place, as if might, from that
evening forthwith, was understood to constitute right, in that town.

Up to this point no one had taken a very prominent part in the attack
upon the inn if attack it could be called; but now the man whom chance,
or his own nimbleness, made the first of the throng, assumed to himself
a sort of control over his companions and, turning to them, he said,--

"Hark ye, my friends; we'll do everything quietly and properly; so I
think we'd better three or four of us go in at once, arm-in-arm."

"Psha!" cried one who had just arrived with a light; "it's your
cowardice that speaks. I'll go in first; let those follow me who like,
and those who are afraid may remain where they are."

He at once dashed into the room, and this immediately broke the spell of
fear which was beginning to creep over the others in consequence of the
timid suggestion of the man who, up to that moment, had been first and
foremost in the enterprise.

In an instant the chamber was half filled with persons, four or five of
whom carried lights; so that, as it was not of very large dimensions, it
was sufficiently illuminated for every object in it to be clearly
visible.

There was the bed, smooth and unruffled, as if waiting for some expected
guest; while close by its side a coffin, supported upon tressles, over
which a sheet was partially thrown, contained the sad remains of him who
little expected in life that, after death, he should be stigmatised as
an example of one of the ghastliest superstitions that ever found a home
in the human imagination.

It was evident that some one had been in the room; and that this was the
woman whose excited fancy had led her to look upon the face of the
corpse there could be no doubt, for the sheet was drawn aside just
sufficiently to discover the countenance.

The fact was that the stranger was unknown at the inn, or probably ere
this the coffin lid would have been screwed on; but it was hoped, up to
the last moment, as advertisements had been put into the county papers,
that some one would come forward to identify and claim him.

Such, however, had not been the case, and so his funeral had been
determined upon.

The presence of so many persons at once effectually prevented any
individual from exhibiting, even if he felt any superstitious fears
about approaching the coffin; and so, with one accord, they surrounded
it, and looked upon the face of the dead.

There was nothing repulsiv