*       *       *       *       *

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. There was a deep silence observed by all those in the immediate vicinity
of the coffin, but those farther in the rear found full expression for
their feelings. "Do you think," said an old man to another, "that he will come to life
again, eh?" --"Oh, yes, vampyres always do, and lay in the moonlight, and
then they come to life again. Moonlight recovers a vampyre to life
again." "And yet the moonlight is cold." --"Ah, but who's to tell what may happen
to a vampyre, or what's hot or what's cold?" "Certainly not; oh, dear, no." --"And then they have permission to suck
the blood of other people, to live themselves, and to make other people
vampyres, too." "The lord have mercy upon us!" --"Ay, but they have driven a stake
through this one, and he can't get in moonlight or daylight; it's all
over--he's certainly done for; we may congratulate ourselves on this
point." "So we may--so we may." They now neared the grave, the clergyman officiating as usual on such
occasions. There was a large mob of persons on all sides, with serious
faces, watching the progress of the ceremony, and who listened in
quietness. There was no sign of any disturbance amongst the people, and the
authorities were well pleased; they congratulated themselves upon the
quietness and orderliness of the assemblage. The service was ended and the coffin lowered, and the earth was thrown
on the coffin-lid with a hollow sound. Nobody could hear that sound
unmoved. But in a short while the sound ceased as the grave became
filled; it was then trodden carefully down. There were no relatives there to feel affected at the last scene of all. They were far away, and, according to popular belief upon the subject,
they must have been dead some ages. *       *       *       *       *

The mob watched the last shovel-full of earth thrown upon the coffin,
and witnessed the ramming down of the soil, and the heaping of it over
at top to make the usual monument; for all this was done speedily and
carefully, lest there should be any tendency to exhume the body of the
deceased. The people were now somewhat relieved, as to their state of solemnity
and silence. They would all of them converse freely on the matter that
had so long occupied their thoughts. They seemed now let loose, and everybody found himself at liberty to say
or do something, no matter if it were not very reasonable; that is not
always required of human beings who have souls, or, at least it is
unexpected; and were it expected, the expectation would never be
realized. The day was likely to wear away without a riot, nay, even without a
fight; a most extraordinary occurrence for such a place under the
existing circumstances; for of late the populace, or, perhaps, the
townspeople, were extremely pugnacious, and many were the disputes that
were settled by the very satisfactory application of the knuckles to the
head of the party holding a contrary opinion. Thus it was they were ready to take fire, and a hubbub would be the
result of the slightest provocation. But, on the present occasion, there
was a remarkable dearth of, all subjects of the nature described. Who was to lead Israel out to battle? Alas! no one on the present
occasion. Such a one, however, appeared, at least, one who furnished a ready
excuse for a disturbance. Suddenly, Mrs Chillingworth appeared in the midst of a large concourse
of people. She had just left her house, which was close at hand, her
eyes red with weeping, and her children around her on this occasion. The crowd made way for her, and gathered round her to see what was going
to happen. "Friends and neighbours," she said "can any of you relieve the tears of
a distressed wife and mother, have any of you seen anything of my
husband, Mr. Chillingworth?" "What the doctor?" exclaimed one.--"Yes; Mr. Chillingworth, the surgeon. He has not been home two days and a night. I'm distracted!--what can
have become of him I don't know, unless--"

Here Mrs Chillingworth paused, and some person said,--

"Unless what, Mrs Chillingworth? there are none but friends here, who
wish the doctor well, and would do anything to serve him--unless what? speak out." "Unless he's been destroyed by the vampyre. Heaven knows what we may all
come to! Here am I and my children deprived of our protector by some
means which we cannot imagine. He never, in all his life, did the same
before." "He must have been spirited away by some of the vampyres. I'll tell you
what, friend," said one to another, "that something must be done;
nobody's safe in their bed." "No; they are not, indeed. I think that all vampyres ought to be burned
and a stake run through them, and then we should be safe." "Ay; but you must destroy all those who are even suspected of being
vampyres, or else one may do all the mischief." --"So he might." "Hurrah!" shouted the mob. "Chillingworth for ever! We'll find the
doctor somewhere, if we pull down the whole town." There was an immense commotion among the populace, who began to start
throwing stones, and do all sorts of things without any particular
object, and some, as they said, to find the doctor, or to show how
willing they were to do so if they knew how.