s that of the foreigner
who all through last summer had haunted the woods and park of Acol.

Of a truth there was no doubt at all as to the identity of the dead. His
fantastic clothes were unmistakable. Many there were who had seen him
wandering in the woods of nights, and several could swear to the black
silk shade and the broad-brimmed hat which the watchmen had found--high
and dry--on a chalk boulder close to where the body lay.

Mistress Lambert had refused to look on the dead. 'Twas, of course, no
fit sight for females, and the constable had not insisted thereon: but
she knew the black silk shade again, and young Master Lambert had
caught sight of the murdered man's legs and feet, and had thereupon
recognized the breeches and the quaint boots with their overwide tops
filled with frills of lace.

Master Hymn-of-Praise Busy, too, though unwilling to see a corpse,
thought it his duty to help the law in investigating this mysterious
crime. He had oft seen the foreigner of nights in the park, and never
doubted for a moment that the body which lay across the elm chairs in
the smith's forge was indeed that of the stranger.

Squire Boatfield was now quite satisfied that the identity of the victim
was firmly established, and anon he did his best--being a humane man--to
obtain Christian burial for the stranger. After some demur, the parson
at Minster declared himself willing to do the pious deed.

Heathen or not, 'twas not for Christian folk to pass judgment on him who
no longer now could give an explanation of his own mysterious doings,
and had of a truth carried his secrets with him in silence to the grave.

Was it not strange that anyone should have risked the gallows for the
sake of putting out of the way a man who of a surety was not worth
powder or shot?

And the nerve and strength which the murderer had shown! ... displacing
great boulders with which to batter in his victim's face so that not
even his own kith and kin could recognize that now!

CHAPTER XXXIV

AFTERWARDS

Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse cursed the weather and cursed himself for
being a fool.

He had started from Acol Court on horseback, riding an old nag, for the
roads were heavy with mud, and the short cut through the woods quite
impassable.

The icy downpour beat against his face and lashed the poor mare's ears
and mane until she tossed her head about blindly and impatiently, scarce
heeding where she placed her feet. The rider's cloa