"Who has done so?"—"The vampyre."
"Indeed! I never heard of such an animal, save as a fable, before; it seems to me extraordinary."
"So it would do to any one, sir, as was not on the spot, to see it; I'm sure I wouldn't."
In the meantime, the procession, short as it was of itself, moved along in slow time through a throng of people who ran out of their houses on either side of the way, and lined the whole length of the town.
Many of these closed in behind, and followed the mourners until they were near the church, and then they made a rush to get into the churchyard.
As yet all had been conducted with tolerable propriety, the funeral met with no impediment. The presence of death among so many of them seemed some check upon the licence of the mob, who bowed in silence to the majesty of death.
Who could bear ill-will against him who was now no more? Man, while he is man, is always the subject of hatred, fear, or love. Some one of these passions, in a modified state, exists in all men, and with such feelings they will regard each other; and it is barely possible that any one should not be the object of some of these, and hence the stranger's corpse was treated with respect.
In silence the body proceeded along the highway until it came to the churchyard, and followed by an immense multitude of people of all grades.
The authorities trembled; they knew not what all this portended. They thought it might pass off; but it might become a storm first; they hoped and feared by turns, till some of them fell sick with apprehension.