第83章 BOOK III.(23)

"They might oppress and distress you,but your faith would protect you wherever you might go.""Can you give us a taste of your sense of prescience?"asked Bearwarden again;"for,since it is not clear in what degree the condemned receive this,and neither is it by any means sure that I shall be saved,I should like for once in my history to experience this sense of divinity,before my entity ends in stone.""I will transfer to you my sense of prescience,"replied the spirit,"that you may foresee as prophets have.In so doing,Ishall but anticipate,since you will yourselves in time obtain this sense in a greater or less degree.Is there any event in the future you would like to see,in order that,when the vision is fulfilled,it may tend to stablish your faith?""Since I am the oldest,"replied the doctor,"and shall probably die before my friends,reveal to us,I pray you,the manner of my death and the events immediately following.This may prove an object-lesson to them,and will greatly interest me.""Your death will be caused by blood-poisoning,brought on by an accident,"began the spirit."Some daybreak will find you weak,after a troubled night,with your bodily resources at a low ebb.

Sunset will see you weaker,with your power of resistance almost gone.Midnight will find you weaker still,and but little removed from the point of death.A few hours later a kind hand will close the lids of your half-shut eyes,which never again will behold the light.The coffin will inclose your body,and the last earthly journey begin.Now,"the spirit continued,"you shall all use my sight instead of your own."The walls of the cave seemed to expand,till they resembled those of a great cathedral,while the stalactites appeared to be metamorphosed into Gothic columns.They found themselves among a large congregation that had come to attend the last sad rites,while the great organ played Chopin's "Funeral March."The high vault and arches received the organ's tone,and a sombre light pervaded the interior.There was a slight flutter and a craning of necks among those in the pews,as the procession began to ascend the aisle.While the slow step of the pallbearers and those carrying the coffin sounded on the stone floor,the clear voice of the clergyman that headed the procession sounded these words through the cathedral:"I know that my Redeemer liveth,and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth."As the bier advanced,Bearwarden and Ayrault recognized themselves among the pallbearers--the former with grey mustache and hair,the latter considerably aged.The hermetically sealed lead coffin was inclosed in a wooden case,and the whole was draped and covered with flowers.

"Oh,my faith!"cried Cortlandt,"I see my face within,yet it is but a decomposing mass that I once described as I."Then again did the minister's voice proclaim,"I am the resurrection and the life,saith the Lord;he that believeth in me,though he were dead,yet shall he live;and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."The bearers gently set down their burden;the minister read the ever-impressive chapter of St.Paul to the Corinthians;a bishop solemnly and silently sprinkled earth on the coffin;and the choir sang the 398th hymn,beginning with the words,"Hark,hark my soul!angelic songs are swelling,"which had always been Cortlandt's favourite and the service was at an end.The bearers again shouldered all that was left of Henry Cortlandt,and his relatives accompanied this to the cemetery.

Then came a sweeping change of scene.A host of monuments and gravestones reflected the sunlight,while a broad river ebbed and flowed between high banks.A sexton and a watchman stood by a granite vault,the heavy door of which they had opened with a large key.Hard by were some gardeners and labourers,and also a crowd of curiosity-seekers who had come to witness the last sad rites.Presently a funeral procession appeared.The hearse stopped near the open vault,over the door of which stood out the name of CORTLANDT,and the accompanying minister said a short prayer,while all present uncovered their heads.After this the coffin was borne within and set at rest upon a slab,among many generations of Cortlandts.In the hearts of the relatives and friends was genuine sorrow,but the curiosity-seekers went their way and gave little thought."To-morrow will be like to-day,"they said,"and more great men will die."Then came another change of scene,though it was comparatively slight.The sun slowly sank beyond the farther bank of the broad river,and the moon and stars shone softly on the gravestones and crosses.Two gardeners smoked their short clay pipes on a bench before the Cortlandt vault,and talked in a slow manner.

"He was a great man,"said one,"and if his soul blooms like the flowers on his grave,he must be in paradise,which we know is a finer park than this.""He was expert for the Government when the earth's axis was set right,"said the second gardener,"and he must have been a scholar,for his calculations have all come true.He was one of the first three men to visit the other planets,while the obituaries in the papers say his history will be read hereafter like the books of Caesar.After burying all these great people,I sometimes wish I could do the same for myself,for the people Ibury seem to be remembered."After this they relapsed into their meditations,the silence being broken only by an occasional murmur from the river's steady flow.

Hereupon the voyagers found they were once more in the cave.The fire had burned low,and the dawn was already in the east.

Cortlandt wiped his forehead,shivered,and looked extremely pale.