aloud at the farce. Tristan and his myrmidons
were advancing to seize him, and he would doubtlessly have paid for
laughing with his life, had not the Devil rescued him from their claws,
and flown away with him. When they arrived at Paris, Faustus said:

"Is it by this contemptible, superstitious, tottering object, that the
bold sons of France allow themselves to be enslaved? He is a mere
skeleton in purple, who can scarcely cough out of his asthmatic throat
the desire to live; yet they tremble before him, as if he were a giant,
whose terrible arms could encircle the whole earth. When the lion,
enfeebled by age, lies languishing in his den, the most insignificant
beasts of the forests are not afraid of him, but approach and mock the
fallen tyrant."

_Devil_. It is this which chiefly distinguishes the king of men from the
king of beasts. The latter is only formidable as long as he can use his
own strength; but the former, who binds the strength of his slaves to his
will, is as powerful when lying on the bed of sickness, as when, in the
vigour of health, he is at the head of his armies. Are you not now
convinced that men are only guided by folly, which dooms them to be
slaves? Break their chains to-day, and they would forge themselves
others to-morrow. Do what you can, they will always go on in the same
eternal circle, and are condemned for ever to seize the shadow for the
reality.

The Devil, having shown Faustus all that was remarkable in and about the
capital of France, took him to Calais; and, crossing the Channel, they
arrived in London at the very moment that hideous abortion, the Duke of
Gloucester, made himself Protector of the kingdom, and was endeavouring
to take away the crown from the children of his brother, the late king.
He had removed the father by means of poison, and had already persuaded
the queen (who, upon the first discovery of his projects, had fled for
refuge, with her children, to Westminster Sanctuary) to deliver up to him
the youthful heir of the throne, together with his brother York. Faustus
was present when Doctor Shaw, by the command of the Protector, informed
the astonished people from the pulpit, that the yet living mother of the
duke and the deceased king had admitted various lovers; that the late
king was the offspring of such adultery; and that no one of the royal
line, except the Protector, could boast of a legitimate birth. He saw
those noblemen executed who would not acce