Indescribable was the terror produced among the spectators by this double catastrophe—the death of their townsman, and the revival of the mummy. The women fell down in fits, and the men took to their heels; and a little boy, who was frightened into a paroxysm of devotion, dropped on his knees, and began fervently to exclaim,
"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep."
In short, the agitation was truly inexpressible, and fear distracted all. But on no countenance was this passion (mingled with a due degree of amazement) more strikingly depicted than on that of the German doctor, who, thus compelled to witness the object of a thousand cares, the greatest and most perfect result of his wonderful discovery, slipping off its pedestal and out of his hands, as by a stroke of enchantment, stared upon me with eyes, nose, and mouth, speechless, rooted to the floor, and apparently converted into a mummy himself. As I stepped past him, however, hurrying to the door, with a vague idea that the sooner I reached it the better, his lips were unlocked, and his feelings found vent in a horrible exclamation—"Der tyfel!" which I believe means the devil—"Der tyfel! I have empalm him too well!"
Then making a dart at me, he cried, in tones of distraction, "Stop my mummy! mine gott! which has cost me so much expense!—stop my mummy!"
I saw that he designed seizing me, and being myself as much overcome with fear as the others, I made a bolt for the door, knocking down my friend Tibbikens and half a dozen other retreating spectators as I left it, darted into the air, and in a moment was flying out of the village on the wings of the wind.
I had a double cause for terror; for, first, before I had got twenty steps from the exhibition-room (for my Roman garments were in the way of my legs, and I did not run so fast as I managed to do afterward), I heard certain furious voices cry from the room—"It is all a cheat! the mummy was a living man! let us Lynch him and the doctor!" and, secondly, I could also hear, close at my heels, the voice of the doctor himself, who had escaped close behind me, eagerly vociferating, "Stop my mummy, and I will pay twenty dollare! stop my mummy!"—by both which noises it was made apparent that I was in danger of being Lynched, or subjected to a second process of mummification.
Nerved therefore by my fears, I gathered the skirts of my toga about my arms, and fled with all my might, blessing my stars that I had at last recovered that mortal tenement, which, with all its troubles, I was now convinced was the best for my purposes in the whole world.