f the same
sort last night. Why else came he hither? for what else did he drag me
to this spot? Let him answer that!"

"I _will_ answer it," replied Luke, raising himself from the bier.

His face was ghastly as the corpse over which he leaned. "I had a deed
to do, which I wished you to witness. It was a wild conception. But the
means by which I have acquired the information of my rights were wild.
Ranulph, we are both the slaves of fate. You have received your summons
hither--I have had mine. Your father's ghost called you; my mother's
spectral hand beckoned me. Both are arrived. One thing more remains, and
my mission is completed." Saying which, he drew forth the skeleton hand;
and having first taken the wedding-ring from the finger, he placed the
withered limb upon the left breast of his father's body. "Rest there,"
he cried, "for ever."

"Will you suffer that?" said Lady Rookwood, tauntingly, to her son.

"No," replied Ranulph; "such profanation of the dead shall not be
endured, were he ten times my brother. Stand aside," added he, advancing
towards the bier, and motioning Luke away. "Withdraw your hand from my
father's body, and remove what you have placed upon it."

"I will neither remove it nor suffer it to be removed," returned Luke.
"'Twas for that purpose I came hither. 'Twas to that hand he was united
in life, in death he shall not be divided from it."

"Such irreverence shall not be!" exclaimed Ranulph, seizing Luke with
one hand, and snatching at the cereclothes with the other. "Remove it,
or by Heaven----"

"Leave go your hold," said Luke, in a voice of thunder; "you strive in
vain."

Ranulph ineffectually attempted to push him backwards; and, shaking away
the grasp that was fixed upon his collar, seized his brother's wrist, so
as to prevent the accomplishment of his purpose. In this unnatural and
indecorous strife the corpse of their father was reft of its covering
and the hand discovered lying upon the pallid breast.

And as if the wanton impiety of their conduct called forth an immediate
rebuke, even from the dead, a frown seemed to pass over Sir Piers's
features, as their angry glances fell in that direction. This startling
effect was occasioned by the approach of Lady Rookwood, whose shadow,
falling over the brow and visage of the deceased, produced the
appearance we have described. Simultaneously quitting each other, with a
deep sense of shame, mingled with remorse, both remained, their eyes