m before, and begged that he would
call upon him when he came up.

CHAPTER LXVII.

Soon after the commencement of the session, a panic seized the
townspeople in consequence of certain reports connected with the school
of anatomy, which stood by itself in a low neighbourhood. They were to
the effect that great indignities were practised upon the remains of
the _subjects_, that they were huddled into holes about the place, and
so heedlessly, that dogs might be seen tearing portions from the earth.
What truth there may have been at the root of these reports, I cannot
tell; but it is probable they arose from some culpable carelessness of
the servants. At all events, they were believed in the neighbourhood,
occupied by those inhabitants of the city readiest to receive and dwell
upon anything revolting. But what pushed the indignation beyond the
extreme of popular endurance, was a second rumour, in the consternation
occasioned by which the whole city shared: the _resurrectionists_ were
at their foul work, and the graveyard, the place of repose, was itself
no longer a sanctuary! Whether the authorities of the medical school
had not been guilty of indifference, contenting themselves with asking
no questions about the source whence the means of prosecuting their art
was derived, may be a question. But fear altogether outstripped
investigation, and those even who professed unbelief, took precautions;
whence the lights of the watchers of the dead might be seen twinkling,
far into the morning, in the solemn places around the city churches;
while many a poor creature who would have sold his wife's body for five
pounds, was ready to tear a medical student to pieces on the mere
chance that his scalpel had touched a human form stolen from the sacred
enclosure.

Now whether Beauchamp, who had watched Alec in the same situation
before, had anything to do with what follows I cannot tell; but his
conduct then lays him open to suspicion now.

Alec, who found some escape if not relief from painful thought in the
prosecution of his favourite study, was thus occupied one evening, no
very unfrequent occurrence, by candlelight. He had almost reached a
final understanding of the point in pursuit, when he was roused from
his absorption by a yell outside. He had for some time previous heard a
sound of gathering commotion, but had paid no attention to it. He
started up from his stooping posture, and having blown out his candle,
perc