with such small attendance. So we waited a little longer, during which
interval I heard the landlady's daughter sobbing and wailing in the
entry; and but for this tender-heartedness there would have been no tears
at all. Finally we set forth,--the undertaker, a friend of his, and a
young man, perhaps the landlady's son, and myself, in the black-plumed
coach, and the landlady, her daughter, and a female friend, in the coach
behind. Previous to this, however, everybody had taken some wine or
spirits; for it seemed to be considered disrespectful not to do so.

Before us went the plumed hearse, a stately affair, with a bas-relief of
funereal figures upon its sides. We proceeded quite across the city to
the Necropolis, where the coffin was carried into a chapel, in which we
found already another coffin, and another set of mourners, awaiting the
clergyman. Anon he appeared,--a stern, broad-framed, large, and
bald-headed man, in a black-silk gown. He mounted his desk, and read the
service in quite a feeble and unimpressive way, though with no lack of
solemnity. This done, our four bearers took up the coffin, and carried
it out of the chapel; but, descending the steps, and, perhaps, having
taken a little too much brandy, one of them stumbled, and down came the
coffin,--not quite to the ground, however; for they grappled with it, and
contrived, with a great struggle, to prevent the misadventure. But I
really expected to see poor Captain Auld burst forth among us in his
grave-clothes.

The Necropolis is quite a handsome burial-place, shut in by high walls,
so overrun with shrubbery that no part of the brick or stone is visible.
Part of the space within is an ornamental garden, with flowers and green
turf; the rest is strewn with flat gravestones, and a few raised
monuments; and straight avenues run to and fro between. Captain Auld's
grave was dug nine feet deep. It is his own for twelve months; but, if