Page:Betelguese, a trip through hell.djvu/75

Rh To some old seer, whose head is bare,

And oily snakes in cauldrons squirm,

All blast the sight and curse this shoal,—

Infernal land of Sin and Doom!

Eternal moans and sighs we hear;

A swarthy demon laughs with glee.

Then, thickly from a ghastly hole

The turbid dyes of blood doth bloom

From minxes bold, crouched with giant fear,

Provoke a sage who could not see,

With feelings for her impeached soul.

Low arches of a charnel house,

Above whose dome two demons sit,

That guard the lamps of fateful red,

Veiled whispers from a maiden's soul

Cleave skyward until they arrouse

A savage hound of hell with script

That holds her body's deeds. A-bed,

He peers thro' shades unto her shoal,

Then at his tome where sins are wrote