wind, at intervals, moaned
fitfully, and as it swept through the long corridors of the building,
strongly resembled the mournful and pitiful tones of a human being in
distress. The trees that stood in front of the house ever and anon yielded
to the intermitting gusts of wind, and bowed their heads as though in
submission to a superior power. There was no human being to be seen out of
doors, and the cattle, shortly before grazing upon some distant hills, had
already been removed. The river flowed sluggishly past, its brawling
breaking occasionally upon the ear when the wind was inaudible. Suddenly
the wind ceased, and large drops of rain began to fall; presently
afterward, it came down in torrents. It was a fearful night. Frequent
peals of thunder smote upon the ear; now it seemed to be at a distance,
now immediately overhead. Vivid flashes of lightning were at intervals
seen in the distant horizon, illumining for a moment, with supernatural
brilliancy, the most minute and insignificant objects. In the midst of the
tempest, I fancied I heard a rumbling noise at a distance. It grew more
distinct; the cause of it was rapidly approaching. I looked earnestly out
of the window, and I thought I could discern a moving object between the
interstices of the trees. I was not mistaken. It was the vehicle conveying
the dead body. It came along at a rapid pace. It was just in the act of
turning an angle of the road, when a tree, of gigantic proportions, was
struck by the electric fluid to the ground. The horse shied, and the car
narrowly escaped being crushed beneath its ponderous weight. The men drove
up to the entrance, and speedily took the box containing the body from the
car, and placed it in a room which I showed them into. I directed them to
take the body out of the box, and place it upon a deal board, which I had
laid horizontally upon a couple of trestles. The corpse was accordingly
taken out. It was that of a finely-grown young man. I laid my hand upon
it; it was still warm, and I fancied I felt a slight pulsation about the
region of the heart. Anxious to dismiss the men as soon as possible, and
fearing that the old woman might be imposing upon me, I asked the price.

"_Siebzig Thaler, mein Herr_," said the man.

"_Danke, danke--tausendmal_," said he, as I counted the money into his
hand.

At this instant a vivid flash of lightning illumined, for a second or two,
the livid and ghastly corpse of the man, rendering the obje