had formed part of the cushion. The first that fell upon me was a cold,
heavy carcass that might have been buried, at farthest, about three
days. I thought horror and disgust would have destroyed me. Then came a
countless myriad of the skeletons of the defunct, all crowding into the
sedan, as if it had been the ark of Noah. At length, to all appearance,
the whole of the inhabitants of the churchyard were safely seated upon
and beside me, and the tombstones which had pertinaciously adhered to
many a greasy soul, added not a little to the load which lay rattling
and groaning upon me. A monstrous skeleton which lay at my side--with
its eternal grin--made the most horrible inroads into my right side with
its bony elbow, and such a smell--even now I wonder that every sense did
not leave me. The patience of my bearers seemed however now to be
exhausted. They still battled at the door with hundreds of this amiable
fraternity; at length they dashed the door to with a force that made the
windows quiver, and made off with me and my noble troop. And now it was
that the rattling, and groaning, and the elbow manoeuvre were first
fully brought into action, and in their endeavours to seat themselves
more conveniently, my accursed freight jolted from one side to the other
till I thought my knees would have broken down under their burthen. One
would imagine that in such numerous society I should have been warmly
seated, yet no icehouse ever was colder. At every step that our bearers
took, the icy mass of putridity before me, shook together--my flesh
creeps even now at the recollection. The company, growing merry, began
to sing--and with organs similar to those I had already remarked in our
guides; but what airs! what tunes! The corpse before me seemed to be a
leading singer; his soul-moving, heart-rending treble, sounded something
like scraping slate pencil upon glass; the stave was of the following
joyous import:--

See, how glows the deadly wine,