DEATH OF DARELL \ii 



at Will. Darell's, the birth of her children, how many 

 there were, and what became of them : for that the 

 report of the murder of one of them was increasing 

 foully, and would touch Will. Darell to the quick." 

 To that letter there is no reply, and it remains un- 

 certain whether Darell was ever arraigned for murder 

 and acquitted (as the story goes), or whether the 

 rumours simply were never crystallized into a definite 

 charge against him. The probability seems to be that 

 he never was called upon to stand his trial. It is 

 quite certain, however, that the legend of his being- 

 haunted along the roads by the apparition of a burn- 

 ins infant which startled his horse so that Wild 

 Darell was thrown and killed is a more or less pleasing 

 invention. Darell died quite peacefull}^ in his bed, at 

 Littlecote, eleven years after the midwife's death, and 

 was buried in the Darell Chapel at Ramsbury, where 

 he was laid to rest, October 1st, 1589. Notwith- 

 standing these well-ascertained facts, Darell is now, if 

 we are to credit the stories of the country-side, an 

 apparition himself, and superstitious rustics still fear 

 to face the roads o' nights because of a Burning Babe 

 and a Spectral Horseman, who comes dashing down 

 them at a terror-stricken gallop, mounted on a horse 

 of coal-black hue, with a breath like steam and eyes 

 like burnino- coals ! 



As for the elaborate embroideries added to the 

 Wild Darell story from time to time, there are many. 

 According to these ingenious fictions, the midwife 

 counted the stairs of the strange house, and cut a 

 piece out of the bed curtains, which she carried away. 

 By these means ; by finding the number of the stairs 



