PURSUIT
William Maubray, in obedience to orders, went to his bed, having locked
his chamber door. He grew tired of listening for sound or signal from
the picket in the parlour; as he lay in his bed reading, his eyes failed
him. He had walked fifteen miles that day, and in spite of his
determination to remain awake, perhaps partly in consequence of it he
fell into a profound slumber, from which he was awakened in a way that
surprised him.
The sages in the study had drawn their armchairs about the fire. The
servants had gone to bed—all was quiet, and it was now past one o’clock.
The conversation was hardly so vigorous as at first—there were long
pauses, during which the interlocutors yawned furtively into their
hands, and I am sorry to add, that while Mr. Wagget was, at the
physician’s request, expounding to him the precise point on which two
early heresies differed, Doctor Drake actually sank into a deep slumber,
and snored so loud as to interrupt the speaker, who smiled, shrugged,
shook his head, and being a charitable man, made excuses for his
drowsiness, and almost immediately fell fast asleep himself.
The clergyman was wakened by some noise. He must have been asleep a long
time, for the fire had subsided, and he felt cold, and was so stiff from
long sitting in the same posture that he could hardly get up—one of the
candles had burned out in the socket, and the other was very low.
On turning in the direction of the noise, the clergyman saw a gaunt
figure in white gliding from the room. On seeing this form I am bound to
confess the clergyman was so transported with horror, that he seized the
sleeping doctor by the head, and shook it violently.
Up started the doctor, and also saw in the shadow the spectre which had
paused in the hall, looking awfully tall.
The doctor’s hand was on the candlestick, and uttering a prayer, he
flung it, in a paroxysm of horror; but it was a wild shot, and hit the
sofa near the study door, and rebounded under the table. The study was
now dark, but not so the hall. One tall window admitted a wide sheet of
moonlight. The clatter of the doctor’s projectile seemed to affect the
apparition, for it suddenly began to run round and round the hall, in
wide circles, regularly crossing the broad strip of moonlight, and
displaying its white draperies every time for half a second; the
philosophers in the study could not tell whether each new revolution
might not bring it into the room, to deal with them in some unknown way.
One word they did not utter, but groped and pulled one another fiercely,
and groaned, and panted, and snorted, like two men wrestling, and I am
afraid that each would have liked to get his friend between himself and
the object, which, after whirling some half dozen times round the hall,
passed off as it seemed in the direction of the kitchen or the back
stair.
The gentlemen in the study, still holding one another, though with a
relaxed grasp, were now leaning with their backs to the chimney-piece.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha!” panted Doctor Drake nervously, and the rector sighed
two or three times in great exhaustion. The physician was first to
speak.
“Well! Hey! Where’s your scepticism now?” said he.
“My friend—my good friend,” replied the parson, “don’t be alarmed.
Where’s your faith?”
“Was there a noise?” whispered the doctor; and they both listened.
“No,” said the parson. “Pray shut the door. We must not be so—so
unmanned, and we’ll light the candle, if you can find it.”
“Come along then,” said the physician, who preferred the cleric’s
company just then.
“To the door,” said the clergyman, gently pushing him before him.
When the candle was found and relighted, the gentlemen were much more
cheerful. They looked about them. They stole into the hall and listened.
They looked like Christian and Hopeful making their escape from Doubting
Castle.
They hastened toward the back stair and the kitchen, and were satisfied
without exploring. Then side by side they mounted the great stair, and
reached William’s door. They had to knock loudly before he awaked.
“Hollo!—I say!” shouted William from his bed.
“Let us in; Doctor Drake and I; we’ve a word to say,” said the clergyman
mildly.
“_Will_ you open the door, Sir?” wildly shouted Doctor Drake, who hated
the whole affair.
And they heard the bound of William’s feet on the floor as he got out of
bed, and in another moment the key turned, and William, candle in hand,
stood at the open door.
“Well, any news—anything?” asked William.
“Get some clothes on and come down with us. _Yes._ We have seen
something odd,” said the clergyman.
“Could it have been Rebecca?” inquired William.
“Hoo! no, Sir—two feet taller,” said the rector.
“_Four_ feet taller,” said Doctor Drake.
“Did you see its face?” asked William, using, awfully, the neuter
gender.
“No,” said the parson.
“But I did,” said Drake—“as long as my arm.”
The learned gentlemen stood very close together on the lobby, and looked
over their shoulders.
“Come into my room, Sir—won’t you? You may as well” (the “Sir” applying
to both gentlemen), said William, doing the honours in his night-shirt.
“I don’t see any great good,” observed Doctor Drake, turning the key
again in the door, as he followed the clergyman in, “we can do by going
down again. If there was a chance of _finding_ anything, but whatever it
is it’s gone by this time, and—and going down would be a mere flourish,
don’t you think?”
“I wish we had the bottle of Old Tom that’s in the locker,” said
William, who, behind the curtain, was making an imperfect toilet; “but I
suppose it’s too far” and they all looked a little uneasy.
“No, no,” said the clergyman, morally, “we’ve had enough—quite enough.”
“Unless we all went down _together_ for it,” said Doctor Drake.
“No, no, _pray_ no more to-night,” said the rector, peremptorily.
“I’ve pipes and a lot of latachia here,” said William, emerging in
trowsers and dressing-gown. “I’ve been trying it for the last ten days.
Suppose we smoke a little.”
“Very good idea,” said the rector, who had no objection to an occasional
pipe under the rose.
So they poked up the fire, and laid a block of coal on, and found that
it was half-past four o’clock, and they chatted, thoughtfully, but no
more upon the subject of the apparition; and when daylight appeared they
made a hasty toilet, had an early breakfast in the parlour; and the good
Doctor Wagget, with his eyes very red, and looking as rakish as so
respectable a clergyman could, appointed William an hour to meet him at
the Rectory that day, and the party broke up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------