Who, for dishonoring her noble family
By a secret marriage with a common yeoman,
Was immured alive in the 20th year of her age,
January 24th, 1236.
Requiescat in Pace.
The poor bones, after six centuries, were coffined and consigned, with Christian rites, to the family vault at Enderby Church.’”
“I say, Le, what a perfectly devilish lot those old nobles were! I proud of my ancestry! I would much rather know myself to be descended in a direct line from Darwin’s monkeys,” said Wynnette.
“But, my dear, these men lived in a rude and barbarous age. Their descendants in every generation have become more civilized and enlightened, you know.”
“No, I don’t know. And I like the monkeys a great deal better as forefathers!”
“Shall we try to find our way to the ‘Dungeon of the Dark Death’? You know, it is under the kitchen which is under the great hall. But stop a minute,” said Le: and he referred again to the guidebook, and then added: “No, we cannot go there. There is no reaching it. The only entrance into that deep perdition is by the trapdoor, on my lord baron’s dais, and down the hollow, brick-walled shaft that runs through the middle of the kitchen into the abyss below.”