Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 3.djvu/257

 who lived in a cottage hard by, requested he would lead me to a certain grave, which I indicated by tokens too easily known.

"Oh, you mean the sweet young lady, as died of grief for the loss of her little boy. There it is," continued he, pointing with his finger; "the white peacock is now sitting on the headstone of the grave, and the little boy is buried beside it."

I approached, while the humble sexton kindly withdrew, that I might, without witnesses, indulge that grief which he saw was the burthen of my aching heart. The bird remained, but without dressing its plumage, without the usual air of surprise and vigilance evinced by domestic fowls, when disturbed in their haunts. This poor creature was moulting; its feathers were rumpled and disordered; its tail ragged. There was no beauty in the animal, which was probably only kept as a variety of the species; and it appeared to me as if it had been placed there as a lesson to myself. In its modest attire, in its