It is night—­a dark and stormy night.  One o’clock in the morning has just sounded from the church of Montmartre.  It is to the cemetery of Montmartre that is carried the coffin which, according to the last wishes of Rose and Blanche contains them both.  Through the thick shadow, which rests upon that field of death, may be seen moving a pale light.  It is the gravedigger.  He advances with caution; a dark lantern is in his hand.  A man wrapped in a cloak accompanies him.  He holds down his head and weeps.  It is Samuel.  The old Jew—­the keeper of the house in the Rue Saint-Francois.  On the night of the funeral of Jacques Rennepont, the first who died of the seven heirs, and who was buried in another cemetery, Samuel had a similar mysterious interview with the gravedigger, to obtain a favor at the price of gold.  A strange and awful favor!  After passing down several paths, bordered with cypress trees, by the side of many tombs, the Jew and the gravedigger arrived, at a little glade, situated near the western wall of the cemetery.  The night was so dark, that scarcely anything could be seen.  After moving his lantern up and down, and all about, the gravedigger showed Samuel, at the foot of a tall yew-tree, with long black branches, a little mound of newly-raised earth, and said:  “It is here.”

“You are sure of it?”

“Yes, yes—­two bodies in one coffin! it is not such a common thing.”

“Alas! two in the same coffin!” said the Jew, with a deep sigh.

“Now that you know the place, what do you want more?” asked the gravedigger.

Samuel did not answer.  He fell on his knees, and piously kissed the little mound.  Then rising, with his cheeks bathed in tears, he approached the gravedigger, and spoke to him for some moments in a whisper—­though they were alone, and in the centre of that deserted place.  Then began between those two men a mysterious dialogue, which the night enveloped in shade and silence.  The gravedigger, alarmed at what Samuel asked him, at first refused his request.

But the Jew, employing persuasions, entreaties, tears, and at last the seduction of the jingling gold, succeeded in conquering the scruples of the gravedigger.  Though the latter trembled at the thought of what he promised, he said to Samuel in an agitated tone:  “To-morrow night, then, at two o’clock.”

“I shall be behind the wall,” answered Samuel, pointing out the place with the aid of a lantern.  “I will throw three stones into the cemetery, for a signal.”

“Yes, three stones—­as a signal,” replied the gravedigger shuddering, and wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

With considerable remains of vigor, notwithstanding his great age, Samuel availed himself of the broken surface of the low wall, and climbing over it, soon disappeared.  The gravedigger returned home with hasty strides.  From time to time, he looked fearfully behind him, as though he had been pursued by some fatal vision.