Saint Peter coming to await.
The stopped the Keeper of the Keys,
Saying: ‘What suppliants are these,
Who wait me not on bended knees?
‘To get my heavenly Okay
A man should have been used to pray,
Or suffered in some grievous way.’
‘Oh I have suffered,’ cried the first.
‘Of wives I had the wicked worst,
Who made my life a plague accurst.
‘Such martyrdom no tongue can tell;
In mercy’s name it is not well
To doom me to another hell.’
Saint Peter said: ‘I comprehend;
But tribulations have their end.
The gate is open, – go my friend.’
Then said the second: ‘What of me?
More I deserve to pass than he,
For I’ve been wedded twice, you see.’
Saint Peter looked at him a while,
And then he answered with a smile:
‘Your application I will file.
‘Yet twice in double yoke you’ve driven . . .
Though sinners with our Saints we leaven,
We don’t take IMBECILES in heaven.’