Page:Life of Robert Burns.pdf/24

 24 state till morning, and next day were interred with military honours, attended by a procession of the chief persons in the town and neighbourhood, and many from great distances. The multi- tude," says an eye-witness who accompanied Burns to the grave, went step by step with the chief mourners. They might amount to ten or twelse thousand. Not a word was heard. It was an un- pressive and mournful sight to see men of all ranks, and persuasions, and opinions, mingling as brothers, and stepping side by side down the streets of Dumfries with the remains of him who had sung of their loves and joys, and domestic endear- ments, with a truth and a tenderness which none perhaps have since equalled. I found my. self at the brink of the poet's grave, into which he was about to descend for ever. There was a pause among the mourners, as if loath to part with his remains; and when he was at last lowered, and the first shovelful of earth sounded on the coffin- lid, I looked up and saw tears on many checks where 'tears were not usual. The volunteers fired three volleys. The earth was heaped up, the green so laid over him, and the multitude stood gazing on the grave for some minutes' space, and then melted silently away." A costly mausoleum has since been erected to the memory of the poet, on the highest point of ground in the church-yard, and thither the remains of Burns were solemnly transferred on the 5th June 1815.