' Presently after, however, he began to lose the thread
of his narrative; and at last: 'Que que j'ai? Je m'embrouille!'
says he, 'Suffit: s'm'a la donne, et Berthe en etait bien
contente.' It struck me as the falling of the curtain or the
closing of the sepulchre doors.
Sure enough, in but a little while after, he fell into a sleep as
gentle as an infant's, which insensibly changed into the sleep of
death. I had my arm about his body at the time and remarked
nothing, unless it were that he once stretched himself a little, so
kindly the end came to that disastrous life. It was only at our
evening halt that the Major and I discovered we were travelling
alone with the poor clay. That night we stole a spade from a
field--I think near Market Bosworth--and a little farther on, in a
wood of young oak trees and by the light of King's lantern, we
buried the old soldier of the Empire with both prayers and tears.
We had needs invent Heaven if it had not been revealed to us; there
are some things that fall so bitterly ill on this side Time! As
for the Major, I have long since forgiven him. He broke the news
to the poor Colonel's daughter; I am told he did it kindly; and
sure, nobody could have done it without tears! His share of
purgatory will be brief; and in this world, as I could not very
well praise him, I have suppressed his name.
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