ring, moved
noiselessly over the rude floor, as though fearful of disturbing the
repose of one who merely slumbered; and the same precaution was
extended to the brief but heartfelt expressions of sorrow that passed,
from one to the other, as they gazed on all that remained of the gentle
De Haldimar. At length the preparations of the women having been
completed, they retired from the room, leaving one of their number
only, rather out of respect than necessity, to remain by the corpse.
When they were departed, this woman, the wife of one of Blessington's
sergeants, and the same who had been present at the scene between Ellen
Halloway and the deceased, cut off a large lock of his beautiful hair,
and separating it into small tresses, handed one to each of the
officers. This considerate action, although unsolicited on the part of
the latter, deeply touched them, as indicating a sense of the high
estimation in which the youth bad been held. It was a tribute to the
memory of him they mourned, of the purest kind; and each, as he
received his portion, acknowledged with a mournful but approving look,
or nod, or word, the motive that bad prompted the offering. Nor was it
a source of less satisfaction, melancholy even as that satisfaction
was, to perceive that, after having set aside another lock, probably
for the sister of the deceased, she selected and consigned to the bosom
of her dress a third, evidently intended for herself. The whole scene
was in striking contrast with the almost utter absence of all
preparation or concern that had preceded the interment of Murphy, on a
former occasion. In one, the rude soldier was mourned,--in the other,
the gentle friend was lamented; nor the latter alone by the companions
to whom intimacy had endeared him, but by those humbler dependants, who
knew him only through those amiable attributes of character, which were
ever equally extended to all. Gradually the officers now moved away in
the same noiseless manner in which they had approached, either in
pursuance of their several duties, or to make their toilet of the
morning. Two only of their number remained near the couch of death.

"Poor unfortunate De Haldimar!" observed one of these, in a low tone,
as if speaking to himself; "too fatally, indeed, have your forebodings
been realised; and what I considered as the mere despondency of a mind
crashed into feebleness by an accumulation of suffering, was, after
all, but the first presentiment of