Elysium?' inquired Proserpine of Tiresias.

'I have been everywhere,' replied the seer, 'and though I am blind have
managed to see a great deal more than my fellows.'

'I have often heard of you,' said the Queen, 'and I confess that yours
is a career which has much interested me. What vicissitudes in affairs
have you not witnessed! And yet you have somehow or other contrived to
make your way through all the storms in which others have sunk, and are
now, as you always have been, in an exalted position. What can be
your magic? I would that you would initiate me. I know that you are a
prophet, and that even the gods consult you.'

'Your Majesty is complimentary. I certainly have had a great deal of
experience. My life has no doubt been a long one, but I have made it
longer by never losing a moment. I was born, too, at a great crisis in
affairs. Everything that took place before the Trojan war passes for
nothing in the annals of wisdom. That was a great revolution in all
affairs human and divine, and from that event we must now date all our
knowledge. Before the Trojan war we used to talk of the rebellion of
the Titans, but that business now is an old almanac. As for my powers of
prophecy, believe me, that those who understand the past are very well
qualified to predict the future. For my success in life, it may be
principally ascribed to the observance of a simple rule--I never
trust anyone, either god or man. I make an exception in favour of the
goddesses, and especially of your Majesty,' added Tiresias, who piqued
himself on his gallantry.

While they were thus conversing, the Queen directed the attention
of Manto to a mountainous elevation which now began to rise in the
distance, and which, from the rapidity of the tide and the freshness of
the breeze, they approached at a swift rate.

'Behold the Stygian mountains,' replied Manto. 'Through their centre
runs the passage of Night which leads to the regions of Twilight.'

'We have, then, far to travel?'

'Assuredly it is no easy task to escape from the gloom of Tartarus
to the sunbeams of Elysium,' remarked Tiresias; 'but the pleasant is
generally difficult; let us be grateful that in our instance it is not,
as usual, forbidden.'

'You say truly; I am sorry to confess how very often it appears to
me that sin is enjoyment. But see! how awful are these perpendicular
heights, piercing the descending vapours, with their peaks clothed with
dark pines! We seem land-loc