break the ſeal; let the fathers read it, if they like, 'twill prove the truth of my depoſition, and help out my excuſe for the hurry of my errand and the unfortunate adventure of my damned refractory mule."———And now so ſooner had the recollection of the wayward mule croſſed the brain poor Nicolas Pedroſa, than he began to blather at a furious rate———"The ſcratches and the ſcars to boot confound thy ſcurvy hide," quoth he "thou aſs-begotten baſtard, whom Noah never let into his ark! The vengeance take thee for an uncreated barren beaſt of promiſcuous generation What devil's crotchet get into thy capricious noddle, that thou ſhould'ſt fall in love with that Nazaritiſh-bell, and run bellowing like Lucifer into the midſt of thoſe barefooted vermin, who are more malicious and more greedy than the locusts of Egypt? Oh! that I had the art of Simon Magus, to conjure you into this dungeon in my ſtead; but I warrant thou are chewing thy barley ſtraw without any pity for thy wretched maſter, whom thy jade's tricks have delivered bodily to the tormentors, to be ſport for theſe uncircumciſed ſons of Dagon." And now the cell door opened, when a ſavage figure entered, carrying a huge parcel of clanking fetters, with a collar of iron, which he put round the neck of poor Pedroſa, telling him with a truly diabolical grin whilſt he was riveting it on, that it was a proper cravat for the throat of a blaſphemer.———"Jeſu Maria," quoth Pedroſa, " is all this fallen upon me for only cudgelling a reſtive mule!" "Aye," cried the demon, "and this is only a taſte of what is to come," at the ſame time flipping his pincers from the ſcrew he was forcing to the head, he caught a piece of fleſh in the forceps, and wrenched it out of his cheek, laughing at poor Nicolas,
