he has abdicated. He generally
commences squabbling with his subjects about the supplies; he is then
expelled, and voted, as compensation, an amount about double the sum
which was the cause of the original quarrel.'

'What do you think, Manto?' said Proserpine, as that lady entered the
cabin; 'we propose paying a visit to Saturn. He has fixed his residence,
you know, in these regions of twilight.'

'I love a junket,' replied Manto, 'above all things. And, indeed, I was
half frightened out of my wits at the bare idea of toiling over this
desert. All is prepared, please your Majesty, for our landing. Your
Majesty's litter is quite ready.'

''Tis well,' said Proserpine; and leaning on the arm of Manto, the Queen
came upon deck, and surveyed the surrounding country, a vast grey flat,
with a cloudless sky of the same tint: in the distance some lowering
shadows, which seemed like clouds but were in fact mountains.

'Some half-dozen hours,' said Tiresias, 'will bring us to the palace
of Saturn. We shall arrive for dinner; the right hour. Let me recommend
your Majesty to order the curtains of your litter to be drawn, and, if
possible, to resume your dreams.'

'They were not pleasant,' said Proserpine, 'I dreamt of my mother and
the Parcae. Manto, methinks I'll read. Hast thou some book?'

'Here is a poem, Madam, but I fear it may induce those very slumbers you
dread.'

'How call you it?'

'"The Pleasures of Oblivion." The poet apparently is fond of his
subject.'

'And is, I have no doubt, equal to it. Hast any prose?'

'An historical novel or so.'

'Oh! if you mean those things as full of costume as a fancy ball, and
almost as devoid of sense, I'll have none of them. Close the curtains;
even visions of the Furies are preferable to these insipidities.'

The halt of the litter roused the Queen from her slumbers. 'We have
arrived,' said Manto, as she assisted in withdrawing the curtains.

The train had halted before a vast propylon of rose-coloured granite.
The gate was nearly two hundred feet in height, and the sides of the
propylon, which rose like huge moles, were sculptured with colossal
figures of a threatening aspect. Passing through the propylon, the
Queen of Hell and her attendants entered an avenue in length about
three-quarters of a mile, formed of colossal figures of the same
character and substance, alternately raising in their arms javelins or
battle-axes, as if about to strike. At the end of this her