APPExWDIX. 579 



" Before I went 

 To banishment 



Into the loathed west ; 

 I could rehearse 

 A lyric verse 



And speak it with the best. 



" But time, ah me ! 

 Has laid, I see, 



My organ fast asleep ; 

 And turn'd my voice 

 Into the noise 



Of those that sit and weep. 



" His eyes slowly moved along the empty shelves until they rested 

 upon a place that had been occupied by a collection of the old dramat- 

 ists. He smiled, though he shed tears: 



"'Beshrew me, but thy song hath moved me.' I turned from the 

 window through which I was gazing, unperceived, and left him breath- 

 ing fragment upon fragment. 



" My uncle was accustomed to rise with the sun, and continued his 

 habit to the last. But he no longer enjoyed the songs of the birds, the 

 babbling of the waterfall, nor the fresh breeze of the morning laden 

 with fragrance — their influence had departed from them; still, he ad- 

 hered to his custom, and would wander from his green meadows to the 

 maple grove, and from the grove to the river, as if in pursuit of some- 

 thing — he knew not what. On his return his usual remark was, ' Is it 

 not strange that the flowers should have lost their fragrance, and the 

 little birds their skill in singing ! ' In happier days how he would 

 praise the flowers and the birds ! 



"As term-time approached, his malady ever increased. His morning 

 meal would scarcely be over when he would adjust his dress, and call for 

 his hat and cane, and on being asked whither he was going, he would 

 invariably reply : ' To the village to see my friends. Of late they have 

 ceased to come here, and it is right that I should see them.' He would 

 for hours walk from one end of the village to the other, and bow to all 

 who accosted him, yet pause to converse with none; and on his return, 

 when my good aunt would inquire whether he had seen his friends, the 

 constant reply was, 'No, I have fallen in with none of them.' Alas! 

 my poor uncle, how thy brain must have been shattered to imagine that 

 a man in adversity can ever find his friends ! 



"At length the dreaded day arrived — his cause was marked for trial, 

 and in a few hours the result would be known. The matter in dispute 

 was not of such a great moment, but he had brooded over it until his 



