Windsor; my brow was clouded, my heart heavy; I entered the Little

Park, as was my custom, at the Frogmore gate, on my way to the

Castle. A great part of these grounds had been given to cultivation,

and strips of potatoe-land and corn were scattered here and there.

The rooks cawed loudly in the trees above; mixed with their hoarse

cries I heard a lively strain of music. It was Alfred's birthday.

The young people, the Etonians, and children of the neighbouring gentry,

held a mock fair, to which all the country people were invited. The

park was speckled by tents, whose flaunting colours and gaudy flags, waving

in the sunshine, added to the gaiety of the scene. On a platform erected

beneath the terrace, a number of the younger part of the assembly were

dancing. I leaned against a tree to observe them. The band played the wild

eastern air of Weber introduced in Abon Hassan; its volatile notes gave

wings to the feet of the dancers, while the lookers-on unconsciously beat

time. At first the tripping measure lifted my spirit with it, and for a

moment my eyes gladly followed the mazes of the dance. The revulsion of

thought passed like keen steel to my heart. Ye are all going to die, I

thought; already your tomb is built up around you. Awhile, because you are

gifted with agility and strength, you fancy that you live: but frail is the

bower of flesh" that encaskets life; dissoluble the silver cord than binds

you to it. The joyous soul, charioted from pleasure to pleasure by the

graceful mechanism of well-formed limbs, will suddenly feel the axle-tree

give way, and spring and wheel dissolve in dust. Not one of you, O! fated

crowd, can escape--not one! not my own ones! not my Idris and her babes!

Horror and misery! Already the gay dance vanished, the green sward was

strewn with corpses, the blue air above became fetid with deathly

315

The Last Man