ve
passed in the admiral's service, seen him so distressingly upset, and so
unlike himself, as he was on that day. At night his uneasiness seemed
to increase. He was in such a state of irritation that he could not bear
the sound of Mr. Mazey's hard breathing outside his door, and he laid
his positive orders on the old man to go into one of the bedrooms for
that night. Mr. Mazey, to his own great regret, was of course obliged to
obey.

"Our only means of preventing the admiral from leaving his room in his
sleep, if the fit unfortunately took him, being now removed, Mr. Mazey
and I agreed to keep watch by turns through the night, sitting, with the
door ajar, in one of the empty rooms near our master's bed-chamber.
We could think of nothing better to do than this, knowing he would not
allow us to lock him in, and not having the door key in our possession,
even if we could have ventured to secure him in his room without his
permission. I kept watch for the first two hours, and then Mr. Mazey
took my place. After having been some little time in my own room, it
occurred to me that the old man was hard of hearing, and that if his
eyes grew at all heavy in the night, his ears were not to be trusted to
warn him if anything happened. I slipped on my clothes again, and went
back to Mr. Mazey. He was neither asleep nor awake--he was between the
two. My mind misgave me, and I went on to the admiral's room. The door
was open, and the bed was empty.

"Mr. Mazey and I went downstairs instantly. We looked in all the north
rooms, one after another, and found no traces of him. I thought of the
drawing-room next, and, being the more active of the two, went first to
examine it. The moment I turned the sharp corner of the passage, I saw
my master coming toward me through the open drawing-room door, asleep
and dreaming, with his keys in his hands. The sliding door behind him
was open also; and the fear came to me then, and has remained with me
ever since, that his dream had led him through the Banqueting-Hall into
the east rooms. We abstained from waking him, and followed his steps
until he returned of his own accord to his bed-chamber. The next
morning, I grieve to say, all the bad symptoms came back; and none of
the remedies employed have succeeded in getting the better of them yet.
By the doctor's advice, we refrained from telling the admiral what had
happened. He is still under the impression that he passed the night as
usual in his own