It was then about half-past four o'clock, or
it might be a quarter to five, so he could not have left his home much
more than half-an-hour. The woodman and his companions thought 'the
gentleman' was reading, as he held his head down. One of them lingered
for a minute looking at the gentleman, who then turned round, and might
have seen these passers-by, but he made no sign to them.
"Thus it seems that the attack, which was supposed to be a spasm of the
heart, was not instantaneous in its effects, but with proper remedies,
might have been baffled. Terrible to think of him in his death-struggle
without aid and so near a devoted hearth. For that hearth too, what an
inpending future!
"The terrible news reached Nottingham on the morning of the 22nd, at
half-past nine o'clock, and immediately telegraphed to London, was
announced by a second edition of the _Times_ to the country.
Consternation and deep grief fell upon all men. One week later, the
remains arrived from Welbeck at Harcourt House, to be entombed in the
family vault of the Bentincks, that is to be found in a small building
in a dingy street, now a chapel of ease, but in old days the Parish
Church among the fields of the pretty village of Marylebone.
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