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"
The
snake
!
"
exclaimed
the
brother
hater
—
"
what
do
you
mean
?
"
"
The
snake
!
The
snake
!
Does
it
gnaw
you
?
"
persisted
Roderick
.
"
Did
you
take
counsel
with
him
this
morning
when
you
should
have
been
saying
your
prayers
?
Did
he
sting
,
when
you
thought
of
your
brother
’
s
health
,
wealth
,
and
good
repute
?
Did
he
caper
for
joy
,
when
you
remembered
the
profligacy
of
his
only
son
?
And
whether
he
stung
,
or
whether
he
frolicked
,
did
you
feel
his
poison
throughout
your
body
and
soul
,
converting
everything
to
sourness
and
bitterness
?
That
is
the
way
of
such
serpents
.
I
have
learned
the
whole
nature
of
them
from
my
own
!
"
"
Where
is
the
police
?
"
roared
the
object
of
Roderick
’
s
persecution
,
at
the
same
time
giving
an
instinctive
clutch
to
his
breast
.
"
Why
is
this
lunatic
allowed
to
go
at
large
?
"
"
Ha
,
ha
!
"
chuckled
Roderick
,
releasing
his
grasp
of
the
man
.
—
"
His
bosom
serpent
has
stung
him
then
!
"
Often
it
pleased
the
unfortunate
young
man
to
vex
people
with
a
lighter
satire
,
yet
still
characterized
by
somewhat
of
snake
-
like
virulence
.
One
day
he
encountered
an
ambitious
statesman
,
and
gravely
inquired
after
the
welfare
of
his
boa
constrictor
;
for
of
that
species
,
Roderick
affirmed
,
this
gentleman
’
s
serpent
must
needs
be
,
since
its
appetite
was
enormous
enough
to
devour
the
whole
country
and
constitution
.
At
another
time
,
he
stopped
a
close
-
fisted
old
fellow
,
of
great
wealth
,
but
who
skulked
about
the
city
in
the
guise
of
a
scarecrow
,
with
a
patched
blue
surtout
,
brown
hat
,
and
mouldy
boots
,
scraping
pence
together
,
and
picking
up
rusty
nails
.
Pretending
to
look
earnestly
at
this
respectable
person
’
s
stomach
,
Roderick
assured
him
that
his
snake
was
a
copper
-
head
and
had
been
generated
by
the
immense
quantities
of
that
base
metal
with
which
he
daily
defiled
his
fingers
.
Again
,
he
assaulted
a
man
of
rubicund
visage
,
and
told
him
that
few
bosom
serpents
had
more
of
the
devil
in
them
than
those
that
breed
in
the
vats
of
a
distillery
.
The
next
whom
Roderick
honored
with
his
attention
was
a
distinguished
clergyman
,
who
happened
just
then
to
be
engaged
in
a
theological
controversy
,
where
human
wrath
was
more
perceptible
than
divine
inspiration
.
"
You
have
swallowed
a
snake
in
a
cup
of
sacramental
wine
,
"
quoth
he
.
"
Profane
wretch
!
"
exclaimed
the
divine
;
but
,
nevertheless
,
his
hand
stole
to
his
breast
.
He
met
a
person
of
sickly
sensibility
,
who
,
on
some
early
disappointment
,
had
retired
from
the
world
,
and
thereafter
held
no
intercourse
with
his
fellow
-
men
,
but
brooded
sullenly
or
passionately
over
the
irrevocable
past
.
This
man
’
s
very
heart
,
if
Roderick
might
be
believed
,
had
been
changed
into
a
serpent
,
which
would
finally
torment
both
him
and
itself
to
death
.
Observing
a
married
couple
,
whose
domestic
troubles
were
matter
of
notoriety
,
he
condoled
with
both
on
having
mutually
taken
a
house
adder
to
their
bosoms
.
To
an
envious
author
,
who
depreciated
works
which
he
could
never
equal
,
he
said
that
his
snake
was
the
slimiest
and
filthiest
of
all
the
reptile
tribe
,
but
was
fortunately
without
a
sting
.
A
man
of
impure
life
,
and
a
brazen
face
,
asking
Roderick
if
there
were
any
serpent
in
his
breast
,
he
told
him
that
there
was
,
and
of
the
same
species
that
once
tortured
Don
Rodrigo
,
the
Goth
.
He
took
a
fair
young
girl
by
the
hand
,
and
gazing
sadly
into
her
eyes
,
warned
her
that
she
cherished
a
serpent
of
the
deadliest
kind
within
her
gentle
breast
;
and
the
world
found
the
truth
of
those
ominous
words
,
when
,
a
few
months
afterwards
,
the
poor
girl
died
of
love
and
shame
.
Two
ladies
,
rivals
in
fashionable
life
who
tormented
one
another
with
a
thousand
little
stings
of
womanish
spite
,
were
given
to
understand
that
each
of
their
hearts
was
a
nest
of
diminutive
snakes
,
which
did
quite
as
much
mischief
as
one
great
one
.
