e;
and now that the lofty spirit had departed, there had been extreme
difficulty in persuading the sullen excess of clay to conform to the
dimensions of those garments. The upper part of the chest alone would
bear its buttons, and across one portion of the lower limbs an ancient
seam had started; recalling an incident to them who had known him in his
brief hour of glory. For one night, as he was riding home from Fallow
field, and just entering the gates of the town, a mounted trooper
spurred furiously past, and slashing out at him, gashed his thigh. Mrs.
Melchisedec found him lying at his door in a not unwonted way; carried
him up-stairs in her arms, as she had done many a time before, and
did not perceive his condition till she saw the blood on her gown. The
cowardly assailant was never discovered; but Mel was both gallant and
had, in his military career, the reputation of being a martinet. Hence,
divers causes were suspected. The wound failed not to mend, the trousers
were repaired: Peace about the same time was made, and the affair passed
over.

Looking on the fine head and face, Lady Racial saw nothing of this.
She had not looked long before she found covert employment for her
handkerchief. The widow standing beside her did not weep, or reply to
her whispered excuses at emotion; gazing down on his mortal length with
a sort of benignant friendliness; aloof, as one whose duties to that
form of flesh were well-nigh done. At the feet of his master, Jacko, the
monkey, had jumped up, and was there squatted, with his legs crossed,
very like a tailor! The imitative wretch had got a towel, and as often
as Lady Racial's handkerchief travelled to her eyes, Jacko's peery face
was hidden, and you saw his lithe skinny body doing grief's convulsions
till, tired of this amusement, he obtained possession of the warrior's
helmet, from a small round table on one side of the bed; a calque of
the barbarous military-Georgian form, with a huge knob of horse-hair
projecting over the peak; and under this, trying to adapt it to his
rogue's head, the tricksy image of Death extinguished himself.

All was very silent in the room. Then the widow quietly disengaged
Jacko, and taking him up, went to the door, and deposited him outside.
During her momentary absence, Lady Racial had time to touch the dead
man's forehead with her lips, unseen.

CHAPTER III. THE DAUGHTERS OF THE SHEARS

Three daughters and a son were left to the world by Mr.