"What is the matter, Charles? For Heaven's sake, what is the matter?" but as her eyes also fell upon the face of the corpse, the words died away upon her lips, and she clung trembling to the arm of her lover; for there before them, stretched out in death, lay the form of one they had supposed to be dead many days before. It was that of Lieutenant Hargrave, calm, still, and ashy. The part of the body which Hailes had uncovered, displayed no clothing but a sailor's check shirt; but the countenance was not to be mistaken, and not a little was the agitation of the poor fisherman as he gazed upon the corpse, scarcely able to persuade himself that what he beheld was real. No one spoke for several minutes, till at length Hailes put forth his hand, and touched the body with his finger; and then, as if Sir Charles Tyrrell had been affected by the same fancies as himself, he turned round, and said in a low voice:-- "It is flesh and blood, nevertheless." "Certainly," replied Charles Tyrrell; "it is very extraordinary, there can be no doubt." "Well, hang me!" replied Hailes, "if I did not think it was his ghost, when he came down after us to the boat, that night." "Was it he who came down to the boat?" demanded Charles Tyrrell; "would to God I had known that!" "He!" exclaimed Hailes, "to be sure it was he. Who else should it be? I thought it was his ghost, and expected to see it coming along the water after us." "This is a horrible sight for you, dear Lucy," said Charles, turning toward her; "but, at all events, we draw comfort from this sad sight. My innocence of anything that has been laid to my charge, may now be easily proved, at least, so far as an explanation of where I was, during the whole period of my absence from home, and how the blood came upon my hands and coat, was wanting to the establishment of my innocence before.[2] But come, dear Lucy," he continued, "this is not a place in which you can remain; there must be some cottage in the neighbourhood, where you can rest for a short time." "I should think, sir," said Hailes, "that there must be fishermen's houses hereabout; for this church, you see, tops the cliff, and when one gets it in a line with the point of the nose, one knows that the Hog's-back reef lies south and by east." Without waiting to hear any farther account of the bearings of the coast, Charles Tyrrell led Lucy out of the church; but almost at the moment that they passed the door, they perceived a group of people approaching from the side of the cliff, bearing up, apparently, another dead body from below. There was at the head of them an old gentleman, dressed in black, with white hair, and a mild and amiable expression of countenance, about whose whole appearance there was something that indicated strongly the pastor of the parish. His face at the moment was full of solemn feeling, and, from time to time, he turned round to address a word or two to the sailors and fishermen, who were carrying the body.