MELANCHOLY DEATH. 
227 
ling. After a desperate struggle, he died at two o’clock 
in the morning. 
He had no relative near him ; this was a sad and 
bitter reflection. As I looked upon the fair and beau- 
tiful corpse — for he was a remarkably handsome 
youth, and finely formed — I could not but read 
a lesson that will be remembered to the end of my 
days. The young Irishman was deeply affected : he 
assisted me to lay him out. Though he died after a 
severe paroxysm, his countenance nevertheless had 
subsided into an expression of placid repose. 
Next morning three young surgeons came for 
the purpose of ascertaining where the ball was lodged, 
which they had in vain endeavoured to extract. I 
was present during this painful scene, and saw the 
body mangled and hacked as if it had been the car- 
cass of a hog. I forbear to enter into the details of 
the revolting process of dissection — for such it was — 
and the cold, callous indifference with which these 
young medical practitioners tried their clumsy skill 
upon the remains of my poor young friend. The ball 
was at length found, lodged in the lumbar region 
on the right side. It had passed through the back- 
bone, and of course ruptured the spinal marrow : 
when found, it was flattened and jagged. 
On the same day, early in the afternoon, I attend- 
ed the body to its last receptacle, accompanied by all 
the brother officers of the deceased, who followed 
with silent and solemn sympathy ; and when the sub- 
lime service for the dead was concluded, three vol- 
leys were fired over the grave that received his man- 
gled remains. As I stood in the gloomy churchyard 
