d the soul restored from the penal fire, in
order to form, for a space, a union with the ancient accomplice of its
guilt.

"I started up in bed and sat upright, supporting myself on my palms, as I
gazed on this horrible specter.

"The hag made, as it seemed, a single and swift stride to the bed where I
lay, and squatted herself down upon it in precisely the same attitude
which I had assumed in the extremity of horror, advancing her diabolical
countenance within half a yard of mine, with a grin which seemed to
intimate the malice and the derision of an incarnate fiend."

Here General Browne stopped and wiped from his brow the cold perspiration
with which the recollection of this horrible vision had covered it.

"My lord," he said, "I am no coward. I have been in all the mortal dangers
incidental to my profession, and I may truly boast that no man ever knew
Richard Browne dishonor the sword he wears; but in these horrible
circumstances, under the eyes, and, as it seemed, almost in the grasp of
an incarnation of an evil spirit, all firmness forsook me, all manhood
melted from me like wax in the furnace, and I felt my hair individually
bristle. The current of my life-blood ceased to flow, and I sank back in a
swoon, as very a victim to panic terror as ever was a village girl, or a
child of ten years old. How long I lay in this condition I cannot pretend
to guess.

"But I was roused by the castle clock striking one, so loud that it seemed
as if it were in the very room. It was some time before I dared open my
eyes, lest they should again encounter the horrible spectacle. When,
however, I summoned courage to look up, she was no longer visible.

"My first idea was to pull my bell, wake the servants, and remove to a
garret or a hayloft, to be insured against a second visitation. Nay, I
will confess the truth, that my resolution was altered, not by the shame
of exposing myself, but by the fear that, as the bell-cord hung by the
chimney, I might, in making my way to it, be again crossed by the fiendish
hag, who, I figured to myself, might be still lurking about some corner of
the apartment.

"I will not pretend to describe what hot and cold fever-fits tormented me
for the rest of the night, through broken sleep, weary vigils, and that
dubious state which forms the neutral ground between them. A hundred
terrible objects appeared to haunt me; but there was the great difference
between the vision which I have described, and t