silence musing by my Comrade's side, also silent; when from out the heart that profound abyss a solemn voice, several voices in one solemn sound, is heard ascending; mournful, deep, and slow 375 a cadence, as of psalms-a funeral dirge! listened, looking down upon the hut, tseeing no one: meanwhile from below 3 strain continued, spiritual as before; d now distinctly could I recognise 380 se words:-"Shall in the grave thy love be known, A sober company and few, the men Ended; and, from the stillness that ensued Recovering, to my Friend I said, “You spake, 395 Methought, with apprehension that these rites Are paid to Him upon whose shy retreat This day we purposed to intrude.”—“I did so, But let us hence, that we may learn the truth: Perhaps it is not he but some one else 400 For whom this pious service is performed; Some other tenant of the solitude." An object that enticed my steps aside! A narrow, winding, entry opened out Into a platform-that lay, sheepfold-wise, death thy faithfulness?”—"God rest Enclosed between an upright mass of rock his soul!" And one old moss-grown wall;-a cool d the old man, abruptly breaking silence, e is departed, and finds peace at last!" recess, 415 And fanciful! For where the rock and wall Met in an angle, hung a penthouse, framed 385 By thrusting two rude staves into the wall his scarcely spoken, and those holy strains ceasing, forth appeared in view a band ustic persons, from behind the hut ring a coffin in the midst, with which y shaped their course along the sloping side that small valley, singing as they moved; 390 And overlaying them with mountain sods; To weather-fend a little turf-built seat 420 Whereon a full-grown man might rest, nor dread The burning sunshine, or a transient shower; But the whole plainly wrought by chil- To what odd purpose have the darling dren's hands! turned Whose skill had thronged the floor with This sad memorial of their hapless friend a proud show Of baby-houses, curiously arranged; 425 "Me," said I, "most doth it surpri to find Such book in such a place!”—“A bik it is,' He answered, "to the Person suited w I could not choose but beckon to my Though little suited to surround Guide, things: Who, entering, round him threw a care- 'Tis strange, I grant; and stranger 22 And wreck of party-coloured earthen- Aptly disposed, had lent its help to raise And he is gone!" The book, which in Had opened of itself (for it was swoln With searching damp, and seemingly had lain To the injurious elements exposed had been To see the Man who owned it, dwelling here, With one poor shepherd, far from all the world! Now, if our errand hath been thrown away, As from these intimations I forebode, # Grieved shall I be-less for my sake that yours, And least of all for him who is no mare By this, the book was in the old Mars hand; And he continued, glancing on the lea An eye of scorn:-"The lover," said be "doomed 440 To love when hope hath failed him whom no depth From week to week,) I found to be a Of privacy is deep enough to hide, work Hath yet his bracelet or his lock of hag In the French tongue, a Novel of And that is joy to him. When chang Voltaire, His famous Optimist. "Unhappy Man!" times Hath summoned kings to scaffolds. but give The faithful servant, who must hide head Henceforth in whatsoever nook he ma A kerchief sprinkled with his maste blood, And he too hath his comforter. E poor, Beyond all poverty how destitute, Must that Man have been left, w hither driven, Flying or seeking, could yet bring w him Heaven bless them, and their inconsiderate No dearer relique, and no better t work! Than this dull product of a scoffer's pr mpure conceits discharging from a heart An eager grasp; and many moments' lardened by impious pride!--I did not fear 486 o tax you with this journey; "-mildly said space When the first glow of pleasure was no more, 520 And, of the sad appearance which at once Had vanished, much was come and com. ing back ly venerable Friend, as forth we stepped to the presence of the cheerful lightFor I have knowledge that you do not shrink An amicable smile retained the life om moving spectacles ;-but let us on." Which it had unexpectedly received, Upon his hollow cheek. "How kind," he said, 490 So speaking, on he went, and at the word tat opened from the enclosure of green to the rough uncultivated ground, 495 hold the Man whom he had fancied dead! 525 "Nor could your coming have been better timed; For this, you see, is in our narrow world A day of sorrow. I have here a charge”— And, speaking thus, he patted tenderly The sun-burnt forehead of the weeping child530 "A little mourner, whom it is my task new from his deportment, mien, and To comfort;-but how came ye?-if yon dress, 500 at it could be no other; a pale face, he was busy, dealing, from a store 505 th intermixture of endearing words, soothe a Child, who walked beside him, weeping if disconsolate.-"They to the grave bearing him, my Little-one," he said, > the dark pit; but he will feel no pain; body is at rest, his soul in heaven." 510 track "From yon crag Down whose steep sides we dropped into the vale, We heard the hymn they sang—a solemn sound Heard anywhere; but in a place like this 'Tis more than human! Many precious rites And customs of our rural ancestry 550 On the green turf following the veste Priest, Four dear supporters of one senseles weight, Are gone, or stealing from us; this, I From which they do not shrink, an them go, A mute procession on the houseless road; The monitory voice? But most of all Ashes to ashes, dust bequeathed to dust, Is raised from the church-aisle, and forward borne 570 Upon the shoulders of the next in love, Beside the coffin, resting on its lid And that most awful scripture which declares We shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed! -Have I not seen-ye likewise may have seen Son, husband, brothers-brothers side by side, The Solitary, with a faint sarcastic se Which did not please me, deemed, I fear, Of the unblest; for he will surely sink Into his mother earth without such pica Of grief, depart without occasion given By him for such array of fortitude. Full seventy winters hath he lived, mark! This simple Child will mourn his short hour, And I shall miss him; scanty trit yet, This wanting, he would leave the sig men, If love were his sole claim upon would not willingly, methinks, sight 580 Of a departing cloud."-"Twas m love" And son and father also side by side, Rise from that posture:-and in concert move Answered the sick Man with a voice That I came hither; neither have I Following our Guide, we clomb the found cottage-stairs Among associates who have power of And reached a small apartment dark and speech, for in such other converse as is here, 6r5 low, Which was no sooner entered than our Said gaily, "This is my domain, my cell, hen, speaking in like careless sort, he I love it better than a snail his house. said o my benign Companion,-"Pity 'tis 620 But now ye shall be feasted with our best." So, with more ardour than an unripe girl hat fortune did not guide you to this house few days earlier; then would you have Left one day mistress of her mother's And pleased I looked upon my greyhaired Friend, 626 As if to thank him; he returned that look, past discussions with this zealous id advocate of humble life, I now 631 y fairly claim, by niggard'age enriched what she most doth value, love of God d his frail creature Man; but ye shall hear. alk-and ye are standing in the sun thout refreshment!" Quickly had he spoken, d, with light steps still quicker than his words, 1 toward the Cottage. Homely was the spot; Scribbled with verse: a broken angling- And shattered telescope, together linked d, to my feeling, ere we reached the Some in disgrace, hung dangling from door, the walls. 670 But speedily the promise was fulfilled; d almost a forbidding nakedness; 640 s fair, I grant, even painfully less fair, in it appeared when from the beetling A napkin, white as foam of that rough rock brook the board; had looked down upon it. All within, By which it had been bleached, o'erspread left by the departed company, s silent; save the solitary clock it on mine ear ticked with a mournful sound. 645 675 And was itself half-covered with a store Of dainties,-oaten bread, curd, cheese, and cream; |