"What you have to do, my good friend, is simple enough," said the lawyer, addressing the superior official at the gate; "you must, in the first place, receive and take charge of the body. You must inquire of these good folks all they have to tell you, together with their names and addresses. You must draw up a processo verbale, embodying all such information; and then you must have the body conveyed to the mortuary at the hospital, at the same time making your report to the police, and delivering up the body into their custody. In such a case as this, it will be well, too, that these worthy men, who have brought the body here, should go with you to the police, the more so," he added, as his quick eye marked a certain blank look in the faces of the men,--"the more so, as they must be recompensed for their trouble and labour, and it is by the police that the payment for it must be made." "Un processo verbale! Yes, one knows that; but under circumstances so strange--grazie a Dio so unheard of--if your worship would have the kindness to put one in the way of it. Your worship is familiar with affairs of all sorts. Just an instant." "We must hear first what these men have to say. First take down their names and addresses." The men gave them, as the lawyer remarked to himself, with perfect willingness and alacrity. They then related that having been at work in the forest, cutting up the branches and trunk of a tree, which had fallen from old age and natural decay, they were going to another part of the Pineta, a short distance off, where another fallen tree awaited their axes and saws, when they saw a lady asleep as they thought on a bank. They were about to pass on without interfering with her in any way, when one of their party remarked that it was odd that all the noise they had made had not wakened her, for they had come along laughing, singing, and talking loudly. This had led them to approach closely to her; and then,--as they looked at her, a suspicion of the truth began to come to their minds. They touched her, and found that she was dead. She was not quite cold, they said, and were quite sure of that fact. They looked at her, and looked all around to see if they could perceive any sign of the cause of her death. But they could see nothing. There was, as far as they could see, no trace of blood, either on her dress or anywhere around the spot where she lay. And then they had borrowed a door from the farm near St. Apollinare, and had brought the body here, and that was all they knew about it. "Had they seen any other person in the forest that morning?" "Not a soul; and they had been in that part of the Pineta, or at least at no great distance, all the morning from sunrise." "Would they be able to find again and to know the spot on which they had found the body?" the lawyer asked.