Charon: Whither are you going so brisk, and in such haste, Alastor?
Alastor: O Charon, you come in the nick of time; I was coming to you.
Charon: Well, what news do you bring?
Alastor: I bring a message to you and Prosperine that you will be glad to hear. All the Furies have been no less diligent than they have been successful in gaining their point. There is not one foot of ground upon earth that they have not infected with their hellish calamities, seditions, wars, robberies, and plagues. Do you get your boat and your oars ready; you will have such a vast multitude of ghosts come to you anon that I am afraid you will not be able to carry them all over yourself.
Charon: I could have told you that.
Alastor: How came you to know it?
Charon: Ossa brought me that news about two days ago!
Alastor: Nothing is more swift than that goddess. But what makes you loitering here, having left your boat?
Charon: My business brought me hither. I came hither to provide myself with a good strong three-oared boat, for my boat is so rotten and leaky with age that it will not carry such a burden, if Ossa told me true.
Alastor: What was it that Ossa told you?