The Count of Monte Cristo

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uttering a long, deep groan of despair and anguish. We have before
stated that all the servants had fled. M. de Villefort was therefore
obliged to request M. d'Avrigny to superintend all the arrangements
consequent upon a death in a large city, more especially a death under
such suspicious circumstances.

It was something terrible to witness the silent agony, the mute despair
of Noirtier, whose tears silently rolled down his cheeks. Villefort
retired to his study, and d'Avrigny left to summon the doctor of the
mayoralty, whose office it is to examine bodies after decease, and who
is expressly named "the doctor of the dead." M. Noirtier could not be
persuaded to quit his grandchild. At the end of a quarter of an hour M.
d'Avrigny returned with his associate; they found the outer gate closed,
and not a servant remaining in the house; Villefort himself was obliged
to open to them. But he stopped on the landing; he had not the courage
to again visit the death chamber. The two doctors, therefore, entered
the room alone. Noirtier was near the bed, pale, motionless, and silent