Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1912-12-28 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CAVALIER AND ROUNDHEAD. Miss Charlotte Napier is responsible for this ghost story. It appears in "Some Haunted Houses ot England and Wales" (Eveleigh Nash). The author, Mr Elliott O'Donnell, is an associate of the Society for Psychical Research. " I retired to rest about eleven—closing time—and had been. asleep barely an hour before I awoke with a start to find the room flooded with a pale. phosphorescent light. The door was a mass of light; I could •see each crack and spar upon it, even the finger-prints on the white handle, with painful distinctness. A. suddesi sensation of horror overcame me; I would have given anything to look elsewhere. "I could not. All my senses kere centred upon the door, and as I gazed at it in helpless awe the sound of footsteps trom without suddenly broke upon my ears. "Instantly all my 'faculties were on the alert. An icy.coldness stole down my back, my teeth chattered, my hair seemed to stand on • end, and the violent palpitation of .my heart made me sick and dizzy. sitting bolt upright in bed in obedience to an irresistible impulse, I listened—listened with all my might. What were those sounds? They were certainly unlike any had ever heard before, and the kind of terror they imparted was hitherto unknown to me. I could not stir; I could only only wait and listen. " The unnuatural nature of brilliance of the moonlight:— footsteps was emphasised by quite an. abnormal feature in itself—and the intense hush which, stealing surreptitiously upon the house. obliterated every other sound. "The footsteps gradually bee came interpretative; two persons were rushing headlong down the corridor. The moon shone in whiter and more coldly than ever, whilst the steps drew nearer and nearer, so near, in fact, that I fancied I could detect the sound of breathing—short, sharp-drawn gasps of agony, accompanied by easier and more strenuous inhalations. "Suddenly a terrific crash on the upper panels of the door made me all but die of terror. The door (which I had taken the precaution to lock) was unceremoniously burst open, and into the recem rushed a very young and fragile-looking man, clad in the costume of a Cavalier of the time of Naseby, whilst close at his heels there followed a gigantic Roundhead, armed with all the terrible paraphernalia of war. "The wretched fugitive made Ftraight for my bed, and, falling .on his knees beside it., clutched the counterpane convulsively in his fingers. His ashy face was so .near mine that I not only saw every feature in it with damping clearness, but I read the many varied expressions in his eyes.  "- Catching hold of him by his siMen tresses, and pulling back his head by brute force, the Cromwelliau slowly and deliberately drew the. blade .of his knife across the doomed man's throat. The murderer had barely accomplished his fiendish Ciesign before a deadly sickness came over me, and I fainted.  "On my recovering consciousness the room was once more in darkness, nor could I discover in the morning any signs whatever of the awful tragedy. On making inquiries at the town, I learned that the inn was well known to be haunted, other people having witnessed the same phenomenon."—G. B. Hill, Mill Pit, Sidney Row.