The narrator has wondered far from his beloveds grave before the spirits begin to rewrite their epitaphs? Why did the Author have the narrator position far away from his love ones grave when the corpses emerged?

In the short story "Was It a Dream" by Guy de Maupassant's the author uses the first person view to make the reader became the listener of that history. And to build the tension he made the narrator being far away for his most importante discovery.

Answer: To build tension for the narrator's most important discovery