"
"Although this fellow deserves to be with the flatterers beneath," said
the Evil One, "natheless take him to his comrades in the cell of the
liquid-poisoners, among the apothecaries and drugsters who have concocted
drinks to murder their customers; boil him well for that he did not brew
better beer." "By your leave," began the innkeeper tremblingly, "I
deserve no such treatment, the trade must be carried on." "Couldst thou
not have lived," quoth the Evil One, "without allowing rioting and
gambling, wantonness and drunkenness, oaths and quarrels, slanders and
lies? and wouldst thou, old hell-hound, now live better than we?
Prithee, tell what evil have we here which thou hadst not at thine home,
save the punishment alone? Indeed, to speak the plain truth here, the
infernal heat and cold are nothing new to thee. Hast thou not seen
sparks of our fire upon the tongues of the cursers and the scolds, whilst
dragging their husbands home? Was there not a deal of the undying flame
on the drunkard's lips or in the eyes of the angry? And couldst thou not
perceive a trace of hellish cold in the rake's generosity, and especially
in thine own kindness towards him as long as he had anything in his
possession; in the mocker's jest; in the praise of the envious and of the
defamer, in the promises of the lecherous, or in the limbs of thy boon
companions, benumbed beneath thy tables? Is hell strange to thee whose
very home is a hell? Aroint thee, flamhound, to thy penance!"
After that ten devils, panting heavily, drop their burdens upon the fiery
floor.
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