acquainted with Hell, when the
house thou didst keep was Hell? Go, hell-dog, to thy punishment."

At this moment appeared ten devils with their burdens, which they cast
upon the fiery floor, puffing terribly. "What have you there?" said
Lucifer. "We have brought," said one of the fiendish carriers, "five
things which were called kings the day before yesterday." (I looked
attentively and beheld in one of them old Louis of France.) "Fling them
here," said the king; whereupon they were flung to the other crowned
heads, under the feet of Lucifer.

It was not long before I heard the sound of a brazen trumpet, and a
crying of room! room! room! After waiting a little time, what should be
coming but a drove of sessions folk, the devils carrying six lumps of
justices and a thousand of their fry--consisting of lawyers, attornies,
clerks, recorders, bailiffs, catchpoles, and pettifoggers of the courts.
I was surprised that none of them attempted to cross-question; but they
perceived that the matter was gone against them too far, and so, not one
of these learned disputers opened his mouth; only a pettifogger of the
courts said, that he would lay a plaint of false imprisonment against
Lucifer. "You shall now have cause enough to complain," said the Fiend,
"and yet never have an opportunity of seeing a court with your eyes."
Then, putting on his red cap, Lucifer, with an arrogant, insufferable
look, said, "take the justices to the dungeon of Pontius Pilate and Mr.
Bradshaw, who condemned king Charles. Parch the lawyers in company with
the murderers of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, {100} and their double-tongued
brethren, who dispute with one another, for no other purpose than to be
the ruin of any one who comes betwixt them. Let them greet that
provident lawyer--for they will find him here--who offered on his death
bed a thousand pounds for a clear conscience. Let them greet him, and
ask, whether he is now willing to give any thing more. Roast them with
their own parchment and papers; hang the pettifoggers above them, with
their nostrils downwards, in the roasting chimneys, to receive the smoke,
and to see whether they can get their belly-full of law. As for the
recorders, let them be cast among the forestallers, who detain the corn
or buy it up and mix it, and then sell the unsound for double the price
of the pure corn; just as the former demand double the fees for _wrong_,
which were formerly given for _right_. As for the c