candle in the hall, and walk deliberately up the stairs. Stimulated by
a feeling of horrible curiosity, she continued to follow him at a
distance. She saw him enter his own private room, and heard him close
and lock the door after him. Continuing to follow him as far as she
could, she placed herself at the door of the chamber, as noiselessly as
possible, where after a little time she was joined by her two sisters,
Lady Ardagh and Miss F----d. In breathless silence they listened to what
should pass within. They distinctly heard Sir Robert pacing up and down
the room for some time; and then, after a pause, a sound as if some
one had thrown himself heavily upon the bed. At this moment Lady D----,
forgetting that the door had been secured within, turned the handle for
the purpose of entering; when some one from the inside, close to the
door, said, 'Hush! hush!' The same lady, now much alarmed, knocked
violently at the door; there was no answer. She knocked again more
violently, with no further success. Lady Ardagh, now uttering a piercing
shriek, sank in a swoon upon the floor. Three or four servants,
alarmed by the noise, now hurried upstairs, and Lady Ardagh was carried
apparently lifeless to her own chamber. They then, after having knocked
long and loudly in vain, applied themselves to forcing an entrance into
Sir Robert's room. After resisting some violent efforts, the door at
length gave way, and all entered the room nearly together. There was a
single candle burning upon a table at the far end of the apartment; and
stretched upon the bed lay Sir Robert Ardagh. He was a corpse--the eyes
were open--no convulsion had passed over the features, or distorted
the limbs--it seemed as if the soul had sped from the body without a
struggle to remain there. On touching the body it was found to be cold
as clay--all lingering of the vital heat had left it. They closed the
ghastly eyes of the corpse, and leaving it to the care of those who
seem to consider it a privilege of their age and sex to gloat over the
revolting spectacle of death in all its stages, they returned to
Lady Ardagh, now a widow. The party assembled at the castle, but the
atmosphere was tainted with death. Grief there was not much, but awe and
panic were expressed in every face. The guests talked in whispers, and
the servants walked on tiptoe, as if afraid of the very noise of their
own footsteps.

The funeral was conducted almost with splendour. The body, having b