s
was locked, and there was a wardrobe placed against the door leading
into the sitting-room. We both, having taken these precautions, fell
sound asleep.

"I wakened suddenly in the middle of the night, and noticed how quiet
the house was. Then I heard the clock strike two, and a few minutes
later there came a crashing, _vibrating_ batter against the door of
the outer room. My sister was sleeping very soundly, but she started
up in a moment at the noise, wide awake.

"'Some one must have done that,' she said; 'such a noise could never
have been made by a ghost!'

"But neither of us had the courage to go out into the passage! The
noise lasted, I should say, for only two or three _seconds_, and
ceased as suddenly as it had begun. We lay awake till the light came
in, but the house was quite quiet. I may mention, as against the
'supernatural' origin of the sound, that it came against the outer
door, did not pass in to the inner one, and avoided the glass-panelled
door of the sitting-room, which would certainly have been shivered by
the application of force sufficient to produce such noise. Another
very curious thing was, that on the nights when it came to our door
(_we_ only heard it once, but other visitors heard it often) Willie
H---- heard nothing; whereas on the nights when he was disturbed, we
heard nothing, yet the rooms were close together.

"The following night my sister and Miss H---- and two of her brothers
sat up all night in the morning-room, which opened off the main hall.
We sat with the door open and in the dark, but neither heard or saw
anything; the house was absolutely still.

"The next night my sister and I stayed in Miss H----'s room, watching
with her. It was on the third storey of the house, and on a line with
the specially haunted room, then occupied by Colonel A----. Two of the
men sat up downstairs.

"After 2.30 Mr. Eustace H---- came and told his sister we need not sit
up later, as everything was so quiet, and the noises seldom came after
that hour. He went to his room then, but his door was scarcely closed
when we all heard a loud knocking at Colonel A----'s door. We ran out,
without waiting a moment, into the passage, where the lamps were still
burning brightly, but it was absolutely empty and quiet. We heard it
several times that night in distant parts of the house, and once we
heard a scream, which seemed to come from overhead. We stayed six days
in the house after this, but heard nothi