The procession moved through the
sleeping city to the churchyard of St. James. Having arrived there
they placed their burden on the ground at the door of the so-called
Kassengewolbe, where the gravedigger and his assistants took it up.
In this vault, which belonged to the province of Weimar, it was
usual to inter persons of the higher classes, who possessed no
burying-ground of their own, upon payment of a louis d'or. As
Schiller had died without securing a resting-place for himself and
his family, there could have been no more natural arrangement than
to carry his remains to this vault. It was a grim old building,
standing against the wall of the churchyard, with a steep narrow
roof, and no opening of any kind but the doorway which was filled up
with a grating. The interior was a gloomy space of about fourteen
feet either way. In the centre was a trap-door which gave access to
a hollow space beneath.
"As the gravediggers raised the coffin, the clouds suddenly parted,
and the moon shed her light on all that was earthly of Schiller.
They carried him in: they opened the trap-door: and let him down
by ropes into the darkness. Then they closed the vault. Nothing
was spoken or sung. The mourners were dispersing, when their
attention was attracted by a tall figure in a mantle, at some
distance in the graveyard, sobbing loudly.
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