222 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



influence of the wildest passions. He dragged coffins 

 from their recesses, hurled them upon the ground, 

 striving to break them open and drag forth their 

 loathsome contents. Upon other occasions he would 

 weep bitterly and wildly ; and once — once only — did 

 he attempt to pray ; but he started from his knees 

 with an echo of infernal laughter, as he deemed, 

 ringing in his ears. Then, again, would he call down 

 imprecations upon himself and his whole line, trampling 

 upon the pile of coffins he had reared ; and, lastly, 

 more subdued, would creep to the boards that contained 

 the body of his child, kissing them with a frantic 

 outbreak of affection. 



" At length he became sensible of his approaching 

 dissolution. To him the thought of death might well 

 be terrible ; but he quailed not before it, or rather 

 seemed, in his latest moments, to resume all his wonted 

 firmness of character. Gathering together his 

 remaining strength, he dragged himself towards the 

 niche wherein his brother, Sir Reginald Rookwood, was 

 deposited, and, placing his hand upon the coffin, 

 solemnly exclaimed, ' My curse — my dying curse — be 

 upon thee evermore ! ' 



" Falling with his face upon the coffin, Alan instantly 

 expired. In this attitude his remains were discovered." 



How to repress a smile at the picture conjured up 

 of Lady Rookwood " precipitating herself into the 

 marble coffin " ! How not to refrain from laughing 

 at the fantastic description of Alan piling up coffins in 

 the vault and jumping upon them ! 



XXVIII 



Half a mile below Cuckfield stands Ansty Cross, (the 

 " Handstay " of old road-books, and said to derive 

 from the Anglo-Saxon, Heanstige, meaning highway), 

 a cluster of a few cottages and the " Green Cross " 

 inn, once old and picturesque, now rebuilt in the 



