PUNERAL F LOWERS. 151 



and exquisitely pictured is the scene of watching 

 over her, previous to interment : The pious 

 anchorite ceased not to pray during the whole 

 night. I sat in silence on the top of Atala's 

 funeral couch : how often had I supported her 

 sleeping head upon my knees, and how often 

 had I bent over her beauteous form, listening 

 to her, and inhaling her perfumed breath ; but 

 now no soft murmur issued from her motionless 

 bosom, and it was in vain that I waited for my 

 beloved to awake. The moon supplied her 

 pale light to the funeral eve ; she rose at mid- 

 night as a fair virgin that weeps over the bier 

 of a departed friend ; it covered the whole 

 scene with a deep melancholy, displaying the 

 aged oaks and flowing rivers. From time to 

 time the cenobite plunged a bunch of flowers 

 into consecrated water, and bathed the couch of 

 death with the heavenly dew, repeating, in a 

 solemn voice, some verses from an ancient poet 

 called JOB : 



" He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down ; he 

 fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. 



" Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery ? 

 and life unto the hitter of soul ?" 



