Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/357

CH. XXIII.] and sisters, and was already mounted for the journey: I had also taken my leave of this hospitable family; and was proceeding through the gateway, when I had another object, unexpectedly, to encounter. It was Doña Maria standing on the side of the porch with her head erect, her arms extended, her eyes streaming with tears; and, as her hair, half dishevelled, flowed down unconfined over her neck and shoulders, she seemed some half-animated portrait of the Maria Dolorosa, with which the churches and houses of these countries are so usually adorned. No words of consolation which I ventured to offer could rouse her from the stupor in which her grief had plunged her: to all my observations she indistinctly muttered, "Mi hermano" (my brother). She was still motionless; the scene was become too distressing to witness, and I hastened through the porch: I proceeded slowly along the street: the house extended for a considerable distance down it: there were five windows in the front, and as I passed