Now, any lad of
my age, and perhaps some men too, might well have been frightened to set
about such a matter as to search in a coffin; and if any had said, a few
hours before, that I should ever have courage to do this by night in the
Mohune vault, I would not have believed him. Yet here I was, and had
advanced along the path of terror so gradually, and as it were foot by
foot in the past night, that when I came to this final step I was not
near so scared as when I first felt my way into the vault. It was not the
first time either that I had looked on death; but had, indeed, always a
leaning to such sights and matters, and had seen corpses washed up from
the _Darius_ and other wrecks, and besides that had helped Ratsey to case
some poor bodies that had died in their beds.
The coffin was, as I have said, of great length, and the side being
removed, I could see the whole outline of the skeleton that lay in it. I
say the outline, for the form was wrapped in a woollen or flannel shroud,
so that the bones themselves were not visible. The man that lay in it was
little short of a giant, measuring, as I guessed, a full six and a half
feet, and the flannel having sunk in over the belly, the end of the
breast-bone, the hips, knees, and toes were very easy to be made out. The
head was swathed in linen bands that had been white, but were now stained
and discoloured with damp, but of this I shall not speak more, and
beneath the chin-cloth the beard had once escaped.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74