tions who see the
daylight at the same time, drink water from the spring, and wine from
the vines, and eat bread from the plains.

"And for all the generations of the dead, for all that ladder of
humanity that has descended down to us, there is scarcely anything,
scarcely anything! The earth takes them back, and oblivion effaces
them. Adieu!

"At the end of the cemetery, I suddenly perceived that I was in its
oldest part, where those who had been dead a long time are mingling
with the soil, where the crosses themselves are decayed, where possibly
newcomers will be put to-morrow. It is full of untended roses, of
strong and dark cypress-trees, a sad and beautiful garden, nourished on
human flesh.

"I was alone, perfectly alone. So I crouched in a green tree and hid
myself there completely amid the thick and somber branches. I waited,
clinging to the stem, like a shipwrecked man does to a plank.

"When it was quite dark, I left my refuge and began to walk softly,
slowly, inaudibly, through that ground full of dead people. I wandered
about for a long time, but could not find her tomb again. I went on
with extended arms, knocking against the tombs with my hands, my feet,
my knees, my chest, even with my head, without being able to find her.
I groped about like a blind man finding his way, I felt the stones, the
crosses, the iron railings, the metal wreaths, and the wreaths of faded
flowers! I read the names with my fingers, by passing them over the
letters. What a night! What a night! I could not find her again!

"There was no moon. What a night! I was frightened, horribly frightened
in these narrow paths, between two rows of graves. Graves! graves!
graves! nothing but graves! On my right, on my left, in front of me,
around me, everywhere there were graves! I sat down on one of them, for
I could not walk any longer, my knees were so weak. I could hear my
heart beat! And I heard something else as well. What? A confused,
nameless noise. Was the noise in my head, in the impenetrable night, or
beneath the mysterious earth, the earth sown with human corpses? I
looked all around me, but I cannot say how long I remained there; I was
paralyzed with terror, cold with fright, ready to shout out, ready to
die.

"Suddenly, it seemed to me that the slab of marble on which I was
sitting, was moving. Certainly it was moving, as if it were being
raised. With a bound, I sprang on to the neighboring tomb, and I saw,
yes, I distinctly