bugle echoing
through the pines, the dead in uneven rows, the moon lighting their faces.
I caught once more the cry of the girl my friend loved, he who died and
never knew. I saw the quick plunge of the strong swimmer, white arms
clinging to his neck, and heard once more that joyous shout from a hundred
throats. And I could still hear the hoarse voice of the captain with
drenched book and flickering lantern, and shivered again as I caught the
dull splash of the sheeted body dropping into the sea.

The vox humana stopped, not gradually, but abruptly, as if the heart had
broken and its life had gone out in the one supreme effort. Then
silence,--a silence so profound that a low sob from the pew across the
aisle startled me. I strained my eyes, and caught the outlines of a woman
heavily veiled. I could see, too, a child beside her, his head on her
shoulder. The boy was bare-headed, his curls splashed over her black
dress. Then another sob, half smothered, as if the woman were strangling.

No other sound broke the stillness; only the feeling everywhere of
pent-up, smothered sighs.

In this intense moment a faint footfall was heard approaching from the
church door, walking in the gloom. It proved to be that of an old man,
bent and trembling. He came slowly down the sombre church, with unsteady,
shambling gait, holding in one hand a burning taper,--a mere speck. In the
other he carried a rude lantern, its wavering light hovering about his
feet. As he passed in his long brown cloak, the swaying light encircled
his white beard and hair with a fluffy halo. He moved slowly, the spark he
carried no larger than a firefly. The sacristan had come to light the
candles.

He stopped half way down the middle aisle, opposite a pew, the faint flush
of his lantern falling on the nearest upturned face. A long thin candle
was fastened to this pew. The firefly of a taper, held aloft in his
trembling hand, flickered uncertainly like a moth, and rested on the top
of this candle. Then the wick kindled and burned. As its rays felt their
way over the vast interior, struggling up into the dark roof, reaching the
gilded ornaments on the side altar enshrouded in gloom, glinting on the
silver of the hanging lamps, a plaintive note fluttered softly, swelled
into an ecstasy of sound, and was lost in a chorus of angel voices.

The sacristan moved down the aisle, kindled two other candles on the
distant altar, and was lost in the shadows.

The woman i