And all that company started back; first AZRAEL grimly smiled,
The smile that an East-End Coster smiles, by a stout policeman
riled;
And BUDDHA made no remark at all, but nodded his heavy head,
Like a boy who has eaten too much dessert, and wants to be put to
bed.

And the Muses Nine, as they stood in line, they shuddered and
turned to go.
"A joke's a joke, but I can't bear fleas," said CLIO to ERATO.
And the Graces, the good Conservative Three, shrank back to a spot
remote,
And observed that they knew that this would come from letting the
Masses vote.

Then AZRAEL spake--"On the Stygian lake I floated a half-sinned sin
On the crest of a cross-grained stickleback, that is caught with a
crooked pin;
For a year and a day I watched it whirl, but never that sin could be
One-half so base as your gruesome face, O Soul of a Sundered Flea!

"What ill have ye done? Speak up, speak up!--for this is no place,
I trow,
For the puling people on virtue fed. So speak, or prepare to go."
But the Flea flew free from the pincers' grip, and uttered a
single phrase--
"I have lived on blood, as a gentleman should, and that is my
claim to praise."

Then a shout of joy from the throng went forth; they built him a