" "Ha ha," exclaimed
Lucifer, "if I hear rightly ye too are about to suffer disgrace there.
But whatever ye may have done in other kingdoms, I will have none of your
rioting in mine. Wherefore make your peace forthwith under the penalty
of more woes, bodily and spiritual." And at the word I could see many of
the fiends and all the damned, with their tails between their hoofs,
steal away to their holes in fear of a change for the worse.
Then after ordering all to be locked up in their lairs, and punishing and
dismissing the officers whose carelessness had allowed them to break
loose, Lucifer and his counsellors returned to the court, and sat once
more upon the fiery thrones, according to their rank; and when silence
had been obtained, and the court cleared, a burly, lob-shouldered devil
threw down at the bar a fresh load of prisoners. "Is this the way to
Paradise?" asked one (for they had no idea where they were). "Or if this
be Purgatory," said another, "I have a dispensation under the Pope's own
signet to pass straight on to Paradise, without a moment's delay
anywhere; wherefore show us the way, or by the Pope's toe, we will have
him punish you.
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