with a large coil of cable-cord, which they proceeded to pass
through the two hindmost side-windows of the diligence, threading it
like a bead on a string; and then they gradually lowered the lumbering
coach down the side of the descent, amid the _evvivas_ of the vagabond
boys, led by an enthusiastic "_Bravissimo!_" from Velvet-cap.

This incident occupied much time; and though the travellers made some
progress during the afternoon, the gray shades of twilight were
gathering over and deepening the gloom of the already gray sky and gray
landscape,--deadened to that color from their naturally brilliant hues
by the prevailing wet,--as the travellers stopped to change horses again
at the entrance of the town of Oneglia. Here, while the conductor ran
into a house to make purchase of a loaf about half a yard in length and
a corpulent bottle of wine, the four saw another funeral train
approaching. This time it was still more dreary, being attended by a
show of processional pomp, inexpressibly forlorn and squalid. The coffin
was palled with a square of rusty black velvet, whence all the pile had
long been worn, and which the soaking rain now helped age to embrown and
make flabby; a standard cross was borne by an ecclesiastical official,
who had on a quadrangular cap surmounted by a centre tuft; two priests
followed, sheltered by umbrellas, their sacerdotal garments dabbled and
draggled with mud, and showing thick-shod feet beneath the dingy serge
and lawn that flapped above them, as they came along at a smart pace,
suggestive of anything but solemnity. As little of that effect was there
in the burial-hymn which they bawled, rather than chanted, in a
careless, off-hand style, until they reached the end of the street and
of the town, when the bawlers suddenly ceased, took an abrupt leave of
the coffin and its bearers, fairly turned on their heels, accompanied by
the official holy standard-bearer, and went back at a brisk trot,
having, it seems, fulfilled the functions required of them. Obsequies
more heartless in their manner of performance, it was never the fate of
the four to behold. The impression left by this sight assorted well with
the deep and settled murkiness that dwelt like a thick veil on all
around. Even the cheery tones of Velvet-cap's voice lost their
elasticity, and the sprightliness of the sister's spirits, that
invariably rose with the coming on of night, failed under the depressing
influence of that rain-hastened