The name, indeed, was most unpleasantly familiar to me; but,
however fruitless my visits and advice might have been at another time,
the present was too fearful an occasion to suffer my doubts of their
utility, or my reluctance to re-attempting what appeared a hopeless
task, to weigh even against the lightest chance that a consciousness of
his imminent danger might produce in him a more docile and tractable
disposition. Accordingly I told the child to lead the way, and followed
her in silence. She hurried rapidly through the long narrow street which
forms the great thoroughfare of the town. The darkness of the hour,
rendered still deeper by the close approach of the old-fashioned houses,
which lowered in tall obscurity on either side of the way; the damp,
dreary chill which renders the advance of morning peculiarly cheerless,
combined with the object of my walk--to visit the death-bed of a
presumptuous sinner, to endeavour, almost against my own conviction,
to infuse a hope into the heart of a dying reprobate--a drunkard but
too probably perishing under the consequences of some mad fit of
intoxication; all these circumstances served to enhance the gloom and
solemnity of my feelings, as I silently followed my little guide, who
with quick steps traversed the uneven pavement of the Main Street. After
a walk of about five minutes, she turned off into a narrow lane, of that
obscure and comfortless class which is to be found in almost all small
old-fashioned towns, chill, without ventilation, reeking with all manner
of offensive effluviæ, and lined by dingy, smoky, sickly and pent-up
buildings, frequently not only in a wretched but in a dangerous
condition. "Your father has changed his abode since I last visited him, and, I am
afraid, much for the worse," said I. "Indeed he has, sir; but we must not complain," replied she. "We have to
thank God that we have lodging and food, though it's poor enough, it is,
your honour." Poor child! thought I. How many an older head might learn wisdom from
thee--how many a luxurious philosopher, who is skilled to preach but not
to suffer, might not thy patient words put to the blush! The manner and
language of my companion were alike above her years and station; and,
indeed, in all cases in which the cares and sorrows of life have
anticipated their usual date, and have fallen, as they sometimes do,
with melancholy prematurity to the lot of childhood, I have observed the
result to have proved uniformly the same. A young mind, to which joy and
indulgence have been strangers, and to which suffering and self-denial
have been familiarized from the first, acquires a solidity and an
elevation which no other discipline could have bestowed, and which, in
the present case, communicated a striking but mournful peculiarity to
the manners, even to the voice, of the child. We paused before a narrow,
crazy door, which she opened by means of a latch, and we forthwith began
to ascend the steep and broken stairs which led to the sick man's room. As we mounted flight after flight towards the garret-floor, I heard more
and more distinctly the hurried talking of many voices. I could also
distinguish the low sobbing of a female. On arriving upon the uppermost
lobby, these sounds became fully audible. "This way, your honour," said my little conductress; at the same time,
pushing open a door of patched and half-rotten plank, she admitted me
into the squalid chamber of death and misery. But one candle, held in
the fingers of a scared and haggard-looking child, was burning in the
room, and that so dim that all was twilight or darkness except within
its immediate influence. The general obscurity, however, served to throw
into prominent and startling relief the death-bed and its occupant. The
light fell with horrible clearness upon the blue and swollen features of
the drunkard. I did not think it possible that a human countenance could
look so terrific. The lips were black and drawn apart; the teeth were
firmly set; the eyes a little unclosed, and nothing but the whites
appearing. Every feature was fixed and livid, and the whole face wore a
ghastly and rigid expression of despairing terror such as I never saw
equalled. His hands were crossed upon his breast, and firmly clenched;
while, as if to add to the corpse-like effect of the whole, some white
cloths, dipped in water, were wound about the forehead and temples. As soon as I could remove my eyes from this horrible spectacle, I
observed my friend Dr. D----, one of the most humane of a humane
profession, standing by the bedside. He had been attempting, but
unsuccessfully, to bleed the patient, and had now applied his finger to
the pulse. "Is there any hope?" I inquired in a whisper. A shake of the head was the reply. There was a pause, while he continued
to hold the wrist; but he waited in vain for the throb of life--it was
not there: and when he let go the hand, it fell stiffly back into its
former position upon the other. "The man is dead," said the physician, as he turned from the bed where
the terrible figure lay. Dead! thought I, scarcely venturing to look upon the tremendous and
revolting spectacle. Dead! without an hour for repentance, even a moment
for reflection. Dead! without the rites which even the best should have. Was there a hope for him? The glaring eyeball, the grinning mouth, the
distorted brow--that unutterable look in which a painter would have
sought to embody the fixed despair of the nethermost hell--These were my
answer. The poor wife sat at a little distance, crying as if her heart would
break--the younger children clustered round the bed, looking with
wondering curiosity upon the form of death, never seen before. When the first tumult of uncontrollable sorrow had passed away, availing
myself of the solemnity and impressiveness of the scene, I desired the
heart-stricken family to accompany me in prayer, and all knelt down
while I solemnly and fervently repeated some of those prayers which
appeared most applicable to the occasion. I employed myself thus in a
manner which I trusted was not unprofitable, at least to the living, for
about ten minutes; and having accomplished my task, I was the first to
arise. I looked upon the poor, sobbing, helpless creatures who knelt so humbly
around me, and my heart bled for them. With a natural transition I
turned my eyes from them to the bed in which the body lay; and, great
God! what was the revulsion, the horror which I experienced on seeing
the corpse-like, terrific thing seated half upright before me. The white
cloths which had been wound about the head had now partly slipped from
their position, and were hanging in grotesque festoons about the face
and shoulders, while the distorted eyes leered from amid them--

    "A sight to dream of, not to tell." I stood actually riveted to the spot. The figure nodded its head and
lifted its arm, I thought, with a menacing gesture. A thousand confused
and horrible thoughts at once rushed upon my mind.