Page:The Ingoldsby Legends (Frowde, 1905).pdf/457

 To whom is the name of Cornelius Agrippa otherwise than familiar, since a 'Magician,' of renown not inferior to his own, has brought him and his terrible 'Black Book' again before the world?—That he was celebrated, among other exploits, for raising the Devil, we are all well aware;—how he performed this feat,—at least one, and that, perhaps, the most certain method, by which he did it,—is thus described.

ND hast thou nerve enough?' he said,

That grey Old Man, above whose head

Unnumber'd years had roll'd,—

And hast thou nerve to view,' he cried,

The incarnate Fiend that Heaven defied!—

—Art thou indeed so bold?'

'Say, canst Thou, with unshrinking gaze,

Sustain, rash youth, the withering blaze

Of that unearthly eye,

That blasts where'er it lights,—the breath

That, like the Simoom, scatters death

On all that yet can die!

—'Darest thou confront that fearful form,

That rides the whirlwind, and the storm,

In wild unholy revel!—

The terrors of that blasted brow,

Archangel's once,—though ruin'd now—

—Aye,—dar'st thou face ?'—

'I dare!' the desperate Youth replied,

And placed him by that Old Man's side,

In fierce and frantic glee,

Unblench'd his cheek, and firm his limb

—No paltry juggling Fiend, but !

——I fain would see!—

'In all his Gorgon terrors clad,

His worst, his fellest shape!' the Lad

Rejoin'd in reckless tone.—

—'Have then thy wish!' Agrippa said,

And sigh'd and shook his hoary head,

With many a bitter groan.