l attention being called to this
circumstance by the hostess, everyone hastened to his appointed
dormitory, with an alacrity which but too plainly showed how glad they
were to escape from the presence of the mysterious stranger who,
however, also retired to bed with the rest. The place appointed for her
to sleep in, was the loft of an outbuilding, as there was no room for
her accommodation within the house itself; all the spare beds being
occupied.

We have already said that M'Pherson was from home on the evening of
which we are speaking, attending a market at some distance. He, however,
returned shortly after midnight. On arriving at his own house, he was
much surprised, and not a little alarmed, to perceive a window in one of
the outhouses blazing with light (it was that in which the stranger
slept), while all around and within the house was as silent as the tomb.
Afraid that some accident from fire had taken place, he rode up to the
building, and standing up in his stirrups--which brought his head on a
level with the window--looked in, when a sight presented itself that
made even the stout heart of M'Pherson beat with unusual violence.

In the middle of the floor, extended on her pallet, lay the mysterious
stranger, surrounded by seven bright and shining lights, arranged at
equal distances--three on one side of the bed, three on the other, and
one at the head. M'Pherson gazed steadily at the extraordinary and
appalling sight for a few seconds, when three of the lights suddenly
vanished. In an instant afterwards, two more disappeared, and then
another. There was now only that at the head of the bed remaining. When
this light had alone been left, M'Pherson saw the person who lay on the
pallet, raise herself slowly up, and gaze intently on the portentous
beam, whose light showed, to the terrified onlooker, a ghastly and
unearthly countenance, surrounded with dishevelled hair, which hung down
in long, thick, irregular masses over her pale, clayey visage, so as
almost to conceal it entirely. This light, like all the others, at
length suddenly disappeared, and with its last gleam the person on the
couch sank down with a groan that startled M'Pherson from the trance of
horror into which the extraordinary sight had thrown him. He was a bold
and fearless man, however; and, therefore, though certainly appalled by
what he had seen, he made no outcry, nor evinced any other symptom of
alarm. He resolutely and calmly awaited the