Why should it escape my memory on this
day of all others?
'I made as much haste down there as I could when I went from here, but
I had to go home first for the keys; and the wind and rain being dead
against me all the way, it was pretty well as much as I could do at
times to keep my legs. I got there at last, opened the church-door, and
went in. I had not met a soul all the way, and you may judge whether it
was dull or not. Neither of you would bear me company. If you could have
known what was to come, you'd have been in the right.
'The wind was so strong, that it was as much as I could do to shut the
church-door by putting my whole weight against it; and even as it was,
it burst wide open twice, with such strength that any of you would have
sworn, if you had been leaning against it, as I was, that somebody was
pushing on the other side. However, I got the key turned, went into the
belfry, and wound up the clock--which was very near run down, and would
have stood stock-still in half an hour.
'As I took up my lantern again to leave the church, it came upon me all
at once that this was the nineteenth of March. It came upon me with a
kind of shock, as if a hand had struck the thought upon my forehead;
at the very same moment, I heard a voice outside the tower--rising from
among the graves.
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