But the windows are as thick with
demons as a hive with bees; and oh! the irresponsible levity
displayed in these merry, grotesque, long-nosed creatures, some
flame-coloured and long-tailed, some green and scaly, some plated
like the armadillo, all going about their merciless work with
infinite gusto and glee! Here one picked at the white breast of a
languid, tortured woman who lay bathed in flame; one with a glowing
hook thrust a lamentable big-paunched wretch down into a bath of
molten liquor; one with pleased intentness turned the handle of a
churn, from the top of which protruded the head of a fair-haired
boy, all distorted with pain and terror. What could have been in
the mind of the designer of these hateful scenes? It is impossible
to acquit him of a strong sense of the humorous. Did he believe
that such things were actually in progress in some infernal cavern,
seven times heated? I fear it may have been so. And what of the
effect upon the minds of the village folk who saw them day by day?
It would have depressed, one would think, an imaginative girl or
boy into madness, to dream of such things as being countenanced by
God for the heathen and the unbaptized, as well as for the cruel
and sinful.
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