or he was growing very weak, then added:

"Another thing is that I ask you, if it be possible, to row my body out
to sea and there sink it in deep water, deep, clean water, far from this
place of stench and pestilence, for I would not lie in the common pit
at last. Now kneel down and pray for my passing soul, since there is no
priest to give me absolution, and I must seek it straight from God. Nay,
thank me not. I have done with the world and its affairs. Kneel down and
pray, as I pray for you, that you may be spared on earth and that we may
meet again in heaven, where my wife and others await me."

They obeyed, weeping, yes, even Grey Dick wept a little. Presently when
they looked up they saw that Sir Geoffrey was dead, dead without pain or
sorrow. Of the first he had suffered none for days, and the second was
far from him who wished to die.

Leaving the ancient woman in charge of the house, which she barred and
bolted, next morning they took a boat, and the three of them rowed the
body of the old knight a league out into the quiet sea. There, after a
brief prayer, they cast him into the deep, weighted with stones, so that
he might never rise again.

Then they returned, not too soon, for they found thieves in the act of
breaking into the house, probably in search of food. These miserable,
half-starved men they spared, though they could have killed them easily
enough. They even gave them a pouch full of biscuit and dried meat ere
they dismissed them. This they did quickly, since one of them, as they
could see, was already stricken by the plague and had not long to live.
When they were gone, the old woman being out of the house, whence she
had fled on hearing the robbers, they collected all Sir Geoffrey's and
his lady's jewels and plate, of which there was much, for he lived in
state in Venice, as became an ambassador. These they buried in three
large iron boxes beneath the flagstones of the cellar, the safest place
that they could find. Having thrown the excavated earth into the canal
under cover of the dark, they replaced these stones and strewed dust
over them.

Wondering whether it would ever be their lot to look upon these chests
and their contents again, they left the cellar, to find the old woman
knocking at the back door of the house, whither she had returned,
frightened by the sights and sounds in the city. They bade her bring
them food, which they needed much who had laboured so hard on that
sorrowful day,