But the visitations on
families are merely--"
He paused, for at that moment a door opened, and a party entered bearing a
burthen, which they deposited, with decent and grave respect, on the
floor, in the very centre of the room. The unceremonious manner of the
entrance, the assured and the common gravity of their air, proclaimed that
the villagers felt their errand to be a sufficient apology for this
intrusion. Had not the business of the past day naturally led to such a
belief, the manner and aspects of those who had borne the burthen would
have announced it to be a human body.
"I had believed that none fell in this day's strife, but those who met
their end near my own door," said Content, after a long, respectful, and
sorrowing pause. "Remove the face-cloth, that we may know on whom the blow
hath fallen."
One of the young men obeyed. It was not easy to recognise, through the
mutilations of savage barbarity, the features of the sufferer. But a
second and steadier look showed the gory and still agonized countenance of
the individual who had, that morning, left the Wish-Ton-Wish on the
message of the colonial authorities.
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