_Caw! Caw!_

The Carrion Crow hath a coat of black,
Silky and sleek like a priest's to his back;
Like a lawyer he grubbeth--no matter what way--
The fouler the offal, the richer his prey.
_Caw! Caw! the Carrion Crow!_
_Dig! Dig! in the ground below!_

The Carrion Crow hath a dainty maw,
With savory pickings he crammeth his craw;
Kept meat from the gibbet it pleaseth his whim,
It can never _hang_ too long for him!
_Caw! Caw!_

The Carrion Crow smelleth powder, 'tis said,
Like a soldier escheweth the taste of cold lead;
No jester, or mime, hath more marvellous wit,
For, wherever he lighteth, he maketh a hit!
_Caw! Caw! the Carrion Crow!_
_Dig! Dig! in the ground below!_

Shouldering his spade, and whistling to his dog, the sexton quitted the
churchyard.

Peter had not been gone many seconds, when a dark figure, muffled in a
wide black mantle, emerged from among the tombs surrounding the church;
gazed after him for a few seconds, and then, with a menacing gesture,
retreated behind the ivied buttresses of the gray old pile.

_CHAPTER III_

_THE PARK_

_Brian._ Ralph! hearest thou any stirring?

_Ralph._ I heard one speak here, hard by, in the hollow. Peace!
master, speak low. Nouns! if I do not hear a bow go off, and the
buck bray, I never heard deer in my life.

_Bri._ Stand, or I'll shoot.

_Sir Arthur._ Who's there?

_Bri._ I am the keeper, and do charge you stand.
You have stolen my deer.

_Merry Devil of Edmonton._

Luke's first impulse had been to free himself from the restraint imposed
by his grandsire's society. He longed to commune with himself. Leaping
the small boundary-wall, which defended the churchyard from a deep green
lane, he hurried along in a direction contrary to that taken by the
sexton, making the best of his way until he arrived at a gap in the
high-banked hazel hedge which overhung the road. Heedless of the
impediments thrown in his way by the undergrowth of a rough ring fence,
he struck through the opening that presented itself, and, climbing over
the moss-grown paling, trod presently upon the elastic sward of Rookwood
Park.

A few minutes' rapid walking brought him