’You have stretched a great point for me, Mr. Burns,’ he said, ’in that you have undertaken this interview when you were so little able to bear the strain. I admire your fortitude, and I beg to thank you for the unselfish effort. I see how it has worn you out, and I will leave you now, and call your nurse.’ The poet opened his eyes, and fixed them on the younger man with an indescribably yearning look. ’I would do better now,’ he said, ’to pray than to preach! There is one prayer for us all, Mr. Herries—for you—for me: "_Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors!_"’ ’Amen!’ said Herries, with the first ring of emotion in his voice. Then, with a deep inclination, he silently left the room. *CHAPTER XLV.* It took Herries three full days to accomplish the business of which he had spoken to the poet. When he returned to Dumfries, the town was ringing with the death of Burns. A suppressed excitement seemed to pervade the streets; men spoke in muffled voices, awe-stricken, of the great spirit fled—and women cried to think of the destitute young widow, with her flock of orphans, who must so soon, in double peril, and under the very shadow of death, give to the world the poet’s posthumous child. Herries felt a great delicacy in presenting himself at the house of mourning, and yet time pressed, and the possession of the letters was of vital importance to him. He waited one day, and then, on the morning of his departure, directed his steps to the Wee Vennel. This time the door was opened to him by Jessie Lewars, her pretty face swollen and discoloured by tears. ’I was directed by—by the late Mr. Burns to call here for a packet of letters,’ said Herries, with respectful hesitancy. ’We were bidden to expect you, sir,’ answered the girl, and then she added that invitation which, under the circumstances, among the peasantry of Scotland, is never withheld and never refused: ’Will you be pleased to come up the stair and view the corpse, sir?’ Herries followed her upstairs, but she did not enter the room with him. He was left to do that alone.