CHAPTER X.
THE KEEPERS OF THE DEAD.
Events, between the death of Lord Mount Severn and his interment, occurred quickly; and to one of them the reader may feel inclined to demur, as believing that it could have no foundation in fact, in the actions of real life, but must be a wild creation of the author's brain.
He would be wrong.

The author is no more fond of wild creations than the reader.

The circumstance did take place.
The earl died on Friday morning at daylight.

The news spread rapidly.

It generally does on the death of a peer, if he has been of note, whether good or bad, in the world, and was known in London before the day was over--the consequence of which was, that by Saturday morning, early, a shoal of what the late peer would have called harpies, had arrived, to surround East Lynne.