Evening star., 1927-10-12

the night?" Lord Woodville asked the
general when they were alone.
Most wretchedly. indeed" replied
/ the general. so miserably that ]
would not run the risk of such Sec
ond night. not for all the lands belong
| ing to this castle"
Finally Lord Woodville prevailed
upon the reluctant general to tell the
whole story. Gen. Browne first Of all
| insisted that, as a soldier, he was
know to be no coward. And yet
II undressed and went to bed as
soon as your lordship left me" the
general began. But the wood blazed
brightly and, with many happy recol-
lections to keep me awake, i did not
at once fall asleep. ! was doing on
when was suddenly aroused by
sound like that of the rustling Of a
silken gown and the tapping of pair
Of high-heeled shoes, as il woman
were walking in the apartment. The
figure of a little woman did indeed
pass between the bed and the fire.
The back was turned to me and
could observe, from the shoulders and
neck, that it was an old woman,
whose dress was an old-fashioned
gown, a sort of robe completely loose
in the body, but gathered in broad
plaits upon the neck and shoulders.
which fell to terminate in a kind of
train--a garment called sacque.
81 thought this strange enough, but
I thought at first that it was some
moral woman returning, absent-mind-
edly, TO an apartment which she had
given UP to guest. moved myself
| and coughed little. She turned
slowly around, but, gracious heaven,
my lord, what face did she display
| to me. There was no longer any
| question what she was or any thought
| of her being living being. Upon
a face which wore the fixed features
of a corpse were imprinted the traces
of the yilest and most hideous pas
s,ons which had animated her while
she lived. The body of some atrocious
criminal seemed TO have been given
up from the grave and the soul re.
stored from the penal fire in order
| TO form here union with the ancient
accompIice of its guilt. / started up
in bed and sat upright as / gazed
at this horrible specter. The hag
| made a single swift stride to the bed
| where l lay and squatted herself
down upon it in precisely the same
attitude which ] had assumed in the
extremity of horror. advancing her
diabolical face within half a yard OF
mine, with a grin that seemed to sug-
gest the malice and the derision of an
| incarnate fiend.
my lord, I am no coward. But
here all firmness forsook me, all man.
| hood melted from me like wax in
a furnace, and ] felt my hair indi-
viduaIly bristle. / sank in a swoon,
very victim to panic terror. wars
aroused by the castle clock striking J..
| When I got courage to open my eyes
| the hag was gone. at first thought
to summon servants, but feared lest
| 1 would summon the old woman to
return I spent the rest of the night
| In a fevered fit between sleeping and
waking. At dawn / rose and walked
abroad. Never could spend a second
night under that roof"
Lord woodville was deeply i'm
pressed. He then confessed that
| strange tales had been told of that
apartment and, knowing the tried
courage of his military friend, he
decided to test the wild stories by
having the general sleep there. You
may be sure that the general, after
| his narrowing experience, did not like
to think that friend had caused him
| that suffering. But the friends were
finally reconciled, and, ere the general
departed-for depart he would-Lord
| Woodville took him into gallery OF
portraits of the Woodyille ancestry.
Following Lord Woodville through
4 several rooms, the general appeared
| but little interested in the paintings.
but as they gained the middle Of the
gallery the general stopped short as
his eyes were caught and suddenly
riveted by a portrait of an old, old
lady in sacque, the fashionable dress
of the seventeenth century.
There she Isl" he exclaimed
There she is, in form and features
though inferior in demoniac express
sion, to the accursed hag who visited
me last night"
That, of course, settled the matter.
1t was the portrait of a Woodville
ancestress guilty of many and varied
crimes. Lord Woodville, when the
general had gone, locked UP the old
fashioned chamber so that its horrors
would cause suffering to no more
guests.