WHO WILL SAVE HER? CHAPTER XIV. TWO EASY-GOERS. It was morning when the conspirators came stumbling out of the old church vaults, and stood blinking, owl-like, in the light of the dawning day. But few words were interchanged between them. Darknoll, who had extinguished the lantern he carried, led the way back to the lodge. Here refreshments had been prepared, so VOL. II. B that his guests might eat, drink, and, if required, sleep, without disturbing the village out of its accustomed propriety, or causing unpleasant questions to be asked by its ever curious, though poppy-headed inhabitants. And the four men, moved by such different instincts, yet bent upon one common end, passed through the thickly populated churchyard, threading their way among graves, scattering the dew from the tall grass, and each alike anxious to avoid the coming sunlight. The plan so long matured was now approved of by all, and, creatures of darkness, they hurried home through the pure morning air and pearly light, to rest. To rest! while the dying Baronet moaned in his bed, and Gertrude-poor defenceless child-slumbered in hers, all unconscious of the terrible doom pronounced. The sun rises higher and higher in the heavens, and the birds, those winged musicians of the air, flutter from bough to bough or spring aloft, filling all space with melody. An awful contrast this bright and hopeful world with that within the dark and crumbling catacomb beneath the stone floor of the old Abbey Church, abiding place of the bat and the spider, yet where manly strength was left to moulder, and beauty-youth and beauty-to decay. Ugh! let us for the time being shake such dreary thoughts from us, and wander down by the river's bank till we come to a cosy spot we have had our eye upon, even at the commencement of this chapter, and where we hope to introduce the reader to a very nice old gentleman. Here he is, lying on his back, a soft felt hat forming a pillow for his partially bald B 2 |