ncholy aspect. Others walked by their side, bearing
branches of cypress.

And here I must stop to notice a droll characteristic of the priestly
economy of Hades. To be a good pedestrian was considered an essential
virtue of an infernal clergyman; but to be mounted on a black bull was
the highest distinction of the craft. It followed, therefore, that,
originally, promotion to such a seat was the natural reward of any
priest who had distinguished himself in the humbler career of a good
walker; but in process of time, as even infernal as well as human
institutions are alike liable to corruption, the black bulls became
too often occupied by the halt and the crippled, the feeble and the
paralytic, who used their influence at Court to become thus exempted
from the performance of the severer duties of which they were incapable.
This violation of the priestly constitution excited at first great
murmurs among the abler but less influential brethren. But the murmurs
of the weak prove only the tyranny of the strong; and so completely in
the course of time do institutions depart from their original character,
that the imbecile riders of the black bulls now avowedly defended their
position on the very grounds which originally should have unseated
them, and openly maintained that it was very evident that the stout were
intended to walk, and the feeble to be carried.

The priests were followed by fifty dark chariots, drawn by blue satyrs.
Herein was the wardrobe of the Queen, and her Majesty's cooks.

Tiresias came next, in a basalt chariot, yoked to royal steeds. He was
attended by Manto, who shared his confidence, and who, some said, was
his daughter, and others his niece. Venerable seer! Who could behold
that flowing beard, and the thin grey hairs of that lofty and wrinkled
brow, without being filled with sensations of awe and affection? A smile
of bland benignity played upon his passionless and reverend countenance.
Fortunate the monarch who is blessed with such a counsellor! Who could
have supposed that all this time Tiresias was concocting an epigram on
Pluto!

The Queen! The Queen!

Upon a superb throne, placed upon an immense car, and drawn by twelve
coal-black steeds, four abreast, reposed the royal daughter of Ceres.
Her rich dark hair was braided off her high pale forehead, and fell in
voluptuous clusters over her back. A tiara sculptured out of a single
brilliant, and which darted a flash like lightning on the surroun