"Ha ha," cried one of the devils, "we know the merit of most
of your forebears, were you like your father, or great-great-grandsire,
we would not have deigned to touch you. But thou, thou art but the heir
of utter darkness, vile whelp, thou art hardly worth a night's lodging;
and yet thou shalt have some nook to await the dawn." And at the word
the impetuous monster pierces him with his pitchfork, and after whirling
him thirty times through the fiery welkin, hurled him into a hole out of
sight. "That is right enough for a half-blood squire," said the other,
"but I hope ye will be better mannered towards a knight who has served
the king in person; twelve earls and fifty knights can I recount from
mine own ancient line." "If thine ancestors, and thy long pedigree are
all thy plea, thou canst go the same gate," quoth a devil, "for we
remember scarce one old estate of large extent which some oppressor, some
murderer or robber has not founded, leaving it to others as arrant as
they, to idle blockheads or to drunken swine. To maintain lavish pomp,
they had to grind their vassals and tenants, and if there be a beautiful
pony or a fine cow which my lady covets, she will have them, and well it
happens if the daughters, yea, even the wives, escape the lust of their
lord.
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