darkness behind, and was introduced to Dr. Walsingham, and whispered for
a while to Mr. Irons, and then to Bob Martin, who had two short forms
placed transversely in the aisle to receive what was coming, and a
shovel full of earth--all ready. So, while the angular clergyman ruffled
into the front of the pew, with Irons on one side, a little in the rear,
both books open; the plump little undertaker, diffusing a steam from his
moist garments, making a prismatic halo round the candles and lanterns,
as he moved successively by them, whispered a word or two to the young
gentleman [Mr. Mervyn, the doctor called him], and Mr. Mervyn
disappeared. Dr. Walsingham and John Tracy got into contiguous seats,
and Bob Martin went out to lend a hand. Then came the shuffling of feet,
and the sound of hard-tugging respiration, and the suppressed energetic
mutual directions of the undertaker's men, who supported the ponderous
coffin. How much heavier, it always seems to me, that sort of load than
any other of the same size!

A great oak shell: the lid was outside in the porch, Mr. Tressels was
unwilling to screw it down, having heard that the entrance to the vault
was so narrow, and apprehending it might be necessary to take the coffin
out. So it lay its length with a dull weight on the two forms. The lead
coffin inside, with its dusty black velvet, was plainly much older.
There was a plate on it with two bold capitals, and a full stop after
each, thus;--

R. D. obiit May 11th, A.D. 1746. ætat 38.

And above this plain, oval plate was a little bit of an ornament no
bigger than a sixpence. John Tracy took it for a star, Bob Martin said
he knew it to be a Freemason's order, and Mr. Tressels, who almost
overlooked it, thought it was nothing better than a fourpenny cherub.