The Mummy then went and seated herself by the corpse in the front room; and, while she rocked backwards and forwards in her chair, she crooned the following song:-- THE BODY-SNATCHER'S SONG. In the churchyard the body is laid, There they inter the beautiful maid: "Earth to earth" is the solemn sound! Over the sod where their daughter sleeps, The father prays, and the mother weeps: "Ashes to ashes" echoes around! Come with the axe, and come with the spade; Come where the beautiful virgin's laid: Earth from earth must we take back now! The sod is damp, and the grave is cold: Lay the white corpse on the dark black mould, That the pale moonbeam may kiss its brow! Throw back the earth, and heap up the clay; This cold white corpse we will bear away, Now that the moonlight waxes dim; For the student doth his knife prepare To hack all over this form so fair, And sever the virgin limb from limb! At morn the mother will come to pray Over the grave where her child she lay, And freshest flowers thereon will spread: And on that spot will she kneel and weep, Nor dream that we have disturbed the sleep Of her who lay in that narrow bed. We must leave the Mummy singing her horrible staves, and accompany the body-snatchers in their proceedings at Shoreditch Church. CHAPTER XLIV. THE BODY-SNATCHERS. The Resurrection Man, the Cracksman, and the Buffer hastened rapidly along the narrow lanes and filthy alleys leading towards Shoreditch Church. They threaded their way in silence, through the jet-black darkness of the night, and without once hesitating as to the particular turnings which they were to follow. Those men were as familiar with that neighbourhood as a person can be with the rooms and passages in his own house. At length the body-snatchers reached the low wall surmounted with a high railing which encloses Shoreditch churchyard. They were now at the back part of that burial ground, in a narrow and deserted street, whose dark and lonely appearance tended to aid their designs upon an edifice situated in one of the most populous districts in all London. For some minutes before their arrival an individual, enveloped in a long cloak, was walking up and down beneath the shadow of the wall. This was the surgeon, whose thirst after science had called into action the energies of the body-snatchers that night. The Cracksman advanced first, and ascertained that the surgeon had already arrived, and that the coast was otherwise clear. He then whistled in a low and peculiar manner; and his two confederates came up. "You have got all your tools?" said the surgeon in a hasty whisper. "Every one that we require," answered the Resurrection Man. "For opening a vault inside the church, mind?" added the surgeon, interrogatively. "You show us the vault, sir, and we'll soon have out the body," said the Resurrection Man.