Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/261

 together to Him who maketh the heart soft, and bindeth it up."

The day seemed of interminable length to the aged mourners, who, long accustomed to measure time by the varieties of solicitude, felt that the loss of the sole object of their care had given to the hours a weight, under which they heavily moved.

In the afternoon, the clergyman, who for several days had not visited their habitation, was seen to approach it. Zachary went to meet him. The agitation, which had so long marked the manner of the grief-stricken warriour, had subsided; and he moved with the calm dignity which was natural to him. His deportment seemed an illustration of the words of the king of Israel, when his child was smitten:

"She is dead. Wherefore should I mourn? Can I bring her back again? I shall go to her, but she shall not return to me."

Bowing to the clergyman, he said—

"She, whom you seek, is not here. She arose ere the sun looked upon the morning. Come, see the place where she lay."

Departing from the distant respect bordering upon awe, which he had been accustomed to testify towards the guide of Oriana, he led him by the hand to the apartment, as if he felt that in the house of death all distinctions were levelled, and all men made equal.