ave, strong, nimble, and adventurous, who had
no other care but to fight and drink. There, by reason of the cold (as
Virgil witnesseth), men break wine with axes. To their minds, when once
they were dead and gotten to Valhalla, or the place of their Gods, there
would be no other pleasure but to swig, tipple, drink, and boose till
the coming of that last darkness and Twilight, wherein they, with their
deities, should do battle against the enemies of all mankind; which day
they rather desired than dreaded.

So chanced it also with Pantagruel and Brother John and their company,
after they had once partaken of the secret of the _Dive Bouteille_.
Thereafter they searched no longer; but, abiding at their ease, were
merry, frolic, jolly, gay, glad, and wise; only that they always and
ever did expect the awful Coming of the Coqcigrues. Now concerning the
day of that coming, and the nature of them that should come, they knew
nothing; and for his part Panurge was all the more adread, as Aristotle
testifieth that men (and Panurge above others) most fear that which they
know least. Now it chanced one day, as they sat at meat, with viands
rare, dainty, and precious as ever Apicius dreamed of, that there
fluttered on the air a faint sound as of sermons, speeches, orations,
addresses, discourses, lectures, and the like; whereat Panurge, pricking
up his ears, cried, 'Methinks this wind bloweth from Midlothian,' and so
fell a trembling.

Next, to their aural orifices, and the avenues audient of the brain,
was borne a very melancholy sound as of harmoniums, hymns, organ-pianos,
psalteries, and the like, all playing different airs, in a kind most
hateful to the Muses. Then said Panurge, as well as he might for
the chattering of his teeth: 'May I never drink if here come not the
Coqcigrues!' and this saying and prophecy of his was true and inspired.
But thereon the others began to mock, flout, and gird at Panurge for
his cowardice. 'Here am I!' cried Brother John, 'well-armed and ready
to stand a siege; being entrenched, fortified, hemmed-in and surrounded
with great pasties, huge pieces of salted beef, salads, fricassees,
hams, tongues, pies, and a wilderness of pleasant little tarts, jellies,
pastries, trifles, and fruits of all kinds, and I shall not thirst
while I have good wells, founts, springs, and sources of Bordeaux wine,
Burgundy, wine of the Champagne country, sack and Canary. A fig for thy
Coqcigrues!'

But even as he spoke