EXTINGUISHING IN ITS PASSAGE THE CANDLE WHICH MONTAGUE CARRIED.
“Barton, Barton, Barton!” cried the general, with a strange mixture of awe and vehemence.
He took the candle, and held it so that it shone full upon his face. The features were fixed, stern and white; the jaw was fallen, and the sightless eyes, still open, gazed vacantly forward toward the front of the bed.
“God Almighty, he’s dead!” muttered the general, as he looked upon this fearful spectacle. They both continued to gaze upon it in silence for a minute or more. “And cold, too,” said Montague, withdrawing his hand from that of the dead man.
“And see, see; may I never have life, sir,” added the man, after another pause, with a shudder, “but there was something else on the bed with him! Look there—look there; see that, sir!”
As the man thus spoke, he pointed to a deep indenture, as if caused by a heavy pressure, near the foot of the bed.
Montague was silent.
“Come, sir, come away, for God’s sake!” whispered the man, drawing close up to him, and holding fast by his arm, while he glanced fearfully round; “what good can be done here now?—come away, for God’s sake!”
At this moment they heard the steps of more than one approaching, and Montague, hastily desiring the servant to arrest their progress, endeavoured to loose the rigid grip with which the fingers of the dead man were clutched in the bed-clothes, and drew, as well as he was able, the awful figure into a reclining posture. Then closing the curtains carefully upon it, he hastened himself to meet those who were approaching.
.....