Welsh literature -- 18th century; Welsh literature -- Translations into English; Wynne, Ellis, 1671-1734
Thence we still descended until I saw an immense cavern wherein was such
fearful clamor that I had never heard the like before—swearing, cursing,
blaspheming, snarling, groaning and yelling. “Whom have we here?” I
asked. “This,” answered he, “is the Den of Thieves; here are myriads of
foresters, lawyers and stewards, with old Judas in their midst.” And it
grieved them sorely to behold a pack of tailors and weavers above them in
a more comfortable chamber. Hardly had I turned round when a demon, in
the shape of a steed, bore in a physician, and an apothecary, and hurled
them into the midst of the pedlars and horse cheats, because they had
sold worthless drugs. And they too began murmuring against being
allotted to such low society. “Stay, stay,” cried one of the devils, “ye
deserve a better place,” and he pitched them down amongst conquerors and
murderers. There were vast numbers in here for playing false dice and
cheating at cards, but before I had time to observe them closely, I could
hear by the door a huge crowd in wild tumult and shouts—_hai_, _hw_,
_ptrw-how-ho-o-o-p_—as of cattle being driven along. I turned round to
see the cause of it, but could perceive only the hornèd demons. I
enquired of my Guide if there were cuckolds with the devils. “No,” said
he, “they are in another cell; these are drovers who wished to escape to
the prison of the Sabbath-breakers, and are sent here against their
will.” Thereupon I look and saw that they had on their heads the horns
of sheep and kine; and those that were driving them on, cast them down
beneath the feet of blood-stained robbers. “Lie there,” said one,
“however much ye feared footpads on the London road erstwhile, ye
yourselves were the very worst class of highwaymen, who made your living
on the road and on robbery, yea and by the perishing of many a poor
family whom ye left in hunger, vainly hoping for the sustenance of their
possessions, while ye were in Ireland or in the King’s Bench laughing at
them, or on the road with your wine and lemans.” On leaving the
furnace-like cave, I caught a glimpse of a haunt, which for loathsome,
stinking abomination, went beyond anything (with one sole exception) that
I had set my eyes upon in hell,—where an accursed herd of drunken swine
lay weltering in the foulest slime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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