"Spread a cloth!"
In obedience to his command, the four who were with him spread a cloak among them, each holding one of its corners. Apparently they intended to carry away the dead body in this manner.
The sbirro now mounted the bench and started to remove the coffin lid, when a blasphemous cry of rage broke from his lips that defied utterly the sanctity of the place.
"By the body of Christ! The coffin is empty!"—
It was the roar of an enraged beast and was succeeded by a heavy crash, as he let fall the coffin lid. A second later a second crash waked the midnight echoes of that silent place.
In a burst of maniacal fury he had hurled the coffin from its trestles.
Then he leaped down from the bench and flung all caution to the winds in the rage that possessed him.
"It is a trick of the devil," he shouted. "They have laid a trap for us, and you have never even informed yourselves."
There was foam about the corners of his mouth, the veins had swollen on his forehead, and from the mad bulging of his eyes spoke fury and abject terror. Bully as Tebaldo was, he could, on occasion, become a coward.
"Away!" he shouted to his men. "Look to your weapons! Away!"