ce have been surpassed in a kingly palace.

They dined alone; for Mrs. Franklin was invisible--and so, also, was the
comely young footman!

After dinner, came wine--bright, sparkling wine, whose magical influence
gilds the dull realities of life with the soft radiance of fairy land!
How the foaming champagne glittered in the silver cup, and danced
joyously to the ripe, pouting lip of beauty, and the eloquent mouth of
divinity! How brilliant became their eyes, and what a glorious roseate
hue suffused their cheeks!

Again and again was the goblet drained and replenished, until the
maddening spell of intoxication was upon them both. Hurrah! away with
religion, and sermonizing, and conscience! Bacchus is the only true
divinity, and at his rosy shrine let us worship, and pledge him in
brimming cups of the bright nectar, the drink of the gods!

Then came obscene revels and libidinous acts. The depraved Josephine,
attired in a superb robe of lace, her splendid bust uncovered, and her
cheeks flushed with wine, danced with voluptuous freedom, while the
intoxicated rector, reeling and flourishing a goblet, sang a lively
opera air, in keeping with her graceful but indelicate movements.
Then--but we will not inflict upon the reader the disgusting details of
that evening's licentious extravagances.

Midnight came and the doctor, tipsy as he was, saw the necessity of
taking his departure; for though urged by Josephine to pass the night
with her, he dared not comply, knowing that his absence from home all
night would appear strange and suspicious to his housekeeper and
domestics, and give rise to unpleasant inquiries and remarks. He
therefore sallied forth, and though he staggered occasionally, he got
along tolerably well, until he encountered a watchman standing half
asleep in a doorway, muffled up in his huge cloak; and then, with that
invincible spirit of mischief which characterizes a drunken man, the
Doctor determined to have a 'lark' with the night guardian, somewhat
after the fashion of the wild, harem-scarem students at the University
at which he had graduated--in which pranks he had often participated.

Leaning against a lamp-post support, he began singing, in a loud and
boisterous manner--

'Watchman--hic--tell us of the--hic--night.'

Now it happened that the watchman was one of those surly ruffians who
never stop to remonstrate with a poor fellow, in whom wine has triumphed
over wit. Instead of kindly inquiring hi