The Tapestried Chamber | Page 4

more or less
material, but simply rehearse, as I heard it, a story of supernatural
terror.
About the end of the American war, when the officers of Lord
Cornwallis's army, which surrendered at Yorktown, and others, who
had been made prisoners during the impolitic and ill-fated controversy,
were returning to their own country, to relate their adventures, and
repose themselves after their fatigues, there was amongst them a
general officer, to whom Miss S. gave the name of Browne, but merely,
as I understood, to save the inconvenience of introducing a nameless
agent in the narrative. He was an officer of merit, as well as a
gentleman of high consideration for family and attainments.
Some business had carried General Browne upon a tour through the
western counties, when, in the conclusion of a morning stage, he found
himself in the vicinity of a small country town, which presented a scene
of uncommon beauty, and of a character peculiarly English.
The little town, with its stately old church, whose tower bore testimony
to the devotion of ages long past, lay amidst pastures and cornfields of
small extent, but bounded and divided with hedgerow timber of great
age and size. There were few marks of modern improvement. The
environs of the place intimated neither the solitude of decay nor the
bustle of novelty; the houses were old, but in good repair; and the
beautiful little river murmured freely on its way to the left of the town,
neither restrained by a dam nor bordered by a towing-path.
Upon a gentle eminence, nearly a mile to the southward of the town,
were seen, amongst many venerable oaks and tangled thickets, the

turrets of a castle as old as the walls of York and Lancaster, but which
seemed to have received important alterations during the age of
Elizabeth and her successor, It had not been a place of great size; but
whatever accommodation it formerly afforded was, it must be supposed,
still to be obtained within its walls. At least, such was the inference
which General Browne drew from observing the smoke arise merrily
from several of the ancient wreathed and carved chimney-stalks. The
wall of the park ran alongside of the highway for two or three hundred
yards; and through the different points by which the eye found
glimpses into the woodland scenery, it seemed to be well stocked.
Other points of view opened in succession--now a full one of the front
of the old castle, and now a side glimpse at its particular towers, the
former rich in all the bizarrerie of the Elizabethan school, while the
simple and solid strength of other parts of the building seemed to show
that they had been raised more for defence than ostentation.
Delighted with the partial glimpses which he obtained of the castle
through the woods and glades by which this ancient feudal fortress was
surrounded, our military traveller was determined to inquire whether it
might not deserve a nearer view, and whether it contained family
pictures or other objects of curiosity worthy of a stranger's visit, when,
leaving the vicinity of the park, he rolled through a clean and
well-paved street, and stopped at the door of a well-frequented inn.
Before ordering horses, to proceed on his journey, General Browne
made inquiries concerning the proprietor of the chateau which had so
attracted his admiration, and was equally surprised and pleased at
hearing in reply a nobleman named, whom we shall call Lord
Woodville. How fortunate! Much of Browne's early recollections, both
at school and at college, had been connected with young Woodville,
whom, by a few questions, he now ascertained to be the same with the
owner of this fair domain. He had been raised to the peerage by the
decease of his father a few months before, and, as the General learned
from the landlord, the term of mourning being ended, was now taking
possession of his paternal estate in the jovial season of merry, autumn,
accompanied by a select party of friends, to enjoy the sports of a
country famous for game.
This was delightful news to our traveller. Frank Woodville had been
Richard Browne's fag at Eton, and his chosen intimate at Christ Church;

their pleasures and their tasks had been the same; and the honest
soldier's heart warmed to find his early friend in possession of so
delightful a residence, and of an estate, as the landlord assured him
with a nod and a wink, fully adequate to maintain and add to his dignity.
Nothing was more natural than that the traveller should suspend a
journey, which there was nothing to render hurried, to pay a visit to an
old friend under such agreeable circumstances.
The fresh horses, therefore, had only the brief task of conveying the
General's travelling carriage to