pall, and with the help of one of them, to
the surprise of the populace, he spreads it all over the body. And having
done this, he stands again trembling, just for a few seconds, absorbed in
his meditations, praying and weeping, and nerving himself for what is to
follow. Ah, poor Agellius! you have not risen yet to the pitch of triumph;
and other thoughts must be let to range through your breast, other
emotions must spend themselves, before you are prepared simply to rejoice,
exult, and glory in the lifeless form which lies before you. You are upon
a brave work, but your heart is torn while you set hand to it, and you
linger before you begin.

It was in the pride of her earthly beauty and the full vigour and
elevation of her mind, that he last had seen her. It seemed an age since
that morning, as if a chasm ran between the now and the then, when she so
fascinated him with her presence, and so majestically rebuked him for
bowing to that fascination. Yet on his memory every incident of that
interview was fixed, and was indelible. O why should the great Creator
shatter one of His most admirable works! If the order of the sun and stars
is adorable, if the laws by which earth and sea are kept together mark the
Hand of supreme Wisdom and Power, how much nobler perfection of beauty is
manifested in man! And of human nature itself here was the supereminent
crown, a soul full of gifts, full of greatness, full of intellect, placed
in an outward form, equally surpassing in its kind, and still more
surpassingly excellent from its intimate union and subordination to the
soul, so as almost to be its simple expression; yet this choicest, rarest
specimen of Almighty skill, the Almighty had pitilessly shattered, in
order that it might inherit a higher, an eternal perfection. O mystery of
mysteries, that heaven should not be possibly obtained without such
grinding down and breaking up of our original nature! O mysterious, that
principle in us, whatever it is, and however it came there, which is so
antagonistic to God, which has so spoilt what seems so good, that all must
be undone, and must begin anew! "An enemy hath done this;" and, knowing as
much as this, and no more, we must leave the awful mystery to that day
when all things shall be made light.

Agellius has not been idle while these thoughts pass through his mind. He
has stooped down and scooped up such portions of the sand as are moistened
with her blood, and has committed them