But the head constable no sooner saw the phosphorescent corpse seated
by the bedside, than he stood stupefied; and next he began to shake like
one in an ague, and, terror gaining on him more and more, he uttered a
sort of howl and recoiled swiftly. Forgetting the steps in his recoil,
he tumbled over backward on his nearest companion; but he, shaken by the
shout of dismay, and catching a glimpse of something horrid, was already
staggering back, and in no condition to sustain the head constable, who,
like most head constables, was a ponderous man. The two carried away the
third, and the three the fourth, and they streamed into the kitchen, and
settled on the floor, overlapping each other like a sequence laid out on
a card-table. The clerk coming hastily with his torch ran an involuntary
tilt against the fourth man, who, sharing the momentum of the mass,
knocked him instantly on his back, the ace of that fair quint; and there
he lay kicking and waving his torch, apparently in triumph, but
really in convulsion, sense and wind being driven out together by the
concussion.
"What is to do now, in Heaven's name?" cried the alderman, starting up
with considerable alarm. But Denys explained, and offered to accompany
his worship. "So be it," said the latter. His men picked themselves
ruefully up, and the alderman put himself at their head and examined the
premises above and below.
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