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nydus/Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of CrowdsPublic
Page 431 of 595
Table of Contents

MODERN PROPHECIES.

fear the cruel fiendes should thee unwares devour!

But, standing high aloft, low lay thine eare,

And there such ghastly noise of iron chaines

And brazen caudrons thou shalt rombling heare,

Which thousand sprites with long-enduring paines

Doe tosse, that it will stun thy feeble braines;

And often times great groans and grievous stownds,

When too huge toile and labour them constraines;

And often times loud strokes and ringing sounds

From under that deep rock most horribly rebounds.

The cause, they say, is this. A little while

Before that Merlin died, he did intend

A brazen wall in compass, to compile

About Cayr Merdin, and did it commend

Unto these sprites to bring to perfect end;

During which work the Lady of the Lake,

Whom long he loved, for him in haste did send,

Who thereby forced his

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