Browne has another claim to immortality; if it be true as is now thought that he was the author of the epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke: "Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother.

He has thrown a pall of gorgeous embroidery over the bloody hearse of Mary.

Presently the undertaker arrived with a dilapidated black hearse which he used especially for negroes.

We must however pass over many interesting facts, and content ourselves with a mere reference to the empress Maud being besieged here in 1141, and her miraculous flight with three knights, all escaping the eyes of the besiegers by the brightness of their raiment; Maud having just previously escaped from the castle of the Devizes, as a dead corpse, in a funeral hearse or bier.

Her nobles crowding round the shadowy hearse? Hark!

And many who stare at the close-shut hearse Envy the dead within,or, worse, Turn away with a keener zest To grapple and revel and sin with the rest! While far apart in a bower of green, Unheeded, unseen, A warbling bird on the topmost bough Merrily pipes to the Poet below, Asking an answer as gay, I trow!

Harold, I follow to thy place of birth The slow hearse,and thy last sad pilgrimage on earth.

Nearer and nearer it drew, louder and louder rose the priests' voices, and then a much-befringed and flower-laden hearse, preceded by the clergy and followed by the mourners (the men in evening dress and the women in their Sunday clothes), rounded the corner, passed in front of us, and halted before the main door of the church.

Priests in white and gold carried flaming torches, and the coffin, covered with a magnificent golden pall, was borne in a splendid hearse, guarded by four priests.