Two
footmen, in gorgeous liveries, with huge bouquets, and gold-headed
canes, lolled behind. The carriage rose and sunk on its long springs
with peculiar stateliness of motion. The very horses champed their
bits, arched their necks, and glanced their eyes more proudly than
common horses; either because they had caught a little of the family
feeling, or were reined up more tightly than ordinary.
I could not but admire the style with which this splendid pageant
was brought up to the gate of the church-yard. There was a vast effect
produced at the turning of an angle of the wall;- a great smacking
of the whip, straining and scrambling of horses, glistening of
harness, and flashing of wheels through gravel. This was the moment of
triumph and vainglory to the coachman. The horses were urged and
checked until they were fretted into a foam. They threw out their feet
in a prancing trot, dashing about pebbles at every step. The crowd
of villagers sauntering quietly to church, opened precipitately to the
right and left, gaping in vacant admiration. On reaching the gate, the
horses were pulled up with a suddenness that produced an immediate
stop, and almost threw them on their haunches.
There was an extraordinary hurry of the footman to alight, pull down
the steps, and prepare every thing for the descent on earth of this
august family. The old citizen first emerged his round red face from
out the door, looking about him with the pompous air of a man
accustomed to rule on 'Change, and shake the Stock Market with a
nod.
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