et, to which he forbade access. His youngest daughter, one
unfortunate day, during her father's absence, was impelled by feminine
curiosity--perhaps a little increased by the prohibition--to enter the
mysterious chamber.

Whether she imagined in the pallid figure upon the cross a celestial
rebuke for her disobedience, or whether she was overcome by the mere
mortal horror of one or both of those dreadful casts, can now never be
known. But this is true: she became a maniac.

The writer of this has more than once seen (as, no doubt, have many
others) the plaster effigies of Peter Starke, after their removal from
Dr. Carnell's to a famous studio near the Regent's Park. It was there
that he heard whispered the strange story of their origin. Sculptor and
surgeon are now both long since dead, and it is no longer necessary to
keep _the secret of the two plaster casts_.

WHAT WAS IT?

It is, I confess, with considerable diffidence that I approached the
strange narrative which I am about to relate. The events which I purpose
detailing are of so extraordinary a character that I am quite prepared
to meet with an unusual amount of incredulity and scorn. I accept all
such beforehand. I have, I trust, the literary courage to face unbelief.
I have, after mature consideration, resolved to narrate, in as simple
and straightforward a manner as I can compass, some facts that passed
under my observation, in the month of July last, and which, in the
annals of the mysteries of physical science, are wholly unparalleled.

I live at No. -- Twenty-sixth Street, in New York. The house is in some
respects a curious one. It has enjoyed for the last two years the
reputation of being haunted. The house is very spacious. A hall of noble
size leads to a large spiral staircase winding through its centre, while
the various apartments are of imposing dimensions. It was built some
fifteen or twenty years since by Mr. A----, the well-known New York
merchant, who five years ago threw the commercial world into convulsions
by a stupendous bank fraud. Mr. A----, as every one knows, escaped to
Europe, and died not long after, of a broken heart. Almost immediately
after the news of his decease reached this country and was verified,
the report spread in Twenty-sixth Street that No. -- was haunted. Legal
measures had dispossessed the widow of its former owner, and it was
inhabited merely by a care-taker and his wife, placed there by the
house-agent into