mammon, if Pride did not lavish thee upon fair mansions, fine clothes, needless lawsuits, gardens and horses, extravagant relatives, numerous dishes, floods of beer and ale, beyond the power and station of their owner; for if money were spent within the limit of necessity and of becoming moderation, what would Mammon avail us? Thus thou art nought without Pride; and little would Pride profit without Wantonness, for bastards are the most numerous and the most fierce of all the subjects of my daughter Pride. And thou, Asmodai, what wouldst thou profit us were it not for Sloth and Idleness? Where wouldst thou obtain a night's lodging? Thou wouldst not dare expect it from a laborer or diligent student. And who, for the dishonor and the shame, would ever give thee, Belphegor the Slothful, a moment's welcome, if Hypocrisy did not disguise thy foulness under the name of an internal disease, or as a good intent or a seeming despisal of wealth or the like. She too—my dear daughter Hypocrisy—what good is or ever would she be, notwithstanding her skill as a seamstress, and her boldness, without thy aid, my eldest brother, Beelzebub, great chief of Distraction: if he gave people peace and leisure to reflect seriously upon the nature of things and their differences, how long would it take them to find holes in the folds of Hypocrisy's golden garments, and to see the hooks through the bait? What man in his senses would gather together toys and fleeting pleasures, surfeiting, vain and disgraceful, and choose them in preference to a calm conscience and the bliss of a glorious eternity? Who would refuse to suffer the pangs of martyrdom for his faith for an hour or a day, or affliction for forty or sixty years, if he considered that his neighbours suffer here in an hour more than he could suffer on earth for ever. Tobacco is nothing without Money, or Money without Pride, and Pride is but a weakling without Wantonness, nor is Wantonness aught without Sloth, nor Sloth without Hypocrisy, nor Hypocrisy without Thoughtlessness. Wherefore, now," said Lucifer, lifting his infernal hoofs on their claw-ends, "to give my own opinion: however excellent all these may be, I have a friend better suited than all to our foe of Britain." Then could I see all the archfiends open wide their horrid mouths upon Lucifer in eager expectation as to what this could possibly be, while I too was as anxious as they. "A friend," continued Lucifer, "whose true worth I have too long neglected, just as thou, Satan, tempting Job of yore, didst foolishly turn upon him with severity. This, my kinswoman, I now appoint regent in all matters appertaining to my kingdom on earth, next to myself. Her name is Prosperity: she has damned more than all of you together, and little would ye avail without her presence. For who in war or peril, in famine or in plague, would lay any value by tobacco, or by money or by the sprightliness of pride, or who would deign welcome licentiousness or sloth? And men in such straits are too wide-awake to be distraught by Hypocrisy, or even by Thoughtlessness; none of the infernal vermin of Distraction dare show himself in one such storm. Whereas Prosperity, with its ease and comfort, is the nurse of all of you; beneath her peaceful shadow and upon her tranquil bosom ye all are nourished, and every other hellish worm that has its place in the conscience and will be for ever here gnawing its possessor. As long as one is at ease, there is no talk but of merriment, of feasts, bargains, genealogies, tales, news and the like; the name of God is never mentioned except in profane oaths and curses, whereas the poor and the afflicted have His name upon their lips and in their hearts always. Go ye, the seven of you, and follow her and be mindful to keep all a-slumbering and in peace, in good fortune, in ease and in perfect carelessness; then shall ye see the honest poor become an untractable, arrogant knave, once he has quaffed of the alluring cup of Prosperity; ye shall behold the diligent laborer become a careless babbler and everything else that pleases you. For all seek and love happy Prosperity; she neither hearkens to advice nor fears censure; the good she knows not, the bad she nurtures. But this is the greatest mishap: the man that escapes her sweet charms must be given up in despair, we must bid farewell to his company for ever. Prosperity then is my earthly vicegerent; follow her to Britain, and obey her as ye would our own royal majesty."

At that instant the huge bolt was whirled, and Lucifer and his chief counsellors were swept away into the vortex of Uttermost Perdition; woe's me, how terrible it was to behold the jaws of Hell yawning wide to receive them! "Come now," said the Angel, "we will return, but what thou hast seen is as nothing compared with all that is within the bounds of Hell; and if thou didst see everything therein that again would be as nought when compared with the unutterable woe of the Bottomless Pit; for it is impossible to have any conception of the life in the Uttermost Hell." Then suddenly the heavenly Eagle caught me up into the vault of the accursed gloom by a way I knew not, where, from the court, across the entire firmament of dark-burning Perdition, and all the land of oblivion up to the ramparts of the City of Destruction, I obtained full view of the hideous monster of a giantess whose feet I had previously observed. "Words fail me to describe her ways and means; but of herself I can tell thee, that she was a three-faced ogress: one villainous face turned towards Heaven, yelping and snarling and belching forth cursed abomination against the heavenly King; another face (and this was fair to look upon) towards earth, to allure men beneath her baneful shadow; and the other direful face towards the infernal abyss, to torture all therein for ages without end. She is greater than the earth in its entirety, and still continuously increases; she is a hundredfold more hideous than all Hell which she herself created and which she peoples. If Hell were rid of her, the vasty deep would be a Paradise; if she were driven from the earth, the little world would become a heaven; and if she ascended into Heaven, she would make an uttermost hell of that blissful realm. There is nought in all the worlds which God has not created, save her alone. She is the mother of the four deadly enchantresses; she is the mother of Death and of all evil and misery, and her terrible grasp is upon every living being. Her name is Sin. Blessed, ever blessed be he who escapes from her clutches," said the Angel. Thereupon he departed, and I could hear the distant echo of his voice saying; "Write down what thou hast seen; and whosoever readeth it thoughtfully will never repent."

WITH HEAVY HEART.

With heavy heart I sought th' infernal coast And saw the vale of everlasting woes, The awful home of fiends and of the lost Where torments rage and never grant repose - A lake of fire whence horrid flames arose And whither tended every wayward path Its prey to lead 'midst cruel dragon-foes; Yet, though I wandered through withouten scath, A world I'd spurn, to view again that scene of wrath.

With heavy heart oft I recall to mind How many a loving friend unwarned fell To bottomless perdition, there to find A dread abode where he for aye must dwell; Who erst were men are now like hounds of Hell And with unceasing energy entice To dire combustion all with wily spell, And to themselves have ta'en the devils' guise, Their power and skill all ill to do in every wise.

With heavy heart I roamed the dismal land That is ordained the sinner's end to be; What mighty waves surge wild on every hand! What gloomy shadows haunt its canopy! What horrors fall on high and mean degree! How hideous is the mien of its fell lords, What shrieks rise from that boundless glowing sea, How fierce the curses of the damned hordes, No mortal ken can e'er conceive or paint in words.

With heavy heart we mourn true friends or kin And grieve the loss of home, of liberty, Of that good name which all aspire to win Or health and ease and sweet tranquility; When dim, dark clouds enshroud our memory And pass 'tween us and heaven's gracious smiles, 'Tis sadder far to wake to misery And feel that Pleasure now no more beguiles, That sin has left nought but the wounds of its base wiles.

With heavy heart the valiantest of men Lays low his head beneath th' impending doom; In terror he descends death's awsome glen; While there appear flashing through the gloom The lurid shades of deeds which in the bloom Of youth he dared; at last the conscience cries With ruthless voice: "There's life beyond the tomb;" His dying thoughts all vanities despise As on the threshold of Eternity he lies.

The heavy heart that suffers all such grief May, while the breath of life doth still remain, Hope for a joyous peace and blest relief; But if grim Death his fated victim gain, Woe's him that entereth the realm of pain - For e'er on him its frowning portals close, Nor gleam of hope shall he perceive again, For in that vast eternal night he knows A woe awaits that far surpasseth earthly woes.

The heavy heart beneath its weight is crushed, And at its very name—Damnation writ, All men their vain and froward clamors hushed; But when within the fiery gaping pit Whose flaming ramparts none will ever quit, Above the thunder's roar th' accursed host Raise such loud cries, it passeth human wit To dream of aught so dire, for at the most, All woes of earth as pleasures seem unto the lost.

From every vain complaining, cease, my friend, Since thou art yet not numbered with the dead But turn thy thoughts unto thy destined end, Behold thy Fates spin out the vital thread, And often as thy mind to Hell be led, To contemplate the doleful gloom aglow, There will forthwith possess thee such a dread, Which Christ's unbounded mercy doth bestow, Lest thou be doomed to that eternal realm of woe.



Footnotes:



{0} The genealogical tables in the book are in graphic form. They are reproduced here in a more textual format—DP.

ELLIS WYNNE'S PEDIGREE

(I am indebted to E. H. Owen, Esqr., F.S.A., Tycoch, Carnarvon, for most of the information comprised in the following Tables.)

William Wynne {00a} = Catherine {00b} Ellis Wynne {00c} = Lowri {00d} Edward Wynne = . . . heiress of Glasynys + ELLIS WYNNE = Lowri Llwyd {00e} Daughter + - - - - William {00f} = {00v} Ellis Catherine Edward Mary = Robert Owen {00g} {00h} {00i} {00j} Daughter=Robert Puw - + John Wynne Puw {00x} + Ellis {00k} Frances John - - - Robert Elizabeth Ann Edward John {00l} Francis Ellis



THE RELATION BETWEEN ELLIS WYNNE & BISHOP HUMPHREYS.

Meredydd ap Evan ap Robert {00m} = Margaret {00n} Humphrey Wynne ap = Catherine {00o} Meredydd of Gesail- gyfarch. + -+ John Wynne = Catherine {00p} Evan Llwyd {00q}Catherine {00w} ap Humphrey of Gesail- gyfarch John Robert Wynne {00r}Mary{00s} + + Evan Griffith + -+ + -+ John Wynne = Jane {00t} Margaret=Richard{00u} William LOWRI=ELLIS Robert {00y} Ob. s. p. WYNNE + -+ -+ + HUMPHREY {00z} = Elizabeth {000a} John Catherine Died at Oxford. + + -+ Ann Margaret = John Llwyd {000b} Ob. s. p. 1698 Died 1759

{00a} William Wynne of Glyn [Cywarch]. Sheriff of Merioneth 1618 & 1637. D. 1658. 12th in direct male descent from Osborn Wyddel.

{00b} Catherine, daughter of William Lewis Anwyl of Park. Died 1638.

{00c} Ellis Wynne, 3rd son who probably lived at Maes-y-garnedd, Llanbedr.

{00d} Lowri, only daughter and heiress of Ed. Jones of Maes-y-garnedd, eldest borther of Col. Jones, Cromwell's brother-in-law who was executed in 1660 as a regicide.

{00e} Lowri Llwyd of Hafod-lwyfog Beddgelert.

{00f} Rector of Llanaber.

{00g} Ellis Died 1732.

{00h} Catherine Died young.

{00i} Edward Rector of Penmorfa.

{00j} Robert Owen of Tygwyn Dolgellau.

{00k} Rector of Llanferres.

{00l} Rector of Llandrillo.

{00m} 11th in male descent from Owen Gwynedd. Died 1525.

{00n} Daughter of Morris ap John ap Meredydd of Clunnenau.

{00o} Daughter and heiress of Evan ap Griffith of Cwmbowydd.

{00p} Daughter of William Wynne ap William of Cochwillan.

{00q} Of Hafod-lwyfog.

{00r} Died 1637.

{00s} Daughter of Ellis ap Cadwaladr of Ystumllyn.

{00t} Daughter of Evan Llwyd of Dylase.

{00u} Richard Humphreys of Hendref Gwenllian, Penrhyndeudraeth. Desceneded in male line from Marchweithian. An Officer in the Royal Army through Civil War. Died 1699.

{00v} . . . Lloyd of Trallwyn.

{00w} Catherine, Daughter of Griffith Wynne of Penyberth.

{00x} Robert Puw of Garth Maelan.

{00y} Robert Wynne of Gesail-gyfarch, Barr.-at-law. Ob. s. p. 1685.

{00z} Humphrey. Born 1648. Dean of Bangor, 1680, Bishop 1689. Bishop of Hereford, 1701. Died 1712.

{000a} Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Morgan Bishop of Bangor 1678, son of Rd. Morgan, M.P. for Montgomery Boroughs.

{000b} John Llwyd of Penylan, Barr.-at-law, son of Dr. W. Lloyd, Bishop of Norwich, deprived in 1691 as one of the Nonjurors.

{0a} "A Catalogue of Graduates in the University of Oxford between 1659 and 1850" contains the following entry: —"Wynne (Ellis) Jes. BA., Oct. 14, 1718, MA., June 13, 1722." But one can hardly suppose this to have been the Bardd Cwsr, as in 1718 he would be 47 years of age.

{0b} The following entries are taken from the register at Llanfair- juxta-Harlech: —"Elizaeus Wynne Generosus de Lasynys et Lowria Lloyd de Havod-lwyfog in agro Arvonensi in matrimonio conjuncti fuere decimo quarto die Feb. 1702."

{0c} "Elizaeus Wynne junr. de Lasynys sepultus est decimo die Octobris A.D. 1732."

{0d} "Owenus Edwards cler. nuper Rector hums ecclesiae sepultus est tricesimo die Maii A.D. 1711." (From the Llanfair parish register.)

{0e} "Lowria Uxor Elizaei Wynne cler. de Lasynys vigesimo quarto die Augti. sepulta est Ano. Dom. 1720."

"Elizaeus Wynne Cler. nuper Rector dignissimus huius ecclesiae sepultus est 17mo. die Julii 1734." (From the parish register at Llanfair.)

{0f} "The Visions of the Sleeping Bard. First Part. Printed in London by E. Powell for the Author, 1703,"

{1a} The opening lines.—Ellis Wynne opens his vision as so many early English poets are wont, with a description of the season when, and the circumstances under which he fell asleep. Compare especially Langland's Visions, prologus:

In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne I went wyde in this world wondres to here, Ac on a May mornynge on Malvern hulles Me befel a ferly of fairy me thoughte, I was wery forwandred and went me to reste Under a brode bank bi a bornes side And as I lay and leued and loked in the wateres I slombred in a slepyng it sweyved so merye.

{1b} One of the mountains.—The scene these opening lines describe was one with which the Bard was perfectly familiar. He had often climbed the slopes of the Vale of Ardudwy to view the glorious panorama around him from Bardsey Isle to Strumble Head, the whole length of rock-bound coast lay before him, while behind was the Snowdonian range, from Snowdon itself to Cader Idris; and often, no doubt, he had watched the sun sinking "far away over the Irish Sea, and reaching his western ramparts" beyond the Wicklow Hills.

{1c} Master Sleep.—Cp.:

Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh'd My senses down.

—Dante: Inf. C.I. (Cary's trans.)

Now leaden slumber with life's strength doth fight.

—Shakespere: Lucrece, 124.

{4a} Such a fantastic rout.—Literally "such a battle of Camlan." This was the battle fought between Arthur and his nephew Medrod about the year 540 on the banks of the Camel between Cornwall and Somerset, where Arthur received the wounds of which he died. The combatants being relatives and former friends, it was characterised with unwonted ferocity, and has consequently come to be used proverbially for any fray or scene of more than usual tumult and confusion.

So all day long the noise of battle roll'd Among the mountains by the winter sea, Until King Arthur's table, man by man, Had fallen in Lyonness about their Lord.

—Tennyson: Morte d'Arthur.

{4b} To lampoon my king.—The Bard commenced this Vision in the reign of William III. (v. also p. 17, "to drink the King's health") and completed it in that of Queen Anne, who is mentioned towards the end of the Vision.

{7a} The Turk and old Lewis of France.—The Sultan Mustapha and Lewis XIV. are thus referred to.

{14a} Clippers.—The context seems to demand this meaning, that is, "those who debase coin of the realm," rather than "beggars" from the Welsh "clipan."

{20a} Backgammon and dice.—These games, together with chess, were greatly in vogue in mediaeval Wales, and are frequently alluded to in the Mabinogion and other early works. The four minor games or feats (gogampau) among the Welsh were playing the harp, chess, backgammon, and dice. The word "ffristial a disiau" are here rendered by the one word "dice"—ffristial meaning either the dice-box, or the game itself, and disiau, the dice.

{21a} This wailing is for pay.—Cp.

Ut qui conducti plorant in funere dicunt et faciunt prope plora dolentibus ex animo.

—Horace: Ars Poetica, 430-1.

{23a} The butt of everybody.—Whenever a number of bards, in the course of their peregrinations from one patron's hall to another, met of a night, their invariable custom was to appoint one of the company to be the butt of their wit, and he was expected to give ready answer in verse and parry the attacks of his brethren. It is said of Dafydd ap Gwilym that he satirized one unfortunate butt of a bard so fiercely that he fell dead at his feet.

{24a} Congregation of mutes.—At the time Ellis Wynne wrote, the Quakers were very numerous in Merioneth and Montgomery and especially in his own immediate neighbourhood, where they probably had a burying-ground and conventicle. They naturally became the objects of cruel persecution at the hands of the dominant church as well as of the state; their meetings were broken up, their members imprisoned and maltreated, until at last they were forced to leave their fatherland and seek freedom of worship across the Atlantic

{25a} Speak no ill.—A Welsh proverb; v. Myv. Arch. III. 182.

{26a} We came to a barn.—The beginning of Nonconformity in Wales. In the Author's time there were already many adherents to the various dissenting bodies in North Wales. Walter Cradoc, Morgan Llwyd and others had been preaching the Gospel many years previously throughout the length and breadth of Gwynedd; and it was their followers that now fell under the Bard's lash.

{28a} Corruption of the best.—A Welsh adage; v. Myv. Arch. III. 185.

{28b} Some mocking.—Compare Bunyan's Christian starting from the City of Destruction: "So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain. The neighbours came out to see him run, and as he ran, some mocked, others threatened and some cried after him to return."

{29a} Who is content.—Cp.

Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem Seu ratio dederit seu fors obiecerit, illa Contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes?

—Horace: Sat. I. i.

{34a} Increases his own penalty.—Cp.

—the will And high permission of all-ruling heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs, That with reiterated crimes he might Heap on himself damnation, while he sought Evil to others.

- Par. Lost: I. 211-6.

{36a} Royal blood—referring to the execution of Charles I.

{37a} The Pope and his other son.—The concluding lines of this Vision were evidently written amidst the rejoicings of the nation at the victories of Marlborough over the French and of Charles XII. over the Muscovites

{43a} Glyn Cywarch.—The ancestral home of the Author's father, situate in a lonely glen about three miles from Harlech.

{43b} Our brother Death.—This idea of the kinship of Death and Sleep is common to all poets, ancient and modern; cp. the "Consanguineus Leti Sopor" of Vergil (AEneid: VI. 278); and also:

Oh thou God of Quiet! Look like thy brother, Death, so still,—so stirless - For then we are happiest, as it may be, we Are happiest of all within the realm Of thy stern, silent, and unawakening twin.

- Byron: Sardanapulus, IV.

{44a} An extensive domain.—Compare what follows with Vergil's description (Dryden's trans.):

Just in the gate and in the jaws of Hell, Revengeful cares and sullen sorrows dwell, And pale diseases and repining age - Want, fear, and famine's unresisted rage; Here toils and death, and death's half-brother, Sleep, Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep.

—AEneid: VI. 273-8

{48a} Merlin.—A bard or seer who is supposed to have flourished about the middle of the fifth century, when Arthur was king. He figures largely in early tales and traditions, and many of his prophecies are to be found in later Cymric poetry, to one of which Tennyson refers in his Morte d'Arthur:

I think that we Shall never more, at any future time, Delight our souls with talks of knightly deeds Walking about the gardens and the halls Of Camelot, as in the days that were. I perish by this people which I made - Though Merlin sware that I should come again To rule once more—but let what will be, be.

{48b} Brutus, the son of Silvius.—According to the Chronicles of the Welsh Kings, Brwth (Brutus) was the son of Selys (Silvius), the son of Einion or AEneas who, tradition tells, was the first king of Prydain. In these ancient chronicles we find many tales recorded of Brutus and his renowned ancestors down to the fall of Troy and even earlier.

{48c} A huge, seething cauldron.—This was the mystical cauldron of Ceridwen which Taliesin considered to be the source of poetic inspiration. Three drops, he avers, of the seething decoction enabled him to forsee all the secrets of the future.

{48d} Upon the face of earth.—These lines occur in a poem of Taliesin where he gives an account of himself as existing in various places, and contemporary with various events in the early eras of the world's history—an echo of the teachings of Pythagoras:

Morte carent animae; semperque priore relicta Sede, novis habitant domibus vivuntque receptae.

—Ovid: Metam. XV. 158-9.

{48e} Taliesin.—Taliesin is one of the earliest Welsh bards whose works are still extant. He lived sometime in the sixth century, and was bard of the courts of Urien and King Arthur.

{49a} Maelgwn Gwynedd.—He became lord over the whole of Wales about the year 550 and regained much territory that had once been lost to the Saxons. Indeed Geoffrey of Monmouth asserts that at one time Ireland, Scotland, the Orkneys, Norway and Denmark acknowledged his supremacy. Whatever truth there be in this assertion, it is quite certain that he built a powerful navy whereby his name became a terror to the Vikings of the North. In his reign, however, the country was ravaged by a more direful enemy—the Yellow Plague; "whoever witnessed it, became doomed to certain death. Maelgwn himself, through Taliesin's curse, saw the Vad Velen through the keyhole in Rhos church and died in consequence." (Iolo MSS.)

{49b} Arthur's quoit.—The name given to several cromlechau in Wales; there is one so named, near the Bard's home, in the parish of Llanddwywe, "having the print of a large hand, dexterously carved by man or nature, on the side of it, as if sunk in from the weight of holding it." (v. Camb. Register, 1795.)

{54a} In the Pope's favor.—Clement XI. became Pope in 1700, his predecessor being Innocent XII.

{55a} Their hands to the bar.—Referring to the custom (now practically obsolete) whereby a prisoner on his arraignment was required to lift up his hands to the bar for the purpose of identification. Ellis Wynne was evidently quite conversant with the practice of the courts, though there is no proof of his ever having intended to enter the legal profession or taken a degree in law as one author asserts. (v. Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry, sub. tit. Ellis Wynne.)

{67a} "The Practice of Piety."—Its author was Dr. Bayley, Bishop of Bangor; a Welsh translation by Rowland Vaughan, of Caergai, appeared in 1630, "printed at the signe of the Bear, in Saint Paul's Churchyard, London."

{69a} At one time cold.—Cp.:

I come To take you to the other shore across, Into eternal darkness, there to dwell In fierce heat and in ice.

- Dante: Inf. c. III. (Cary's trans.).

{71a} Above the roar.—Cp.:

The stormy blast of Hell With restless fury drives the spirits on: When they arrive before the ruinous sweep There shrieks are heard, there lamentations, moans, And blasphemies.

- Dante: Inf. c. V. (Cary's trans.).

{73a} Amidst eternal ice.—Cp.:

Thither . . . all the damned are brought . . . and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce! From beds of raging fire to starve in ice Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine Immoveable, infix'd and frozen round Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.

- Par. Lost, II. 597-603.

{85a} Better to reign.—This speech of Lucifer is very Miltonic; compare especially -

—in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell; Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

- Par. Lost, I. 261-3.

{85b} Revenge is sweet.—Cp.:

Revenge, at first though sweet Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils.

- Par. Lost, IX. 171-2.

{87a} This enterprize.—Cp.:

—this enterprize None shall partake with me.

- Par. Lost, II. 465.

{95a} Barristers.—The word cyfarthwyr, here rendered "barristers," really means "those who bark," which is probably only a pun of the Bard's on cyfarchwyr—"those who address (the court)."

{95b} Sir Edmundbury Godfrey.—A London magistrate who took prominent part against the Catholics in the reign of Charles II. At the time the panic which the villainy of Titus Oates had fomented was at its height, Sir Edmundbury was found dead on Primrose Hill, with his sword through his body; his tragic end was attributed to the Papists, and many innocent persons suffered torture and death for their supposed complicity in his murder.

{102a} Einion the son of Gwalchmai.—This is a reference to a fable entitled "Einion and the Lady of the Greenwood," where the bard is led astray by "a graceful, slender lady of elegant growth and delicate feature, her complexion surpassing every red and every white in early dawn, the snow-flake on the mountain-side, and every beauteous colour in the blossoms of wood, meadow, and hill." (v. Iolo MSS.) Einion was an Anglesey bard, flourishing in the twelfth century.

{104a} Walking round the church.—Referring to a superstitious custom in vogue in some parts of Wales as late as the beginning of the present century. On All Souls' Night the women-folk gathered together at the parish church, each with a candle in her hand; the sexton then came round and lit the candies, and as these burnt brightly or fitfully, so would the coming year prove prosperous or adverse. When the last candle died out, they solemnly march round the church twice or thrice, then home in silence, and in their dreams that night, their fated husbands would appear to them.

{106a} Cerberus, et seq.—Compare the seven deadly sins in Langland's Vision of Piers Plowman, Pride, Luxury (lecherie), Envy, Wrath, Covetousness, Gluttony, and Sloth. See also Chaucer's Persones Tale, passim. A description of these seven sins occurs very frequently in old authors.

{107a} What brought you here.—Pride is the greatest of all the deadly sins. Compare Spenser's Faery Queen I. c. IV, where "proud Lucifera, as men did call her," was attended by "her six sage counsellors"—the other sins. Shakespere names this sin Ambition:

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition, For by this sin fell the angels.

{108a} Sarah.—v. Apocrypha, the book of Tobit, c. VI.

{110a} If she and her scholars—Cp.:

At nos virtutes ipsas invertimus atque sincerum cupimus vas incrustare. probus quis nobiscum vivit multum demissus homo: illi tardo cognomen pingui damus. his fugit omnes insidias nullique malo latus obdit apertum pro bene sano at non incauto fictum astutumque vocamus.

- Horace: Sat. I. iii.

THE END