After her burial in the family tomb, the coffin
of one of her children was laid on her own, so that the lid seems to have
decayed, or been broken from this cause; at any rate, this was the case
when the tomb was opened about a year ago. The grandmother's coffin was
then found to be filled with beautiful, glossy, living chestnut ringlets,
into which her whole substance seems to have been transformed, for there
was nothing else but these shining curls, the growth of half a century in
the tomb. An old man, with a ringlet of his youthful mistress treasured
on his heart, might be supposed to witness this wonderful thing.
Madam ------, who is now at my house, and very infirm, though not old,
was once carried to the grave, and on the point of being buried. It was
in Barbary, where her husband was Consul-General. He was greatly
attached to her, and told the pall-bearers at the grave that he must see
her once more. When her face was uncovered, he thought he discerned
signs of life, and felt a warmth. Finally she revived, and for many
years afterwards supposed the funeral procession to have been a dream;
she having been partially conscious throughout, and having felt the wind
blowing on her, and lifting the shroud from her feet,--for I presume she
was to be buried in Oriental style, without a coffin. Long after, in
London, when she was speaking of this dream, her husband told her the
facts, and she fainted away.
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