Here, however, there was nothing of the kind. The
associations connected with murder were too appalling and terrible
to place the rites required, either for the wake or funeral of the
murderer, within the ordinary claims of humanity for these offices
of civility to which we have alluded. In this instance none of the
neighbors would lend sheets for what they considered an unholy purpose;
the bed, therefore, on which the body lay had nothing to ornament it. A
plain drugget quilt was his only covering, but he did not feel the want
of a better.
It was not the first time I had ever seen a corpse, but it was the
first time I had ever seen that of a murderer. I looked upon it with an
impression which it is difficult, if not impossible, to describe. I felt
my nerves tingle, and my heart palpitate. To a young man, fresh, and
filled with the light-hearted humanity of youth, approximation to such
an object as then lay before me is a singular trial of feeling, and a
painful test of moral courage. The sight, however, and the reflections
connected with it, rendered a long contemplation of it impossible, and,
besides, I had other objects to engage my attention.
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