Adeliza’s arrival in Pandemonium, as Belial had planned, occurred immediately after the receipt of a message from Lucifer, in whose bosom love had finally gained the victory, and who had telegraphed his abdication and resignation of Madam Lucifer to Adeliza’s betrothed.  The poor young man had just been hauled up from the lower depths, and was beset by legions of demons obsequiously pressing all manner of treasures upon his acceptance.  He stared, helpless and bewildered, unable to realise his position in the smallest degree.  In the background grave and serious demons, the princes of the infernal realm, discussed the new departure, and consulted especially how to break it to Madam Lucifer—­a commission of which no one seemed ambitious.

“Stay where you are,” whispered Belial to Adeliza; “stir not; you shall put his constancy to the proof within five minutes.”

Not all the hustling, mowing, and gibbering of the fiends would under ordinary circumstances have kept Adeliza from her lover’s side:  but what is all hell to jealousy?

In even less time than he had promised Belial returned, accompanied by Madam Lucifer.  This lady’s black robe, dripping with blood, contrasted agreeably with her complexion of sulphurous yellow; the absence of hair was compensated by the exceptional length of her nails; she was a thousand million years old, and, but for her remarkable muscular vigour, looked every one of them.  The rage into which Belial’s communication had thrown her was something indescribable; but, as her eye fell on the handsome youth, a different order of thoughts seemed to take possession of her mind.

“Let the monster go!” she exclaimed; “who cares?  Come, my love, ascend the throne with me, and share the empire and the treasures of thy fond Luciferetta.”

“If you don’t, back you go,” interjected Belial.

What might have been the young man’s decision if Madam Lucifer had borne more resemblance to Madam Vulcan, it would be wholly impertinent to inquire, for the question never arose.

“Take me away!” he screamed, “take me away, anywhere I anywhere out of her reach!  Oh, Adeliza!”

With a bound Adeliza stood by his side.  She was darting a triumphant glance at the discomfited Queen of Hell, when suddenly her expression changed, and she screamed loudly.  Two adorers stood before her, alike in every lineament and every detail of costume, utterly indistinguishable, even by the eye of Love.

Lucifer, in fact, hastening to throw himself at Adeliza’s feet and pray her to defer his bliss no longer, had been thunderstruck by the tidings of her elopement with Belial.  Fearing to lose his wife and his dominions along with his sweetheart, he had sped to the nether regions with such expedition that he had had no time to change his costume.  Hence the equivocation which confounded Adeliza, but at the same time preserved her from being torn to pieces by the no less mystified Madam Lucifer.