"He will be hung," said another farmer, riding up; "and that's not half punishment enough for such a villain!"
"He should be torn to pieces," cried a third.
"He was a queer little boy," said a fourth; "I never thought that he would come to any good."
"His uncle was the ruin of him," said a fifth. "If he had never taken him from his father, the old man would have been alive this day."
"Oh hang him!" cried another. "I don't pity the old miser. He deserved his death—but 'twas terrible from the hand of his own son."
"Old Mark is to have a grand funeral," said the first speaker. "He is to be buried on Monday. All the gentlemen in the county will attend."
"It would break his heart, if he were alive," said another, "could he but see the fine coffin that Jones is making for him. It is to be covered all over with silk velvet and gold."
"How old was he?" asked some voice in the group.
"Just in his sixty-fifth, and a fine hale man for his years; he might have lived to have been a hundred."
"Did they find any money in the house?" whispered a long-nosed, sharp-visaged man; "I heard that he had lots hidden away under the thatch. Old Grenard knows that a box containing several thousand gold guineas was taken away."