And they're not leaving yet!

A naked man with a skeletal body holds a huge slab that seems to be about to topple over and bury him. Behind him is a woman with a haggard, cadaverous face who clasps her hands together as if pleading for the huge stone not to fall on them. Further back, Goya has captured two crouching figures, equally thin and terrified.

The painter has masterfully used aquatint to create the shadow cast by the slab on the figures behind it. He defines a lighter space which serves to reveal the frightened woman with her hands clasped on her chest and those crouching further back. With this technique he recreates various shades of grey that suggest a spectral, almost misty atmosphere that increases the gloomy aspect of the image.

In the manuscript in the National Library this print is interpreted as follows: "Even when their feet are in the grave, men are so engrossed in their vices that they do not flee from the slab of death that is about to fall on them, or they do not think of making amends". In the manuscript of Ayala it is said: "Mortals are so blinded in their vices that they are watching the slab of death fall on them and they do not even mend their ways". Finally, the manuscript in the Museo Nacional del Prado notes: "He who does not reflect on the instability of fortune, sleeps peacefully, surrounded by dangers: he does not know how to avoid the harm that threatens, nor is there any misfortune that surprises him".

Edith Helman believes that in this image there is a veiled allusion to the Spanish political and social reality of the late 18th century. Just as the witches are still active when the day begins to dawn, the old obscurantist elements are still in power, even though the new ones are already on the move.