Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 2).djvu/132

 that willing minds, like many hands, make light work.

"As they were destroying the wall of a vault, which had once been used for family stores, they found, within a niche of it, against which a parcel of loose stones were piled, the skeleton of a full-grown person.—You may well conceive their consternation at such a sight; for it immediately struck them that this was the skeleton of a murdered person, else what should bring it there.

"The discovery was soon spread throughout the village, and all the folks came flocking to the place. They were all of one opinion, that some one had been murdered in the house, and that the crime had been committed after it became deserted. They strove to recollect whether any person, within their memories, had been suddenly missed from their neighbourhood, but could not remember a circumstance of the kind.

"While they were busy talking over the matter, there came riding by an elderly gentleman, well dressed, and of a grave and