No more gloom, no more bans and damnings of Holy Church, no more groaning and snivelling in damp cloister and mildewed chapel, no more burnings and hangings and rackings" "Yet," said Beltane, shaking his head, "yet would kings and dukes remain, Christian knights and godly lords to burn and hang and rack the defenceless.

Only my duty...." He began to snivel, taking out from his coat a very dirty pocket-handkerchief and dabbing his face with it.

As single words were not always explosive enough to make a report equal to their feelings, they had recourse to compounds;"pert and prating popinjay," "hackneyed gutscraper," "maggot of corruption," "toad on a dung-heap," "snivelling sophisticating hound," are a few of the chain-shot which strike our eyes in turning over the yellow faded files.

"The damned, canting, sniveling old thief!