“In the year 1704, a gentleman, to all appearance, of large fortune,
took furnished lodgings in a house in Soho Square. After he had resided
there some weeks with his establishment, he lost his brother, who had
lived at Hampstead, and who, on his death-bed, particularly desired
to be interred in the family-vault at Westminster Abbey. The gentleman
requested his landlord to permit him to bring the corpse of his brother
to his lodgings, and to make arrangements there for the funeral. The
landlord, without hesitation, signified his compliance.
“The body, dressed in a white shroud, was accordingly brought in a very
handsome coffin, and placed in the great dining-room. The funeral was
to take place the next day, and the lodger and his servants went out to
make the necessary preparations for the solemnity. He staid out late;
but this was no uncommon thing. The landlord and his family, conceiving
that they had no occasion to wait for him, retired to bed as usual about
twelve o’clock. One maid-servant was left up to let him in, and to boil
some water, which he had desired might be ready for making tea on his
return. The girl was accordingly sitting all alone in the kitchen, when
a tall, spectre-looking figure entered, and clapped itself down in a
chair opposite to her.
“The maid was by no means one of the most timid of her sex; but she
was terrified beyond expression, lonely as she was, at this unexpected
apparition. Uttering a loud scream, she flew out like an arrow at a side
door, and hurried to the chamber of her master and mistress. Scarcely
had she awakened them, and communicated to the whole family some portion
of the fright with which she was herself overwhelmed, when the spectre,
enveloped in a shroud, and with a face of deathlike paleness, made
its appearance, and sat down in a chair in the bed-room, without their
having observed how it entered. The worst of all was, that this chair
stood by the door of the bedchamber, so that not a creature could get
away without passing close to the apparition, which rolled its glaring
eyes so frightfully, and so hideously distorted its features, that they
could not bear to look at it. The master and mistress crept under the
bed-clothes, covered with profuse perspiration, while the maid-servant
sunk nearly insensible by the side of the bed.
“At the same time the whole house seemed to be in an uproar; for though
they had covered themselves over head and ears, they could still hear
the incessant noise and clatter, which served to increase their terror.
“At length all became perfectly still in the house. The landlord
ventured to raise his head, and to steal a glance at the chair by the
door; but, behold, the ghost was gone! Sober reason began to resume
its power. The poor girl was brought to herself after a good deal of
shaking. In a short time, they plucked up sufficient courage to quit
the bed-room, and to commence an examination of the house, which
they expected to find in great disorder. Nor were their anticipations
unfounded. The whole house had been stripped by artful thieves, and the
gentleman had decamped without paying for his lodging. It turned
out that he was no other than an accomplice of the notorious Arthur
Chambers, who was executed at Tyburn in 1706; and that the supposed
corpse was this arch rogue himself, who had whitened his hands and face
with chalk, and merely counterfeited death. About midnight he quitted
the coffin, and appeared to the maid in the kitchen. When she flew up
stairs, he softly followed her, and, seated, at the door of the chamber,
he acted as a sentinel, so that his industrious accomplices were enabled
to plunder the house without the least molestation.”
[GHOST STORIES.]
[Illustration: 327]