Therefore I charge you to bury it and return for it
later on, if you can. It is of value, since all my life I have collected
such trinkets. I beg you to make provision also for this good lad,
David, should he be spared."
He paused a while, for he was growing very weak, then added:
"Another thing is that I ask you, if it be possible, to row my body out
to sea and there sink it in deep water, deep, clean water, far from this
place of stench and pestilence, for I would not lie in the common pit
at last. Now kneel down and pray for my passing soul, since there is no
priest to give me absolution, and I must seek it straight from God. Nay,
thank me not. I have done with the world and its affairs. Kneel down and
pray, as I pray for you, that you may be spared on earth and that we may
meet again in heaven, where my wife and others await me."
They obeyed, weeping, yes, even Grey Dick wept a little. Presently when
they looked up they saw that Sir Geoffrey was dead, dead without pain or
sorrow. Of the first he had suffered none for days, and the second was
far from him who wished to die.
Leaving the ancient woman in charge of the house, which she barred and
bolted, next morning they took a boat, and the three of them rowed the
body of the old knight a league out into the quiet sea. There, after a
brief prayer, they cast him into the deep, weighted with stones, so that
he might never rise again.
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