When, however, the elements had caused the clothes and the flesh to decay, the aged mother of Rook, night after night, in all weathers,—and the more tempestuous the weather the more frequent the visits,—made a sacred pilgrimage to the lonely spot; and it was noticed that on her return she always brought something away in her apron. Upon being watched, it was discovered that the bones of the hanging men were the objects of her search, and as the wind and rain scattered them on the ground she collected the relics, and conveyed them to her home, and when the gibbets were stripped of their horrid burthen, in the dead silence of the night she interred them, deposited in a chest, in the hallowed ground of Old Shoreham Churchyard. Besides being found guilty of robbing the mail, the Grand Jury, at the same Assizes, returned a “True Bill” against James Rook, for horse stealing; but he was not put upon his trial for that offence, in consequence of being left for death upon the other charge. The “Brief” for the prosecution in the horse stealing case, now “held” by the author of this book, runs thus:— BRIEF for the Prosecutor. THE KING agst. JAMES ROOK On the Prosecution of JOHN BOYCE, For Horse Stealing. INDICTMENT—STATES—That the Prisoner James Rook on the 31st of October 1792 at the Parish of New Shoreham in the County of Sussex feloniously did steal take drive and carry away a Brown Gelding the property of John Boyce the elder of New Shoreham aforesaid. _Case_ In the Afternoon of the 30th of October 1792 about 3 o’Clock John Taylor the Servant of the Prosecutor turned his Master’s Brown Horse and another Horse into a field a short distance above the Street at Shoreham and fastened the Gate