ions--there were none nearer of
kin. The bier, with its precious burden, was placed in the centre before
the high altar. Six monks, bearing torches, knelt around it. A pall,
beautifully embroidered, covered the coffin, a wreath of flowers
surmounting a cross was placed upon it.

The solemn requiem mass commenced, and the great Sacrifice once offered
upon Calvary was pleaded for the soul of the deceased thane. When the
last prayer had been said, the coffin was sprinkled with hallowed water,
and perfumed with sweet incense, after which it was removed to its last
resting place. The grave was already prepared. Again the earthly cavern
was sprinkled with the hallowed water, emblematical of the blood of
sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel, and the body
--the sacred dust for which Christ had died, in which God had dwelt as
in a temple--was lowered, to be sown in corruption, that hereafter it
might be raised in incorruption and joy unspeakable.

All crowded to take the last sad look. Alfred felt his dear mother's arm
tremble as she leant on him, yet gazed firmly into that last resting
place, while the solemn strain arose:

"Ego sum resurrectio et vita. Qui credit in Me, etiam si mortuus fuerit
vivet; et omnis qui vivit, et credit in Me, non morietur in aeternum."
[xxx]

CHAPTER XX. "AND THE DOOR WAS SHUT."

The reader is, we trust, somewhat impatient to learn what had really
been the fate of the unhappy Elfric of Aescendune--whether he had
indeed been cut off with the work of repentance incomplete, or whether
he yet survived to realise the calamity which had fallen upon his household.

He lived. When the blow of his adversary, as we have seen, crushed him
to the earth, and he lay there with his head on the ground, prostrate,
amidst kicking and plunging hoofs, and the roar and confusion of deadly
strife, Providence, without which not one sparrow falleth to the ground,
watched over him, and averted the iron hoofs from his forehead. Could
one have concentrated his gaze upon that little spot of earth and have
seen the furious hoofs graze, without injuring, that tender forehead,
could he have beheld the gallop of the retreating steeds over and around
that senseless form, for it now lay senseless, he would have realised
that there is One Whose Eye is observant of each minute detail which
concerns the life of His beloved ones--nay, Who knows the movements of
the tiniest insect, while His Hand directs