hand of God.
He was taken with a faltering in his speech, a weakness in the back
sinews of his neck, that ofttimes he held up his head by strength of
hand. After this his speech went quite away, and he could speak no
more than a swine or a bear. Like one of them he would gruntle and
make an ugly noise, according as he was offended or pleased, or would
have anything done. He walked about till God had made a sufficient
spectacle of his judgments for his sin, and then, on a sudden, he was
stricken, and died miserably.'

Badman, says Mr. Wiseman, 'had malice enough in his heart' to turn
informer, but he was growing prudent and had an eye to the future. As
a tradesman he had to live by his neighbours. He knew that they would
not forgive him, so 'he had that wit in his anger that he did it not.'
Nothing else was neglected to make the unfortunate wife miserable. She
bore him seven children, also typical figures. 'One was a very
gracious child, that loved its mother dearly. This child Mr. Badman
could not abide, and it oftenest felt the weight of its father's
fingers. Three were as bad as himself. The others that remained became
a kind of mongrel professors, not so bad as their father nor so good
as their mother, but betwixt them both. They had their mother's
notions and their father's actions. Their father did not like them
because they had their mother's tongue. Their mother did not like them
because they had their father's heart and life, nor were they fit
company for good or bad. They were forced with Esau to join in
affinity with Ishmael, to wit, to look out for a people that were
hypocrites like themselves, and with them they matched and lived and
died.'

Badman meanwhile, with the help of his wife's fortune, grew into an
important person, and his character becomes a curious study. 'He
went,' we are told, 'to school with the Devil, from his childhood to
the end of his life.' He was shrewd in matters of business, began to
extend his operations, and 'drove a great trade.' He carried a double
face. He was evil with the evil. He pretended to be good with the
good. In religion he affected to be a freethinker, careless of death
and judgment, and ridiculing those who feared them 'as frighted with
unseen bugbears.' But he wore a mask when it suited him, and admired
himself for the ease with which he could assume whatever aspect was
convenient. 'I can be religious and irreligious,' he said; 'I can be
anything or nothing. I can