There were several of us making merry at a friend's house in a country village,when the sexton of the parish church entered the room in a sort of surprise,and told us "that,as he was digging a grave in the chancel,a little blow of his pick-axe opened a decayed coffin,in which there were several written papers."Our curiosity was immediately raised,so that we went to the place where the sexton had been at work,and found a great concourse of people about the grave.Among the rest there was an old woman,who told us the person buried there was a lady whose name I did not think fit to mention,though there is nothing in the story but what tends very much to her honour.This lady lived several years an exemplary pattern of conjugal love,and,dying soon after her husband,who every way answered her character in virtue and affection,made it her death-bed request,"that all the letters which she had received from him both before and after her marriage should be buried in the coffin with her."These I found,upon examination,were the papers before us.Several of them had suffered so much by time that Icould only pick out a few words;as my soul!lilies!roses!dearest angel!and the like.One of them,which was legible throughout,ran thus:
"MADAM,"If you would know the greatness of my love,consider that of your own beauty.That blooming countenance,that snowy bosom,that graceful person return every moment to my imagination;the brightness of your eyes hath hindered me from closing mine since Ilast saw you.You may still add to your beauties by a smile.Afrown will make me the most wretched of men,as I am the most passionate of lovers."It filled the whole company with a deep melancholy to compare the deion of the letter with the person that occasioned it,who was now reduced to a few crumbling bones and a little mouldering heap of earth.With much ado I deciphered another letter,which began with,"My dear,dear wife."This gave me a curiosity to see how the style of one written in marriage differed from one written in courtship.To my surprise,I found the fondness rather augmented than lessened,though the panegyric turned upon a different accomplishment.The words were as follows:
"Before this short absence from you,I did not know that Iloved you so much as I really do;though,at the same time,Ithought I loved you as much as possible.I am under great apprehensions lest you should have any uneasiness whilst I am defrauded of my share in it,and cannot think of tasting any pleasures that you do not partake with me.Pray,my dear,be careful of your health,if for no other reason but because you know I could not outlive you.It is natural in absence to make professions of an inviolable constancy;but towards so much merit it is scarce a virtue,especially when it is but a bare return to that of which you have given me such continued proofs ever since our first acquaintance.I am,"etc.
It happened that the daughter of these two excellent persons was by when I was reading this letter.At the sight of the coffin,in which was the body of her mother near that of her father,she melted into a flood of tears.As I had heard a great character of her virtue,and observed in her this instance of filial piety,I could not resist my natural inclination of giving advice to young people,and therefore addressed myself to her."Young lady,"said I,"you see how short is the possession of that beauty in which nature has been so liberal to you.You find the melancholy sight before you is a contradiction to the first letter that you heard on that subject;whereas you may observe,the second letter,which celebrates your mother's constancy,is itself,being found in this place,an argument of it.But,madam,I ought to caution you not to think the bodies that lie before you your father and your mother.Know,their constancy is rewarded by a nobler union than by this mingling of their ashes,in a state where there is no danger or possibility of a second separation."