About a week after this event the nuptials of Arthur Augustus, Marquis of Douro, and Marian Hume were solemnized with unprecedented pomp and splendour. Lady Ellrington, when she thus saw that all her hopes were lost in despair, fell into deep melancholy, and while in this state she amused herself with carving the little image before mentioned. After a long time she slowly recovered, and the marquis, convinced that her extravagances had arisen from a disordered brain, consented to honour her with his friendship once more. I continued upwards of two months at the Marquis of Douro’s palace, and then returned to Verdopolis, equally delighted with my noble host and his fair, amiable bride. _August 20th_, 1882. NAPOLEON AND THE SPECTRE THIS story was printed by Mr. Clement Shorter in February 1919, in an edition limited to twenty-five copies for private circulation only. Extracts from it were printed in _Poet-Lore_, vol. ix., Autumn Number, 1897. The complete story is now published for the first time. In the Introduction by Mr. Shorter in the privately printed pamphlet we are informed that the story is supposed to be ‘told at an inn by a traveller whose name is not given, but who is described as a dapper little man, dressed in brown coat and waistcoat and cream-coloured continuations.’ I venture to copy the following further extract from Mr. Shorter’s Introduction to the story:— The identity of the ghost is revealed by Napoleon’s exclamation when he is recovering from his somnambulistic trance, ‘Where in the world is Piche?’ Piche is General Pichegru, who, when Napoleon was first consul, joined in a plot to assassinate him. The plot was discovered and Pichegru was arrested and imprisoned; but before the day fixed for his trial ‘he was found dead in his cell with his black silk cravat twisted tightly round his neck by means of a stick.’ Whether he was strangled at the instigation of Napoleon, as has been asserted by some historians, is not clear; but Charlotte Brontë apparently believed in Napoleon’s guilt, and in the story causes the ghost of his victim to haunt him. C. W. H. NAPOLEON AND THE SPECTRE WELL, as I was saying, the Emperor got into bed. ‘Chevalier,’ says he to his valet, ‘let down those window-curtains, and shut the casement before you leave the room.’ Chevalier did as he was told, and then, taking up his candlestick, departed. In a few minutes the Emperor felt his pillow becoming rather hard, and he got up to shake it. As he did so a slight rustling noise was heard near the bed-head. His Majesty listened, but all was silent as he lay down again.