It was a bier.
Four men carried a bier, covered with black cloth.
Behind them came a man, with a shovel on his shoulder.
A third lighted torch, held by a man reading a book, probably the chaplain, closed the procession.
The bier followed the ranks of the police, who had turned to the right.
Just at that moment the head of the procession stopped.
Ursus heard the grating of a key.
Opposite the prison, in the low wall which ran along the other side of the street, another opening was illuminated by a torch passing beneath it.
This gate, over which a death's-head was placed, was that of the cemetery.
The wapentake passed through it, then the men, then the second torch. The procession decreased therein, like a reptile entering his retreat.