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Among the men there were no casualties; but all the benches had

legs dislocated, and the table was also crippled: stripped of its

cloth, it lay upon plates dripping with wine-like a knight upon

bloody shields-among numerous bodies of chickens and turkeys,

from which protruded the forks lately stuck within their breasts.

In a moment all within the deserted building of the Horeszkos had

returned to its wonted calm. The darkness thickened; the remnants

of the magnificent feast lay like that nocturnal banquet to which

the ghosts of the departed must gather when evoked at the

festival of the Forefathers.96 Now the owls had cried thrice from

the garret, like conjurers; they seemed to greet the rising of

the moon of which the form fell through the window on the table,

trembling like a spirit in Purgatory; from the vaults beneath

rats leapt out through holes, like the souls of the damned; they

gnawed and drank; at times in a corner a forgotten champagne

bottle would pop as a toast to the spirits.