p left me yesterday
evening; but the wood in the chimney, which nearly fronted my bed, blazed
brightly and cheerfully, and, aided by a hundred exciting recollections of
my childhood and youth, which had been recalled by the unexpected pleasure
of meeting your lordship, prevented me from falling immediately asleep.

"I ought, however, to say that these reflections were all of a pleasant
and agreeable kind, grounded on a sense of having for a time exchanged the
labor, fatigues, and dangers of my profession for the enjoyments of a
peaceful life, and the reunion of those friendly and affectionate ties
which I had torn asunder at the rude summons of war.

"While such pleasing reflections were stealing over my mind, and gradually
lulling me to slumber, I was suddenly aroused by a sound like that of the
rustling of a silken gown, and the tapping of a pair of high-heeled shoes,
as if a woman were walking in the apartment.

"Ere I could draw the curtain to see what the matter was, the figure of a
little woman passed between the bed and the fire. The back of this form
was turned to me, and I could observe, from the shoulders and neck, it was
that of an old woman, whose dress was an old-fashioned gown, which, I
think, ladies call a sacque; that is, a sort of robe completely loose in
the body, but gathered into broad plaits upon the neck and shoulders which
fall down to the ground and terminate in a species of train.

"I thought the intrusion singular enough, but never harbored for a moment
the idea that what I saw was anything more than the mortal form of some
old woman about the establishment, who had a fancy to dress like her
grandmother, and who, having perhaps (as your lordship mentioned that you
were rather straitened for room) been dislodged from her chamber for my
accommodation, had forgotten the circumstance and returned by twelve to
her old haunt.

"Under this persuasion I moved myself in bed and coughed a little, to make
the intruder sensible of my being in possession of the premises. She
turned slowly around, but, gracious heaven! my lord, what a countenance
did she display to me!

"There was no longer any question what she was, or any thought of her
being a living being.

"Upon a face which wore the fixed features of a corpse were imprinted the
traces of the vilest and most hideous passions which had animated her
while she lived. The body of some atrocious criminal seemed to have been
given up from the grave, an