第16章 Chapter XII.(2)

Yorick scarce ever heard this sad vaticination of his destiny read over to him, but with a tear stealing from his eye, and a promissory look attending it, that he was resolved, for the time to come, to ride his tit with more sobriety.--But, alas, too late!--a grand confederacy with. . .and. . .at the head of it, was formed before the first prediction of it.--The whole plan of the attack, just as Eugenius had foreboded, was put in execution all at once,--with so little mercy on the side of the allies,--and so little suspicion in Yorick, of what was carrying on against him,--that when he thought, good easy man! full surely preferment was o'ripening,--they had smote his root, and then he fell, as many a worthy man had fallen before him.

Yorick, however, fought it out with all imaginable gallantry for some time;till, overpowered by numbers, and worn out at length by the calamities of the war,--but more so, by the ungenerous manner in which it was carried on,--he threw down the sword; and though he kept up his spirits in appearance to the last, he died, nevertheless, as was generally thought, quite broken-hearted.

What inclined Eugenius to the same opinion was as follows:

A few hours before Yorick breathed his last, Eugenius stept in with an intent to take his last sight and last farewell of him. Upon his drawing Yorick's curtain, and asking how he felt himself, Yorick looking up in his face took hold of his hand,--and after thanking him for the many tokens of his friendship to him, for which, he said, if it was their fate to meet hereafter,--he would thank him again and again,--he told him, he was within a few hours of giving his enemies the slip for ever.--I hope not, answered Eugenius, with tears trickling down his cheeks, and with the tenderest tone that ever man spoke.--I hope not, Yorick, said he.--Yorick replied, with a look up, and a gentle squeeze of Eugenius's hand, and that was all,--but it cut Eugenius to his heart.--Come,--come, Yorick, quoth Eugenius, wiping his eyes, and summoning up the man within him,--my dear lad, be comforted,--let not all thy spirits and fortitude forsake thee at this crisis when thou most wants them;--who knows what resources are in store, and what the power of God may yet do for thee!--Yorick laid his hand upon his heart, and gently shook his head;--For my part, continued Eugenius, crying bitterly as he uttered the words,--I declare I know not, Yorick, how to part with thee, and would gladly flatter my hopes, added Eugenius, chearing up his voice, that there is still enough left of thee to make a bishop, and that I may live to see it.--I beseech thee, Eugenius, quoth Yorick, taking off his night-cap as well as he could with his left hand,--his right being still grasped close in that of Eugenius,--I beseech thee to take a view of my head.--I see nothing that ails it, replied Eugenius. Then, alas! my friend, said Yorick, let me tell you, that 'tis so bruised and mis-shapened with the blows which. . .and. . ., and some others have so unhandsomely given me in the dark, that I might say with Sancho Panca, that should Irecover, and 'Mitres thereupon be suffered to rain down from heaven as thick as hail, not one of them would fit it.'--Yorick's last breath was hanging upon his trembling lips ready to depart as he uttered this:--yet still it was uttered with something of a Cervantick tone;--and as he spoke it, Eugenius could perceive a stream of lambent fire lighted up for a moment in his eyes;--faint picture of those flashes of his spirit, which (as Shakespeare said of his ancestor) were wont to set the table in a roar!

Eugenius was convinced from this, that the heart of his friend was broke: he squeezed his hand,--and then walked softly out of the room, weeping as he walked. Yorick followed Eugenius with his eyes to the door,--he then closed them, and never opened them more.

He lies buried in the corner of his church-yard, in the parish of. . ., under a plain marble slab, which his friend Eugenius, by leave of his executors, laid upon his grave, with no more than these three words of inscription, serving both for his epitaph and elegy. Alas, poor Yorick!

Ten times a day has Yorick's ghost the consolation to hear his monumental inscription read over with such a variety of plaintive tones, as denote a general pity and esteem for him;--a foot-way crossing the church-yard close by the side of his grave,--not a passenger goes by without stopping to cast a look upon it,--and sighing as he walks on, Alas, poor Yorick!