THIS is another little story, from the Keepsake of 1828. It was told to
me many years ago, by the late Miss Anna Seward, who, among other
accomplishments that rendered her an amusing inmate in a country house,
had that of recounting narratives of this sort with very considerable
effect; much greater, indeed, than any one would be apt to guess from
the style of her written performances. There are hours and moods when
most people are not displeased to listen to such things; and I have
heard some of the greatest and wisest of my contemporaries take their
share in telling them.
August, 1831.
THE following narrative is given from the pen, so far as memory
permits, in the same character in which it was presented to the
author's ear; nor has he claim to farther praise, or to be more deeply
censured, than in proportion to the good or bad judgment which he has
employed in selecting his materials, as he has studiously avoided any
attempt at ornament, which might interfere with the simplicity of the
tale.
At the same time, it must be admitted, that the particular class of
stories which turns on the marvellous, possesses a stronger influence
when told than when committed to print. The volume taken up at noonday,
though rehearsing the same incidents, conveys a much more feeble
impression than, is achieved by the voice of the speaker on a circle of
fireside auditors, who hang upon the narrative as the narrator details
the minute incidents which serve to give it authenticity, and lowers
his voice with an affectation of mystery while he approaches the
fearful and wonderful part. It was with such advantages that the
present writer heard the following events related, more than twenty
years since, by the celebrated Miss Seward, of Litchfield, who, to her
numerous accomplishments, added, in a remarkable degree, the power of
narrative in private conversation. In its present form, the tale must
necessarily lose all the interest which was attached to it, by the
flexible voice and intelligent features of the gifted narrator. Yet
still, read aloud, to an undoubting audience by the doubtful light of
the closing evening, or in silence, by a decaying taper, and amidst the
solitude of a half-lighted apartment, it may redeem its character as a
good ghost story. Miss Seward always affirmed that she had derived her
information from an authentic source, although she suppressed the names
of the two persons chiefly concerned. I will not avail myself of any
particulars I may have since received concerning the localities of the
detail, but suffer them to rest under the same general description in
which they were first related to me; and, for the same reason, I will
not add to, or diminish the narrative, by any circumstances, whether
more or less material, but simply rehearse, as I heard it, a story of
supernatural terror.
About the end of the American war, when the officers of Lord
Cornwallis's army, which surrendered at York-town, and others, who had
been made prisoners during the impolitic and ill-fated controversy,
were returning to their own country, to relate their adventures, and
repose themselves after their fatigues; there was amongst them a
general officer, to whom Miss S. gave the name of Browne, but merely,
as I understood, to save the inconvenience of introducing a nameless
agent in the narrative. He was an officer of merit, as well as a
gentleman of high consideration for family and attainments.
Some business had carried General Browne upon a tour through the
western counties, when, in the conclusion of a morning stage, he found
himself in the vicinity of a small country town, which presented a
scene of uncommon beauty, and of a character peculiarly English.
The little town, with its stately church, whose tower bore testimony to
the devotion of ages long past, lay amidst pasture and corn-fields of
small extent, but bounded and divided with hedge-row timber of great
age and size. There were few marks of modern improvement. The environs
of the place intimated neither the solitude of decay, nor the bustle of
novelty; the houses were old, but in good repair; and the beautiful
little river murmured freely on its way to the left of the town,
neither restrained by a dam, nor bordered by a towing-path.
Upon a gentle eminence, nearly a mile to the southward of the town,
were seen, amongst many venerable oaks and tangled thickets, the
turrets of a castle, as old as the wars of York and Lancaster, but
which seemed to have received important alterations during the age of
Elizabeth and her successors. It had not been a place of great size;
but whatever accommodation it formerly afforded, was, it must be
supposed, still to be obtained within its walls; at least, such was the
inference which General Browne drew from observing the smoke arise
merrily from several of the ancient wreathed and carved chimney-stalks.
The wall of the park ran alongside of the highway for two or three
hundred yards; and through the different points by which the eye found
glimpses into the woodland scenery, it seemed to be well stocked. Other
points of view opened in succession; now a full one, of the front of
the old castle, and now a side glimpse at its particular towers; the
former rich in all the bizarrerie of the Elizabethan school, while the
simple arid solid strength of other parts of the building seemed to
show that they had been raised more for defence than ostentation.
Delighted with the partial glimpses which he obtained of the castle
through the woods and glades by which this ancient feudal fortress was
surrounded, our military traveller was determined to inquire whether it
might not deserve a nearer view, and whether it contained family
pictures or other objects of curiosity worthy of a stranger's visit;
when, leaving the vicinity of the park, he rolled through a clean and
well-paved street, and stopped at the door of a well-frequented inn.
Before ordering horses to proceed on his journey, General Browne made
inquiries concerning the proprietor of the chateau which had so
attracted his admiration, and was equally surprised and pleased at
hearing in reply a nobleman named whom we shall call Lord Woodville.
How fortunate! Much of Browne's early recollections, both at school and
at college, had been connected with young Woodville, whom, by a few
questions, he now ascertained to be the same with the owner of this
fair domain. He had been raised to the peerage by the decease of his
father a few months before, and, as the General learned from the
landlord, the term of mourning being ended, was now taking possession
of his paternal estate, in the jovial season of merry autumn,
accompanied by a select party of friends to enjoy the sports of a
country famous for game.
This was delightful news to our traveller. Frank Woodville had been
Richard Browne's fag at Eton, and his chosen intimate at Christ Church;
their pleasures and their tasks had been the same; and the honest
soldier's heart warmed to find his early friend in possession of so
delightful a residence, and of an estate, as the landlord assured him
with a nod and a wink, fully adequate to maintain and add to his
dignity. Nothing was more natural than that the traveller should
suspend a journey, which there was nothing to render hurried, to pay a
visit to an old friend under such agreeable circumstances.
The fresh horses, therefore, had only the brief task of conveying the
General's travelling carriage to Woodville Castle. A porter admitted
them at a modern Gothic Lodge, built in that style to correspond with
the Castle itself, and at the same time rang a bell to give warning of
the approach of visitors. Apparently the sound of the bell had
suspended the separation of the company, bent on the various amusements
of the morning; for, on entering the court of the chateau, several
young men were lounging about in their sporting dresses, looking at,
and criticising, the dogs which the keepers held in readiness to attend
their pastime. As General Browne alighted, the young lord came to the
gate of the hall, and for an instant gazed, as at a stranger, upon the
countenance of his friend, on which war, with its fatigues and its
wounds, had made a great alteration. But the uncertainty lasted no
longer than till the visitor had spoken, and the hearty greeting which
followed was such as can only be exchanged betwixt those who have
passed together the merry days of careless boyhood or early youth.
"If I could have formed a wish, my dear Browne," said Lord Woodville,
"it would have been to have you here, of all men, upon this occasion,
which my friends are good enough to hold as a sort of holyday. Do not
think you have been unwatched during the years you have been absent
from us. I have traced you through your dangers, your triumphs, your
misfortunes, and was delighted to see that, whether in victory or
defeat, the name of my old friend was always distinguished with
applause."
The General made a suitable reply, and congratulated his friend on his
new dignities, and the possession of a place and domain so beautiful.
"Nay, you have seen nothing of it as yet," said Lord Woodville, "and I
trust you do not mean to leave us till you are better acquainted with
it. It is true, I confess, that my present party is pretty large, and
the old house, like other places of the kind, does not possess so much
accommodation as the extent of the outward walls appears to promise.
But we can give you a comfortable old-fashioned room; and I venture to
suppose that your campaigns have taught you to be glad of worse
quarters."
The General shrugged his shoulders, and laughed. "I presume," he said,
"the worst apartment in your chateau is considerably superior to the
old tobacco-cask, in which I was fain to take up my night's lodging
when I was in the Bush, as the Virginians call it, with the light
corps. There I lay, like Diogenes himself, so delighted with my
covering from the elements, that I made a vain attempt to have it
rolled on to my next quarters; but my commander for the time would give
way to no such luxurious provision, and I took farewell of my beloved
cask with tears in my eyes."
"Well, then, since you do not fear your quarters," said Lord Woodville,
"you will stay with me a week at least. Of guns, dogs, fishing-rods,
flies, and means of sport by sea and land, we have enough and to spare:
you cannot pitch on an amusement, but we will pitch on the means of
pursuing it. But if you prefer the gun and pointers, I will go with you
myself, and see whether you have mended your shooting since you have
been amongst the Indians of the back settlements."
The General gladly accepted his friendly host's proposal in all its
points. After a morning of manly exercise, the company met at dinner,
where it was the delight of Lord Woodville to conduce to the display of
the high properties of his recovered friend, so as to recommend him to
his guests, most of whom were persons of distinction. He led General
Browne to speak of the scenes he had witnessed; and as every word
marked alike the brave officer and the sensible man, who retained
possession of his cool judgment under the most imminent dangers, the
company looked upon the soldier with general respect, as no one who had
proved himself possessed of an uncommon portion of personal
courage--that attribute, of all others, of which every body desires to
be thought possessed.
The day at Woodville Castle ended as usual in such mansions. The
hospitality stopped within the limits of good order; music, in which
the young lord was a proficient, succeeded to the circulation of the
bottle: cards and billiards, for those who preferred such amusements,
were in readiness: but the exercise of the morning required early
hours, and not long after eleven o'clock the guests began to retire to
their several apartments.
The young lord himself conducted his friend, General Browne, to the
chamber destined for him, which answered the description he had given
of it, being comfortable, but old-fashioned. The bed was of the massive
form used in the end of the seventeenth century, and the curtains of
faded silk, heavily trimmed with tarnished gold. But then the sheets,
pillows, and blankets looked delightful to the campaigner, when he
thought of his mansion, the cask. There was an air of gloom in the
tapestry hangings, which, with their worn-out graces, curtained the
walls of the little chamber, and gently undulated as the autumnal
breeze found its way through the ancient lattice-window, which pattered
and whistled as the air gained entrance. The toilet too, with its
mirror, turbaned, after the manner of the beginning of the century,
with a coiffure of murrey-coloured silk, and its hundred strange-shaped
boxes, providing for arrangements which had been obsolete for more than
fifty years, had an antique, and in so far a melancholy, aspect. But
nothing could blaze more brightly and cheerfully than the two large wax
candles; or if aught could rival them, it was the flaming bickering
fagots in the chimney, that sent at once their gleam and their warmth
through the snug apartment; which, notwithstanding the general
antiquity of its appearance, was not wanting in the least convenience
that modern habits rendered either necessary or desirable.
"This is an old-fashioned sleeping apartment, General," said the young
lord; "but I hope you will find nothing that makes you envy your old
tobacco-cask."
"I am not particular respecting my lodgings," replied the General; "yet
were I to make any choice, I would prefer this chamber by many degrees,
to the gayer and more modern rooms of your family mansion. Believe me,
that when I unite its modern air of comfort with its venerable
antiquity, and recollect that it is your lordship's property, I shall
feel in better quarters here, than if I were in the best hotel London
could afford."
"I trust--I have no doubt--that you will find yourself as comfortable
as I wish you, my dear General," said the young nobleman; and once more
bidding his guest good-night, he shook him by the hand, and withdrew.
The General again looked round him, and internally congratulating
himself on his return to peaceful life, the comforts of which were
endeared by the recollection of the hardships and dangers he had lately
sustained, undressed himself, and prepared himself for a luxurious
night's rest.
Here, contrary to the custom of this species of tale, we leave the
General in possession of his apartment until the next morning.
The company assembled for breakfast at an early hour, but without the
appearance of General Browne, who seemed the guest that Lord Woodville
was desirous of honouring above all whom his hospitality had assembled
around him. He more than once expressed surprise at the General's
absence, and at length sent a servant to make inquiry after him. The
man brought back information that General Browne had been walking
abroad since an early hour of the morning, in defiance of the weather,
which was misty and ungenial.
"The custom of a soldier,"--said the young nobleman to his friends;
"many of them acquire habitual vigilance, and cannot sleep after the
early hour at which their duty usually commands them to be alert."
Yet the explanation which Lord Woodville thus offered to the company
seemed hardly satisfactory to his own mind, and it was in a fit of
silence and abstraction that he awaited the return of the General. It
took place near an hour after the breakfast bell had rung. He looked
fatigued and feverish. His hair, the powdering and arrangement of which
was at this time one of the most important occupations of a man's whole
day, and marked his fashion as much as, in the present time, the tying
of a cravat, or the want of one, was dishevelled, uncurled, void of
powder, and dank with dew. His clothes were huddled on with a careless
negligence, remarkable in a military man, whose real or supposed duties
are usually held to include some attention to the toilet; and his looks
were haggard and ghastly in a peculiar degree.
"So you have stolen a march upon us this morning, my dear General,"
said Lord Woodville; "or you have not found your bed so much to your
mind as I had hoped and you seemed to expect. How did you rest last
night?"
"Oh, excellently well! remarkably well! never better in my life"--said
General Browne rapidly, and yet with an air of embarrassment which was
obvious to his friend. He then hastily swallowed a cup of tea, and
neglecting or refusing whatever else was offered, seemed to fall into a
fit of abstraction.
"You will take the gun to-day, General;" said his friend and host, but
had to repeat the question twice ere he received the abrupt answer,
"No, my lord; I am sorry I cannot have the honour of spending another
day with your lordship; my post horses are ordered, and will be here
directly."
All who were present showed surprise, and Lord Woodville immediately
replied, "Post horses, my good friend! what can you possibly want with
them, when you promised to stay with me quietly for at least a week?"
"I believe," said the General, obviously much embarrassed, "that I
might, in the pleasure of my first meeting with your lordship, have
said something about stopping here a few days; but I have since found
it altogether impossible."
"That is very extraordinary," answered the young nobleman. "You seemed
quite disengaged yesterday, and you cannot have had a summons to-day;
for our post has not come up from the town, and therefore you cannot
have received any letters."
General Browne, without giving any farther explanation, muttered
something of indispensable business, and insisted on the absolute
necessity of his departure in a manner which silenced all opposition on
the part of his host, who saw that his resolution was taken, and
forbore farther importunity.
"At least, however," he said, "permit me, my dear Browne, since go you
will or must, to show you the view from the terrace, which the mist,
that is now rising, will soon display."
He threw open a sash window, and stepped down upon the terrace as he
spoke. The General followed him mechanically, but seemed little to
attend to what his host was saying, as, looking across an extended and
rich prospect, he pointed out the different objects worthy of
observation. Thus they moved on till Lord Woodville had attained his
purpose of drawing his guest entirely apart from the rest of the
company, when, turning round upon him with an air of great solemnity,
he addressed him thus:
"Richard Browne, my old and very dear friend, we are now alone. Let me
conjure you to answer me upon the word of a friend, and the honour of a
soldier. How did you in reality rest during last night?"
"Most wretchedly indeed, my lord," answered the General, in the same
tone of solemnity;--"so miserably, that I would not run the risk of
such a second night, not only for all the lands belonging to this
castle, but for all the country which I see from this elevated point of
view."
"This is most extraordinary," said the young lord, as if speaking to
himself; "then there must be something in the reports concerning that
apartment." Again turning to the General, he said, "For God's sake, my
dear friend, be candid with me, and let me know the disagreeable
particulars, which have befallen you under a roof, where, with consent
of the owner, you should have met nothing save comfort."
The General seemed distressed by this appeal, and paused a moment
before he replied. "My dear lord," he at length said, "what happened to
me last night is of a nature so peculiar and so unpleasant, that I
could hardly bring myself to detail it even to your lordship, were it
not that, independent of my wish to gratify any request of yours, I
think that sincerity on my part may lead to some explanation about a
circumstance equally painful and mysterious. To others, the
communication I am about to make, might place me in the light of a
weak-minded, superstitious fool who suffered his own imagination to
delude and bewilder him; but you have known me in childhood and youth,
and will not suspect me of having adopted in manhood the feelings and
frailties from which my early years were free." Here he paused, and his
friend replied:
"Do not doubt my perfect confidence in the truth of your communication,
however strange it may be," replied Lord Woodville; "I know your
firmness of disposition too well, to suspect you could be made the
object of imposition, and am aware that your honour and your friendship
will equally deter you from exaggerating whatever you may have
witnessed."
"Well then," said the General, "I will proceed with my story as well as
I can, relying upon your candour; and yet distinctly feeling that I
would rather face a battery than recall to my mind the odious
recollection's of last night."
He paused a second time, and then perceiving that Lord Woodville
remained silent and in an attitude of attention, he commenced, though
not without obvious reluctance, the history of his night's adventures
in the Tapestried Chamber.
"I undressed and went to bed, so soon as your lordship left me
yesterday evening; but the wood in the chimney, which nearly fronted my
bed, blazed brightly and cheerfully, and, aided by a hundred exciting
recollections of my childhood and youth, which had been recalled by the
unexpected pleasure of meeting your lordship, prevented me from falling
immediately asleep. I ought, however, to say, that these reflections
were all of a pleasant and agreeable kind, grounded on a sense of
having for a time exchanged the labour, fatigues, and dangers of my
profession, for the enjoyments of a peaceful life, and the reunion of
those friendly and affectionate ties, which I had torn asunder at the
rude summons of war.
"While such pleasing reflections were stealing over my mind, and
gradually lulling me to slumber, I was suddenly aroused by a sound like
that of the rustling of a silken gown, and the tapping of a pair of
high-heeled shoes, as if a woman were walking in the apartment. Ere I
could draw the curtain to see what the matter was, the figure of a
little woman passed between the bed and the fire. The back of this form
was turned to me, and I could observe, from the shoulders and neck, it
was that of an old woman, whose dress was an old-fashioned gown, which,
I think, ladies call a sacque; that is, a sort of robe, completely
loose in the body, but gathered into broad plaits upon the neck and
shoulders, which fall down to the ground, and terminate in a species of
train.
"I thought the intrusion singular enough, but never harboured for a
moment the idea that what I saw was any thing more than the mortal form
of some old woman about the establishment, who had a fancy to dress
like her grandmother, and who, having perhaps (as your lordship
mentioned that you were rather straitened for room) been dislodged from
her chamber for my accommodation, had forgotten the circumstance, and
returned by twelve to her old haunt. Under this persuasion I moved
myself in bed and coughed a little, to make the intruder sensible of my
being in possession of the premises.--She turned slowly round, but
gracious heaven! my lord, what a countenance did she display to me!
There was no longer any question what she was, or any thought of her
being a living being. Upon a face which wore the fixed features of a
corpse, were imprinted the traces of the vilest and most hideous
passions which had animated her while she lived. The body of some
atrocious criminal seemed to have been given up from the grave, and the
soul restored from the penal fire, in order to form, for a space, a
union with the ancient accomplice of its guilt. I started up in bed,
and sat upright, supporting myself on my palms, as I gazed on this
horrible spectre. The hag made, as it seemed, a single and swift stride
to the bed where I lay, and squatted herself down upon it, in precisely
the same attitude which I had assumed in the extremity of horror,
advancing her diabolical countenance within half a yard of mine, with a
grin which seemed to intimate the malice and the derision of an
incarnate fiend."
Here General Browne stopped, and wiped from his brow the cold
perspiration with which the recollection of his horrible vision had
covered it.
"My lord," he said, "I am no coward. I have been in all the mortal
dangers incidental to my profession, and I may truly boast, that no man
ever knew Richard Browne dishonour the sword he wears; but in these
horrible circumstances, under the eyes, and as it seemed, almost in the
grasp of an incarnation of an evil spirit, all firmness forsook me, all
manhood melted from me like wax in the furnace, and I felt my hair
individually bristle. The current of my life-blood ceased to flow, and
I sank back in a swoon, as very a victim to panic terror as ever was a
village girl, or a child of ten years old. How long I lay in this
condition I cannot pretend to guess.
"But I was roused by the castle clock striking one, so loud that it
seemed as if it were in the very room. It was some time before I dared
open my eyes, lest they should again encounter the horrible spectacle.
When, however, I summoned courage to look up, she was no longer
visible. My first idea was to pull my bell, wake the servants, and
remove to a garret or a hay-loft, to be ensured against a second
visitation. Nay, I will confess the truth, that my resolution was
altered, not by the shame of exposing myself, but by the fear that, as
the bell-cord hung by the chimney, I might, in making my way to it, be
again crossed by the fiendish hag, who, I figured to myself, might be
still lurking about some corner of the apartment.
"I will not pretend to describe what hot and cold fever-fits tormented
me for the rest of the night, through broken sleep, weary vigils, and
that dubious state which forms the neutral ground between them. A
hundred terrible objects appeared to haunt me; but there was the great
difference betwixt the vision which I have described, and those which
followed, that I knew the last to be deceptions of my own fancy and
over-excited nerves.
"Day at last appeared, and I rose from my bed ill in health, and
humiliated in mind. I was ashamed of myself as a man and a soldier, and
still more so, at feeling my own extreme desire to escape from the
haunted apartment, which, however, conquered all other considerations;
so that, huddling on my clothes with the most careless haste, I made my
escape from your lordship's mansion, to seek in the open air some
relief to my nervous system, shaken as it was by this horrible
encounter with a visitant, for such I must believe her, from the other
world. Your lordship has now heard the cause of my discomposure, and of
my sudden desire to leave your hospitable castle. In other places I
trust we may often meet; but God protect me from ever spending a second
night under that roof!"
Strange as the General's tale was, he spoke with such a deep air of
conviction, that it cut short all the usual commentaries which are made
on such stories. Lord Woodville never once asked him if he was sure he
did not dream of the apparition, or suggested any of the possibilities
by which it is fashionable to explain supernatural appearances, as wild
vagaries of the fancy, or deceptions of the optic nerves. On the
contrary, he seemed deeply impressed with the truth and reality of what
he had heard; and, after a considerable pause, regretted, with much
appearance of sincerity, that his early friend should in his house have
suffered so severely.
"I am the more sorry for your pain, my dear Browne," he continued,
"that it is the unhappy, though most unexpected, result of an
experiment of my own! You must know, that for my father and
grandfather's time, at least, the apartment which was assigned to you
last night, had been shut on account of reports that it was disturbed
by supernatural sights and noises. When I came, a few weeks since, into
possession of the estate, I thought the accommodation, which the castle
afforded for my friends, was not extensive enough to permit the
inhabitants of the invisible world to retain possession of a
comfortable sleeping apartment. I therefore caused the Tapestried
Chamber, as we call it, to be opened; and without destroying its air of
antiquity, I had such new articles of furniture placed in it as became
the modern times. Yet as the opinion that the room was haunted very
strongly prevailed among the domestics, and was also known in the
neighbourhood and to many of my friends, I feared some prejudice might
be entertained by the first occupant of the Tapestried Chamber, which
might tend to revive the evil report which it had laboured under, and
so disappoint my purpose of rendering it a useful part of the house. I
must confess, my dear Browne, that your arrival yesterday, agreeable to
me for a thousand reasons besides, seemed the most favourable
opportunity of removing the unpleasant rumours which attached to the
room, since your courage was indubitable and your mind free of any
pre-occupation on the subject. I could not, therefore, have chosen a
more fitting subject for my experiment."
"Upon my life," said General Browne, somewhat hastily, "I am infinitely
obliged to your lordship--very particularly indebted indeed. I am
likely to remember for some time the consequences of the experiment, as
your lordship is pleased to call it."
"Nay, now you are unjust, my dear friend," said Lord Woodville. "You
have only to reflect for a single moment, in order to be convinced that
I could not augur the possibility of the pain to which you have been so
unhappily exposed. I was yesterday morning a complete sceptic on the
subject of supernatural appearances. Nay, I am sure that had I told you
what was said about that room, those very reports would have induced
you, by your own choice, to select it for your accommodation. It was my
misfortune, perhaps my error, but really cannot be termed my fault,
that you have been afflicted so strangely."
"Strangely indeed!" said the General, resuming his good temper; "and I
acknowledge that I have no right to be offended with your lordship for
treating me like what I used to think myself--a man of some firmness
and courage.--But I see my post horses are arrived, and I must not
detain your lordship from your amusement."
"Nay, my old friend," said Lord Woodville, "since you cannot stay with
us another day, which, indeed, I can no longer urge, give me at least
half an hour more. You used to love pictures, and I have a gallery of
portraits, some of them by Vandyke, representing ancestry to whom this
property and castle formerly belonged. I think that several of them
will strike you as possessing merit."
General Browne accepted the invitation, though somewhat unwillingly. It
was evident he was not to breathe freely or at ease till he left
Woodville Castle far behind him. He could not refuse his friend's
invitation, however; and the less so, that he was a little ashamed of
the peevishness which he had displayed towards his well-meaning
entertainer.
The General, therefore, followed Lord Woodville through several rooms,
into a long gallery hung with pictures, which the latter pointed out to
his guest, telling the names, and giving some account of the personages
whose portraits presented themselves in progression. General Browne was
but little interested in the details which these accounts conveyed to
him. They were, indeed, of the kind which are usually found in an old
family gallery. Here was a cavalier who had ruined the estate in the
royal cause; there a fine lady who had reinstated it by contracting a
match with a wealthy Roundhead. There hung a gallant who had been in
danger for corresponding with the exiled Court at St. Germain's; here
one who had taken arms for William at the Revolution; and there a third
that had thrown his weight alternately into the scale of whig and tory.
While Lord Woodville was cramming these words into his guest's ear,
"against the stomach of his sense," they gained the middle of the
gallery, when he beheld General Browne suddenly start, and assume an
attitude of the utmost surprise, not unmixed with fear, as his eyes
were caught and suddenly riveted by a portrait of an old lady in a
sacque, the fashionable dress of the end of the seventeenth century.
"There she is!" he exclaimed; "there she is, in form and features,
though inferior in demoniac expression, to the accursed hag who visited
me last night."
"If that be the case," said the young nobleman, "there can remain no
longer any doubt of the horrible reality of your apparition. That is
the picture of a wretched ancestress of mine, of whose crimes a black
and fearful catalogue is recorded in a family history in my
charter-chest. The recital of them would be too horrible; it is enough
to say, that in yon fatal apartment incest and unnatural murder were
committed. I will restore it to the solitude, to which the better
judgment of those who preceded me had consigned it; and never shall any
one, so long as I can prevent it, be exposed to a repetition of the
supernatural horrors which could shake such courage as yours."
Thus the friends, who had met with such glee, parted in a very
different mood; Lord Woodville to command the Tapestried Chamber to be
unmantled, and the door built up; and General Browne to seek in some
less beautiful country, and with some less dignified friend,
forgetfulness of the painful night which he had passed in Woodville
Castle.