her hand, and
entered the chamber of the dead.

It was a low stone-roofed room, with bare walls blackened by smoke and
time, and entirely devoid of furniture. In its midst stood the coffin,
roughly made, and stuffed with nothing but half mouldy straw. In it
rested the corpse, beneath a grey pall, scarcely long enough to cover
the tall frame of the dead, who had been laid down in the clothes he
wore in life. At the lady's entrance two rats who had been gnawing at
his boots, jumped out of the straw into their holes. She did not notice
them. Her eyes were fixed upon the head of the coffin, where the pall
just showed a high white forehead with a deep scar down to the very
eyebrows. She placed the taper in a niche of the wall, and with her
remnant of strength approached to raise the pall. One glance at the
rigid face furrowed by the conflict of life and of death--and she sank
down beside the coffin.

Yet it was no swoon that mercifully shrouded her senses. It was only
that her legs would no longer support her; her mind was fully awake,
and her heart felt all its old wounds open, and begin to bleed and burn
afresh. She had fallen on her knees, her hands folded, her eyes fixed
on the pale face of her dead son, averted as it seemed from her in
indifference, in almost anger, and upturned to the black arch of the
roof. Oh! she would have given her life, the last poor remnant of her
days on earth, if those eyes could but have opened once more for one
farewell look, if those discoloured lips could once--only once--have
called her "mother!"

The sergeant who was waiting in the passage, was under the impression
that he heard a groan proceed from the chamber of the dead. What it
meant he did not know. If indeed it were her son he would not disturb
the mortal anguish of the mother. Suddenly he heard her steps approach
the door, and saw her coming out, the light in her hand, her head erect
as if no shock had bowed her down, her eyes strained and strange, but
meeting his.

"I have kept you waiting," she said, "which was unnecessary. One glance
is sufficient to reveal the truth to a mother: but it has shaken me. I
had to rest a little."

"So it is not he!" cried her faithful friend. "God be praised!"

"To all Eternity!" said she. "Let us go. The place is ghastly."

She went on hastily with the taper, and steadily descended the steps.
In the hall where the watcher sat, she put down the taper on the table,
and her hand no longer tr