III

But Peter now grew old, and had

An ill no doctor could unravel; His torments almost drove him mad;Some said it was a fever bad

Some swore it was the gravel.

IV

His holy friends then came about,
And with long preaching and per-
suasion,

Convinced the patient that, without
The smallest shadow of a doubt,

He was predestined to damnation.

V

They said "Thy name is Peter Bell; Thy skin is of a brimstone hue; Alive or dead-ay, sick or well

And said, that with his clenched teeth, He'd seize the earth from underneath, And drag it with him down to hell.

X

As he was speaking came a spasm, And wrenched his gnashing teeth asunder;

Like one who sees a strange phantasm He lay, there was a silent chasm

Between his upper jaw and under.

XI

And yellow death lay on his face;

And a fixed smile that was not human Told, as I understand the case, That he was gone to the wrong place:I heard all this from the old woman.

XII

VI

Then Peter set up such a yell!—

The nurse, who with some water gruel Was climbing up the stairs, as well As her old legs could climb them-fell, And broke them both-the fall was cruel.

VII

The Parson from the casement leapt Into the lake of Windermere— And many an eel-though no adept In God's right reason for it-kept Gnawing his kidneys half a year.

VIII

And all the rest rushed through the door,
And tumbled over one another,
And broke their skulls.-Upon the floor
Meanwhile sat Peter Bell, and swore,

And cursed his father and his mother;

IX

And raved of God, and sin, and death, Blaspheming like an infidel;

Pike

A cloud, with lightning, wind and hail ; It swept over the mountains like

An ocean, and I heard it strike

The woods and crags of Grasmere vale.

XIII

And I saw the black storm come

Nearer, minute after minute; Its thunder made the cataracts dumb; With hiss, and clash, and hollow hum, It neared as if the Devil was in it.

XIV

The Devil was in it :-he had bought Peter for half-a-crown; and when The storm which bore him vanished, nought

That in the house that storm had caught Was ever seen again.

XV

The gaping neighbours came next day— They found all vanished from the shore :

The Bible, whence he used to pray,
Half scorched under a hen-coop lay;

Smashed glass--and nothing more!

And after waiting some few days For a new livery-dirty yellow Turned up with black-the wretched fellow

Was bowled to Hell in the Devil's chaise.

PART THE THIRD

HELL

I

HELL is a city much like LondonA populous and a smoky city; There are all sorts of people undone, And there is little or no fun done;

VI

There is a great talk of revolutionAnd a great chance of despotism— German soldiers--camps-confusionTumults-lotteries-rage-delusion

Gin-suicide-and methodism.

VII

Taxes too, on wine and bread,

And meat, and beer, and tea, and
cheese,

From which those patriots pure are fed,
Who gorge before they reel to bed
The tenfold essence of all these.

VIII

(Like cats, who amant miserè,1) Of their own virtue, and pursuing Their gentler sisters to that ruin, Without which-what were chastity?2

1 One of the attributes in Linnæus's description of the Cat. To a similar cause the caterwauling of more than one species of this genus is to be referred; - except, indeed, that the poor quadruped is compelled to quarrel with its own pleasures, whilst the biped is supposed only to quarrel with those of others.

2 What would this husk and excuse for a virtue be without its kernel prostitution, or the kernel prostitution without this husk of a virtue? I wonder the women of the town do not form an association, like the Society for the Suppression of Vice, for the support of what may be called the "King, Church, and Constitution" of their order. But this subject is almost too horrible for a joke.

Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman,

Where was Heaven's Attorney General

they

Did all that men of their own trim

smile And kissed him with a sister's kiss,