* * *
It was not until the harsh sound of the hammers of the workmen who were
employed to rivet those iron bars covering the grave to secure it from
violation, had begun to echo from the vaulted roof, that some of us were
called to the full conviction of the fact, that the earth had for ever
closed over that form which we were wont to love and reverence; that eye
which we had so often seen beaming with benevolence, sparkling with wit,
or lighted up with a poet's phrenzy; those lips which we had so often
seen monopolizing the attention of all listeners, or heard rolling out,
with nervous accentuation, those powerful verses with which his head was
continually teeming; and that brow, the perpetual throne of generous
expression and liberal intelligence. Overwhelmed by the conviction of
the afflicting truth, men moved away without parting salutation, singly,
slowly, and silently. Tho day began to stoop down into twilight; and we,
too, after giving a last parting survey to the spot where now repose the
remains of our Scottish Shakspeare--a spot lovely enough to induce his
sainted spirit to haunt and sanctify its shades--hastily tore ourselves
away.
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