nial; who
traffic with religion, and, like avaricious Jews, lay out their capital
at interest, for the purpose of securing a comfortable berth for their
miserable souls; and who worship God from fear, and tremble before Him
like slaves.

The devils, who, to say the truth, are no better masters than the Polish,
Livonian, and Hungarian nobility, drove them about in hell at a furious
rate. Others were sweating in the infernal kitchen, and cooking the meal
for their haughty lords--an unpleasant service for a soul which had once
supported its own human body by eating and drinking. For although the
devils originally neither ate nor drank, yet they had learnt from men the
custom of celebrating every solemnity by means of the glass and platter;
and on such occasions they feast on souls. The general of each legion
(for hell is arranged on a military footing, and in this respect
resembles every despotic government, or rather every despotic government
in this respect resembles hell) chooses a certain number of damned souls,
as food for his subalterns. These are delivered over to the slaves, who
stew, broil, and baste them with infernal sauce. It frequently happens
that these wretches have to stick their own wives, daughters, fathers,
sons, or brothers upon the spits, and to keep up the purgatorial fire
beneath them; a truly horrible and tragic employment, rendered yet more
so, since their overseer, a capricious devil, like all understrappers of
great lords, stands behind them with a whip in order to expedite the
work. On the present occasion two popes, a conqueror, a celebrated
philosopher, and a recently canonised saint, were intended to feast the
palates of Satan, his viziers, and his favourites. Abundance of fresh
victuals had just arrived for the common people. The pope had a little
time before set by the ears two armies of French, Italians, Spaniards,
and Germans, in order to fish up in the tumult certain districts, to add
to the patrimony of St. Peter. They fought like heroes, and fell by
thousands into the infernal regions. What happiness would it be for the
souls intended for these devilish repasts, if they were thereby to find
an end to their torments! But no sooner are they swallowed, digested,
and returned piecemeal into the pools of hell than they are regenerated,
and arise to become the patients of new suffering.

While these victims were writhing on the spits, the cellarers and
butlers, slaves of the abov