No one cared for the corpse beneath the oak, and there it lay till evening, when one Purkiss, a charcoal-burner of the forest hamlet of Minestead, came by, lifted it up, and carried it on his rude cart, which dripped with the blood flowing from the wound, to Winchester.
There the cathedral clergy buried it in a black stone coffin, ridged like the roof of a house, beneath the tower of the cathedral, many people looking on, but few grieving, and some deeming it shame that so wicked a man should be allowed to lie within a church. These thought it a judgment, when, next year, the tower fell down over the grave, and it was rebuilt a little further westward with some of the treasure Bishop Walkelyn had left. Never did any man’s history more awfully show a hardened, impenitent heart, going back again to sin after a great warning, then cut off by an instantaneous death, in the full tide of prosperity, in the very height of health and strength--for he was but in his fortieth year.
A spur of William Rufus is still preserved at the forest town of Lyndhurst; Purkiss’s descendant still dwells at Minestead; part of the way by which he travelled is called the King’s Lane, and the oak long remained at Stoney Cross to mark the spot where the King fell; and when, in 1745, the remains of the wood mouldered away, a stone was set up in its place; but the last of the posterity of William the Conqueror’s “high deer” were condemned in the course of the year 1831.
A Minestead churl, whose wonted trade Was burning charcoal in the glade, Outstretched amid the gorse The monarch found: and in his wain He raised, and to St. Swithin’s fane Conveyed the bleeding corse.
And still--so runs our forest creed-- Flourish the pious woodman’s seed, Even in the self-same spot: One horse and cart, their little store, Like their forefather’s, neither more Nor less, their children’s lot.
And still in merry Tyndhurst hall Red William’s stirrup decks the wall; Who lists, the sight may see. And a fair stone in green Mai wood, Informs the traveller where stood The memorable tree.
Thus in those fields the Red King died, His father wasted in his pride, For it is God’s command Who doth another’s birthright rive, The curse unto his blood shall cleave, And God’s own word shall stand.