two physicians possessed each only one idea. With one every
complaint was nervous; the other traced everything to the liver. The
name of the first was Dr. Blue-Devil; and of the other Dr. Blue-Pill.
They were most eminent men.

Her Majesty, getting worse every day, Pluto, in despair, determined to
send for AEsculapius. It was a long way to send for a physician; but then
he was the most fashionable one in the world. He cared not how far he
travelled to visit a patient, because he was paid by the mile; and it
was calculated that his fee for quitting earth, and attending the Queen
of Hell, would allow him to leave off business.

What a wise physician was AEsculapius! Physic was his abhorrence. He
never was known, in the whole course of his practice, ever to have
prescribed a single drug. He was a handsome man, with a flowing beard
curiously perfumed, and a robe of the choicest purple. He twirled a cane
of agate, round which was twined a serpent of precious stones, the gift
of Juno, and he rode in a chariot drawn by horses of the Sun. When he
visited Proserpine, he neither examined her tongue nor felt her pulse,
but gave her an account of a fancy ball which he had attended the last
evening he passed on _terra firma_. His details were so interesting that
the Queen soon felt better. The next day he renewed his visit, and gave
her an account of a new singer that had appeared at Ephesus. The effect
of this recital was so satisfactory, that a bulletin in the evening
announced that the Queen was convalescent. The third day AEsculapius
took his departure, having previously enjoined change of scene for her
Majesty, and a visit to the Elysian Fields!

'Heh, heh!' shrieked Tisiphone.

'Hah, hah!' squeaked Megaera.

'Hoh, hoh!' moaned Alecto.

'Now or never,'said the infernal sisters. 'There is a decided reaction.
The moment she embarks, unquestionably we will flare up.' So they ran
off to the Fates.

'We must be prudent,' said Clotho.

'Our time is not come,' remarked Lachesis.

'I wish the reaction was more decided,' said Atropos; 'but it is a
great thing that they are going to be parted, for the King must remain.'

The opposition party, although aiming at the same result, was therefore
evidently divided as to the means by which it was to be obtained. The
sanguine Furies were for fighting it out at once, and talked bravely
of the strong conservative spirit only dormant in Tartarus. Even the
Radicals themselves are dissat