watch-dog of Hell. It completely filled their wide expanse. Who but
Pluto could have viewed without horror that enormous body covered with
shaggy spikes, those frightful paws clothed with claws of steel, that
tail like a boa constrictor, those fiery eyes that blazed like the
blood-red lamps in a pharos, and those three forky tongues, round each
of which were entwined a vigorous family of green rattlesnakes!

'Ah! Cerby! Cerby!' exclaimed Pluto; 'my fond and faithful Cerby!'

Proserpine screamed as the animal gambolled up to the side of the
chariot and held out its paw to its master. Then, licking the royal palm
with its three tongues at once, it renewed its station with a wag of its
tail which raised such a cloud of dust that for a few minutes nothing
was perceptible.

'The monster!' exclaimed Proserpine.

'My love!' exclaimed Pluto, with astonishment.

'The hideous brute!'

'My dear!' exclaimed Pluto.

'He shall never touch me.'

'Proserpine!'

'Don't touch me with that hand. You never shall touch me, if you allow
that disgusting animal to lick your hand.'

'I beg to inform you that there are few beings of any kind for whom I
have a greater esteem than that faithful and affectionate beast.'

'Oh! if you like Cerberus better than me, I have no more to say,'
exclaimed the bride, bridling up with indignation.

'My Proserpine is perverse,' replied Pluto; 'her memory has scarcely
done me justice.'

'I am sure you said you liked Cerberus better than anything in the
world,' continued the goddess, with a voice trembling with passion.

'I said no such thing,' replied Pluto, somewhat sternly.

'I see how it is,' replied Proserpine, with a sob; 'you are tired of
me.'

'My beloved!'

'I never expected this.'

'My child!'

'Was it for this I left my mother?'

'Powers of Hades! How you can say such things!'

'Broke her heart?'

'Proserpine! Proserpine!'

'Gave up daylight?'

'For the sake of Heaven, then, calm yourself!'

'Sacrificed everything?'

'My love! my life! my angel! what is all this?'

'And then to be abused for the sake of a dog!'

'By all the shades of Hell, but this is enough to provoke even
immortals. What have I done, said, or thought, to justify such
treatment?'

'Oh! me!'

'Proserpine!'

'Heigho!'

'Proserpine! Proserpine!'

'So soon is the veil withdrawn!'

'Dearest, you must be unwell. This journey has been too much for you,'

'On our very bridal day to be so treat