The Infernal Marriage | Page 5

messenger from my mother.'
'But how came he here?'
'Ah! how came he here?' echoed Terror.
'No time must be lost!' exclaimed Pluto, scrambling on his robe. 'Seize him, and bring him into the council chamber. My charming Proserpine, excuse me for a moment.'
'Not at all; I will accompany you.'
'But, my love, my sweetest, my own, this is business; these are affairs of state. The council chamber is not a place for you.'
'And why not?' said Proserpine. 'I have no idea of ever leaving you for a moment. Why not for me as well as for the Fates and the Furies? Am I not Queen? I have no idea of such nonsense!'
'My love!' said the deprecating husband.
'You don't go without me,' said the imperious wife, seizing his robe.
'I must,' said Pluto.
'Then you shall never return,' said Proserpine.
'Enchantress! be reasonable.'
'I never was, and I never will be,' replied the Goddess.
'Treason! treason!' screamed Terror.
'My love, I must go!'
'Pluto,' said Proserpine, 'understand me once for all, I will not be contradicted.'
Rage stamped his foot.
'Proserpine, understand me once for all, it is impossible,' said the God, frowning.
'My Pluto!' said the Queen. 'Is it my Pluto who speaks thus sternly to me? Is it he who, but an hour ago, a short hour ago, died upon my bosom in transports and stifled me with kisses! Unhappy woman! wretched, miserable Proserpine! Oh! my mother! my kind, my affectionate mother! Have I disobeyed you for this! For this have I deserted you! For this have I broken your beloved heart!' She buried her face in the crimson counterpane, and bedewed its gorgeous embroidery with her fast-flowing tears.
'Treason!' shouted Terror.
'Ha! ha! ha!' exclaimed the hysterical Proserpine.
'What am I to do?' cried Pluto. 'Proserpine, my adored, my beloved, my enchanting Proserpine, compose yourself; for my sake, compose yourself. I love you! I adore you! You know it! oh! indeed you know it!'
The hysterics increased.
'Treason! treason!' shouted Terror.
'Hold your infernal tongue,' said Pluto. 'What do I care for treason when the Queen is in this state?' He knelt by the bedside, and tried to stop her mouth with kisses, and ever and anon whispered his passion. 'My Proserpine, I beseech you to be calm; I will do anything you like. Come, come, then, to the council!'
The hysterics ceased; the Queen clasped him in her arms and rewarded him with a thousand embraces. Then, jumping up, she bathed her swollen eyes with a beautiful cosmetic that she and her maidens had distilled from the flowers of Enna; and, wrapping herself up in her shawl, descended with his Majesty, who was quite as much puzzled about the cause of this disturbance as when he was first roused.
Crossing an immense covered bridge, the origin of the Bridge of Sighs at Venice, over the royal gardens, which consisted entirely of cypress, the royal pair, preceded by the pages-in-waiting, entered the council chamber. The council was already assembled. On either side of a throne of sulphur, from which issued the four infernal rivers of Lethe, Phlegethon, Cocytus, and Acheron, were ranged the Eumenides and Parc?. Lachesis and her sisters turned up their noses when they observed Proserpine; but the Eumenides could not stifle their fury, in spite of the hints of their more subdued but not less malignant companions.
'What is all this?' inquired Pluto.
'The constitution is in danger,' said the Parc? in chorus.
'Both in church and state,' added the Furies. ''Tis a case of treason and blasphemy;' and they waved their torches and shook their whips with delighted anticipation of their use.
'Detail the circumstances,' said Pluto, waving his hand majestically to Lachesis, in whose good sense he had great confidence.
'A man, a living man, has entered your kingdom, unknown and unnoticed,' said Lachesis.
'By my sceptre, is it true?' said the astonished King. 'Is he seized?'
'The extraordinary mortal baffles our efforts,' said Lachesis. 'He bears with him a lyre, the charmed gift of Apollo, and so seducing are his strains that in vain our guards advance to arrest his course; they immediately begin dancing, and he easily eludes their efforts. The general confusion is indescribable. All business is at a standstill: Ixion rests upon his wheel; old Sisyphus sits down on his mountain, and his stone has fallen with a terrible plash into Acheron. In short, unless we are energetic, we are on the eve of a revolution.'
'His purpose?'
'He seeks yourself and--her Majesty,' added Lachesis, with a sneer.
'Immediately announce that we will receive him.'
The unexpected guest was not slow in acknowledging the royal summons. A hasty treaty was drawn up; he was to enter the palace unmolested, on condition that he ceased playing his lyre. The Fates and the Furies exchanged significant glances as his approach was announced.
The man, the live man, who had committed the unprecedented crime of entering Hell without a licence, and the previous deposit of