"'I hate the entire Clann of the Gael,' said he; 'why cannot they send them somewhere else?' and then he started practising again on Brien.
"It was no use. Brien's query still blared upwards like the sound of the great trump itself. It wakened and rung the rocky caverns, screamed through fissure and funnel, and was battered and slung from pinnacle to crag and up again. Worse! his companions in doom became interested and took up the cry, until at last the uproar became so appalling that the Master himself could not stand it.
"'I have not had a wink of sleep for three nights,' said that harassed one, and he sent a special embassy to the powers.
"Rhadamanthus was astonished when they arrived. His elbow was leaning on his vast knee, and his heavy head rested on a hand that was acres long, acres wide.
"'What is all this about?' said he.
"'The Master cannot go to sleep,' said the spokesman of the embassy, and he grinned as he said it, for it sounded queer even to himself.
"'It is not necessary that he should sleep,' said Rhadamanthus. 'I have never slept since time began, and I will never sleep until time is over. But the complaint is curious. What has troubled your master?'
"'Hell is turned upside down and inside out,' said the fiend. 'The tormentors are weeping like little children. The principalities are squatting on their hunkers doing nothing. The orders are running here and there fighting each other. The styles are leaning against walls shrugging their shoulders, and the damned are shouting and laughing and have become callous to torment.'
"'It is not my business,' said the judge.
"'The sinners demand justice,' said the spokesman.