On drawing nearer, they found the assemblage comprehended all ranks of society.

There was a pope in his tiara and pontifical dress; a cardinal in his cap and robes; a monarch with a sceptre in his hand, and arrayed in the habiliments of royalty; a crowned queen; a bishop wearing his mitre, and carrying his crosier; an abbot, likewise in his mitre, and bearing a crosier; a duke in his robes of state; a grave canon of the church; a knight sheathed in armour; a judge, an advocate, and a magistrate, all in their robes; a mendicant friar and a nun; and the list was completed by a physician, an astrologer, a miser, a merchant, a duchess, a pedler, a soldier, a gamester, an idiot, a robber, a blind man, and a beggar--each distinguishable by his apparel.
By-and-by, with a wild and gibbering laugh that chilled the beholders' blood, one of the tallest and grisliest of the skeletons sprang forward, and beating his drum, the whole ghostly company formed, two and two, into a line--a skeleton placing itself on the right of every mortal.

In this order, the fantastic procession marched between the pillars, the unearthly music playing all the while, and disappeared at the further extremity of the church.

With the last of the group, the mysterious light vanished, and Chowles and his companion were left in profound darkness.
"What can it mean ?" cried Judith, as soon as she recovered her speech.
"Are they human, or spirits ?" "Human beings don't generally amuse themselves in this way," returned Chowles.

"But hark!--I still hear the music .-- They are above--in Saint Paul's." "Then I will join them," said Judith.