been emancipated, now threw out its wild, pendant branches, laden with
purple fruit, ready to drop, as if emblematical of the ripening and
decay of human life.

In such a scene as this, then, it was, that the coffin of Sir Walter
Scott was set down on trestles placed outside the iron railing; and here
that solemn service, beginning with those words so cheering to the souls
of Christians, "I am the resurrection and the life," was solemnly read
by Mr. Williams. The manly, soldier-like features of the chief mourner,
on whom the eyes of sympathy were most naturally turned, betrayed at
intervals the powerful efforts which he made to master his emotions, as
well as the inefficiency of his exertions to do so. The other relatives
who surrounded the bier were deeply moved; and amid the crowd of weeping
friends no eye and no heart could be discovered that was not altogether
occupied in that sad and impressive ceremonial which was so soon to shut
from them for ever him who had been so long the common idol of their
admiration, and of their best affections. * * *

It was not until the harsh sound of the hammers of the workmen who were
employed to rivet those iron bars covering the grave to secure it from
violation, had begun to echo from the vaulted roof, that some of us were
called to the full conviction of the fact, that the earth had for ever
closed over that form which we were wont to love and reverence; that eye
which we had so often seen beaming with benevolence, sparkling with wit,
or lighted up with a poet's phrenzy; those lips which we had so often
seen monopolizing the attention of all listeners, or heard rolling out,
with nervous accentuation, those powerful verses with which his head was
continually teeming; and that brow, the perpetual throne of generous
expression and liberal intelligence. Overwhelmed by the conviction of
the afflicting truth, men moved away without parting salutation, singly,