The rain beat against the gallows, ran down its tall naked posts, and collected in pools at its feet.

Attracted by some strange instinct, which seemed to give them a knowledge of the object of these terrible preparations, two ravens wheeled screaming round the fatal tree, and at length one of them settled on the cross-beam, and could with difficulty be dislodged by the shouts of the men, when it flew away, croaking hoarsely.

Up this gentle hill, ordinarily so soft and beautiful, but now abhorrent as a Golgotha, in the eyes of the beholders, groups of rustics and monks had climbed over ground rendered slippery with moisture, and had gathered round the paling encircling the terrible apparatus, looking the images of despair and woe.
Even those within the abbey, and sheltered from the storm, shared the all-pervading despondency.

The refectory looked dull and comfortless, and the logs on the hearth hissed and sputtered, and would not burn.
Green wood had been brought instead of dry fuel by the drowsy henchman.
The viands on the board provoked not the appetite, and the men emptied their cups of ale, yawned and stretched their arms, as if they would fain sleep an hour or two longer.

The sense of discomfort, was heightened by the entrance of those whose term of watch had been relieved, and who cast their dripping cloaks on the floor, while two or three savage dogs, steaming with moisture, stretched their huge lengths before the sullen fire, and disputed all approach to it.
Within the great hall were already gathered the retainers of the Earl of Derby, but the nobleman himself had not appeared.