siness to answer the door, who, being no believer in spectres and phantoms, and scorning, moreover, to betray the smallest hesitation or timidity before his fellow-servants, took a candle in one hand, seized the poker with the other, and proceeded into the hall, declaring that if it were the apothecary's boy with medicines, as he anticipated, he would trim his jacket for coming so late, and that if it were a goblin he would make him acquainted with the earth, however unearthly might be his nature, by knocking him down with his iron cudgel.

Not a syllable was uttered in the kitchen during Kit's absence upon this most perilous enterprise, for such it was considered. All stood in the attitudes in which he had left them, transfixed with suspense, rivetting their eyes to the door, and scarcely venturing to breathe. The hall-door was heard to open-in a moment afterwards their ears were startled by an exclamation of horror, and Kit staggered back into the kitchen, supporting himself by the wall, and exclaiming in a shuddering whisper, "The ghost the ghost! Mr. Richard's ghost!"

Evidently real as was his agony, for he trembled all over, his fellow-servants were so suspicious of his habitual waggery, that some of them were inclined to think this might be only another practical joke, similar to those with which he had already been scaring them. Under this impression, Harper, Dolly, and Patty, agreeing to stand by and support one another, made their way to the hall to investigate the cause of the real or affected consternation. Their loud screams, their terrified rush back, and their faltering exclamations of "The ghost-Mr. Richard's ghost!" quickly assuring their companions that they had seen something supernatural and horrific, the kitchen was instantly converted into a scene of indescribable confusion and dismay.

Meanwhile the figure that had occasioned all this horror, taking up the candle that Kit had left upon the hall-table, proceeded up-stairs, and reached the passage above just as Mapletoft was crossing it in his way from his study to his bed-room. 66 Richard, my dear lad!" he ex

claimed, forgetting all recent transactions in the

temporary abstraction of the moment, and imagining himself to be addressing his living nephew, "how come you out of bed at such an hour as this? It is late, and the nights-"

The violent ringing of bells, and the sound of Mrs. Colyton's voice, who had been alarmed by the outcries of the servants, suddenly bringing him to his recollection, he recoiled with a thrill of amazement, brought his spectacles down from his forehead to his eyes, and gazing openmouthed after the figure until it turned out of the passage, ejaculated in a tone of simple wonderment, for he was impassible to fear of any sort, "Goodnow! I protest I had forgotten; Richard is dead and buried, and verily this must be the identical apparition which my sister saw sitting upon his grave. Angels and mi

nisters of Grace defend us!

O Dii et Domini!

This is indeed one of the Umbra nocte volantes, and we may truly exclaim with Virgil in the eleventh of the Æneid,

Nunc etiam horibili visu portenta sequuntur.' Amazing! amazing! Defend us all good

angels!" So saying he walked back to his study, ensconced himself in his arm-chair, took down Glanvil's book, and presently became so deeply absorbed in the subject of ghosts, witches, and spectres, as to be utterly deaf to the uproar of the servants, the furious ringing of bells, the cry of various voices, and the shouts of the Squire, who, not having yet retired to rest, was storming and bawling for Christopher, that he might learn the cause of the general confusion and hubbub.

CHAPTER V.

It always has been thought discreet
To know the company you meet;
And sure there may be secret danger
In talking much before a stranger.

Agreed: what then?—Then drink your ale;
I'll pledge you, and repeat my tale.

PRIOR.

LEAVING the inhabitants of Orchard Place in this state of confusion and dismay, we must retrograde for a short time, in order that we may accompany to London, Walter Colyton, the squire's son, who had been dispatched thither on the discovery of his amour with Hetty Chervil, in a state of mind that wavered between regret at the separation from his mistress, and the keen excitement of curiosity and expectation that must naturally agitate the bosom of a sanguine youth quitting home for the first time