her!" "O my daughter!" "O my mother!"

They are on their knees, their foreheads clasped with their hands, or
their bodies lying flat with both arms extended; and the sobs which they
repress make their bosoms swell almost to bursting. They gaze up at the
sky, saying:

"Have pity on her soul, O my God! She is languishing in the abode of
shadows. Deign to admit her into the Resurrection, so that she may
rejoice in Thy light!"

Or, with eyes fixed on the flagstones, they murmur:

"Be at rest--suffer no more! I have brought thee wine and meat!"

_A widow_--"Here is pudding, made by me, according to his taste, with
many eggs, and a double measure of flour. We are going to eat together
as of yore, is not that so?"

She puts a little of it on her lips, and suddenly begins to laugh in an
extravagant fashion, frantically.

The others, like her, nibble a morsel and drink a mouthful; they tell
one another the history of their martyrs; their sorrow becomes vehement;
their libations increase; their eyes, swimming with tears, are fixed on
one another; they stammer with inebriety and desolation. Gradually their
hands touch; their lips meet; their veils are torn away, and they
embrace one another upon the tombs in the midst of the cups and the
torches.

The sky begins to brighten. The mist soaks their garments; and, as if
they were strangers to one another, they take their departure by
different roads into the country.

The sun shines forth. The grass has grown taller; the plain has become
transformed. Across the bamboos, Antony sees a forest of columns of a
bluish-grey colour. Those are trunks of trees springing from a single
trunk. From each of its branches descend other branches which penetrate
into the soil; and the whole of those horizontal and perpendicular
lines, indefinitely multiplied, might be compared to a gigantic
framework were it not that here and there appears a little fig-tree with
a dark foliage like that of a sycamore. Between the branches he
distinguishes bunches of yellow flowers and violets, and ferns as large
as birds' feathers. Under the lowest branches may be seen at different
points the horns of a buffalo, or the glittering eyes of an antelope.
Parrots sit perched, butterflies flutter, lizards crawl upon the ground,
flies buzz; and one can hear, as it were, in the midst of the silence,
the palpitation of an all-permeating life.

At the entrance of the wood, on a kind of pile, is a strange sight--a
m