he sepulchre,
in order to point out the exact spot where he wished her remains to be
deposited, so that hereafter his own might rest by her side, he
renounced all self-restraint, and throwing himself upon the ground,
gave himself up to his anguish, and refused to be comforted!

That summer was as dreary a season at Lexley as the dreariest winter!
Both the Park and the Hall were shut up; nor did General Stanley ever
again resume his tenancy of the old manor. When the result of the
Chancery suit left Mr Altham in possession of the former estate, the
General literally preferred forfeiting the moiety of the
purchase-money he had paid, and giving up the place to be re-united
with the property, which the rigour of the law thus singularly
restored to the last heirs of the Althams; and such was the cause of
my neighbour, the present Sir Julius Altham, regaining possession of
the Hall.

It was not for many years, however, that the cause was ultimately
decided. There was an appeal against the Chancellor's decree; and even
after the decree was confirmed, came an endless number of legal forms,
which so procrastinated the settlement, that not only the original
unfortunate purchaser, but poor Everard himself, was in his grave when
the mansion, in which they had so prided themselves, was pulled down,
and all trace of their occupancy effaced.

I sometimes ask myself, indeed, whether the whole of this "strange
eventful history," with which the earliest feelings of my heart were
painfully interwoven, really occurred? whether the manor ever passed
for a time out of the possession of the ancient house of Altham?
whether the domain, now one and indivisible, were literally
partitioned off--a park paling interposing only between the patrician
and plebeian. Often, after spending hour after hour by the river side,
when the fly is on the water and the old thorns in bloom, I recur to
the first day I came back into Lexley Park after the funeral had
passed through, and recollect the soreness of heart with which I
lifted my eyes towards the house, of which every trace has since
disappeared. At that moment there seemed to rise before me, sporting
among the gnarled branches of the old thorn-trees, the graceful form
of Mary Stanley, followed by old Sergeant, bounding and barking
through the fern; and the General looking on from a distance,
pretending to be angry, and desiring her to come out of the covert and
not disturb the game. Exactly thus, and