The Trotter, 153 



and tumult of the storm, one long wild piercing shriek of agony 

 rose upon tlie chill night air — a shriek the like of which is scarcely 

 ever heard once in a life, bat if once heard, is never torgotten. It 

 was the last imploring call for human aid, where human aid was 

 none ; and with tliat wild shriek, a pure and gentle spirit winged 

 its flight from a world of grief and pain to that happy land where 

 sorrows are unknown — ^where the '' wicked cease from troubling, 

 and the weary are at rest." 



A light was dimly burning in the mill, and to this West directed 

 his steps as soon as he could rise from the ground. The miller and 

 his men gazed with terror upon his spectral figure, as, dripping wet 

 and without a hat, he staggered into the mill and sank down upon 

 a heap of sacks. '' My wife, my poor wife ! " were the only words 

 he uttered 3 and it was some time before they could gather from 

 his incoherent speech any particulars of the sad accident. They 

 had heard nothing, for all outward sounds were drowned in the 

 rattle and roar of the mill. 



The miller immediately stopped the wheel j lanterns were 

 lighted 5 one man went down the stream in a boat, the rest followed 

 on the bank. They had not far to go. About a hundred yards 

 down from the place where the horse breasted the rails was an 

 osier-bed in the middle of the stream j and here the gig and horse 

 had been borne by the current and brought up on the muddy bank. 

 The body was still in the gig j they dragged it out and carried it 

 up to the mill. But the vital spark had fled for ever, and the 

 dishevelled tresses, wide, staring eyes, and pale, bloodless lips gave a 

 ghastly, death-like appearance to a countenance which had so lately 

 beamed with animation and life. A messenger was despatched in 

 hot haste for the nearest doctor, and another to Jack Robson, with 

 the melancholy intelligence. Both arrived before midnight 3 but 

 the time had gone by when human assistance would have availed, 

 and the words of consolation which they kindly uttered to the 

 bereaved husband fell coldly upon ears which scarcely heard them. 

 The body had been carried up to the miller's house, and such res- 

 toratives as were at hand had been applied. West never left that 



M a 



