misfortunes, the vain struggles of the late king, the images of Raymond,

Evadne, and Perdita, who had lived in the world's prime, were brought

vividly before us. We consigned her to the oblivious tomb with reluctance;

and when I turned from her grave, Janus veiled his retrospective face; that

which gazed on future generations had long lost its faculty.

After remaining a week at Dijon, until thirty of our number deserted the

vacant ranks of life, we continued our way towards Geneva. At noon on the

second day we arrived at the foot of Jura. We halted here during the heat

of the day. Here fifty human beings--fifty, the only human beings that

survived of the food-teeming earth, assembled to read in the looks of each

other ghastly plague, or wasting sorrow, desperation, or worse,

carelessness of future or present evil. Here we assembled at the foot of

this mighty wall of mountain, under a spreading walnut tree; a brawling

stream refreshed the green sward by its sprinkling; and the busy

grasshopper chirped among the thyme. We clustered together a group of

wretched sufferers. A mother cradled in her enfeebled arms the child, last

of many, whose glazed eye was about to close for ever. Here beauty, late

glowing in youthful lustre and consciousness, now wan and neglected, knelt

fanning with uncertain motion the beloved, who lay striving to paint his

features, distorted by illness, with a thankful smile. There an

hard-featured, weather-worn veteran, having prepared his meal, sat, his

head dropped on his breast, the useless knife falling from his grasp, his

limbs utterly relaxed, as thought of wife and child, and dearest relative,

all lost, passed across his recollection. There sat a man who for forty

years had basked in fortune's tranquil sunshine; he held the hand of his

546

The Last Man