“Well, my dear doctor,” the patient went on, “I am in the same condition, and the presence of the vision that persecutes me is so painful and frightful, that my reason is totally helpless in controlling the effects of my imagination, and I feel that I am dying from the effects of an imaginary illness. My visions began two or three years since. At first I found myself embarrassed from time to time by the presence of a great cat, which appeared and disappeared I knew not how. But at last the truth flashed across my mind, and I was compelled to look upon the creature, not as an ordinary domestic animal, but as a vision which had its origin in some derangement of the organs of sight or in my imagination. I have no antipathy to cats, in fact I am rather fond of them, so I endured the presence of my imaginary companion so well that at last I treated the whole affair with indifference. But at the end of several months the cat disappeared, and was replaced by a spectre of greater importance, and whose exterior was, to say the least of it, very imposing. It was neither more nor less than one of the high officials of the House of Lords, in the full dress belonging to his dignity. “This personage, who was in court dress, with a bag-wig on his head, and a sword by his side, his coat splendidly embroidered and his _chapeau bras_ under his arm, glided along by my side like a shadow. Whether I was in my own house or elsewhere, he mounted the stairs before me, as if to announce my coming. Sometimes he seemed to mix with the company, although it was evident that no one remarked his presence, and I was the sole witness of the chimerical honours that this imaginary individual seemed to render to me. This phantasy of my brain did not make a very strong impression on me, although it made me conceive doubts as to the state of my health, and the effects it would produce upon my reason. “This second phase of my malady, like the first, also came to an end. Some months after, the usher of the Upper House ceased showing himself, and he was replaced by an apparition that was at once wearing to the mind and terrible to the sight. It was a skeleton. Whether I was alone or in company this frightful image of death never quitted me; it dogged my footsteps and followed me everywhere, and seemed to be a shadow inseparable from myself. It was in vain that I repeated to myself a hundred times over that the vision was not real, and was only an illusion of my senses. The reasoning of philosophy and my religious principles, strong though they are, are powerless to triumph over the influence that besets me, and I feel that I shall die a victim to this cruel evil.” “It seems then,” interrupted the doctor, “that this skeleton is always before your eyes?” “It is my evil fate to see it continually before me.” “In which case it is at this moment visible to your eyes?” “It is at present.” “And in what part of the room do you imagine that you see it now?” asked the doctor.