i am told that while this dissolute man-fiend sat feasting amidst his filthy and illiterate nobles , the same evil spirit which had seduced him into defying the law of god suddenly struck him with madness , so that still in his sins , without repentance or confession , raving mad , gibbering with demons and cursing the priests of god , he fell forward , into his half-eaten meal , and departed from life to the torments of hell ; where rothbod will witness in horror , as described in scripture , the very bowels of the earth ; millions of fiery pits vomiting terrible flames and , as the foul fires rise , the souls of wretched men clinging to the edges of the pits , wailing and howling and shrieking with pitiful cries , mourning their past deeds and present agonies ; until they fall screaming into the pits , there to regret their errors forever .