Before morning light on the following day the castle bell began to toll.
Preparations were making for the conveyance of the last of the Ladies to
the Abbey of Kirkstall, a journey which would occupy the greater part of
two successive days. The pathway over the hills was narrow, and the mode
of conveyance difficult, if not dangerous. A sort of litter was made for
the corpse, and slung on a pole between two horses, covered, as in a
bier, with the pall and trappings. A sword of ceremony was carried in
front; the dean rode immediately before the body, the chanters
preceding, and a priest with the cross and censer. Behind came the male
domestics, and the seneschal of Halton with his train.
Psalms were sung at every halting-place, and in the villages through
which they passed, and torches were kept lighted during the greater part
of the journey. These were for the purpose of being extinguished in the
earth that should finally cover the body.
Thus attired, and thus attended, was this once powerful baron conveyed
to his narrow dwelling-house in the dust.
We will not follow them further, nor detail the pomp of the funeral
rites, that last mockery of greatness, but return to existing objects
and events--man's ever-gnawing ambition; so vast, when living, that the
whole earth is too narrow for its sphere; when dead, the veriest churl
hath as wide a possession!
Weeks and months passed away, and the raw February wind grew soft in the
warm and joyous impulse of another spring.
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