I dare say she will give me a place about the palace." And with this
hopeful reflection his mind was eased, and, being now at the entrance
of the banqueting hall, he thanked his conductor, and ran hastily with
joyful eyes to Margaret. He came in sight of the table--she was gone.
Peter was gone too. Nobody was at the table at all; only a citizen in
sober garments had just tumbled under it dead drunk, and several persons
were raising him to carry him away. Gerard never guessed how important
this solemn drunkard was to him: he was looking for "Beauty," and
let the "Beast" lie. He ran wildly round the hall, which was now
comparatively empty. She was not there. He left the palace: outside he
found a crowd gaping at two great fan-lights just lighted over the gate.
He asked them earnestly if they had seen an old man in a gown, and a
lovely girl pass out. They laughed at the question. "They were staring
at these new lights that turn night into day. They didn't trouble their
heads about old men and young wenches, every-day sights." From another
group he learned there was a Mystery being played under canvas hard by,
and all the world gone to see it. This revived his hopes, and he went
and saw the Mystery.

In this representation divine personages, too sacred for me to name
here, came clumsily down from heaven to talk sophistry with the cardinal
Virtues, the nine Muses, and the seven deadly sins, all present in
human shape, and not unlike one another. To enliven which weary stuff
in rattled the Prince of the power of the air, and an imp that kept
molesting him and buffeting him with a bladder, at each thwack of which
the crowd were in ecstasies. When the Vices had uttered good store of
obscenity and the Virtues twaddle, the celestials, including the nine
Muses went gingerly back to heaven one by one; for there was but one
cloud; and two artisans worked it tip with its supernatural freight,
and worked it down with a winch, in full sight of the audience. These