And the small free-holders around them must either vainly follow
or give bail for them, resulting in their own ruin, the loss of their
possessions, and the sale of their patrimony, or expect to be hated and
despised, and forced to every idle pursuit. Oh how nobly they swear to
gain the confidence of their minions or of their tradesmen, and when
decked out in their finery, how contemptuously they look upon many an
officer of importance in church and state, as if such were mere worms
compared with them. Woe's me, is not all blood of one color? Was it not
the same way that ye all entered the world?" "For all that, craving your
pardon," said the knight, "there are some births purer than others."
"For the great doom all your carcases are the same," said the imp,
"everyone of you is defiled by the sin that took its origin in Adam."
But, sir," continued he, "if your blood is aught better than another, the
less scum will there be when shortly it will be bubbling through your
body, and if there be more, we must examine you, part by part, through
fire and through water." Thereupon, a devil in the shape of a fiery
chariot receives him, and the other mockingly lifts him thereinto, and
away he goes with the speed of lightning.
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