He had forbidden them to remove the corpses, under the pretext that it was necessary to give the populace of the old quarter a lesson.

And as, while hastening to the Rue de la Banne, he passed over the square, on which the moon was no longer shining, he inadvertently stepped on the clenched hand of a corpse that lay beside the footpath.
At this he almost fell.

That soft hand, which yielded beneath his heel, brought him an indefinable sensation of disgust and horror.

And thereupon he hastened at full speed along the deserted streets, fancying that a bloody fist was pursuing him.
"There are four of them on the ground," he said, as he entered his house.
He and his wife looked at one another as though they were astonished at their crime.
The lamplight imparted the hue of yellow wax to their pale faces.
"Have you left them there ?" asked Felicite; "they must be found there." "Of course! I didn't pick them up.

They are lying on their backs.