Two buried men with a voice at her ear and a cry afar off were calling her to lie down beside them . Perhaps , with momentary truth of feeling , she thought how much happier had been her fate if , after years of bliss , the bell were now tolling for her funeral and she were followed to the grave by the old affection of her earliest lover , long her husband . But why had she returned to him when their cold hearts shrank from each other 's embrace ? Still the death-bell tolled so mournfully that the sunshine seemed to fade in the air . A whisper , communicated from those who stood nearest the windows , now spread through the church : a hearse with a train of several coaches was creeping along the street , conveying some dead man to the churchyard , while the bride awaited a living one at the altar . Immediately after , the footsteps of the bridegroom and his friends were heard at the door . The widow looked down the aisle and clenched the arm of one of her bridemaids in her bony hand with such unconscious violence that the fair girl trembled . `` You frighten me , my dear madam , '' cried she . `` For heaven 's sake , what is the matter ? '' `` Nothing , my dear -- nothing , '' said the widow ; then , whispering close to her ear , `` There is a foolish fancy that I can not get rid of . I am expecting my bridegroom to come into the church with my two first husbands for groomsmen . '' `` Look ! look ! '' screamed the bridemaid . `` What is here ? The funeral ! '' As she spoke a dark procession paced into the church . First came an old man and woman , like chief mourners at a funeral , attired from head to foot in the deepest black , all but their pale features and hoary hair , he leaning on a staff and supporting her decrepit form with his nerveless arm . Behind appeared another and another pair , as aged , as black and mournful as the first . As they drew near the widow recognized in every face some trait of former friends long forgotten , but now returning as if from their old graves to warn her to prepare a shroud , or , with purpose almost as unwelcome , to exhibit their wrinkles and infirmity and claim her as their companion by the tokens of her own decay .
Many a merry night had she danced with them in youth , and now in joyless age she felt XXXXX some withered partner should request her hand and all unite in a dance of death to the music of the funeral-bell .
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