"He is right," said Mr. Chillingworth. "I wonder we never thought of that. If your ancestor was buried in a leaden coffin, there will be no difficulty in finding which it is."
Henry seized the light, and proceeding to one of the coffins, which seemed to be a mass of decay, he pulled away some of the rotted wood work, and then suddenly exclaimed,—
"You are quite right. Here is a firm strong leaden coffin within, which, although quite black, does not otherwise appear to have suffered."
"What is the inscription on that?" said George.
With difficulty the name on the lid was deciphered, but it was found not to be the coffin of him whom they sought.
"We can make short work of this," said Marchdale, "by only examining those leaden coffins which have lost the plates from off their outer cases. There do not appear to be many in such a state."
He then, with another light, which he lighted from the one that Henry now carried, commenced actively assisting in the search, which was carried on silently for more than ten minutes.
Suddenly Mr. Marchdale cried, in a tone of excitement,—
"I have found it. It is here."
They all immediately surrounded the spot where he was, and then he pointed to the lid of a coffin, which he had been rubbing with his handkerchief, in order to make the inscription more legible, and said,—