Meanwhile the operation of putting the body in the sack was going on.
"This evening," said the governor, when the task was ended.
"At what hour ?" inquired a turnkey.
"Why, about ten or eleven o'clock." "Shall we watch by the corpse ?" "Of what use would it be?
Shut the dungeon as if he were alive--that is all." Then the steps retreated, and the voices died away in the distance; the noise of the door, with its creaking hinges and bolts ceased, and a silence more sombre than that of solitude ensued,--the silence of death, which was all-pervasive, and struck its icy chill to the very soul of Dantes.

Then he raised the flag-stone cautiously with his head, and looked carefully around the chamber.

It was empty, and Dantes emerged from the tunnel..