180 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



ruinous vault, struck a light, lighted the torches, and 

 placed them at equal distances against the gable wall. 

 The light rendered visible a scene, which, heightened by 

 association, was of no tame or common character. The 

 floor below was strewn over with fragments of hewn stone, 

 grey with lichens, or green with moss, and in the inter- 

 stices there were brown discoloured fragments of human 

 bones. From the crevices in the wall there sprung a few 

 weeds which had pined throughout the summer for the 

 fresh air and the sunshine, but now, as they were beyond 

 the reach of the frost and the cold, they were green and 

 rank, and spread their tiny branches over the rough 

 damp stones, like silk foliage on a ground of grey 

 worsted. The arched roof above is covered over with 

 a whitish stalactitical matter, and stained with the damps 

 which have oozed from the soil over it. From the 

 light of the torches it assumed a pale, shroud-like, death- 

 like appearance. The square opening above seemed a 

 chasm of darkness ; and the recesses of the vault furthest 

 from the light were enveloped in so dismal a twilight 

 that I could almost have fancied that the whiter masses 

 of stone or building, which stood out like rude columns 

 from the darker wall, were some of the old tenants of the 

 place, who had risen to inquire after the cause of my 

 intrusion. The sounds which were conveyed to me in 

 this place formed a music worthy of such a hall. The 

 night, I have said, was stormy. The rain was heard to 

 patter on the flat stones above, the wind roared terribly 

 through the trees with which the burying-ground is 

 enclosed ; and the stream which runs through the neigh- 

 bouring ravine, the bottom of which is many yards lower 

 than that of the vault, joined its hoarse dash with the 

 roar of the wind and the pattering of the rain. In 

 order that I might vary the scene, I piled up a little 



