Learning that neither Sir Edgar nor his daughter had yet risen, he left word with the servant, for their information, that he should take a stroll in the park, and return to meet them at the breakfast-table. With this intimation, he descended to the hall, and thence, finding the hall-door open, passed into the park.
As he gazed inquisitively round, his eye fell on a walk that, from its being hedged in by tall shrubs, wore a more secluded look than the others; and, whether for this reason, or because it was the nearest, he bent his steps thitherwards.
He did not pass into the walk without being observed. He had taken but a few paces, when a man’s head, shrouded in a slouched hat, was cautiously raised from the adjacent shrubs, and fixed so as to view him without discovering itself. Whether he was or was not alive to the objects around, this escaped his observation; and probably in an excess of self-confidence, not caring to be observed, or fearing to be molested, he passed along without contracting any suspicion that he was watched and followed.
Thus he proceeded till the walk was crossed, at some little distance from the mansion, by a public footpath, which opened to him on either side a view through the trees. But though the scene here presented had many points of attraction, only one object seemed, by its seizure of his attention, to inspire him with interest. This was the spire of a village church, which was just visible over a wood-crowned hill, or eminence, about a mile distant.
It was a pleasing feature in the landscape, and was calculated, by its upland situation, to attract the attention of any spectator; but the cavalier appeared to regard it with some emotion. As he continued to gaze upon it, his face assumed a graver aspect, and the thoughts which were passing through his mind, evidently with pain, partly found utterance.
“Why not go there now?” he said. “’Tis but a short walk, and I shall be back, if I make no delay, before they come down to breakfast. I will even go.”
With these words, he passed off the park-walk, and struck into the path that, with occasional curvatures, led across the park towards the point he had been viewing. He walked at a smart pace, and shortly arrived at the base of the hill, which presented a less steep ascent, and a more level road, every step. The road, taken from this point, wound through a small wood, now teeming with verdure, and apparently alive with the notes that, as the traveller passed along, broke through the foliage from a hundred birds. Towards the summit the wood broke abruptly off, leaving the country, which was spread around like a garden, open on one side, and revealing a prospect of great extent and variety. Of this, however, we have to deal with only one feature—the church, which stood on an area immediately in front of the wood, on the right-hand side of the road. It was surrounded, according to the immemorial custom, with a burial-ground, enclosed by a sunken wall, which escaped observation till one had almost approached its brink. An old culvert, mantled with moss, opened from the road to the churchyard gate, from which a path led past the church porch to a gate at the further end. Over this the cavalier bent his way, and, with an increased sadness of aspect, passed over the graves to the back of the church, and there came to a stand.
He turned his eyes hastily over the graves around, but only one of the several before him fixed his attention. This was, like the others, covered with green turf; but, unlike the others, it was also marked by two white posts, one at the head, and the other at the foot, which were surmounted by a board, bearing this inscription:—
Hyldibrande Clyffurd,
Martyrre.
The eyes of the cavalier filled with tears as they fell on this expressive memorial, yet there was mingled with his grief, in the contraction of his arched brow, more than a shade of anger. But it speedily subsided, and with a quick step, he passed by the two or three graves that intervened, and, advancing to the one indicated, he threw himself on the turf before the grave-post, and buried his face in his hands.