She seemed not to heed the travellers; but the angler,
his voice thrilling and quivering with indescribable emotion, addressed
her.
"Woman, whither do you go?" he inquired.
She started, but, after a momentary pause, replied, "There is one within
at the point of death. She struggles fearfully; and I cannot endure to
watch alone by her bedside. If you are Christians, come in with me."
Ellen's companion leaped hastily from his horse, assisted her also to
dismount, and followed the woman into the cottage, having first thrown the
bridles of the horses carelessly over the branch of a tree. Ellen trembled
at the awful scene she would be compelled to witness; but, when death was
so near at hand, it was more terrible to stand alone in the dim morning
light than even to watch the parting of soul and body. She therefore
entered the cottage.
Her guide, his face muffled in his cloak, had taken his stand at a
Distance from the death-bed, in a part of the room which neither the
increasing daylight nor the dim rays of a solitary lamp had yet
enlightened. At Ellen's entrance, the dying woman lay still, and
apparently calm, except that a plaintive, half-articulate sound
occasionally wandered through her lips.
"Hush! For mercy's sake, silence!" whispered the other woman to the
strangers.
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