clearly illegal,' said Lachesis.

   'Lachesis, and ye, her sisters,' said Proserpine, 'forget, I beseech you, any warm words that may have passed between us, and, as a personal favour to one who would willingly be your friend, release Eurydice. What! you shake your heads! Nay; of what importance can be a single miserable shade, and one, too, summoned so cruelly before her time, in these thickly-peopled regions?'

   ''Tis the principle,' said Lachesis; ''tis the principle. Concession is ever fatal, however slight. Grant this demand; others, and greater, will quickly follow. Mercy becomes a precedent, and the realm is ruined.'

   'Ruined!' echoed the Furies.

   'And I say

    preserved!

   ' exclaimed Proserpine with energy. 'The State is in confusion, and you yourselves confess that you know not how to remedy it. Unable to suggest a course, follow mine. I am the advocate of mercy; I am the advocate of concession; and, as you despise all higher impulses, I meet you on your own grounds. I am their advocate for the sake of policy, of expediency.'

   'Never!' said the Fates.

   'Never!' shrieked the Furies.

   'What, then, will you do with Orpheus?'

   The Parcæ shook their heads; even the Eumenides were silent.

   'Then you are unable to carry on the King's government; for Orpheus must be disposed of; all agree to that. Pluto, reject these counsellors, at once insulting and incapable. Give me the distaff and the fatal shears. At once form a new Cabinet; and let the release of Orpheus and Eurydice be the basis of their policy.' She threw her arms round his neck and whispered in his ear.

   Pluto was perplexed; his confidence in the Parcae was shaken. A difficulty had occurred with which they could not cope. It was true the difficulty had been occasioned by a departure from their own exclusive and restrictive policy. It was clear that the gates of Hell ought never to have been opened to the stranger; but opened they had been. Forced to decide, he decided on the side of

    expediency

   , and signed a decree for the departure of Orpheus and Eurydice. The Parcas immediately resigned their 

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