Editing The Burial of the Rats (section)

== Plot summary == 
An 1896 story published in both London and Boston that year, it is about an English traveler in Paris who finds himself alone in the rag-picker slums on the outskirts of the city in a "somewhat wild and not at all savoury" area. He walks on foot to [[Montrouge]] located in the southern suburbs of the city. He encounters an elderly woman at the encampment who arouses his suspicions when he notices that she is carrying a knife by her side. He also notices elderly veterans of Napoleon's army. He runs into tawdry scavengers and swarms of flesh-eating rats who chase him in a flight for survival. The story is set in 1860.
 
After a long and grueling chase, he is able to evade his pursuers. The police are able to apprehend his attackers in the camp. The main suspect is found dead and their body eaten to the bones by the rats. The "rat burial" is a reference to the ravenous rats who eat the flesh of their victims. The story illustrates that the veneer of civilization is thin and that beneath the surface of the modern city lies a netherworld of decay and corruption which is rarely seen