e font, the
altar, and the grave; which gave rise to a train of moral reflections
on the three great epochs in the course of the _featherless
biped_,--birth, marriage, and death. The middle stage of the process
arrested his attention; and his imagination placed before him several
figures, which he thought, with the addition of his own, would make a
very picturesque group; the beautiful Cephalis, "arrayed in her bridal
apparel of white;" her friend Caprioletta officiating as bridemaid; Mr
Cranium giving her away; and, last, not least, the Reverend Doctor
Gaster, intoning the marriage ceremony with the regular orthodox
allowance of nasal recitative. Whilst he was feasting his eyes on this
imaginary picture, the demon of mistrust insinuated himself into the
storehouse of his conceptions, and, removing his figure from the
group, substituted that of Mr Panscope, which gave such a violent
shock to his feelings, that he suddenly exclaimed, with an
extraordinary elevation of voice, _Oimoi kakodaimon, kai tris
kakodaimon, kai tetrakis, kai pentakis, kai dodekakis, kai
muriakis!_[9.1] to the great terror of the sexton, who was just
entering the churchyard, and, not knowing from whence the voice
proceeded, _pensa que fut un diableteau_. The sight of the philosopher
dispelled his apprehensions, when, growing suddenly valiant, he
immediately addressed him:--

"Cot pless your honour, I should n't have thought of meeting any pody
here at this time of the morning, except, look you, it was the
tevil--who, to pe sure, toes not often come upon consecrated
cround--put for all that, I think I have seen him now and then, in
former tays, when old Nanny Llwyd of Llyn-isa was living--Cot teliver
us! a terriple old witch to pe sure she was--I tid n't much like
tigging her crave--put I prought two cocks with me--the tevil hates
cocks--and tied them py the leg on two tombstones--and I tug, and the
cocks crowed, and the tevil kept at a tistance. To pe sure now, if I
had n't peen very prave py nature--as I ought to pe truly--for my
father was Owen Ap-Llwyd Ap-Gryffydd Ap-Shenkin Ap-Williams Ap-Thomas
Ap-Morgan Ap-Parry Ap-Evan Ap-Rhys, a coot preacher and a lover of
_cwrw_[9.2]--I should have thought just now pefore I saw your honour,
that the foice I heard was the tevil's calling Nanny Llwyd--Cot pless
us! to pe sure she should have been puried in the middle of the river,
where the tevil can't come, as your honour fery well knows."

"I am perfec