The Tapestried Chamber | Page 8

your lordship, prevented me from
falling immediately asleep. I ought, however, to say that these
reflections were all of a pleasant and agreeable kind, grounded on a
sense of having for a time exchanged the labour, fatigues, and dangers
of my profession for the enjoyments of a peaceful life, and the reunion
of those friendly and affectionate ties which I had torn asunder at the
rude summons of war.
"While such pleasing reflections were stealing over my mind, and
gradually lulling me to slumber, I was suddenly aroused by a sound
like that of the rustling of a silken gown, and the tapping of a pair of
high-heeled shoes, as if a woman were walking in the apartment. Ere I
could draw the curtain to see what the matter was, the figure of a little
woman passed between the bed and the fire. The back of this form was
turned to me, and I could observe, from the shoulders and neck, it was
that of an old woman, whose dress was an old-fashioned gown, which I
think ladies call a sacque--that is, a sort of robe completely loose in the
body, but gathered into broad plaits upon the neck and shoulders,
which fall down to the ground, and terminate in a species of train.
"I thought the intrusion singular enough, but never harboured for a
moment the idea that what I saw was anything more than the mortal
form of some old woman about the establishment, who had a fancy to
dress like her grandmother, and who, having perhaps (as your lordship
mentioned that you were rather straitened for room) been dislodged
from her chamber for my accommodation, had forgotten the
circumstance, and returned by twelve to her old haunt. Under this
persuasion I moved myself in bed and coughed a little, to make the
intruder sensible of my being in possession of the premises. She turned
slowly round, but, gracious Heaven! my lord, what a countenance did
she display to me! There was no longer any question what she was, or
any thought of her being a living being. Upon a face which wore the
fixed features of a corpse were imprinted the traces of the vilest and
most hideous passions 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 restored from the penal fire, in order to form for

a space a union with the ancient accomplice of its guilt. I started up in
bed, and sat upright, supporting myself on my palms, as I gazed on this
horrible spectre. The hag made, as it seemed, a single and swift stride
to the bed where I lay, and squatted herself down upon it, in precisely
the same attitude which I had assumed in the extremity of horror,
advancing her diabolical countenance within half a yard of mine, with a
grin which seemed to intimate the malice and the derision of an
incarnate fiend."
Here General Browne stopped, and wiped from his brow the cold
perspiration with which the recollection of his horrible vision had
covered it.
"My lord," he said, "I am no coward, I have been in all the mortal
dangers incidental to my profession, and I may truly boast that no man
ever knew Richard Browne dishonour the sword he wears; but in these
horrible circumstances, under the eyes, and, as it seemed, almost in the
grasp of an incarnation of an evil spirit, all firmness forsook me, all
manhood melted from me like wax in the furnace, and I felt my hair
individually bristle. The current of my life-blood ceased to flow, and I
sank back in a swoon, as very a victim to panic terror as ever was a
village girl, or a child of ten years old. How long I lay in this condition
I cannot pretend to guess.
"But I was roused by the castle clock striking one, so loud that it
seemed as if it were in the very room. It was some time before I dared
open my eyes, lest they should again encounter the horrible spectacle.
When, however, I summoned courage to look up, she was no longer
visible. My first idea was to pull my bell, wake the servants, and
remove to a garret or a hay-loft, to be ensured against a second
visitation. Nay, I will confess the truth that my resolution was altered,
not by the shame of exposing myself, but by the fear that, as the
bell-cord hung by the chimney, I might, in making my way to it, be
again crossed by the fiendish hag, who, I figured to myself, might be
still lurking about some corner of the apartment.
"I will not pretend to describe what hot and