<!-- Sample usage -->
<xsl:apply-templates select="document('sequence.xml')/sequence">
	<xsl:with-param name="elements" select="$nodes" /><!-- e.g.: document('nodes.xml')/root/*/* -->
</xsl:apply-templates>

<!-- Template (magic) -->
<xsl:template match="sequence">
	<xsl:param name="elements" select="/.." /><!-- Default to empty nodeset -->
	<xsl:variable name="length" select="count(*)" />
	<xsl:for-each select="*">
		<xsl:variable name="pos" select="position()" />
		<xsl:variable name="name" select="name()" />
		<xsl:variable name="offset" select="count(preceding-sibling::*[name() = $name])" />

		<xsl:apply-templates select="$elements[name() = $name][position() = $offset + 1]">
			<!-- This makes it possible to add the @class set on the element in the sequence (or use any other contextual info) -->
			<xsl:with-param name="context" select="." />
		</xsl:apply-templates>
	</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>