ng, and strong groans, swearing, cursing, and
blaspheming, till I would have consented to part with mine ears, that I
might not hear. Ere we moved a foot farther, we could hear a terrible
tumbling sound, and if we had not suddenly slipped aside, hundreds of
unfortunate men would have fallen upon us, who were coming headlong, in
excessive hurry, to take possession of their bad purchase, with a host of
devils driving them. "O, sir," said one devil, "take it easy, lest you
should ruffle your curling locks. Madam, do you wish for an easy
cushion? I am afraid that you will be out of all order by the time you
come to your couch," said he to another.

The strangers were exceedingly averse to going forward, insisting that
they were out of their road; but notwithstanding all they could say, go
they did, and we behind them, to a black flood of great magnitude, and
through it they went, and we across it, my companion holding the
celestial water continually to my nostrils, to strengthen me against the
stench of the river, and against the time when I should see some of the
inhabitants of the place, for hitherto I had not beheld so much as one
devil, though I had heard the voices of many. "Pray, my lord," said I,
"what is the name of this putrid river?" "The river of the Fiend," said
he, "in which all his subjects are bathed, in order that they may be
rendered fit for the country. For this accursed water changes their
countenance, and washes away from them every relic of goodness, every
semblance of hope and of comfort." And, indeed, on gazing upon the host
after it had come through, I could distinguish no difference in deformity
between the devils and the damned. Some of the latter would fain have
sculked at the bottom of the river, and have lain there to all eternity,
in a state of strangulation, lest they should get a worse bed father on;
but here the proverb was verified, that "he must needs run whom the Devil
drives," for with the devils behind, the damned were compelled to go
forward unto the beach, to their eternal damnation; where I at the first
glance saw more pains and torments than the heart of man can imagine or
the tongue relate; a single one of which was sufficient to make the hair
stand erect, the blood to freeze, the flesh to melt, the bones to drop
from their places--yea, the spirit to faint. What is empaling or sawing
men alive, tearing off the flesh piecemeal with iron pincers, or broiling
the flesh with c