midnight
`` Well , and so it was , '' said Mr. Badcock , `` only the word did n't occur to me . '' `` The bodies , '' resumed Mr. Fett , `` in accordance with the by-laws of Montpellier , were conveyed to the town mortuary , and there bestowed for the time in open coffins , connected by means of wire attachments with a bell in the roof -- a municipal device against premature interment . The wires also carried a number of small bells very sensitively hung , so that the smallest movement of reviving animation would at once alarm the night-watchman in an adjoining chamber . `` This watchman , an honest fellow with literary tastes above his calling , was engaged towards midnight in reading M. de la Fontaine 's ` Elegie aux Nymphes de Vaux , ' when a sudden violent jangling fetched him to his feet , with every hair of his head erect and separate . Before he could collect his senses the jangling broke into a series of terrific detonations , in the midst of which the bell in the roof tolled one awful stroke and ceased . `` I leave to your imagination the sight that met his eyes when , lantern in hand , he reached the mortuary door . The collected remains , promiscuously interred next day by the municipality of Montpellier , were , at the request of a brother-in-law of Mrs. Robinson , and through the good offices of Mr. Locke , subsequently exhumed and despatched to Pewsey , where they rest under a suitable inscription , locally attributed to the pen of Mr. Locke .