cceeded; for a watchman, on guard in
Kirushkin Alley, caught the corpse by the collar on the very scene of
his evil deeds, when attempting to pull off the frieze coat of a retired
musician. Having seized him by the collar, he summoned, with a shout,
two of his comrades, whom he enjoined to hold him fast while he himself
felt for a moment in his boot, in order to draw out his snuff-box and
refresh his frozen nose. But the snuff was of a sort which even a corpse
could not endure. The watchman having closed his right nostril with his
finger, had no sooner succeeded in holding half a handful up to the left
than the corpse sneezed so violently that he completely filled the eyes
of all three. While they raised their hands to wipe them, the dead man
vanished completely, so that they positively did not know whether they
had actually had him in their grip at all. Thereafter the watchmen
conceived such a terror of dead men that they were afraid even to seize
the living, and only screamed from a distance, "Hey, there! go your
way!" So the dead tchinovnik began to appear even beyond the Kalinkin
Bridge, causing no little terror to all timid people.

But we have totally neglected that certain prominent personage who may
really be considered as the cause of the fantastic turn taken by this
true history. First of all, justice compels us to say that after the
departure of poor, annihilated Akakiy Akakievitch he felt something like
remorse. Suffering was unpleasant to him, for his heart was accessible
to many good impulses, in spite of the fact that his rank often
prevented his showing his true self. As soon as his friend had left his
cabinet, he began to think about poor Akakiy Akakievitch. And from
that day forth, poor Akakiy Akakievitch, who could not bear up under an
official reprimand, recurred to his mind almost every day. The thought
troubled him to such an extent that a week later he even resolved to
send an official to him, to learn whether he really could assist
him; and when it was reported to him that Akakiy Akakievitch had died
suddenly of fever, he was startled, hearkened to the reproaches of his
conscience, and was out of sorts for the whole day.

Wishing to divert his mind in some way, and drive away the disagreeable
impression, he set out that evening for one of his friends' houses,
where he found quite a large party assembled. What was better, nearly
every one was of the same rank as himself, so that he need not feel