And weighed down wns his soul ns by a mill-stone, To have for paltry gold the Lord defrauded. Hut yet the fiend to further evil drove him ; And so ho cried : " Yet forty hours accord me ! " And when the forty hours were passed and over, Tho Lord upon him in his wrath descended, And threatening cried, " My Temple, Baphometus ! " Then fell he on his face and begged for mercy, All trembling ; but tho Master-builder nnswercd : " Because with empty lies thon hast deceived me, And for a purso of paltry gold hast bartered My stone which I had lent theo for my Temple, Behold ! now also I will cast theo from me, And will by Mammon's very self chastize thee, Until one day there shall arise to save thee, Sprung from thino own seed, one that shall deliver." Then took tho Lord tho purso filled with gold pieces, And shook into a cruciblo the pieces ; Then set the crucible in burning sunlight, Till to a liquid mass the gold wns molten ; Then in the crucible he dipped one finger And stretched the finger out to Baphometus, His brow, his chin, his right and left checks daubing With molten gold, the gold his purso had yielded. Then changed in countcnanco was Baphometus, Like flames of firo his lurid eyes were rolling, His noso became a hooked beak of vulture, His tongue from out his throat protruded bleeding, The flesh that clothed his hollow cheek was shrunken, And from his hair came actual serpents growing, And from tho serpents sprouted horns of devils. The Lord then raised his gold-anointed finger, Aud pressed it on the heart of Baphometus ; Then was his heart set bleeding and was shrivelled, And all his limbs were bleeding and wero shrivelled, And dropped away, first one and then the other, And last of all tho whole trunk sank in ashes ; The head alone continued gilt and living, And where the trunk was, sprouted feet of dragons, Which blasted from the earth all living juice6 ; The bleeding heart which even ns he touched it, 108 THE TEMTLAItS IX CTPROS. [ACT