ll, already described, called the Holehouses. Here two other lesser
gibbets had been erected during the night, one on either hand of the
loftier instrument of justice, and the carpenters were yet employed in
finishing their work, having been delayed by the badness of the weather.
Half drowned by the torrents that fell upon them, the poor fellows were
protected from interference with their disagreeable occupation by half a
dozen well-mounted and well-armed troopers, and by as many halberdiers;
and this company, completely exposed to the weather, suffered severely
from wet and cold. The rain beat against the gallows, ran down its tall
naked posts, and collected in pools at its feet. Attracted by some
strange instinct, which seemed to give them a knowledge of the object of
these terrible preparations, two ravens wheeled screaming round the
fatal tree, and at length one of them settled on the cross-beam, and
could with difficulty be dislodged by the shouts of the men, when it
flew away, croaking hoarsely. Up this gentle hill, ordinarily so soft
and beautiful, but now abhorrent as a Golgotha, in the eyes of the
beholders, groups of rustics and monks had climbed over ground rendered
slippery with moisture, and had gathered round the paling encircling the
terrible apparatus, looking the images of despair and woe.

Even those within the abbey, and sheltered from the storm, shared the
all-pervading despondency. The refectory looked dull and comfortless,
and the logs on the hearth hissed and sputtered, and would not burn.
Green wood had been brought instead of dry fuel by the drowsy henchman.
The viands on the board provoked not the appetite, and the men emptied
their cups of ale, yawned and stretched their arms, as if they would
fain sleep an hour or two longer. The sense of discomfort, was
heightened by the entrance of those whose term of watch had been
relieved, and who cast their dripping cloaks on the floor, while two or
three savage dogs, steaming with moisture, stretched their huge lengths
before the sullen fire, and disputed all approach to it.

Within the great hall were already gathered the retainers of the Earl of
Derby, but the nobleman himself had not appeared. Having passed the
greater part of the night in conference with one person or another, and
the abbot's flight having caused him much disquietude, though he did not
hear of it till the fugitive was recovered; the earl would not seek his
couch until within an hou