The Brothers of Qoschenen. 157 



cold lustre peculiar to those who have grown old in the dangerous 

 pursuit, and which is caused, according to the superstitions of the pea- 

 santry, by their communion with the spirits of the glacier and the 

 avalanche. ' Stoss ! Baumgarten ! Nay, nay ; this poor fellow 

 slumbered in that snow-wreath, before they were born. And yet I 

 almost think I have seen him before. Eh ! a rifle shot,' he added, as 

 he pointed to a dark spot on the forehead, and thrusting his hand 

 among the hair drew out a fragment of the skull, to which a long dark 

 lock still adhered. 'Ha ! I know him ! ' he shouted, as he smote his 

 huge hard palm upon the table, ' Franz Easier, beym Himmel ! ' 



" The door of the room I had just left suddenly opened, and Karl 

 Easier, like a corpse in its grave-clothes, stood upon the threshold. 

 All shrunk aside, and his eye fell upon his brother's face, lit up by the 

 sunshine. He reeled forward, his hands thrust out, and his face half 

 averted, as if endeavouring to resist the fascination that urged him to- 

 wards the dead. His mouth was opened wide, and his chest heaving 

 in the struggle for one more draught of life. He stopped ; his eye 

 became glassy, and, without a word, he fell back his full length, and 

 his head rebounded from the stone floor with a sound that made me 

 shudder. He was lifted up, the blood flowing from his ears and nos- 

 trils dead. 



" It was a strange sight that evening to see the brothers laid side 

 by side. My feelings, as I looked upon them, were indescribable. 

 When last they left that cottage door, both young and full of life : 

 they met now, the one still young in death, the other, the time-worn, 

 sin-worn wreck of eighty years ; and the innocent cause of the death 

 of the one and the misery of the other pouring forth the incoherent 

 lament of dotage over them both." 



The Capuchin ceased, and we both remained some time gazing on 

 the embers. 



" Tis a sad story," at last said I. 



" Sad enough," he replied, " but such, young man, is love. It is 

 like the flame, that now warms the household hearth now wraps 

 street and temple in destruction. An old-fashioned moral, you will 

 say ; but not more old than true. You may find it so before your 

 shoulders have borne the weight of so many years as mine." 



" Che sara, sar !" said I. " Evils that are to come, come time 

 enough, and Montepulciano at least is a present good. Come ! an- 

 other biechiere !" 



" One more only, and then I will bid you buona-notte for to-night, 

 and buon-viaggio for to-morrow. Salute, and Heaven send you safe 

 across the Eocchetta -but don't travel later than need be." 



B. 



