Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 2).djvu/133

 comely appearance; so seeing the crowd, he stopped his horse, as was natural enough, and alighting from it, entered the court-yard, and enquired what was the matter.

'A sad affair, master (replied one of the oldest of the villagers); we have just discovered that a murder was committed within the walls we have been destroying.'

'A murder! (repeated the gentleman, changing colour); a murder!—Pray, my good friend, how did you discover it?'

'Why, by finding a skeleton hid within a vault: you may be sure, if the person to whom it belonged had died fairly, it would never have been stuffed into such a place. They, to be sure, who committed the cruel act, thought they were secure enough of its never being found out by hiding it there, but you see they were mistaken. The watchful eye of God is over all; he seldom suffers murder to escape the punishment it merits: and indeed I can scarcely doubt that the discovery of the skeleton is but the forerunner of the discovery of the murderer.'