We thought he
would speak no more; but about three o'clock this morning he called
quite clearly, '_Ducie, the abbot's cross_.' Then Ducie unlocked the oak
chest that stands by the bed-side, and took from it an ivory crucifix.
She put it in his left hand. With a smile he touched the Christ upon it;
and so, clasping the abbot's cross, he died."
"I wonder at that, William. A better Church-of-England man was not in
all the dales than Barf Latrigg."
"Ay; but you see, Alice, that cross is older than the Church of England.
It was given to the first Latrigg of Up-Hill by the first abbot of
Furness. Before the days of Wyckliffe and Latimer, every one of them,
babe and hoary-head, died with it in their hands. There are things that
go deeper down than creeds, Alice; and the cross with the Saviour on it
is one of them. I would like to feel it myself, even when I was past
seeing it. I would like to take the step between here and there with it
in my hands."
In the cool of the afternoon, Julius and the girls went to Up-Hill. He
had a solemn curiousness about death; and both personally and
theoretically the transition filled him with vague, momentous ideas,
relating to all sides of his conscious being. In every land where he had
sojourned, the superstitions and ceremonials that attended it were
subjects of interest to him. So he was much touched when he entered the
deep, cool porch, and saw the little table at the threshold, covered
with a white linen cloth, and holding a plate of evergreens and a
handful of salt.
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