Λ.ι. 110«.] VISIONS 01·' I'LKOATOKV 157 him much for kindnesses conferred on him. A s he frequently ν cried out, ' Holy Nicholas, have pity on ine,' I was pka.-etl to recognize the name of my dear protector, St. Nicholas, from whom I hoped to obtain salvation both of body and soul. On my then asking the goldsmith how he had thus quickly gone through the cruel torments 1 had seen him suffering, he answered, ' You, my friend,' said he, 'and all my acquaintances, who, during my life, saw that ail the supports of the Christian faith were denied ine, such as confession and the viaticum, considered me a lost man, not knowing the mercy of my lord, who is with me, namely, St. Nicholas, who did not sutler me, his unhappy servant, to undergo the death of everlasting damnation ; for now and ever, since I have been consigned to this place of punishment, when I was suffering under a severe torture, I have been refreshed by the visitation of his compassion. For in gold working, in which art I, in my life-time, committed many frauds, I now make most severe atonement, since I am frequently thrown into a heap of burning money, and most intolerably scorched ; being often compelled to swallow with gaiing mouth those very coins, which consume my internal parts ; and moreover, am often obliged to count these, coins, and feel my hands and fingers consumed and burned by them.' I then asked him, if men could by any remedy avoid such a dreadful torture ; to which he replied with a sigh, 'I f men were daily to write with the finger on their foreheads and on the parts near their heart, "Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews," those of the faith would doubt lessly be preserved harmless, and, after their death, those very places would shine with a bright splendour.' These and many other things I heard from him ; but let us hasten to describe other things, and let what has been said suflice. Of the third place of punishment, and the manifold variety of torments. " I and my guide, then, having left this truly called valley of tears which we got to in the second place, we arrived at a large plain situated low down in the bosom of the earth, and which seemed inaccessible to all except to torturing devils, and tortured spirits. The surface of that plain was covered by a great and horrible chaos, mixed with a sulphureous smoke, and a cloud of intolerable stench, with a flame of a