looked on myself as one whose fate had no interest for any, in whose
fortune none sympathized.

"Drive on!" cried a rough voice to the coachman; and the carriage moved
through the narrow passage, in which some dozen of persons were now
standing. The next moment, a murmur of "They are coming!" was heard;
and the solemn tones of a man's voice chanting the last offices of the
Romish Church reached us, with the measured footfall of persons crossing
the flagged courtyard. In the backward movement now made by those around
me, I was brought close to a small arched doorway, within which a flight
of stone steps ascended in a spiral direction; and towards this point I
remarked that the persons who approached were tending. My eyes scarcely
glanced on those who came first; but they rested with a fearful interest
on the bareheaded priest, who, in all the trappings of his office,
walked, book in hand, repeating with mournful impressiveness the litany
for the dead. As he came nearer, I could see that his eyes were dimmed
with tears, and his pale lips quivered with emotion, while his very
cheek trembled with a convulsive agony. Not so he who followed. He was
a young man, scarce four and twenty; dressed in loose white trousers and
shirt, but without coat, vest, or cravat; his head bare, and displaying
a broad forehead, across which some straggling hairs of light brown were
blown by the wind. His eye was bright and flashing, and in the centre of
his pale cheek a small crimson spot glowed with a hectic coloring. His
step was firm, and as he planted it upon the ground a kind of elasticity
seemed to mark his footfall. He endeavored to repeat after the priest
the words as they fell from him; but as he looked wildly around, it was
clear his mind was straying from the subject which his lips expressed,
and that thoughts far different were passing within him. Suddenly
his eyes fell upon the major, who stood close to where I was. The man
started back, and for a second even that small spot of crimson left his
cheek, which became nearly livid in its pallor. A ghastly smile, that
showed his white teeth from side to side, crossed his features, and with
a voice of terrible earnestness, he said,--

"'T is easy for you to look calm, sir, at your morning's work, and I
hope you 're plazed at it." Then frowning fearfully, as his face grew
purple, he added, "But, by the Eternal I you 'd not look that way av we
two stood by ourselves on the side of Sliebmi