The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume ThreeCarleton, William
General
The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim: Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of; William Carleton, Volume Three
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
At length I thought I heard a noise as it Were of a rushing tempest,
sweeping from the hills down into the valley; but on looking up, I could
perceive nothing but the dusky desolation that brooded over the place.
Still the noise continued; again I saw the coffin move; I then felt
the motion communicated to myself, and found my body borne and swung
backwards and forwards, precisely according to the motion of the coffin.
I again attempted to utter a cry for assistance, but could not: the
motion in my body still continued, as did the approaching noise in the
hills. I looked up a second time in the direction in which the valley
wound off between them, but judge of what I must have suffered, when
I beheld one of the mountains moving, as it were, from its base, and
tumbling down towards the spot on which I stood! In the twinkling of an
eye the whole scene, hills and all, began to tremble, to vibrate, and to
fly round me, with a rapid, delirious motion; the stars shot back into
the depths of heaven, and disappeared; the ground on which I stood began
to pass from beneath my feet; a noise like the breaking of a thousand
gigantic billows again burst from every direction, and I found myself
instantly overwhelmed by some deadly weight, which prostrated me on the
earth, and deprived me of sense and motion.
I know not how long I continued in this state; but I remember that, on
opening my eyes the first object that presented itself to me, was the
sky glowing as before with ten thousand stars, and the moon walking in
her unclouded brightness through the heavens. The whole circumstance
then rushed back upon my mind, but with a sense of horror very much
diminished; I arose, and on looking towards the spot, perceived the
coffin in the same place. I then stood, and endeavoring to collect
myself, viewed it as calmly as possible; it was, however, as motionless
and distinct as when I first saw it. I now began to reason upon the
matter, and to consider that it was pusillanimous in me to give way to
such boyish terrors. The confidence, also, which my heart, only a short
time before this, had experienced in the presence and protection of
the Almighty, again returned, and, along with it, a degree of religious
fortitude, which invigorated my whole system. “Well,” thought I, “in the
name of God I shall ascertain what you are, let the consequence be what
it may.” I then advanced until I stood exactly over it, and raising
my foot gave it a slight kick. “Now,” said I, “nothing remains but to
ascertain whether it contains a dead body or not;” but on raising the end
of it, I perceived by its lightness, that it was empty. To investigate
the cause of its being left in this solitary spot was, however, not
within the compass of my philosophy, so I gave that up. On looking at
it more closely, I noticed a plate, marked with the name and age of
the person for whom it was intended, and on bringing my eyes near the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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