disturb it--there was time enough after the body for them--but trifles

which had first depraved the mind, and slips whose repetition had made

slippery the soul, like the alphabet of death, grew plain to him. Then

he thought of his mother, and crossed himself, and said a little prayer

to the Virgin.

* * * * *

Charron was waiting by the old yew-tree, and Jerry sat trembling, with

his eyes upon the castle, while the black horse, roped to a branch, was

mourning the scarcity of oats and the abundance of gnats.

"Pest and the devil, but the coast is all alive!" cried the Frenchman,

soothing anxiety with solid and liquid comforts. "Something has gone

wrong behind the tail of everything. And there goes that big Stoobar,

blazing with his sordid battery! Arouse thee, old Cheray! The time too

late is over. Those lights thrice accursed will display our little boat,

and John Bull is rushing with a thousand sails. The Commander is mad.

They will have him, and us too. Shall I dance by a rope? It is the only

dancing probable for me in England."

"I have never expected any good to come," the old man answered, without

moving. "The curse of the house is upon the young Squire. I saw it in

his eyes this morning, the same as I saw in his father's eyes, when the

sun was going down the very night he died. I shall never see him more,

sir, nor you either, nor any other man that bides to the right side of

his coffin."

"Bah! what a set you are of funerals, you Englishmen! But if I thought

he was in risk, I would stay to see the end of it."

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