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I WATCHED FROM our front window as a cart led by two sweating horses carried five hessian sacks, a whole family perhaps, for they were of differing lengths and shapes. The horses were chestnut and their tails flicked madly at the flies. Then came a more prestigious-looking vehicle, a barouche, with two ancient women in voluminous old-fashioned crinolines. They followed a hearse carriage with two coffins, each in polished black wood and heavy with flies.