Page:History of Nicolas Pedrosa, and his escape from the Inquisition in Madrid.pdf/6

 break the eal; let the fathers read it, if they like, 'twill prove the truth of my depoition, and help out my excue for the hurry of my errand and the unfortunate adventure of my damned refractory mule."———And now so ooner had the recollection of the wayward mule croed the brain poor Nicolas Pedroa, than he began to blather at a furious rate———"The cratches and the cars to boot confound thy curvy hide," quoth he "thou as-begotten batard, whom Noah never let into his ark! The vengeance take thee for an uncreated barren beat of promicuous generation What devil's crotchet get into thy capricious noddle, that thou hould't fall in love with that Nazaritih-bell, and run bellowing like Lucifer into the midt of thoe 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 tead; but I warrant thou are chewing thy barley traw without any pity for thy wretched mater, whom thy jade's tricks have delivered bodily to the tormentors, to be port for thee uncircumcied ons of Dagon." And now the cell door opened, when a avage figure entered, carrying a huge parcel of clanking fetters, with a collar of iron, which he put round the neck of poor Pedroa, telling him with a truly diabolical grin whilt he was riveting it on, that it was a proper cravat for the throat of a blaphemer.———"Jeu Maria," quoth Pedroa, " is all this fallen upon me for only cudgelling a retive mule!" "Aye," cried the demon, "and this is only a tate of what is to come," at the ame time flipping his pincers from the crew he was forcing to the head, he caught a piece of fleh in the forceps, and wrenched it out of his cheek, laughing at poor Nicolas,