soldier,
and still more so at feeling my own extreme desire to escape from the
haunted apartment, which, however, conquered all other considerations;
so that, huddling on my clothes with the most careless haste, I made my
escape from your lordship's mansion, to seek in the open air some relief
to my nervous system, shaken as it was by this horrible rencounter with
a visitant, for such I must believe her, from the other world. Your
lordship has now heard the cause of my discomposure, and of my sudden
desire to leave your hospitable castle. In other places I trust we may
often meet, but God protect me from ever spending a second night under
that roof!"

Strange as the General's tale was, he spoke with such a deep air of
conviction that it cut short all the usual commentaries which are made
on such stories. Lord Woodville never once asked him if he was sure he
did not dream of the apparition, or suggested any of the possibilities
by which it is fashionable to explain supernatural appearances as
wild vagaries of the fancy, or deceptions of the optic nerves, On the
contrary, he seemed deeply impressed with the truth and reality of
what he had heard; and, after a considerable pause regretted, with much
appearance of sincerity, that his early friend should in his house have
suffered so severely.

"I am the more sorry for your pain, my dear Browne," he continued, "that
it is the unhappy, though most unexpected, result of an experiment of my
own. You must know that, for my father and grandfather's time, at least,
the apartment which was assigned to you last night had been shut on
account of reports that it was disturbed by supernatural sights and
noises. When I came, a few weeks since, into possession of the estate,
I thought the accommodation which the castle afforded for my friends was
not extensive enough to permit the inhabitants of the invisible world
to retain possession of a comfortable sleeping apartment. I therefore
caused the Tapestried Chamber, as we call it, to be opened, and, without
destroying its air of antiquity, I had such new articles of furniture
placed in it as became the modern times. Yet, as the opinion that the
room was haunted very strongly prevailed among the domestics, and was
also known in the neighbourhood and to many of my friends, I feared some
prejudice might be entertained by the first occupant of the Tapestried
Chamber, which might tend to revive the evil report which it had
laboured under, an