But at length, setting his teeth together, he laid hold of the body, and placed it face upwards across his knee. As he did so, the cause of death was revealed. She had planted the dagger point upwards in the earth, and had fallen upon it. Something else she had planted there, though at the time Sir Brian did not know it--the acorns from the fatal oak of Ennerdale; and she had fertilised them with her very heart's blood. Some of the servants, who had been peeping out from the castle windows, aghast at so grim a spectacle, now made bold to approach and offer their assistance. Sir Brian, however, as if he had not seen them, rose, lifting the corpse in his arms, and stalked in silence up the ascent to the castle gate, neither staggering nor pausing by the way. The servants followed in a group after him. When he got to the gate, he was met by his little son, who had his father's black hair and eyes, and his mother's tremulous indignant mouth. The child's nurse had in vain striven to keep him out of the way, and from a knowledge of what had happened. He seemed, indeed, to know more about it than anyone else. 'My dear mamma is dead!' quoth the infant heir of Kildhurm, his cheeks flushing scarlet and his childish voice vibrating. 'You have killed her, you wicked father, and I will never, never forgive you.' Sir Brian stopped short, and his teeth began to chatter. 'Take the brat away!' he cried out. But at the same moment his strength forsook him, and he would have fallen on his own threshold, had not those behind upheld him, and carried him and the dead woman into the castle. The stark warrior never fully recovered from the effects of this adventure. CHAPTER IV. THE OAK BEGINS TO GROW.