156 ROGER OF WENDOVER . [A.D . 1190. dipped in the foetid lake ; at another, breaking forth from thence, they were devoured by the volumes of flame which met them, and at length, in fluctuating balls of tire, as if sparks from a furnace were tossed on high, and fell to the bottom of the other bank ; they were again restored to the whirlings of the winds, the cold of the snow, and the asperity of the hail ; then, thrown forth from thence, and as if flying from the violent* of the storms, they were again thrust back into the stench of the lake, and the burnings of the raging fire. Some were tortured by the cold, some by the heat, for a long time, and some Avere kept for a long period in the stink of the lake. I saw others, like olives in a press, pressed and jammed together in the midst of the (lames so incessantly, that it is horrible to relate. Of all those then who were there tortured, the condition was this, that for the fulfilment of their purification they were compelled to pass through the whole surface of that lake from the beginning to the end. There was, however, a very great and manifold distinction amongst those who were tortured in this place, for some of them were allowed an easy and quick transit, according to their merits, and the assistance rendered to them after their death ; whilst those guilty of trreater crimes, or less assisted by the masses of their friends, were punished more severely and for a longer time : but to all of them, the nearer they approached the end of the lake the less severe was the torture remaining to be endured, for those who were placed at the beginning, felt the punishment most severely, although all did not sutler alike : and the lightest torments of that place were more cruel than the most severe ones of the place we saw before. In this place of punishment I found and recognised many more acquaintances than J had seen in the first purgatory, and with some indeed I conversed. Amongst them 1 recognized a certain goldsmith who had been well known to me in life : but my guide, seeing me look at him earnestly, inquired if I knew him, and on his learning that he had been well known to me, he said, "I f you know him, speak to him." liut the spirit looking at ns, and recognizing us with a gesture of unspeakable delight, gave praise to the man. niv guide, and with out-stretched hands, and by a frequent bending of the whole of its body, worshipped him, and making obeisance, thanked