"I counted them," said the other, with the eagerness of a person to
whom the spectacle had afforded too much interest to be viewed with
indifference.
"But ye did not see," said Ailsie, exulting in her superior observation,
"that there's a thirteenth amang them that they ken naething about; and,
if auld freits say true, there's ane o' that company that'll no be lang
for this warld. But come awa' cummers; if we bide here, I'se warrant we
get the wyte o' whatever ill comes of it, and that gude will come of it
nane o' them need ever think to see."
And thus, croaking like the ravens when they anticipate pestilence, the
ill-boding sibyls withdrew from the churchyard.
In fact, the mourners, when the service of interment was ended,
discovered that there was among them one more than the invited number,
and the remark was communicated in whispers to each other. The suspicion
fell upon a figure which, muffled in the same deep mourning with the
others, was reclined, almost in a state of insensibility, against one of
the pillars of the sepulchral vault.
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