"His Majesty" interrupted with a wave of the royal hand, and granted
his request. After this Harry was informed that one week was allowed
for time in which to procure the ransom, and that if it were not
forth-coming at the end of that time, he and his friends would all be
shot.

After this Harry was dismissed to his own apartment.

The dread sentence and its possible result interfered neither with
the digestion nor the sleep of the light-hearted Harry. That night he
went to bed and slept the sleep of the just. He had the bed and the
room now all to himself, and would have slept till morning had he not
been roused by a very singular circumstance.

As he lay sleeping, it seemed to him that there was a touch on his
forehead of something like a hand, and a murmur in his ear of
something like a voice, and, what is more, a woman's voice. In a
moment he was wide awake, and had started up and was staring around.
The moonbeams streamed through the narrow windows into the room and
fell in broad strips of light upon the stony floor, diffusing a mild
and mellow lustre in some parts, yet leaving the rest of the great
room in obscurity. And here, across those strips of light and through
those moonbeams, Harry plainly discerned a figure which was gliding
swiftly along. It was a female figure, and it was light and fragile,
while long dusky drapery floated around it. So completely overwhelmed
was Harry with amazement and bewilderment at this sight, that for
full five minutes he sat without moving and stared full before him.
Then he put his feet out on the floor, and, sitting on the side of
the bed, slowly ejaculated:

"Well, by Jove!"

Suddenly he started up and sprang toward the place where he had last
seen the vision. But now there was nothing visible: the figure,
whatever it was, had disappeared. Now, Harry had a strong, robust,
healthy nature, a good digestion, tough nerves, and he was not in the
least superstitious; yet this event certainly made him feel as he had
never felt before. It was the suddenness of it, as well as the
incomprehensibility. He had to assure himself over and over again
that he was really awake, and then he had to repeatedly recall the
vague and indistinct impressions that had been made.

It was certainly most puzzling. How had any one contrived to enter?
And why should a woman come? Was it a woman, then--that figure--with
its noiseless motion, its strange fragility, its flowing, floating,
cloud-like