“The body, dressed in a white shroud, was accordingly brought in a very
handsome coffin, and placed in the great dining-room. The funeral was
to take place the next day, and the lodger and his servants went out to
make the necessary preparations for the solemnity. He staid out late;
but this was no uncommon thing. The landlord and his family, conceiving
that they had no occasion to wait for him, retired to bed as usual about
twelve o’clock. One maid-servant was left up to let him in, and to boil
some water, which he had desired might be ready for making tea on his
return. The girl was accordingly sitting all alone in the kitchen, when
a tall, spectre-looking figure entered, and clapped itself down in a
chair opposite to her.
“The maid was by no means one of the most timid of her sex; but she
was terrified beyond expression, lonely as she was, at this unexpected
apparition. Uttering a loud scream, she flew out like an arrow at a side
door, and hurried to the chamber of her master and mistress. Scarcely
had she awakened them, and communicated to the whole family some portion
of the fright with which she was herself overwhelmed, when the spectre,
enveloped in a shroud, and with a face of deathlike paleness, made
its appearance, and sat down in a chair in the bed-room, without their
having observed how it entered. The worst of all was, that this chair
stood by the door of the bedchamber, so that not a creature could get
away without passing close to the apparition, which rolled its glaring
eyes so frightfully, and so hideously distorted its features, that they
could not bear to look at it. The master and mistress crept under the
bed-clothes, covered with profuse perspiration, while the maid-servant
sunk nearly insensible by the side of the bed.
“At the same time the whole house seemed to be in an uproar; for though
they had covered themselves over head and ears, they could still hear
the incessant noise and clatter, which served to increase their terror.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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