isfied: Tantalus is no longer contented
with water, or Ixion with repose. But the circumspect Fates felt that a
false step at present could never be regained. They talked, therefore,
of watching events. Both divisions, however, agreed that the royal
embarkation was to be the signal for renewed intrigues and renovated
exertions.

When Proserpine was assured that she must be parted for a time from
Pluto, she was inconsolable. They passed the night in sorrowful
embraces. She vowed that she could not live a day without him, and that
she certainly should die before she reached the first post. The mighty
heart of the King of Hades was torn to pieces with contending emotions.
In the agony of his overwhelming passion the security of his realm
seemed of secondary importance compared with the happiness of his wife.
Fear and hatred of the Parcae and the Eumenides equalled, however,
in the breast of Proserpine, her affection for her husband. The
consciousness that his absence would be a signal for a revolution, and
that the crown of Tartarus might be lost to her expected offspring,
animated her with a spirit of heroism. She reconciled herself to the
terrible separation, on condition that Pluto wrote to her every day.

'Adieu! my best, my only beloved!' ejaculated the unhappy Queen; 'do not
forget me for a moment; and let nothing in the world induce you to speak
to any of those horrid people. I know them; I know exactly what they
will be at: the moment I am gone they will commence their intrigues for
the restoration of the reign of doom and torture. Do not listen to them,
my Pluto. Sooner than have recourse to them, seek assistance from their
former victims.'

'Calm yourself, my Proserpine. Anticipate no evil. I shall be firm; do
not doubt me. I will cling with tenacity to that _juste milieu_ under
which we have hitherto so eminently prospered. Neither the Parcae and the
Eumenides, nor Ixion and his friends, shall advance a point. I will keep
each faction in awe by the bugbear of the other's supremacy. Trust me, I
am a profound politician.'

It was determined that the progress of Proserpine to the Elysian Fields
should be celebrated with a pomp and magnificence becoming her exalted
station. The day of her departure was proclaimed as a high festival in
Hell. Tiresias, absent on a secret mission, had been summoned back by
Pluto, and appointed to attend her Majesty during her journey and her
visit, for Pluto had the greatest confid