Paul's, and, from a seat appointed us and other wives of nobles
and their gentlewomen, we were present at the last scene.

'It was when the coffin, beautifully adorned with escutcheons, was placed
on a bier prepared for it, that my mistress said, in a low voice, heard by
me--perhaps by me only,--

'"_Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur._"

'These words were the motto on the coffin, and they were the words on which
the preacher tried to enforce his lesson.

'Up to the moment when the double volley was fired, telling us within the
church that the body rested in peace, there had been profound stillness.

'Then the murmur of a multitude sorrowing and sighing, broke upon the ear;
and yet, beyond those whispered words, my lady had not made any sign.

'Now she laid her hand in mine and said,--

'"Let us go and see where they have laid him."

'I gave notice to the gentlemen in attendance that this was my lady's
desire. We had to wait yet for a long space; the throng, so closely packed,
must needs disperse.

'At length way was made for us, and we stood by the open grave together--my
mistress, whose life had been bound up in her noble brother's, and I, to
whom he had been, from my childhood's days to the present, the hero to
whose excellence none could approach--a sun before whose shining other
lights grew dim.

'Do not judge me hardly! Nay, Mary, you of all others will not do this. My
love for him was sacred, and I looked for no return; but let none grudge it
to me, for it drew me ever upwards, and, as I humbly pray, will still do so
till I see him in the other life, whither he has gone.

'Throughout all this pageantry and symbols of woe which I have tried to
bring before you, my dear sister, I felt only that these signs of the great
grief of the whole realm were yet but vain, vain, vain.

'As in a vision, I was fain to see beyond the blackness of funeral pomp,
the exceeding beauty of his soul, who, when he lay a-dying, said he had
fixed his thoughts on these eternal beauties, which cheered his decaying
spirits, and helped him to take possession of the immortal inheritance
given to him by, and in Christ.

'"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; blessed be those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted."

'I have finished the task I set myself to do for your edification, dearest
sister. Methought I could scarce get through it for tears, but these did
not flow at my will. Not till this morning, when I betook m