At last the townspeople determined to utilise this common property,
which had long served no purpose. The walls bordering the roadway and
the blind alley were pulled down; the weeds and the pear-trees uprooted;
the sepulchral remains were removed; the ground was dug deep, and such
bones as the earth was willing to surrender were heaped up in a
corner. For nearly a month the youngsters, who lamented the loss of
the pear-trees, played at bowls with the skulls; and one night
some practical jokers even suspended femurs and tibias to all the
bell-handles of the town. This scandal, which is still remembered at
Plassans, did not cease until the authorities decided to have the bones
shot into a hole which had been dug for the purpose in the new cemetery.
All work, however, is usually carried out with discreet dilatoriness
in country towns, and so during an entire week the inhabitants saw a
solitary cart removing these human remains as if they had been mere
rubbish. The vehicle had to cross Plassans from end to end, and owing to
the bad condition of the roads fragments of bones and handfuls of rich
mould were scattered at every jolt. There was not the briefest religious
ceremony, nothing but slow and brutish cartage. Never before had a town
felt so disgusted.
For several years the old cemetery remained an object of terror.
Although it adjoined the main thoroughfare and was open to all comers,
it was left quite deserted, a prey to fresh vegetable growth.
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