Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1910-12-31 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

MOM  CAV AMER AND ROUNDHEAD.  Miss Charlotte Napier is responsible for the following ghost story :—I retired to rest about eleven, and had been asleep about 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 upon the white handle with painful distinctness. A - sudden sensation of horror overcame me; I would have given anything to have been able to look elsewhere. I could not.. All my senses were centred upon the door, and as I gazed at it in helpless awe the sound of footsteps from without suddenly broke upon my ears. ln.stantly all my faculties were on the alert.. An • icy colviness stole down my back, my teeth chattered, my hair seemed to rise 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 these sounds They were certainly unlike anything I had ever heard before, and the kind of terror they imparted was hitherto unknown to me. I could not stir; I could only wait and listen. The unnatural nature of the footsteps was emphasised by the brilliance of the moonlight quite an abnormal feature in itself—and the intense hush which, stealing surruptitiously upon the house, obliterated ever other sound. The footsteps gradually became interpretative: two persons were rushing headlong down the corridor. The moon shone in whiter and more coldly than ever, whilst the steps drew nearer aid nearer, so near, in fact, that I fancied I could detect the sound of breathing, short, sharp drawn gasps of agony accompanied b'y easier and more strenuous inhalations. Suddenly a terrific crash on the upper panels of the door made me all but die with fear. The door (which  I had taken the precaution to lock) was unceremoniously burst open, and into the room rushed a very young and fragile 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 straight for my bed, and falling on his knees beside it clutched the counterpane convulsively with his fingers. His ashy pale face was so near mine that I not only saw every feature in it with damning clearness, but I read the many varied expressions in his eyes. Catching hold of him by his silken tresses and pulling back his head by brute force the Cromwellian slowly and deliberately drew the keen blade of his knife across the doomed man's throat.. The murderer had barely accomplished his fiendish design before a deadly sickness came over me, and I fainted. On my recovering consciousness the room was once again in darkness, nor could I discover in the morning any signs whatever of the awful tragedy. On making inquiries in the  • . town I learned that the inn was w-ell known to be haunted, other people as well as I having witnessed the same phenomenon, and that during the recent renovations a skeleton had been tin' earthed at the foot of the main staircase.  J. Edmunds, 71, Wood-st., Middlesbrongh.