“The tableau was so totally different from anything I had anticipated, and withal horribly real--so real that had it been in my power I must inevitably have raised a hand to interpose. “Indeed, the wretched fugitive made straight 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 damning clearness, but I read the many varied expressions in his eyes. “They were awful. I read in them despair, terror, hate, overshadowed in the background by an insatiable craving for every imaginable vice. “Yet they were beautiful eyes--beautiful both in formation and colour--too effeminately beautiful for a man. “His hair, which fell in a wild profusion of ringlets over forehead and shoulders, was of a rich chestnut hue and most luxuriant. “He wore neither beard nor moustaches; he was absolutely clean shaven, and his skin shone with all the milky whiteness of that of a young woman. “His features were neatly moulded and extremely delicate; his hands well shaped and narrow, whilst his fingers, long and tapering, were crowned with pellucid filbert nails. “Attired in the most costly and elegant manner, a manner that suggested the court fop rather than the soldier, he formed in every way a marked contrast to his puritan pursuer. The Roundhead was a huge, brawny fellow, dressed in a leathern jerkin and heavy riding-boots--his soiled and muddy clothes betokening the wear and tear of an arduous campaign. “His face, always ugly, and naturally, perhaps, sullen and forbidding, was now positively diabolical; rage, hatred, and triumph vieing with one another for supremacy. “Catching hold of the Cavalier 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 horrid deed--transacted amid the most preternatural silence--was perpetrated so close to me that I was obliged to witness every revolting detail, and although I felt sure the victim was bad and vicious, I did not think the vileness of his character in any way justified the atrocity of his assassin. “The murderer had barely accomplished his fiendish design before a deadly sickness came over me, and I fainted. “On recovering consciousness, the room was once again in darkness, nor could I discover in the morning any sign whatever of the awful tragedy. “On making inquiries in the town, I learned that the inn was well 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 unearthed at the foot of the main staircase. “I saw it in the local museum, and instantly identified the costume it wore as the one I had seen on the hapless fugitive. But--the skeleton was that of a WOMAN!” NO. -- SOUTHGATE STREET BRISTOL THE NOTORIOUS SERVANT WHO ANSWERS THE DOOR