SOCRATES. "For fhame! Why, man, thefe are the nurfing mothers "And wonder-making cheats--a gang of idlers, STREPSIADES. "Now I fee "Whom they may thank for driving them along SOCRATES. "And well rewarded: "What better do they merit ? STREPSIADES. Under favour, "If these be clouds, do you mark me? very clouds, "How came they metamorphos'd into women? "Clouds are not fuch as these. “Troth, I can't rightly tell, but I should guess Something like flakes of wool; not women, fure: "And look! thefe dames have nofes, SOCRATES. "Hark ye, friend! "I'll put a question to you.— STREPSIADES. "Out with it! "Be quick; let's have it-Humph! SOCRATES. SOCRATES. "This then in short: "Have you ne'er feen a Cloud, which you could fancy "Shap'd like a centaur, leopard, bull or wolf; STREPSIADES. "Yes, marry have I, and what then? SOCRATES. "Why then, "Clouds can affume what shapes they will, believe me: "For inftance, should they spy fome hairy clown, "Rugged and rough, and like the unlickt cub "Of Xenophantes, ftrait they turn to centaurs, "And kick at him for vengeance. STREPSIADES. "Well done, Clouds! "But fhould they meet that peculating knave "Simon, that public thief-How would they treat him? SOCRATES. "As wolves-in character moft like his own. STREPSIADES. "Aye, there it is now, when they fpied Cleonymus, SOCRATES. "And now, "Having feen Clinkenes, to mock his lewdnefs, "They change themfelves to women. STREPSIADES. "Welcome, Ladies! (to the Chorus.) "And now, fo please your majefties to indulge me, "Give us a touch of your celeftial voices." TANTUM. N° N° CXLII. NICOLAS PEDROSA, a bufy little being, who followed the trades of fhaver, furgeon and manmidwife in the town of Madrid, mounted his mule at the door of his fhop in the Plazuela de los Affligidos, and pushed through the gate of San Bernardino, being called to a patient in the neighbouring village of Foncarral, upon a preffing occafion. Every body knows that the ladies in Spain in certain cafes do not give long warning to practitioners of a certain defcription, and no body knew it better than Nicolas, who was refolved not to lofe an inch of his way, nor of his mule's beft speed by the way, if cudgelling could beat it out of her. It was plain to Nicolas's conviction as plain could be, that his road laid ftrait forward to the little convent in front; the mule was of opinion, that the turning on the left down the hill towards the Prado was the road of all roads most familiar and agreable to herself, and accordingly began to difpute the point of topography with Nicolas by fixing her fore feet refolutely in the ground, dipping her head at the fame time between them, and launching heels and crupper furioufly into the air, in the way of argument. Little Pedrofa, who was armed at heel with one mafly filver spur of ftout, though antient, workmanship, refolutely applied the rusty rowel to the fhoulder of his beaft, driving it with all the good will in the world to the very butt, and at the fame time, adroitly tucking his blue cloth capa under his right arm, and flinging the fkirt over the left fhoul. der en cavalier, began to lay about him with a flout afhen fapling upon the ears, poll and cheeks 1 5 of of the recreant mule. The fire now flashed from a pair of Andalufian eyes, as black as charcoal and not lefs inflammable, and taking the fegara from his mouth, with which he had vainly hoped to have regaled his noftrils in a fharp winter's evening by the way, raifed fuch a thundering troop of angels, faints and martyrs, from St. Michael downwards, not forgetting his own namefake Saint Nicolas de Tolentino by the way, that if curfes could have made the mule to go, the difpute would have been foon ended, but not a faint could make her ftir any other ways than upwards and downwards at a ftand. A fmall troop of mendicant friars were at this moment conducting the hoft to a dying man. -"Nicolas Pedrofa," fays an old friar, " be pati"ent with your beaft and fpare your blafphemies; "remember Balaam."-" Ah father," replied Pedrofa, "Balaam cudgelled his beaft till fhe fpoke, "fo will I mine till the roars."-" Fie, fie, pro"fane fellow," cries another of the fraternity. "Go about your work, friend," quoth Nicolas, "and let me go about mine; I warrant it is the more preffing of the two; your patient is "going out of the world, mine is coming into "it.""Hear him," cries a third, "hear the "vile wretch, how he blafphemes the body of "God."-And then the troop paffed flowly on to the tinkling of the bell. A man must know nothing of a mule's ears, who does not know what a paffion they have for the tinkling of a bell, and no fooner had the jingling chords vibrated in the fympathetic organs of Pedrofa's beaft, than boulting forward with a fudden fpring fhe ran roaring into the throng of friars, trampling on fome and fhouldering others others at a most profane rate; when Nicolas availing himfelf of the impetus, and perhaps not able to controul it, broke away and was out of fight in a moment. "All the devils in hell "blow fire into thy tail, thou beaft of Baby"lon," mutterred Nicolas to himself, as he fcampered along, never once looking behind him. or stopping to apologize for the mifchief he had done to the bare feet and fhirtless ribs of the holy brotherhood. Whether Nicolas faved his distance, as likewife, if he did, whether it was a male or female Caftilian he ushered into the world, we fhall not just now enquire, contented to await his return in the first of the morning next day, when he had no fooner difmounted at his fhop and delivered his. mule to a sturdy Arragonefe wench, than Don Ignacio de Santos Aparicio, alguazil mayor of the fupreme and general inquifition, put an order into his hand, figned and fealed by the inquifidor general, for the conveyance of his body to the Cafa, whose formidable door presents itself in the street adjoining to the fquare, in which Nicolas's, brazen bafin hung forth the emblem of his trade. The poor little fellow, trembling in every joint and with a face as yellow as faffron, dropt a knee to the altar, which fronts the entrance, and croffed himself most devoutly; as foon as he had ascended the first flight of stairs, a porter habited in black opened the tremendous barricade, and Nicolas with horror heard the grating of the heavy bolts that fhut him in. He was led through paffages and vaults and melancholy cells, till he was delivered into the dungeon, where he was finally left to his folitary meditations. Haplefs being! what a fcene of |