spectators, who were about to rush in disorder from the spot, when
one more courageous than the rest, laying hold of the skull, shook it
violently for some moments, when, from one of the eye-sockets dangled
the tail of a rat! The cause of the strange sounds heard by Morel and
others, connected with the church of St. Genevieve, was now obvious;
the voracious animal had entered when lean and small, into the head of
the deceased marquess, by the eye, but after revelling upon the brain
of the unfortunate defunct for some time, had increased to a size which
rendered its exit by the same passage impossible, and its efforts at
extrication from horrible thraldom, caused the rattling of the disjoined
head in the coffin. It was proposed to saw asunder the skull, in
order to free the creature, and the advice of Albert Morel, that the
operation should be performed by one of the medical fraternity, who
might be glad to witness the fact of a rat being imprisoned in a human
head, was cheerfully taken. Some, however, objected to its being done,
without application for leave having been first made to the Comtesse de
Villeroi, as one to whom the proprietorship of her deceased husband's
remains naturally and solely appertained, and who might feel it as a
cruel insult towards herself, and a sacrilegious violation of the grave
of her first lord, the consigning without her knowledge and permission,
any part of his body to the hands of a surgeon. "Tush!" quoth old Morel,
"all nonsense that! for if one may believe what has long been town-talk,
'tis little that madame will care for her dead husband now she has a
living one who pleases her better than ever he could do, poor man!" The
sexton's arguments were conclusive, and it was agreed at last, that the
skull should be carried to Monsieur Nicolais, the celebrated surgeon,
who had unavailingly attempted by bleeding, to recover the late marquess
from the apoplexy which carried him off.

A large and brilliant party had assembled at the chateau de Vermont,
the residence of the gay and opulent Comte de Villeroi and his lady, to
celebrate the christening of their first born, when in the midst of a
splendid banquet, an alarm was given that the house was surrounded by
police and gens d'armes, who required in the king's name a surrender
of the persons of the Comte and Comtesse de Villeroi, they standing
attainted of foul and treasonable murder! The confusion and dismay which
seized all parties upon this