ys burned during the night in my chamber, I
was employed in undressing, and, in doing so, I had recourse to a large
looking-glass which occupied a considerable portion of the wall in which
it was fixed, rising from the ground to a height of about six feet--this
mirror filled the space of a large panel in the wainscoting opposite the
foot of the bed.

I had hardly been before it for the lapse of a minute when something
like a black pall was slowly waved between me and it.

'Oh, God! there it is,' I exclaimed, wildly. 'I have seen it again,
Martha--the black cloth.'

'God be merciful to us, then!' answered she, tremulously crossing
herself. 'Some misfortune is over us.'

'No, no, Martha,' said I, almost instantly recovering my collectedness;
for, although of a nervous temperament, I had never been superstitious.
'I do not believe in omens. You know I saw, or fancied I saw, this thing
before, and nothing followed.'

'The Dutch lady came the next morning,' replied she.

'But surely her coming scarcely deserved such a dreadful warning,' I
replied.

'She is a strange woman, my lady,' said Martha; 'and she is not GONE
yet--mark my words.'

'Well, well, Martha,' said I, 'I have not wit enough to change your
opinions, nor inclination to alter mine; so I will talk no more of the
matter. Good-night,' and so I was left to my reflections.

After lying for about an hour awake, I at length fell into a kind of
doze; but my imagination was still busy, for I was startled from this
unrefreshing sleep by fancying that I heard a voice close to my face
exclaim as before:

'There is blood upon your ladyship's throat.'

The words were instantly followed by a loud burst of laughter.

Quaking with horror, I awakened, and heard my husband enter the room.
Even this was it relief.

Scared as I was, however, by the tricks which my imagination had played
me, I preferred remaining silent, and pretending to sleep, to attempting
to engage my husband in conversation, for I well knew that his mood was
such, that his words would not, in all probability, convey anything that
had not better be unsaid and unheard.

Lord Glenfallen went into his dressing-room, which lay upon the
right-hand side of the bed. The door lying open, I could see him by
himself, at full length upon a sofa, and, in about half an hour, I
became aware, by his deep and regularly drawn respiration, that he was
fast asleep.

When slumber refuses to visit one, there is so