This is called the irremeable wall, for once it is passed there is no
hope of return. But since you are so high in the Pope's favor, {54a} you
shall go and get his bed ready with his predecessor, and there you may
kiss his toe for ever, and he, the toe of Lucifer." At the word, four
death-imps raised him up, now trembling like an aspen leaf, and snatched
him away out of sight, with the speed of lightning.
Next after him, came a man and woman; he had been a boon companion, and
she a kind and lavish maid, but there they were called by their plain,
unvarnished names, a drunkard and a harlot. "I hope," said the drunkard,
"I may obtain some favor in your eyes, for I despatched hither on a flood
of good ale many a fatted prey, and when I failed to slay others, I
willingly came myself to feed you." "By the court's leave," said the
minion, "not half so many as I have despatched to you as a burnt offering
ready for table." "Ha, ha," exclaimed Death, "it was to feed your own
accursed lusts, and not me, that all this was done. Let them be bound
together and hurled into the land of darkness." And so they too were
hurried away headlong.
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