THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 109 



my body carried up, without a coffin, high up tho 

 mountains above the snow-line. I had fully consid- 

 ered how this could have been, ensured, and have al- 

 ways had a fancy, nay, something more than a fancy, 

 to be so disposed of, far away from men and their 

 ways. There are wishes of this kind which, I believe, 

 have a real relationship to the future, though the con- 

 nection may be too subtle to be clearly traced. There 

 is a twofold idea in death, by virtue of which man 

 still attaches himself to the earth while his spirit may 

 look forward to brighter worlds ; and for me it was 

 a real consolation to think of myself resting up there 

 among the high peaks 



" There, watched by silence and by night, 



And folded in the strong embrace 

 Of the great mountains, with the light 

 Of the sweet heavens upon my face." 



But it had not come to that. By day I watched 

 the sunbeams slanting through the apricot-trees, or 

 looked up longingly to the green slopes and white 

 snows of the " Windy Peak " of Gerard's map. Eve 

 after eve I saw the sunlight receding up the wild 

 precipices and fading on the snowy summits. ]S"ight 

 after night the most baleful of the constellations drew 

 its horrid length across a space of open sky between 

 the trees, and its red star, Cor Scorpti, glared down 

 upon my sick-bed like a malignant eye in heaven. 

 And while the crash of falling rocks and the move- 



