The Ingoldsby Legends/Raising the Devil
To whom is the name of Cornelius Agrippa otherwise than familiar, since a 'Magician,' of renown not inferior to his own, has brought him and his terrible 'Black Book' again before the world?—That he was celebrated, among other exploits, for raising the Devil, we are all well aware;—how he performed this feat,—at least one, and that, perhaps, the most certain method, by which he did it,—is thus described.
RAISING THE DEVIL
A LEGEND OF CORNELIUS AGRIPPA
'AND hast thou nerve enough?' he said,
That grey Old Man, above whose head
Unnumber'd years had roll'd,—
And hast thou nerve to view,' he cried,
The incarnate Fiend that Heaven defied!—
—Art thou indeed so bold?'
'Say, canst Thou, with unshrinking gaze,
Sustain, rash youth, the withering blaze
Of that unearthly eye,
That blasts where'er it lights,—the breath
That, like the Simoom, scatters death
On all that yet can die!
—'Darest thou confront that fearful form,
That rides the whirlwind, and the storm,
In wild unholy revel!—
The terrors of that blasted brow,
Archangel's once,—though ruin'd now—
—Aye,—dar'st thou face The Devil?'—
'I dare!' the desperate Youth replied,
And placed him by that Old Man's side,
In fierce and frantic glee,
Unblench'd his cheek, and firm his limb
—No paltry juggling Fiend, but Him!
—The Devil!—I fain would see!—
'In all his Gorgon terrors clad,
His worst, his fellest shape!' the Lad
Rejoin'd in reckless tone.—
—'Have then thy wish!' Agrippa said,
And sigh'd and shook his hoary head,
With many a bitter groan.
He drew the mystic circle's bound,
With skull and cross-bones fenc'd around;
He traced full many a sigil there;
He mutter'd many a backward pray'r,
That sounded like a curse—
'He comes!'—he cried with wild grimace,
'The fellest of Apollyon's race!'—
—Then in his startled pupil's face
He dash'd—an Empty Purse!!