Indiana State Sentinel

Droll Story -From the French -

The Count Hohenloe, on his death bed, gave a note to his letter case, to deliver to his banker, whom the multitude of pleasures had prevented him from seeing. He had made no use of his bills of credit, as death had not given him time to spend the ready money he had brought with him. The poor young man having given his last sigh, the musketeer made the necessary preparation for his funeral.

While things were in this situation, there arrived two English noblemen at the same house. They were placed in a chamber adjoining that in which the dead body was laid out, and out of which it had been removed. They could only allow one bed for them both, all the others being engaged, but as the weather was cold, and they were friends, they made no difficulty of lying together.

In the middle of the night, one of the two not being able to sleep, and growing weary of his bed, arose in order to amuse himself in the kitchen, where he heard some people talking. He had diverted himself there for some time, when being willing to return whence he came, he again went up stairs; but instead of entering his own chamber, went into that of the deceased Count, over whose face they had only thrown a cloth.

There is not so much ceremony by used in France, in the management of their dead, as in England and Germany; for they are there satisfied with showing their affections to the living.

The English nobleman having put out his candle, laid down boldly by the defunct; when creeping as close to him as possible in order to warm himself, and finding his bed-fellow colder than himself, he began to mutter—"What the devil's the matter, my friend your are as cold as ice, I will lay a wager, cold as you are, you would have been warm enough if you had seen the pretty girl that is below stairs. Come you may take my word for it," added he, pulling him by the arm; "come zounds! stir, I'll engage you shall have her for a guinea."

While he was holding this fine conversation with the dead, who detached from the things of this world, did not even give himself the trouble of making a reply, his chamber door was opened, which made him raise his head to see who was coming in; but judge what must have been his surprise when he saw a servant lighting in a joiner, who carried a coffin on his shoulder!

He thought at first that he had been in a dream—but looking about him, and seeing the visage of one who had not spoken a word, a visage overspread with a mortal paleness, he made but one jump from the bed to the middle of the chamber.

The joiner and the maid were immediately persuaded that it was the corpse, who, being unwilling to be shut up in the coffin, was now playing his gambols. Their legs were unable to move with a swiftness proportionable to their fears; and the joiner, maid, coffin and candle-stick, rolled over one another from the top of the stairs down unto the kitchen.

"Zounds! what are you all about!" cried the landlord. "What, is the devil flying away with the dead man?"

"Mercy on us," cried the maid, "it is rather the dead man would run away with us."

"I am the son of a b-h," said the joiner, "if that dead man there has any more occasion for a coffin than I have. Why, he has got into the middle of the room, and has just struck up a horn-pipe."

"The devil he has," cried the landlord, "we will soon see that."

While all the family were trembling and getting ready to follow the master of the house, the English nobleman, who had again found his chamber, had slipped into bed quite out of breath, and his friend having asked him where he had been, he answered, "Just lying with a dead body."

"Stood, a dead body! it had, perhaps, the plague," cried he, jumping in his turn out of the bed, and running to the door to call for a light.

The landlord, inn maids and servants were passing through the gallery, and no sooner saw him than they imagined it was the dead man who had appeared again. What confusion! what shrieks! what clamors! The Englishman, terrified at the hideous noise, ran into his room, and slipped into bed to his companion, without the least fear of catching the plague.