The clumsy wheels of several old-fashioned coaches were heard,and the gentlemen and ladies composing the bridal party came throughthe church door with the sudden and gladsome effect of a burst ofsunshine. The whole group, except the principal figure, was made up ofyouth and gayety. As they streamed up the broad aisle, while thepews and pillars seemed to brighten on either side, their steps wereas buoyant as if they mistook the church for a ball-room, and wereready to dance hand in hand to the altar. So brilliant was thespectacle that few took notice of a singular phenomenon that hadmarked its entrance. At the moment when the bride's foot touched thethreshold the bell swung heavily in the tower above her, and sentforth its deepest knell. The vibrations died away and returned withprolonged solemnity, as she entered the body of the church.
"Good heavens! what an omen," whispered a young lady to her lover.
"On my honor," replied the gentleman, "I believe the bell has thegood taste to toll of its own accord. What has she to do withweddings? If you, dearest Julia, were approaching the altar the bellwould ring out its merriest peal. It has only a funeral knell forher."The bride and most of her company had been too much occupied withthe bustle of entrance to hear the first boding stroke of the bell, orat least to reflect on the singularity of such a welcome to the altar.
They therefore continued to advance with undiminished gayety. Thegorgeous dresses of the time, the crimson velvet coats, the gold-lacedhats, the hoop petticoats, the silk, satin, brocade, and embroidery,the buckles, canes, and swords, all displayed to the best advantage onpersons suited to such finery, made the group appear more like abright-colored picture than anything real. But by what perversity oftaste had the artist represented his principal figure as so wrinkledand decayed, while yet he had decked her out in the brightest splendorof attire, as if the loveliest maiden had suddenly withered intoage, and become a moral to the beautiful around her! On they went,however, and had glittered along about a third of the aisle, whenanother stroke of the bell seemed to fill the church with a visiblegloom, dimming and obscuring the bright pageant, till it shone forthagain as from a mist.
This time the party wavered, stopped, and huddled closertogether, while a slight scream was heard from some of the ladies, anda confused whispering among the gentlemen. Thus tossing to and fro,they might have been fancifully compared to a splendid bunch offlowers, suddenly shaken by a puff of wind, which threatened toscatter the leaves of an old, brown, withered rose, on the samestalk with two dewy buds- such being the emblem of the widow betweenher fair young bridemaids. But her heroism was admirable. She hadstarted with an irrepressible shudder, as if the stroke of the bellhad fallen directly on her heart; then, recovering herself, whileher attendants were yet in dismay, she took the lead, and paced calmlyup the aisle. The bell continued to swing, strike, and vibrate, withthe same doleful regularity as when a corpse is on its way to thetomb.
"My young friends here have their nerves a little shaken," said thewidow, with a smile, to the clergyman at the altar. "But so manyweddings have been ushered in with the merriest peal of the bells, andyet turned out unhappily, that I shall hope for better fortune undersuch different auspices.""Madam," answered the rector, in great perplexity, "this strangeoccurrence brings to my mind a marriage sermon of the famous BishopTaylor, wherein he mingles so many thoughts of mortality and futurewo, that, to speak somewhat after his own rich style, he seems to hangthe bridal chamber in black, and cut the wedding garment out of acoffin pall. And it has been the custom of divers nations to infusesomething of sadness into their marriage ceremonies, so to keepdeath in mind while contracting that engagement which is life'schiefest business. Thus we may draw a sad but profitable moral fromthis funeral knell."But, though the clergyman might have given his moral even akeener point, he did not fail to dispatch an attendant to inquire intothe mystery, and stop those sounds, so dismally appropriate to sucha marriage. A brief space elapsed, during which the silence was brokenonly by whispers, and a few suppressed titterings, among the weddingparty and the spectators, who, after the first shock, were disposed todraw an ill-natured merriment from the affair. The young have lesscharity for aged follies than the old for those of youth. Thewidow's glance was observed to wander, for an instant, towards awindow of the church, as if searching for the time-worn marble thatshe had dedicated to her first husband; then her eyelids droppedover their faded orbs, and her thoughts were drawn irresistibly toanother grave. Two buried men, with a voice at her ear, and a cry afaroff, were calling her to lie down beside them. Perhaps, with momentarytruth of feeling, she thought how much happier had been her fate,if, after years of bliss, the bell were now tolling for her funeral,and she were followed to the grave by the old affection of herearliest lover, long her husband. But why had she returned to him,when their cold hearts shrank from each other's embrace?
Still the death-bell tolled so mournfully, that the sunshine seemedto fade in the air. A whisper, communicated from those who stoodnearest the windows, now spread through the church; a hearse, with atrain of several coaches, was creeping along the street, conveyingsome dead man to the churchyard, while the bride awaited a livingone at the altar. Immediately after, the footsteps of the bridegroomand his friends were heard at the door. The widow looked down theaisle, and clinched the arm of one of her bridemaids in her bonyhand with such unconscious violence, that the fair girl trembled.
