I little thought it would first be used to dig Long Robin's grave.

But the task had better be done, and that quickly.
The man is dead as a stone.

We will bury him away out of our sight ere we do aught beside." Petronella assented with a slight shudder.

She could not regret the death of the giant gipsy, who himself made so light of human life, and would have slain her brother before her eyes without a qualm.
But she shivered each time she looked at the motionless form, and was glad when, after some hours of hard work beneath the trees, Cuthbert succeeded in dragging the corpse away and in covering it up from sight.

Kneeling beside the rude grave, the girl breathed a prayer for the soul of the departed man, and repeated many an ave and paternoster, in the hope of smoothing for him his passage into eternity (being still considerably imbued with the teachings of her early life, which the newer and clearer faith had by no means eradicated), and then she rose comforted and relieved, feeling as though a dark weight had passed from her spirit.
Daylight had now come, and the girl was very weary.