r, on a flaming throne, the Arch-Fiend was seated, his
principal lost angels on both sides of him, on thrones of fire terrible
to behold--sitting according to their former rank in the regions of
light, when they were amiable messengers. It would only be in vain to
endeavour to relate how obscene and horrible they were; and the longer I
looked at any one of them, seven times more hideous he appeared. In the
midst, above the head of Lucifer, was a vast fist, holding a very
frightful bolt. The princesses, after making their obeisance, returned
to the world to their charges, without making any stay. As soon as they
had departed, a gigantic, wide-mouthed devil, by command of the king,
uttered a shout louder than a hundred discharges of artillery, as loud if
possible as the last trumpet, for the purpose of summoning the infernal
parliament. And lo! the rabble of Hell instantly filled the palace and
the porch in every shape, after the image and similitude of the principal
sin, which each delighted to thrust upon mankind. After commanding
silence, Lucifer, with his look directed to the potentates nearest to
him, began to speak, very graciously, in the following manner:--

"Ye potentates of Hell! princes of the black abodes of Despair! Though
by our confederacy we have lost possession of those thrones, from which
we once shone resplendent through the higher regions; our confederacy
was, nevertheless, a glorious one, as we aimed at nothing less than the
whole. And we have not lost the whole either; for lo! the extensive and
profound regions, to the extremest wilds of vast Destruction, are yet
beneath our sway. It is true we reign in horrible agony; but spirits of
our eminence prefer ruling in torment to serving in ease. And besides
this, we are on the eve of obtaining another world, more than three parts
of the earth having been beneath my banner for a long time.

"And although the Almighty Enemy, sent his own son to die for the beings
of that world; yet I, by my baubles, obtain ten souls, for every one
which he obtains by his crucified son. And although I have not been able
to reach him, who sits in the high places and discharges the invincible
thunderbolts, yet revenge of some kind is sweet. Let us complete the
destruction of the remnant of human beings, still in the favour of our
destroyer. I remember the time, when you caused them to be burnt by
multitudes and cities, and even the whole race of the earth, by means