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the chamber. A short time after this, he was heard to bark aloud, then cry, accompanied by a noise, as if something heavy was drawn along the floor. On going once more into the closet, his lordship found the dog trying to bring forward the sack which had been seen lying on the steps near the trap-door. The animal renewed his exertions at the sight of his master; but, again exhausted both by labour and loss of blood, he rested his head on the mouth of the sack.
Excited by this new mystery, his lordship now assisted the poor dog in his labour, and, though that labour was not light, curiosity, and the apprehension of discovering something extraordinary, on the part of his lordship, and unabating perseverance on that of the dog, to accomplish his purpose, gave them strength to bring at length the sack from the closet to the chamber. The servant was somewhat restored to himself, as the sack was dragged into the room, but every person, who in the beginning of the alarm had rushed into the apartment, had now disappeared.
The opening of the sack surpassed all that human language can convey of human horror. As his lordship loosened the cord which fastened the sack’s mouth, the dog fixed his eyes on it, stood over it with wild and trembling eagerness, as if ready to seize and devour the contents. The contents appeared, and the extreme of horror was displayed. A human body, as if murdered in bed, being covered only with a bloody shirt, and that clotted, and still damp, as if recently shed; the head severed from the shoulders, and the other members mangled and separated, so as to make the trunk and extremities lie in the sack, was now exposed to view.
The dog smelt the blood, and after surveying the corpse, looked piteously at his master, and licked
