le
sway. This dread continued till about my twenty-third year, when the
following simple affair fully convinced me, how necessary it was
_thoroughly_ to investigate _every thing_ that tended to supernatural
agency, lest idle fear should gain a total ascendancy over my mind.

About this period, I had apartments in a large old-fashioned country
mansion. From my bed-chamber was a secret door leading to a private
staircase, which communicated with some of the lower rooms. This door
was fastened both within and without; consequently all fear of intrusion
from that quarter was entirely removed. However, at times, I could not
help ruminating on the malpractices that _might_ have been committed by
evil-disposed persons, through this communication; and "busy meddling
fancy" was fertile in conjuring up imaginary horrors. Every thing,
however, was quiet, and agreeable to my wishes, for some months after my
arrival. One moonlight night, in the month of June, I retired to my bed,
full of thought, but slept soundly till about one o'clock; when I awoke,
and discovered, by the help of the moon which shone full in my room, a
tall figure in white, with arms extended, at the foot of my bed. Fear
and astonishment overpowered me for a few seconds; I gazed on it with
terror, and was afraid to move. At length I had courage to take a
_second_ peep at this disturber of my rest, and still continued much
alarmed, and irresolute how to act. I hesitated whether to speak to the
figure, or arouse the family. The first idea I considered as a dangerous
act of heroism; the latter, as a risk of being laughed at, should the
subject of my story not prove supernatural. Therefore, after taking a
_third_ view of the phantom, I mustered up all my resolution, jumped out
of bed, and boldly went up to the figure, grasped it round and round,
and found it incorporeal. I then looked at it again, and felt it again;
when, reader, judge of my astonishment--this ghostly spectre proved to
be nothing more than a large new flannel dressing-gown which had been
sent home to me in the course of the day, and which had been hung on
some pegs against the wainscot at the foot of my bed. One arm
accidentally crossed two or three of the adjoining pegs, and the other
was nearly parallel by coming in contact with some article of furniture
which stood near. Now the mystery was developed: this dreadful
hobgoblin, which a few minutes before I began to think was an aerial
being, or sprit