into the presence of the King of Terrors himself, who, seated on a throne
with Fate and Time on either hand, deals out their doom to the prisoners
as they come before him. Four fiddlers, a King from the neighbourhood of
Rome with a papal dispensation to pass right through to Paradise, a
drunkard and a harlot, and lastly seven corrupt recorders, are condemned
to the land of Despair.

Another group of seven prisoners have just been brought to the bar, when
a letter comes from Lucifer concerning them; he requests that Death
should let these seven return to the world or else keep them within his
own realm--they were far too dangerous to be allowed to enter Hell.
Death hesitates, but, urged by Fate, he indites his answer, refusing to
comply with Lucifer's request. The seven are then called and Death bids
his hosts hasten to convey them beyond his limits. The Bard sees them
hurled over the verge beneath the Court of Justice and his spirit so
strives within him at the sight that the bonds of Sleep are sundered and
his soul returns to its wonted functions.


III. THE VISION OF HELL.


The Bard is sauntering, one April morning, on the banks of the Severn,
when his previous visions recur to his mind and he resolves to write them
as a warning to others, and while at this work he falls asleep, and the
Angel once more appears and bears him aloft into space. They reach the
confines of Eternity and descend through Chaos for myriads of miles. A
troop of lost beings are swept past them towards the shores of a death-
like river--the river of the Evil One. After passing through its waters,
the Bard witnesses the tortures the damned suffer at the hands of the